Mirror Pond-ish: looking for advice

blacklab · 04-17-2008, 03:57 PM

So, I've found various attempts at Mirror Pond out there and this is my first shot. My goal is to get as close to the actual product as possible. I know that it is a little out of style in terms of color, but I think that the target beer itself is as well. I'm going for a fuller body so mash is 154.

My original recipe only had .5 lb of Crystal, but I feel asleep while getting the grains and accidentally bought 1 lb. I milled it at the LHBS and it's all mixed up so I can't separate it at this point. So, unfortunately, advice given in terms of grain will be implemented next time around. How do you guys feel about the grain/hops ratio? I know Mirror Pond is quite full bodied for an APA, but I feel like I'm high on the grain bill. How about the yeast? English Ale instead?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Mirror Pond Pale Ale
10-A American Pale Ale

Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 188.98 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.057 (1.045 - 1.060)
|====================#===========|
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.015)
|=====================#==========|
Color: 14.3 (5.0 - 14.0)
|========================#=======|
Alcohol: 5.58% (4.5% - 6.0%)
|===================#============|
Bitterness: 44.53 (30.0 - 45.0)
|=======================#========|

Ingredients:
9.5 lbs Maris Otter
.25 lbs Cara-Pils® Malt (Organic)
1.0 lbs 2-Row Caramel Malt 40L
1.0 lbs Crystal Malt 40°L
1 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added first wort, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 7 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Mash for 1 hr @ 154, 1.25 qts per lb of grain. Two step batch sparge to obtain 7 gallons in the brewpot.

Ferment in primary 10 days, or until you hit FG, then transfer to secondary and add 1 oz Cascade for 10 days. Keg, crash cool(1 week minimum), and force carb. Drink, repeat, drink.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

Professor Frink · 04-17-2008, 04:23 PM

Here's the BYO clone recipe:

Grain:
9.75 lb. pale malt
1 lb. munich malt
14 oz. 2-row pale malt
4 oz. crystal 60L

Hops:
.69 oz. Centennial 12%AA 60 min
.75 oz. cascade 5% AA 15 min
.75 oz. cascade 5 min

Wyeast 1056 or WLP001 American Ale
Mash at 152

My friend made his clone with this recipe and it came out great. I wouldn't use the English Ale yeast, I'd stick with the US-05.

blacklab · 04-17-2008, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor Frink

Grain:
9.75 lb. pale malt
1 lb. munich malt
14 oz. 2-row pale malt
4 oz. crystal 60L

Thanks, Prof. What's the diff between pale malt and 2-row? Didn't see a generic pale malt reference on the wiki.

Professor Frink · 04-17-2008, 04:39 PM

It's the same. The reason they're separated is because the 9.75 lb. is a sub for the extract version, so just add up the 9.75 and 14 oz., so the 14 oz. was to partial-mash the munich.

blacklab · 04-18-2008, 03:30 PM

Brewed this up last night, what a mess. My worst brew to date. Decided to turn it into an IPA since I have tons of Centennial / Cascade and I clearly have too many specialty grains involved.

Crappy efficiency of 65%, which is mystifying since I've been in the low 80's since I started AG, and my OG was way low @ 1.045.

Wort chiller exploded on the 'in' side, spraying hose water into my cooling wort. The wort was still @ 100 deg at this point, but I said f'ck it and racked to the fermenter. Of course it had to sit overnight to cool down to 70, so I didn't pitch until this morning.

The wort itself was WAY dark. Not sure if this is due to 2lbs of specialty grains or the Maris. Haven't used Maris previously.

Bummer...we'll see what happens.