Clone please: Calico Amber Ale from Ballast Point - Page 2

mithion · 05-01-2010, 08:48 PM

I'm planning on brewing this next weekend. I've tweaked Jamil's recipe a bit to accommodate my gear and the availability of certain ingredients at the LHBS. So here's what I'm lined up to do.

Malt

8.63 lbs 2-row 78.9%
1.44 lbs Caramel 80L 13.1%
0.75 lbs Carastan 6.9%
0.13 lbs Carapils 1.1%

Hops

1.00 oz Nugget 13%AA 60 minutes
0.75 oz Cascade 5.4%AA 10 minutes
0.75 oz Centennial 10.5%AA 0 minutes
0.25 oz Cascade 5.4%AA 0 minutes

My projected starting gravity is 1.054. They also claim to use an english style yeast for this beer and since I've got some mason jar's of Whitbread 1099 in the fridge, that's what I will use instead of the Whitbread Dry 1098 they recommend. The 1099 doesn't attenuate as much so I'll compensate by mashing around 150 to improve attenuation. Also, galena hops are not available here so I've compensated by using 1oz of nugget. Since the galena hop in the original is mostly used for bittering, I don't expect its absence to make much difference. The revised recipe comes out to around 48.2 IBUs using the tinseth method. SRMs are computed to be around 14.5. It will probably be ready to drink by mid to late June so I'll report back on this recipe at the time. Cheers!

**BrewBrain** · 05-05-2010, 04:08 AM

I've been close to the recipe on my own, but never used carastan. My next amber will be pretty much this one.

I've never put that much caramel flavor in a beer before, but with all the toffee in that sucker, there must be a butt load.

mithion · 05-05-2010, 05:20 AM

I'm equally shocked by the amount if crystal malt in here. But I heard the master brewer and that's pretty much what he claimed the recipe was. I've never brewed a beer with these amounts of dextrin malts. Since nobody commented on it, I've decided to just brew it and report back. Hopefully it won't comme out cloyingly sweet.

BeaverBarber · 05-25-2010, 09:53 PM

I brewed almost exactly to the way that it was specified by the brewer on Can You Brew It even though I'd never do a recipe with this amounts of dextrine malts normally. I was afraid it would come out too sweet. I was also afraid to add so few hops at the end of the boil. Generally speaking I like at LEAST 35-40 percent of my IBUs coming in the final 20 minutes of the boil. I used Wyeast 1318 because it's my favorite yeast. I like the biscuit flavor that it leaves behind, and it doesn't usually finish a beer too dry which scared me with all of the unfermentables in this beer. I live in the UK and I can't get this beer nor have I ever tasted it. I just bottled it today, and it did ferment from 1.050 down to 1.012. It's not as malty as I'd hoped, and it was very bitter despite the relatively low IBUs; most likely due to the high amount of bittering hop additions relative to the flavor hop additions. Here was my recipe. I can't get crystal 80 so I blended, and I like Northern Brewer for bittering so here's my recipe:

Ballast Point Calico Amber
4 Gal. batch OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012 SRM: 16 IBU: 38
6.6# Pale malt Two-Row
.6# Crystal 60L
.5# Crystal 100L
.59# Carastan...which is just 30L british crystal malt
.17# CaraPils
1 oz Northern Brewer 6.9% @ 60 min
0.5oz Cascade 6.6% @ 10min0
.75oz Centennial @ Flameout and 0.75oz Cascade @ Flameout
Mash Temp: 150F, Boil Time 90
Yeast : Wyeast 1318 Temp: started @ 65 and finished @ 72F
1.5 quart starter aerated for 2 minutes
Dry hopped with .5 oz Amarillo and .5 oz Centennial. Don't dry hop this beer. It's a pointless waste of good hops. It's like dry hopping a porter or stout.

