Stone Pale ale clone reviews

I would really like to make a Stone Pale ale clone, I have the recipe from BYO magazine. My question is how close to the real deal is this recipe? Has anyone here tryed it and conducted a taste test?

EricT said:

I would really like to make a Stone Pale ale clone, I have the recipe from BYO magazine. My question is how close to the real deal is this recipe? Has anyone here tryed it and conducted a taste test?

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I've done the Stone IPA several times from the same magazine. It's dead on. I would trust the other ones would be, too. They're straight from the brewer's mouth.

Thanks for the response. I'm making a Honey ale this Sunday and plan to make the Stone Next week. Hope it turns out nearly as good as the Stone Pale ale.

Can you post that pale ale recipe? I seemed to have missed that issue.

i actually had this issue of BYO. lost it and it took me forever to find a screen shot of it. my hard work is your gain.

i just got done kegging the IPA not 5 minutes ago.

Hey Chris, I'm 2 weeks in on 2 5gal. batches of this Stone IPA recipe. How is it?? I'm dying to know how close it is to the real deal.

I have a real hard time believing they use the fuller's strain to ferment their beers. I'm almost certain they use a strain that attenuates more than WLP002. JZ suggested using WLP007 or equivalently the Wyeast 1098. Plus their beers don't have any of the super malty character that the fuller's strain gives.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't read the introductory remarks in the magazine. Anyhow, I'd use WLP002 in arrogant bastard but as for the other beers, I'd follow their alternate suggestion of using WLP005.

steveo929 said:

Hey Chris, I'm 2 weeks in on 2 5gal. batches of this Stone IPA recipe. How is it?? I'm dying to know how close it is to the real deal.

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The beer always turns out great. A friend of mine brewed the same recipe and had the real thing next to. He was giving samples to people of both and they couldn't tell them apart.

For the record, I use WLP007.

chefchris said:

The beer always turns out great. A friend of mine brewed the same recipe and had the real thing next to. He was giving samples to people of both and they couldn't tell them apart.

For the record, I use WLP007.

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Did you use the AG or extract recipe? Being pretty new still not sure if I'm ready for AG.

EricT said:

Did you use the AG or extract recipe? Being pretty new still not sure if I'm ready for AG.

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AG. Read into it. It's not that hard.

chefchris said:

The beer always turns out great. A friend of mine brewed the same recipe and had the real thing next to. He was giving samples to people of both and they couldn't tell them apart.

For the record, I use WLP007.

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looks like I need to add this to the list again. I brewed this as one of my first AG beers and it was great back then, I want to try again.

Here's the water profile I used in case anyone does water adjustments. Also included the adjustments in grams in case anyone wants to give it a shot.


2qt/lb Mash
7 gallon mash
1.7 gallon loss
5.3 gallons - 1st run
2.95 gallon sparge



Target Profile
CA=74.59
Mg-20.88
Na-34
Cl-57.33
S04-170.84
HCO3 - 84.32



Starting Water (ppm):
Ca: 0
Mg: 0
Na: 0
Cl: 0
SO4: 0
CaCO3: 0

Mash / Sparge Vol (gal): 7 / 2.95
Dilution Rate: 0%

Adjustments (grams) Mash / Boil Kettle:
CaCO3: 1 / 0.421428571
CaSO4: 5 / 2.107142857
CaCl2: 3 / 1.264285714
MgSO4: 6 / 2.528571429
NaHCO3: 2.5 / 0
NaCl: 0 / 0
HCL Acid: 0 / 0
Lactic Acid: 0 / 0

Mash Water / Total water (ppm):
Ca: 89 / 89
Mg: 21 / 21
Na: 26 / 18
Cl: 55 / 55
SO4: 194 / 194
CaCO3: 75 / 58

How cool is this that I have been googling around looking for a Stone Pale recipe with minor success for 10-15 minutes, and then come back here and find everything I need. Thanks!

For the water adjustements, is that just for the IPA? So4 to Cl is pretty high, so I'm wondering if toning down the gypsum would be better for the pale? The Stone PA has a nice maltiness that I don't want to lose. Did you base the target on the city water in Escondido, CA?

Thanks again!

2bluewagons said:

How cool is this that I have been googling around looking for a Stone Pale recipe with minor success for 10-15 minutes, and then come back here and find everything I need. Thanks!

For the water adjustements, is that just for the IPA? So4 to Cl is pretty high, so I'm wondering if toning down the gypsum would be better for the pale? The Stone PA has a nice maltiness that I don't want to lose. Did you base the target on the city water in Escondido, CA?

Thanks again!

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Yeah, that's the water adjustment for the IPA. I didn't base it on their water, just built it up. Toning down the gypsum would definitely make it more balanced.

