American IPA Sierra Nevada Celebration Clone 2013

I just brewed a Sierra Nevada Celebration clone and it turned out great. I based the recipe on the Jamil show (brewing network) and several threads on the Homebrew Forum. I just tried the first pint tonight and could not be happier with how it turned out. I have SN Celebration 2013 in bottles (recently released here in the NoVA area), and after trying these side by side, they are incredibly close. I had my wife (who is a bit of a hophead) close her eyes and take a few swigs from each glass, and she chose mine over SN! It has a little more hop kick to it (probably because it's still green), but I guarantee this keg will kick quickly (why I only made 5 gallons is beyond me). I've affectionately dubbed this beer Shenandoah Valley Winter Welcome, and the UK Pale Malt adds a different taste than what I'm used to (and again, very close to Celebration). I think the color is dead on, and the aroma is also very close (again - mine is a bit green so has a little sharper hop nose to it).

Here is my recipe from Beersmith if interested, and a side by side photograph:

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 13.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Mash at 156 for 60 minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name

12 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs 12.0 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (1.3 SRM)
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days

Sparge: Batch sparge at 168.0 F

I started the fermentation out at 62 degrees, but could only keep it there for 2 days, at which time it slowly came up to about 68 degrees. I came close to the numbers, with an OG of 1.067 and FG of 1.013 for a final ABV of 7.1%.

Sierra Nevada 2013 on the left, and mine, not cleared yet because I just kegged a few days ago (and force carbed), on the right:



Getting ready to go from secondary to keg (for the love of all things good, why didn't I make more):



This was my first time using a grain bag for secondary with the dry hops, and it really kept the beer clean and made the transfer to keg easier. It was a pain to get the bag and the hops out afterward though.

If you are looking for a nice holiday IPA, this is it.

Cheers!

View attachment sncelebrationclone.xml

Nice what a coincidance I was going to search if there was a clone recipe and you have just posted it yesterday. Will be considering trying to brew this when I get a chance to brew again. Thanks for adding this.

Your color is dead on. I did a recipe from 2004 BYO magazine that called for crystal 35. I used 40 and it's still a bit light. I see your recipe has more hop additions from 15 mins to 0. I was thinking the flavor of mine has not as much hops on the front end as the real thing.. The solid bitterness of the Chinook is there, but missing more cascade and the centennial up front.

Gonna give this a go next time I need a celebration ale fix. Thanks.

Jeff - I highly recommend you give it a try (if you're a Celebration fan). I have plenty of Celebration here, and the color and nose seem to be dead on. Mine seems to have just a bit more hop kick to it and a little more of a Centennial taste coming through, but again, very close to the real thing. I am regretting only being able to brew 5 gallons, since this is one of my most popular beers to date, so much so that I bottled some of them off the keg (with a recently acquired Blichmann Beer Gun) and hope to enter in a competition (for the first time).

I should still have enough in the keg to serve our Thansgiving guests.

I'm drinking a glass tonight for MNF (picture attached), and the color looks darker than it is due to very little light in the room.

Good luck if you give it a shot!

Brett

I want to get started brewing, I have not purchased any equipment but have some things I can use around the house; I have a 5 gallon glass carboy, large brewing pot (used for crabs) and a propane cooker for the large pot. I want to keg my brew in corney kegs (which I will need to acquire). I do have a C02 canister and beer tap for standard kegs. Is it too outlandish for me to try the SN Celebration brew you just did as my first batch? Would I be way over my head by starting with an all grain brew such as this? Be honest I have think skin. thanks!

This is no harder than any other all grain recipe. If you spend some time reading up on all grain, you could give it a shot, but I don't think the equipment you currently have would work. You're going to at least need a mash lauter tun (which I built out of a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler per the HB forum), and probably a hot water (liquor) tank as well to heat sparge water. That being said, I could convert this to an extract recipe with steeping grains tonight or tomorrow, and you could try it as a bit more complex extract recipe. Per the recipe, you'll need to dry hop - so you may need to buy a cheaper 5 gallon bucket as a primary fermenter and use your glass carboy to secondary ferment and dry hop.