I'll post again to let the forum know how it comes out, but at bottling time I really wished that I'd have used more flavor hops and a little less bittering hops...maybe .85 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes and an ounce of Cascade @ 10 minutes.

mithion · 05-25-2010, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeaverBarber

I brewed almost exactly to the way that it was specified by the brewer on Can You Brew It even though I'd never do a recipe with this amounts of dextrine malts normally. I was afraid it would come out too sweet. I was also afraid to add so few hops at the end of the boil. Generally speaking I like at LEAST 35-40 percent of my IBUs coming in the final 20 minutes of the boil. I used Wyeast 1318 because it's my favorite yeast. I like the biscuit flavor that it leaves behind, and it doesn't usually finish a beer too dry which scared me with all of the unfermentables in this beer. I live in the UK and I can't get this beer nor have I ever tasted it. I just bottled it today, and it did ferment from 1.050 down to 1.012. It's not as malty as I'd hoped, and it was very bitter despite the relatively low IBUs; most likely due to the high amount of bittering hop additions relative to the flavor hop additions. Here was my recipe. I can't get crystal 80 so I blended, and I like Northern Brewer for bittering so here's my recipe:

Ballast Point Calico Amber
4 Gal. batch OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012 SRM: 16 IBU: 38
6.6# Pale malt Two-Row
.6# Crystal 60L
.5# Crystal 100L
.59# Carastan...which is just 30L british crystal malt
.17# CaraPils
1 oz Northern Brewer 6.9% @ 60 min
0.5oz Cascade 6.6% @ 10min0
.75oz Centennial @ Flameout and 0.75oz Cascade @ Flameout
Mash Temp: 150F, Boil Time 90
Yeast : Wyeast 1318 Temp: started @ 65 and finished @ 72F
1.5 quart starter aerated for 2 minutes
Dry hopped with .5 oz Amarillo and .5 oz Centennial. Don't dry hop this beer. It's a pointless waste of good hops. It's like dry hopping a porter or stout.

I'll post again to let the forum know how it comes out, but at bottling time I really wished that I'd have used more flavor hops and a little less bittering hops...maybe .85 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes and an ounce of Cascade @ 10 minutes.

You guys have pretty hard water over there so that might explain why the beer turned out with sharper bitterness than expected. That beer is brewed in SD so I tried to reproduce their water when I brewed mine. I will probably bottle this week or this coming weekend. Depends on the time. I can't wait to try a fermentor sample.

mithion · 05-31-2010, 04:36 AM

Well, I bottled her yesterday after three weeks of primary fermentation. I tasted a sample and was extremely pleased at the attenuation. That really surprised me considering I used a yeast that tops at 71 or 72% attenuation on a beer that has over 2.5 lbs of dextrin loaded malts. I also thought that it was tad bit on the bitter side, but I'm not too worried since the maltiness will round out nicely after a couple of weeks in the bottle curbing the slight excess of bitterness. Again, still shocked at the malt profile of this beer. I was expecting something cloying and heavily biased towards maltiness, but the beer is very balanced. I think messing with the brewing salts to bring the water to San Diego standards really helped in balancing the beer w/r/t bitterness. I will report in a couple of weeks once it's carbed up and ready to drink. It's still early, but I say this will be a major success.

mithion · 06-14-2010, 03:17 PM

As promised, I have now had a chance to try this beer out the bottle as it is fully carbonated and wish to update you guys. First off, the beer turned out great. It's both quite malty (without being sweet) and hoppy. It's rich and complex yet so drinkable. I could easily down 3 or 4 of these in a session. The nugget did a great job of giving it a firm bitterness and the finishing hops have that oh so lovable citrusy aroma kick. The malt has some great toffee character from the crystal malts. Unfortunately, Calico Amber is no longer available here in Reno so I cannot do a side by side comparison. But from what I remember of it, I think my recipe is pretty close. If nothing else, it's a fantastic American Amber. The only thing I would change if I were to brew this again would be to reduce the bitterness down to 40-42. Mine landed around 48 and I think is just smidge too high. Nevertheless, I call this one a major success.

MuddyMo · 06-21-2010, 01:07 PM

This is a very interesting recipe. It is always helpful to get a detailed review from someone who has brewed challenging recipes. And I am currently looking for a bittering hop that goes well with a strong citrus finishing hop, so the info on the performance of the Nugget hop was very helpful. Thanks for taking time for a follow-up review.

Cabbie · 08-08-2011, 06:18 PM

I know this thread is over a year old, but anyway......

I am preparing to brew this Calico clone this weekend and have a bunch of hops in my freezer which I would like to use. Do you guys think Chinook is an acceptable substitute for Nugget? Or would this be a weid flavoring profile?

Since I am in SD, hopefully the water profile will work good!