Mostly Dead Guy Ale

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MMW

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Location
Longview, TX
I'm not looking for an exact Dead Guy clone (I'd brew Yooper's recipe without hesitation if I were--it is the basis for this recipe), but something similar: a traditional bock brewed at the low end of ale temps with a great ale yeast. My next brew will be Centennial Blonde with Pacman, so I'm planning to pitch on that cake when it's done.

Please take a look:

Mostly Dead Guy Ale
-------------------
Brewer: MMW
Style: Traditional Bock
Batch: 5.50 gal Partial Mash

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.067 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 26 IBU
Recipe Color: 16° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.017
Alcohol by Volume: 6.5%
Alcohol by Weight: 5.1%

Ingredients
-----------
Maris Otter Malt 4.60 lb, Grain, Mashed
German Munich 2.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
German vienna 2.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
Roasted barley 0.25 lb, Grain, Mashed
Light malt extract 3.30 lb, Extract, Extract

Perle 1.00 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Perle 0.50 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Perle 0.25 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes
Saaz 0.25 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes


I have the LME in there right now since I'm grain limited to ~9lbs with my current setup. My goal is a rich, malty bock at the low end of the style with a red, red color. I'm very open to suggestions on the hops, both quantity and variety...I don't think I'm through futzing with them yet (I'll probably tweak the IBUs down a tad). Thoughts?
 
Come to think of it, Mostly Dead Guy Ale should go Dunkel, not Bock, right?

Another thought:
Mostly Dead Guy Ale - take 2
----------------------------
Brewer: MMW
Style: Munich Dunkel
Batch: 5.50 galPartial Mash

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.050 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 20 IBU
Recipe Color: 15° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.013
Alcohol by Volume: 4.9%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.8%

Ingredients
-----------
German Munich 1.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
German vienna 1.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Maris Otter Malt 5.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
Roasted barley 0.25 lb, Grain, Mashed
Light D.M.E. 1.00 lb, Extract, Extract

Perle 0.75 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Perle 0.25 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Perle 0.25 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes
Saaz 0.25 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes

Still looking for a malty beer with a red-copper color.
 
This should be a nice beer. I know you are not trying to replicate Dead Guy here, but you have the munich percentage about right. John was on the Sunday brew session on the brewing network a couple of years ago and said he had 20% munich in Dead guy. Also the IBU is supposedly at 40 so you will definitely be more malty but that is what you are going for so rock on :rockin:
 
This should be a nice beer. I know you are not trying to replicate Dead Guy here, but you have the munich percentage about right. John was on the Sunday brew session on the brewing network a couple of years ago and said he had 20% munich in Dead guy. Also the IBU is supposedly at 40 so you will definitely be more malty but that is what you are going for so rock on :rockin:

:eek: I don't recall Dead Guy being that hoppy-- I would have thought it to end up in the 'evenly balanced' category. Oh well, must be an excuse to buy another 6 pack. Research, ya know...







at least that's what I'll tell SWMBO
 
Dead Guy Ale is made in the style of a maibock with Pacman yeast instead of bock lager yeast.
 
:eek: I don't recall Dead Guy being that hoppy-- I would have thought it to end up in the 'evenly balanced' category. Oh well, must be an excuse to buy another 6 pack. Research, ya know...







at least that's what I'll tell SWMBO

That is what I thought too but it may be because of all the Munich balancing it
 
That is what I thought too but it may be because of all the Munich balancing it

It is indeed 40 IBU (go figure...actually look something up! me! Ha!) That's interesting. I may need to UP the hops a little to get it where I want it to be.

Dead Guy Ale is made in the style of a maibock with Pacman yeast instead of bock lager yeast.

Yup...so it is. Kind of walking the line between the two styles, though. Higher hops like a maibock with the darker color of a true bock. For whatever reason I missed the hops when I drank it but noted the color. Guess that's where I got off the path a bit.

Hmmmmmm...time to tinker with the recipe some more.
 
OK. I'm liking the Dunkel version of this as I work it out in my head.

Here it is:
Mostly Dead Guy Ale - take 3
----------------------------
Brewer: MMW
Style: Munich Dunkel
Batch: 5.50 gal Partial Mash

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.050 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 29 IBU
Recipe Color: 15° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.013
Alcohol by Volume: 4.8%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.8%

Ingredients
-----------
Maris Otter Malt 4.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
German Munich 2.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
German vienna 1.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Roasted barley 0.25 lb, Grain, Mashed
Light D.M.E. 1.00 lb, Extract, Extract

Perle 0.50 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Perle 0.50 oz, Pellet, 40 minutes
Perle 0.50 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Saaz 0.25 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes

This should yield a OG/IBU ratio of 1.72 vs. 1.65 for DGA (if my math is right) but in a package that should be a little more drinkable on a hot late summer day (that goes through October around here!) than the original. Hopefully the roasted barley will add a little red to the color without going overboard on roasted/smoke flavors. Sound good?
 
Mostly dead, eh?

max1.jpg


The recipe looks pretty good, although I think you might be light on the bittering. What is the alpha acid content of your hops?
 
Yes...mostly dead is partly alive.

6.9% for the Perle and 7.7% for the Saaz. But, then again, I'm open to suggestions.
 
The 7.7% is the US version...would the czech @ 4% be a better fit? Although it shouldn't make a difference for bittering, right?
 