Or, I know others on here don't secondary their beers and some dry hop in primary, so you could make it happen with what you have, and it's probably still going to be a darn good beer. You might just need to carefully strain (without oxygenating the beer) some hop matter out before kegging/bottling.

Being your first time, and given your equipment, I would lean towards giving the extract recipe a shot (when I get it up) because it would be quicker and a little less complex for your first brew.

thanks for the advice. i love to build things and am pretty handy doing so-I will look into making the things you indicate. I need to check the size of my crab cooking pot to see if it is worth fully converting for brewing (fittings temp gauge etc.); I actually have two of the same exact size (stainless) 30 quarts, hope this size works. They look to be perfect for some stages of brewing. In the mean time I will take you advice and try the simpler method with extract first so I can have some home brew ready for Xmas! thanks again for your help. Is the advantage of full grain the ability to customize recipes or is it cheaper to brew or both? Just curious. thanks again.

I've only been brewing for a year, and have only been doing all grain for half of that, but I believe it is easier to customize (and fine tune) your all grain recipe because you can choose the amounts of grain(s), the temperature at which you mash, you can add things like hops or fruit to the mash, etc. That being said, you can do a whole heck of a lot with extract and partial mash due the quality LME/DME products out there.

Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in and provide thoughts on this as well. I have come up with some really good craft beers by doing extract, partial mash, and all grain.

Ok - this is my first time converting all grain to extract using Beersmith 2, but here it is (the beer smith xml file is also attached). I believe you would steep the grains as you heat the water up to 170. Again, someone may be able to do a better job converting this, but Beersmith indicates:

Style: American IPA
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.43 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 13.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
15.4 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) Grain 1 8.1 %
8.5 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (1.3 SRM) Grain 2 4.5 %
10 lbs 5.9 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 3 87.4 %
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 38.5 IBUs
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 12.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 14.7 IBUs
1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 9 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 13.7 oz

View attachment SNClone_Extract.bsmx

Your color is dead on, are you measuring that 13.4 in SRM Morey or Daniels?

WeissGuy - the color did turn out right on. The measurement is the estimated SRM from BeerSmith. I did not take an actual color measurement (haven't done that before but should figure out how)!

Ok, thanks. I don't have beersmith, so for now I just use this handy calculator, but when you check your SRM it gives two different numbers, which are always different by about three points, so just wanted to check. Also, 1.75 pounds of caramel malt seems like it would impart ALOT of caramel flavor. I know celebration has a firm maltiness to it, but just wondering if you thought the caramel was a little too much.


Here's that calculator I was talking about:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

I could definitely taste the maltiness, but with the hop bill it balanced it out pretty well (in fact it had a little more hop character to it than the original Celebration). That being said, you could pull back on the caramel (maybe by 1/2lb) and it will still be a malt forward IPA similar to Celebration, but the color may not be the same.

Placeholder (I cant wait to brew this one)

Just for fun, I emailed SN about what Lovibond caramel malt they use, and what SRM they target, and they got back to me!:

"Thank you for reaching out to us and for expressing your interests in Sierra Nevada. We are very happy to hear of your pursuit to clone our Celebration Ale! After reaching out to our brew staff they were able to respond with an answer to your questions which I have copied bellow:

We use 45 Lovibond Caramel Malt.
Target is 20 EBC or 10 SRM on the color.”

So just a rough run through the brewersfriend tool, it could look something like:

12 lbs 2 row
1.5 pound caramel 45
.5 carapils

Probably going to mash this one a little bit lower to help dry it out just a little bit. THinking around 152 or 153

Thanks for posting this recipe!

I'm definitely going to brew this one after I free up some space in the freezer. I've been enjoying the 2013 Celebration for the past month, and I just can't seem to get enough of it!

Quick question for anybody who might know. Is there a reason for the 90 minute boil with this recipe? I've used 90 minute boils in the past when recipes had a large percentage of pilsner in the grain bill.

Honestly, I think they might use 12 pounds of marris otter. The website says "2 Row" but MO is a 2 row barley. It is a little darker in color, so to hit the 10 SRM mark you need to only use exactly 1 pound of UK Crystal 45, and with half pound carapils it comes to exactly 6.8% ABV. Using a pound of caramel in a 5 gallon batch makes more sense to me than 1.75, just based on experience. Would be interesting to have a batch brewed this way, a batch brewed your way, and an SN Celebration all to compare side by side.

