North Coast Old Stock Ale Clone - Help
 

Just wondering if anyone has tried this recipe and/or if anyone can comment on how close it is to the original.

Had a pack of these with some friends and they are begging me to brew it! I'm still a newb at 5 batches so I am always leery of these recipes I cannot find any reviews on.

I also don't get the notes, "To get the rich
carmely flavor you need to boil your first gallon of wort very hard for
30 to 45 min." I am doing full boils so does that mean I need to just boil the whole batch hard or is he referring to a partial boil?

TIA
-Mitch

My wife and I really like the North Coast Old Stock Ale. We have a stash of several bottles of every batch made. I can't comment on the combination of extracts used as it has been 24 years since I moved from extract to all grain and I don't remember extract formulations. I do have an all grain recipe that I made for Old Stock that I feel is pretty close.

Anyway, my opinion on your posted recipe is that it is way too high in OG. Depending on which vintage, the beer has been between 10 and 11%. I would not go too much above 1.108. Also, I feel that the hopping rates giving in your recipe are way too low. I don't know what formula is being used, but I use almost twice the Fuggles listed and am only at 34 ibu. I also do a 3 hour boil with it to get some darkening or the wort.

I would recommend a different yeast. WLP007 Dry English Ale is a good yeast to use for this beer.

My recipe is
91.7% Marris Otter
8.3% Carastan
OG 1.107
34 IBU

2.75oz Fuggle 60 min
1.25oz Fuggle 15 min
1.00oz EKG 0 min

Good Luck,
Tom

Thank you very much for the info, I wonder if anyone can convert this to an extract recipe for me. I tried toying with beersmith but I have yet to figure that program out to the extent I need for converting a recipe.

Anyone have a conversion to extract for this?

I'm also hooked on Old Stock. I like your use of Carastan. Should add a nice toffee/toasty flavor my original seemed to be missing. Here is what I used for my clone.

90.14% Marris
5.63% 40L
2.82% 120L
1.14% Special B
2.00oz. Fuggle 60min
2.00oz. EKG 15min
wlp001

This turned out great for me. Nice caramel, hint of raisin & plum up front. Finishes with a nice warmth and moderate bitterness on the backend. I will have to brew it again with a bit of carastan.

I did not use Crystal and Roasted malts as the web site for North Coast says that they use 100% Marris Otter for the OSA. I was not sure that I would be able to get the depth necessary with only 100% MO, so I added the Carastan and did a long boil (3 hours). The 120L and Special B that you added would be good for a normal 90 minute boil. Maybe you could sub out the 40L crystal for the Carastan.

We agree pretty close on the hopping :)

You are correct, their site doesn't state the use of a malt other then marris otter. I detect a lot of subtle flavors (caramel, toffee, raisin and plum). The flavors seem too complex to come from 100% marris otter and yeast alone. Would you agree?

Has anyone tried to caramelizing the Maris Otter? Remove your one gallon of wort and boil them down until the sugars being to caramelize. Then add your main wort. I know it is a lot more work but that should give you the toffee notes that are in the beer. And allow you to use only MO. Just a thought.

This may be a dumb question, but since I am relatively new to all grain, and even then only use kits, I will ask. I assume the % are the amount of each grain in the final grain bill. Is it fair to assume that I need to enter this into a software package with the OG to determine the weight of each that I should pruchase? Is there an easier way? Thanks I would like to make this recipe but need help with the measurements.

I think that, like a lot of barleywines or old ales, they probably do a long boil.

I also think some of that complexity that xiang mentions probably comes from fermenting a little on the warmer side.

I discovered North Coast when my wife and I drove through Fort Bragg on our honeymoon, on our way to San Francisco. Since we're both huge Thelonious Monk fans any brewery that dedicates a beer to him is pretty great in our books. Luckily it's delicious stuff.

A lot of classic english barleywines were solely comprised of Maris Otter with a long boil. A good example of something similar still being produced is Traquair House Ale, AFAIK it's a 3 hour boil of just nice high quality pale malt, I can't remember if it's MO or Golden Promise just this second.