Another suggestion: Instead of fermenting the Mostly Dead Guy on the Pacman than pitching the Centennial Blonde onto the yeast cake, I would do the reverse. Your Dead Guy clone is a higher OG than the Cent. Blonde and would therefore benefit from the "step-up" by fermenting the Cent. Blonde first.

Also, the Cent. Blonde is the lighter of the two beers (I'm guessing...its about as light as you can get, and lighter than the real Dead Guy). Conventional wisdom says that when repitching you should start with light beers/low OG and go to darker/higher OG beers.

My 0.02
 
I went and reread my original...it wasn't as clear as it could have been :(

Blonde is (and has been) up first (brewing Sunday!) :ban:
 
It's been a while since I had one, but I remember Dead Guy being on the sweet and malty end of things. What's your mash temp? Did I miss it? A little high I would think, 156?
 
I would think a little high...certainly not low-- I don't think this should be dry at all.
 
156°F? There is never a reason to mash that high IMO. Use grains that will give a bigger malt profile or yeast that will leave a bit of sweetness, not temperatures that will result in tons of dextrins.
 
156°F? There is never a reason to mash that high IMO. Use grains that will give a bigger malt profile or yeast that will leave a bit of sweetness, not temperatures that will result in tons of dextrins.

That's where I mash my Dead Guy clone- very high, at 156. I've gone up to 158 for a "thick" British beer I was making, but that's the only time I go above 154 or so.
 
156°F? There is never a reason to mash that high IMO. Use grains that will give a bigger malt profile or yeast that will leave a bit of sweetness, not temperatures that will result in tons of dextrins.

What would you recommend then? 153-152 ish? I don't think anything less than 150 would do.

As an additional update, current hop schedule looks like this:

0.75 oz Perle (6.9%) 60
0.75 oz Perle (6.9%) 45
0.5 oz Perle (6.9%) 10

And sitting on the fence with the Saaz. This should
bring the IBUs up to just over 30.
 
That's where I mash my Dead Guy clone- very high, at 156.

Interesting. That should really keep the body and maltiness up, no?



:off: I'm glad it's a slow week at work (month/year really); if I had a lot to do right no I'd be worthless sitting around thinking about beer all day :p
 
That's where I mash my Dead Guy clone- very high, at 156. I've gone up to 158 for a "thick" British beer I was making, but that's the only time I go above 154 or so.

I wouldn't go above 154°F for any beer, and rarely that high. Is this beer supposed to be dextrinous? Maybe that's why I've never enjoyed any dead guy I've tasted...

I know many milds and other ales call for high mash temps, but from my experience I disagree. I think you can get that full, malty flavor from the malts and yeast without getting the unpleasant dextrins from a high mash temp.

What would you recommend then? 153-152 ish? I don't think anything less than 150 would do.

As an additional update, current hop schedule looks like this:

0.75 oz Perle (6.9%) 60
0.75 oz Perle (6.9%) 45
0.5 oz Perle (6.9%) 10

And sitting on the fence with the Saaz. This should
bring the IBUs up to just over 30.

I mash the majority of my ales at 148-150°F...especially when going on a larger scale, otherwise they can be overly malty...and I like malty beers ;) But as I said, I would go as high as 154°F.

Hops at the end won't add any bitterness...don't pay attention to your software. Saaz will simply smooth out the flavor, it's a nice, soft hop.
 
Maybe that's why I've never enjoyed any dead guy I've tasted...

I gotta agree with that, but I think the high mash temp would get that syrupy mouth feel and cloying sweetness. I had a bomber a couple months ago and was not impressed. I was really happy that I decided to drink the SNPA second.
 
Update: Brewed This on Saturday with a few slight changes. My 9 lb grain limitation is no longer, so the extract is gone from this recipe. Final recipe:

1.051 OG, 30 IBUs,16 SRM

6 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
2 lbs Dark Munich Malt
2 lbs Vienna Malt
0.25 lbs Roasted Barley

Mashed at 156 for 90, ending temp 155.

0.75 oz. Perle (German) Hops (6.9%) @ 60 min
0.5 oz. Perle (German) Hops (6.9%) @ 45 min
0.5 oz. Perle (German) Hops (6.9%) @ 10 min
0.25 oz. Saaz (Czech) Hops (4.4%) @ 0 min

I overshot my original OG target of 1.051 ending with 1.056 (still way out of Bock/Maibock territory so should be what I'm, looking for ;)). The color is spot on and this smells wonderful going into the fermenter. I washed the cake from the Blonde I bottled on Saturday and reserved 1 qt of the washed Pacman slurry for pitching into this beer. Fermentation was active within 5 hours.

More results in about 6 weeks :D
 
This is finally carbed and drinkable: it turned out very well, but the recipe isn't quite done yet. I like the hop presence a great deal, but it turned out black as midnight :eek: Finished at 1.016

Next time this brew is up:

1.051 OG, 30 IBUs,11 SRM

6 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
2 lbs Dark Munich Malt
2 lbs Vienna Malt
0.5 lbs Caramel 40L

Mashed at 156 for 90, ending temp 155.

0.75 oz. Perle (German) Hops (8.0%) @ 60 min
0.5 oz. Perle (German) Hops (8.0%) @ 30 min
0.5 oz. Perle (German) Hops (8.0%) @ 10 min
0.25 oz. Saaz (Czech) Hops (4.4%) @ 0 min
 
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