For the masses, I just got a response from SN:

Hello Ron,

Thanks for reaching out. The recipe you outlined is pretty close. I have included a homebrew recipe suggestion provided by our product manager. I hope this helps. Best of luck and please let us know if you have any additional questions. Cheers!

Celebration:
o Malts:
o Pale 2-row: 89%
o Caramel (60L): 9%

o Mash at 157.5 F
o Original Gravity: 16.0 Plato
o Ending Gravity: 4.0 Plato
o ABV: 6.8%

o Hops
o 0 min: Chinook & Centennial
o 90 min: Cascade
o 100 min: 2/3 Cascade & 1/3 Centennial
o 100 min: Whirlpool

o IBU: 65
o Dry Hopped with 2/3 Cascade & 1/3 Centennial
o Yeast: California Ale

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
530.893.3520 x1218
f: @SierraNevadabeer | t: @SierraNevada

WeissGuy said:

Honestly, I think they might use 12 pounds of marris otter. The website says "2 Row" but MO is a 2 row barley. It is a little darker in color, so to hit the 10 SRM mark you need to only use exactly 1 pound of UK Crystal 45, and with half pound carapils it comes to exactly 6.8% ABV. Using a pound of caramel in a 5 gallon batch makes more sense to me than 1.75, just based on experience. Would be interesting to have a batch brewed this way, a batch brewed your way, and an SN Celebration all to compare side by side.

Click to expand...

Our keg just kicked last night, and I'm already missing it! I think the Caramel analysis is right, this is a good beer as is but would probably be better with a little less Caramel (which would also fall in line with what SN e-mailed Ronarse - showing about 9% of recipe malt). I sent a few bottles to a buddy in Michigan, and he agreed that it's a good beer, but could use a little less maltiness. I'm not sure how much that will affect the color (which is dead on with SN Celebration) - but I'll take taste over color any day.

A little less caramel, and about the same hop schedule, and this will remain in my holiday rotation lineup.

You know, this year's Celebration does seem a little "browner" than usual. I think it only used to have a reddish hue.

Made this today, everything looking good so far, though my hops had some different bitterness, and I wasn't able to figure out how to adjust upwards or downwards. For my first all-grain batch, I think I did halfway decently, but I didn't get my mash temp quite up high enough, hopefully I got something useful out of it.

Just made this today. OG came out perfect! Was a little worried at first.

Awesome - did you guys brew the recipe or an adaptation? I'll be anxious to hear the results. I have the ingredients for a stout, but this one will be brewed again soon.

I used 10# 2 row instead of the 12. Will let you know the results.

Dry hopped today with 1oz each of Cascade and Centennial.

I found three bottles of this that I had bottled and forgotten about. My wife and I both had one last night and they were so good. Looking forward to hearing how yours turns out in a few weeks or so!

bredle said:

I just brewed a Sierra Nevada Celebration clone and it turned out great. I based the recipe on the Jamil show (brewing network) and several threads on the Homebrew Forum. I just tried the first pint tonight and could not be happier with how it turned out. I have SN Celebration 2013 in bottles (recently released here in the NoVA area), and after trying these side by side, they are incredibly close. I had my wife (who is a bit of a hophead) close her eyes and take a few swigs from each glass, and she chose mine over SN! It has a little more hop kick to it (probably because it's still green), but I guarantee this keg will kick quickly (why I only made 5 gallons is beyond me). I've affectionately dubbed this beer Shenandoah Valley Winter Welcome, and the UK Pale Malt adds a different taste than what I'm used to (and again, very close to Celebration). I think the color is dead on, and the aroma is also very close (again - mine is a bit green so has a little sharper hop nose to it).

Here is my recipe from Beersmith if interested, and a side by side photograph:

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 13.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 65.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Mash at 156 for 60 minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name

12 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs 12.0 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (1.3 SRM)
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days

Sparge: Batch sparge at 168.0 F

I started the fermentation out at 62 degrees, but could only keep it there for 2 days, at which time it slowly came up to about 68 degrees. I came close to the numbers, with an OG of 1.067 and FG of 1.013 for a final ABV of 7.1%.

