Yards Brewing:Philadelphia Pale Ale hop question

For the summer I like having Yards PPA as my commercial pale ale in the refrig.
Yesterday I bought a case and 32$!!! seems way too high for a beer brewed less than 100 miles from me. Anyone else who likes this have a close clone recipe? or any suggestions for their hop profile? I would like to use a good IPA base and make it a little maltier with something close to their hop flavor to get a homebrew to substitute. For the life of me I can not separate out individual components of the beers I drink so any help would be appreciated.
Ben

$32, odd -- considering I got the Yards variety pack for $20 and change from lower bucks co.

I'm wondering the same thing, because I just fell in love with this beer (best in the box) and would love to do a clone.

If I had to guess: Heavy on Pils Malt (based on the web site), British Ale Yeast, and an American hop mix --- one guy on beeradvocate is saying Simcoe, but I'm not trained enough to tell.

This is also one of my long-time-favorites. I spoke with a few of the guys @ Yards recently and got some basic info to put this together... I took a total shot in the dark with the crystal 60 and carapils, but the grain bill has already been milled together, so I'm gonna try this out tomorrow:

Philly Pale Clone - American Pale Ale ()
Brewer timuel
Date 07/04/2011
Batch Size 5.500 gal Boil Size 6.250 gal
Boil Time 1.000 hr Efficiency 80%
OG 1.055 FG 1.019
ABV 4.7% Bitterness 27.7 IBU (Tinseth)
Color 6 SRM (Morey) Calories (per 12 oz.) 183
Fermentables

Total grain: 10.500 lb
Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
CaraPils malt Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 70% 2 L
Crystal 60L Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 74% 60 L
Pilsner (2 Row) UK Grain 9.500 lb Yes No 78% 1 L
Hops

Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Nugget 12% 0.500 oz Boil 1.000 hr Pellet 18.6
Amarillo 7% 0.250 oz Boil 20.000 min Pellet 3.4
Simcoe 12% 0.250 oz Boil 20.000 min Pellet 5.7
Simcoe 12% 1.500 oz Dry Hop 0.000 s Pellet 0.0
Misc

Name Type Use Amount Time
Whirlfloc Fining Boil 0.000 tsp 15.000 min
Yeast Nutrient Other Boil 0.000 tsp 15.000 min
Yeast

Name Type Form Amount Stage
WLP002 - English Ale Yeast Ale Liquid 2.367 tbsp Primary

Thanks timuel
let us know how it turns out
Ben

UnderThePorchBrewing said:

Thanks timuel
let us know how it turns out
Ben

Click to expand...

Absolutely! As suspected, my sightglass already all-but-confirmed that the crystal 60 was most likely wrong. Time will tell when it comes time for tasting (i'm a fan of a 4-week primary and slow-keg-carbing, so it might be about 5-6 weeks).

For the record, in a nutshell they told me: pils base (duh), nugget for bittering, amarillo and simcoe for flavor, dry-hop with simcoe -- shoot for around 30 IBU's. white labs fullers strain.

that's how i ended up with this. feel free to try your own and we can compare notes

going on vacation and a conference so can not brew until august but will give it a try then. am thinking crystal 20 but let me know how the malt profile turns out and the color. from more that I've read the hops sound close thanks
Ben

i kegged it lastnight. pretty damn close, but here are some slightly premature observations:

Next time I think i'll try 5.5lbs american pilsner, 4lbs american 2-row + 1lb crystal 40. I'd also change all of the flavoring hop additions to around .35oz @ 15 mins.

have not had a chance to brew due to work, vacation and a couple of conferences over the past 2 months. went and bought a case today for a crab and clam bake tomorrow and was $35.82. (ouch) so am anxious to hear how this turns out. once past this timeperiod I'll be able to brew a couple of batches to try to help you hone in on the recipe. also want to try to get a basic recipe for Rickard's red which I'll be working on over the autumn. my only 2 projects for brewing right now.
Ben

it was good... i really like it. it's in the same vein, but i certainly wouldn't call it a clone.

The color is considerably darker. There is substantially more mouthfeel (almost chewy). The pilsner malt does not come through very well. It could use a tiny bit more bittering and flavor hops. I don't think the real stuff is dry-hopped at all, but the 1.5oz of simcoe faded a bit and was a pleasant addition.

I intend to fix the above by:

- mashing lower. i lose about 2 deg/hr so next time want to start my mash @ around 152 instead of 155.

- losing the carapils and crystal 60 (what was i thinking?). I might use 8oz of crystal 20, max, but i'm thinking that the real stuff is 100% american pils.

- increasing the flavor hops just a little. i want the pils and the carbonation to give a little bite instead of increasing IBU's that much.

This will be my next attempt:

Batch Size: 5.500 gal
Boil Size: 6.250 gal
Boil Time: 1.000 hr
Efficiency: 80%%
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.019
ABV: 4.7%%
Bitterness: 30.5 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 4 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
================================================================================
Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Pilsner (2 Row) US Grain 10.000 lb Yes No 78%% 1 L
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 75%% 20 L
Total grain: 10.500 lb

Hops
================================================================================
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Nugget 12.0%% 0.500 oz Boil 1.000 hr Pellet 18.6
Amarillo 7.2%% 0.400 oz Boil 15.000 min Pellet 4.4
Simcoe 12.2%% 0.400 oz Boil 15.000 min Pellet 7.5
Simcoe 12.2%% 1.000 oz Dry Hop 0.000 s Pellet 0.0

Misc
================================================================================
Name Type Use Amount Time
Whirlfloc Fining Boil 0.000 tsp 5.000 min
Yeast Nutrient Other Boil 0.000 tsp 5.000 min

Yeast
================================================================================
Name Type Form Amount Stage
WLP002 - English Ale Yeast Ale Liquid 2.367 tbsp Primary

timuel how was your batch compared to Yard's ESA?

I am going to give this one a shot in the next few weeks. Im going to tweak the recipe a little bit and see if I can nail down the malt bill. I'll report back the recipe and results.

Any chance that this is a single malt brew?

Coff said:

Any chance that this is a single malt brew?

Click to expand...

Extremely possible, leaning towards that myself. I've been told that their house malt is a canadian 2-row and to try that. Despite the bottle saying that it's pils-based, i tried a cdn 2-row last time and got extremely close. The only things i'll change for round 3 are going single-malt and backing down a few points on the IBU's... perhaps a few more dry hops too.

UnderThePorchBrewing said:

timuel how was your batch compared to Yard's ESA?

Click to expand...

Nothing like ESA -- see my last post for my notes on Philly Pale Ale

timuel said:

Nothing like ESA -- see my last post for my notes on Philly Pale Ale

Click to expand...

ASIDE:

For the record, I recently underwent radiation therapy and lost most of my tastebuds as a result.

I then got a sinus infection a few days later and could smell very little.

Yards ESA was one of the only beers that I could STILL SOMEHOW enjoy.

Just had one of these at PHL. I'm in. Any of you fellows still here? Any success?

Nothing on the grain bill but I bet it’s pretty simple

https://yardsbrewing.com/products/philadelphia-pale-ale