I did the BYO pale ale clone a couple of months ago. It came out really good! I'm not sure it was an exact clone (since I didn't have any Stone pale ale to compare it head-to-head) but it was very good.

I need to go to the Stone brewery and talk to those guys.

I couldn't find the Crystal 15L on any website. Is it fine to just get 7 oz. each of the 10L and 20L? Also, the Centennial and Chinook whole hops are sold in 2 oz. quantities on Austin's site. How much of a difference would it make to use pellet hops to save money?

I'm planning on doing this recipe for my first AG batch ever! I'm a little worried about efficiency... don't want to screw this up. My setup is the 10 gal rubbermaid w/ ss braid from this site. Any suggestions?

Does the Stone IPA Clone actually say mash at 140 deg ?
Having a hard time reading that last part...

It says to mash at 149 degrees and Boil for 90 minutes for the AG version. For the Extract version it says to steep crushed grains at 149 degrees for 45 minutes then add water to make 5 gallons and boil 60 minutes.

Thanks. I knew this couldn't be right. This Saturday I'm trying this AG recipe! :rockin:

Good luck, I'm sure it will be good. I plan to make this maybe this weekend, possibly next. I need to make room first

I would recommend using wlp001 instead of the 002 that the recipe calls for. IMO this results in a much closer recipe. Stones house yeast is almost like a blend of the 2, but in my experience, 002 leaves the beers too malty and sweet. Also, I remember talking to them a long time ago and they said they try to mimic londons water profile.

Ok, great. I have some WL001 sitting in the fridge, so that saves me $7

I use 007 on any of my Stone clone's. Pretty dang close.

So I got all my ingredients today and have my yeast starter going as I type. My HBS was out of WL002 as listed in the recipe but they did have 023 which according to the beer chart was a perfect match for this style beer. We'll see how it goes and keep everyone posted. I just hope my keg is empty in 3-4 weeks so I can put this in it :rockin:

So I just got done taking a initial gravity reading and the starting gravity is 1.060. About 4 points higher then the recipe's. Not sure why its so much higher, I thought I even went a little light on the LDME as I had to guesstimate the the 2.5 lbs from the 3LB bag. I did add 3.5 lbs of LME instead of 3.3 as the recipe calls for. I don't know, we'll see how it all turns out, with the change in yeast from WL002 to WL023 I may have a completely different final product here. I did stick with the right Hops so it shouldn't be too far off. Hope everyone had a happy brew day

Comment on yeast for this one. I had a big weekend of 4 batches so I had simultaneous starters of WY1056 (WLP001), WY1968 (002), WY 1028 (013), and WY1098 (007). All were similar in size and were brewed up from a common batch of DME. After 4-5 days I decanted and had a taste of each starter. While I know it's not beer (no hops), I definitely got a feel for what each yeast was doing.

1056 was dry, a hint of fruitiness but really not much
1968 was a bit sweet, some nice malty with a punch of fruitiness
1028 was dry, almost mineral-like with little fruitiness
1098 was dry and had the same level of fruitiness as the 1056 but also had a nice bready character that I can taste in stone pale.

I used 1098 for the stone pale clone based on the use of 007 in this thread. Will be bottling soon and samples so far are delicious.

Probably similar for the IPA, but I think 1098/007 is for sure the way to go for the pale.

Great, will let you know how the WL023 comes out. According to the White Labs Style chart http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/Styles-Ale.pdf It is perfect for this style of beer.

UPDATE
Just kegged this today after almost 3 weeks in primary. My FG is 1.015 so I'm happy to have gotten within 1 point of what it should be considering it started 4 points higher for the OG. Anyway, the sample tasted great, will update with my side by side comparison in about a week.

So its been in the keg for a week and its really yummy. I just did a side by side taste test and besides the fusels in mine Its pretty damn close. I still have a bit of chill haze but the color is dead on. Gonna try the all grain version next. As a side note SWMBO likes mine better :rockin:

Time to brew this one again. I may just get some California Ale yeast this time.

Update Brewed this again today, AG. OG is 1.057 and ended up with 5.5 gallons of wort.

This has been in the keg for a week. Taste great, just needs to clear up a bit. FG was 1.011.

Here is a great link to the December 2008 recipes.
http://www.stonebrew.com/news/081201/

thats a good article on dry hopping, I may have to try that.

I'm planning on attempting this all-grain recipe soon and am not clear on a few things.

1) How much liquid yeast, water and malt extract is needed for the 1.5L yeast starter?
2) I don't have a mash tun – any advice on doing a brew-in-a-bag mash? Any issues with doing it this way? Do I need to mash a bit longer because of the BIAB method?

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone might have!