Clone Beer Allagash Black Clone

Our homebrew club organized a clone competition for Allagash Black, and enlisted the help of the brewers at Allagash to judge the entries. My recipe below was selected as the winner of the competition. There were about 15 judges who sampled the entries, and overall the feedback was that this was a close attempt but that it would be closer with more chocolate flavor and a touch more body. The version I took was a bit undercarbed, so I think that straight out of the keg the mouthfeel and body is a little closer, but more chocolate I think is accurate. A warmer fermentation may help bring out some of the yeast character as well.

9.75 lbs. Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM), Grain 72.2%
1 lbs. Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM), Grain 7.4%
1 lbs. D-90 Liquid Candi Syrup [Boil for 15 minutes] (90.0 SRM), Sugar 7.4%
12.0 oz Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM), Grain 5.6%
8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM), Grain 3.7%
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (525.0 SRM), Grain 1.9%
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM), Grain 1.9%
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min, Hop 23.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Glacier [5.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min, Hop 3.9 IBUs

1 Liter starter of WLP 530

Mash 154 F for 60 mins
2 rounds batch sparge

I also added 4 grams of calcium carbonate to the mash as we have very soft water where I live in Boston. I would adjust for that due to the darkness of the beer.

I fermented this beer fairly low @ 66 F for the first 7 days and then brought the temperature up to 72 F. I think bringing up the temperature earlier may help bring out more yeast character. Next attempt that's what I will do.

I'd also like to add that the brewers and staff at Allagash were awesome hosts, and we really appreciated all of their help.

thanks for the recipe and congrats.

I just did this recipe this weekend. I'm not set up for all-grain, so I did a mini-mash substituting extract for the pale malt. Thinking about secondary on some roasted cocoa nibs.

I'll check back in in a bit when I move it to secondary and taste.

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i brewed this on saturday. changed the base grain to MO and upped it to make a bigger version, but left all other grains the same intentionally. pitched one vial of the 530 and brought it upstairs in my house which is set at 66*. i set it down next to a radiator about 1.5 feet away and left it alone. saw airlock activity sunday morning and seemed to be going pretty damn good. this morning i went and checked it only to find that it had literally blown the lid off and there was beer on the wall, floor, and a tiny amount on the rad. good thing i set it on that mat.
the lid has a very good seal on the bucket i guess, but i just snugged it back down, cleaned the airlock, and poured a lil vodka in it and went to breakfast with my woman. came back and the lid is on, but beer is going straight through the airlock and all over the lid. lol
it was 1081 OG.
is 530 just some kinda beast or is the temps?
still very excited to try this beer!!!

The LHBS didn't have WLP 530 for my batch so I ended up with Wyeast Belgian Abbey II.

I started mine at 69 degrees based on the experience of the OP, and rigged a blowoff. Glad I did, but it still blew off almost a half gallon through the tube and into my ferm chamber. With that all cleaned up now and a week into fermentation I have lowered the temperature to 65 and it is chugging along with a regular old airlock now.

cedar_lake, wondering how your version turned out

FYI all...made SWMBO VERY happy with this brew...and it seems to get better with age. Highly recommend it. We did side-by-side with real AB and honestly could no decide which tasted better...altho there was a difference (of course)

Brewsday, just seeing this but thank you for brewing the recipe and giving feedback. Glad to hear it turned out well.