Sierra Nevada 2013 on the left, and mine, not cleared yet because I just kegged a few days ago (and force carbed), on the right:

Getting ready to go from secondary to keg (for the love of all things good, why didn't I make more):

This was my first time using a grain bag for secondary with the dry hops, and it really kept the beer clean and made the transfer to keg easier. It was a pain to get the bag and the hops out afterward though.

If you are looking for a nice holiday IPA, this is it.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I dry hop with a gain bag right in the keg for a couple of days before carbonating. Alot easier then getting it out of a carboy.

Hourglass - I have not done that before but it sounds like a good idea. Even though you use a grain bag, do you find hop particles at all in your keg that end up in the glass?

bredle said:

Hourglass - I have not done that before but it sounds like a good idea. Even though you use a grain bag, do you find hop particles at all in your keg that end up in the glass?

Click to expand...

I use whole hops in a grain bag and pellets in a stainless steel tee ball. Initially there will be some hop particles but beer should clear up nicely. I only dry hop for 2-3 days especially when using whole leaf to avoid grassy or tea like flavors. Btw thanks for posting the recipe i'm going to brew it.

I just bottled it today. Color looks pretty good and FG was spot on as well.

How much priming sugar should I add for 4 gallons ?

I kegged, but I plugged it into Beersmith and show 4.32oz corn sugar for 4 gallons, or 3.93oz table sugar. This is based on 2.3 volumes and should work for this beer.

Minkforce, Ronarse - how are your brews coming along? Ronarse - based on your bottling date your getting close to cracking one?

Thanks , she is in the 1 st primary right know. Can't wait to try this
Kurt

Yeah I'm looking forward to trying one. Going to let them sit for another two weeks if I can resist temptation.

ronarse said:

Yeah I'm looking forward to trying one. Going to let them sit for another two weeks if I can resist temptation.

Click to expand...

I know - it's tough, but I think it will be worth the wait! I am currently waiting on a cream stout!

kamk said:

Thanks , she is in the 1 st primary right know. Can't wait to try this
Kurt

Click to expand...

Youre doing a 1st primary? Ah man, the beer's ruined. Better dump it, the recipe clearly states to start with a 2nd primary.

Just ordered a brew pot and gas burner so I can begin AG brewing. Methinks this may be first on the to do list, cheers for the recipe and all the replies.

bredle said:

Minkforce, Ronarse - how are your brews coming along? Ronarse - based on your bottling date your getting close to cracking one?

Click to expand...

Had to take some time off, but finally bottled last night. Tasted great out of the hydrometer test, spot on from 1.07 down to 1.02 for 6.5%abv. Color was beautiful, but I need to figure out where I'm losing liquid, because I only got 36 bottles, where I usually get around 48 in a 5 gallon batch.

Using the targets provided to "ronarse" (ABV/IBU & SRM) & calculated into Brewer's Friend - the recipe would look very similar to below. 5.5 gallons



Added By: Anonymous
Method: All Grain
Style: American IPA
Boil Time: 100 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 8.25 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.048 (recipe based estimate)
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)

Original Gravity: 1.072 Final Gravity: 1.020 ABV (standard): 6.77% IBU (tinseth): 63.69 SRM (morey): 11.01
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
13 lb American - Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 90.9%
1.3 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 60L 34 60 9.1%
14.3 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
0.75 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 100 min 19.99
0.5 oz Centennial Leaf/Whole 10 Boil 100 min 17.3
1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 90 min 26.4
0.5 oz Chinook Pellet 13 Boil 0 min
0.5 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 0 min
0.66 oz Cascade Leaf/Whole 7 Dry Hop 10 days
0.34 oz Centennial Leaf/Whole 10 Dry Hop 10 days
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
6.125 gal Infusion 157 F 60 min
4 gal Infusion 175 F 20 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.75 qt/lb
Yeast
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Attenuation (avg):
72%
Flocculation:
Medium
Optimum Temp:
59 - 75 °F
Starter:
No
Fermentation Temp:
68 °F
Pitch Rate:
0.75 (M cells / ml / ° P)
273 B cells required