Mill Street Tankhouse Ale Recipe

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iamatuna

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Just bought a case of this stuff and ITS AWESOME:D

its from a small toronto based microbrew mill st. and it says that they use lots of cascade hope, lol and from what i got they use ALOT of them

i was just wondering if anyone has a recipe for this ??

All the best

Merry Christmas
 
i was wondering all day today about a recipe for this. have you tried wellington county dark? its from ontario and tastes similar and very nice too

theyre both something like a heavily coloured english pale ale with very nice hops
 
I love Mill St.

I have the advantage of a friend working in their brew pub. Maybe I'll get him to ask around.
 
I have to admit, I love it there as well. My wife and I go up to Toronto about once a year right around xmas, and for the past two years made it a point to hit up Mill St.

The Distillery district is pretty sweet!
 
One of my favourites too. I've been considering working on a clone of it but I'm torn because I want to support the microbrewers in Ontario. :D

Wellington Dark is excellent but I'm a total sucker for Wellington Arkel. I live in Guelph so I drink it as real ale from a local pub called the Wooly!
 
so true... We don't have enough craft brews right now... I want to support it as much as possible.

On the other hand there is something very satisfying about being able to clone a beer sucessfully.
 
getting arkel on draught as real ale would be amazing...

i hate to say this, but im really disappointed with most, but definitely not all ontario microbreweries. the exceptions being scotch-irish, wellington, mill street. creemore and hockley are nice but their lack of experimentation is horrible.

some of them downright piss me off like trafalgar. also have gotten a few infected ones from various breweries, last one that comes to mind is nickelbrook.
 
I remember Trafalgar when they first opened in a tiny little unit off Wyecroft Rd in Oakville (I used to live in Oakville (Bronte actually)) and they were REALLY good. Now I find their beers boring and the quality not at all what it once was.

Hockley Valley Dark I quite enjoy. Some more adventurous micros would be awesome, but I imagine they all figure the beer drinking market in Ontario just won't support it.

Now to get back on topic. :D

I imagine a good base for a clone would be 2-row and crystal 60L and I'd guess munich malt as well. There is also some biscuit flavour I think too so probably some victory malt (aka biscuit malt). The hops are pretty easy, and I'd guess probably around 45IBU maybe.
 
Not revive a slightly old thread, but I have been drinking a fair bit of this lately and want to brew a clone. I read in another thread (here) that it has the following stats:

Pale Ale Malt
Biscuit
Munich
Caramel
Chocolate

Bitter, aroma and dry hopped all with Cascade

OG 1.050
FG 1.011
IBU 42
SRM 15

So pretty close to what you were saying, Bradsul. I'm going to play around in beersmith and see what I can come up with (Probably not much!).
 
I'm really surprised by the chocolate too. It must be in tiny amounts. I've only had tankhouse a few times but isn't it a golden colour?
 
I had this just a few weeks ago when I visited Toronto for the first time. I find it somewhat similar to Fat Tire but bigger on the hops and lower on the sweet maltiness I taste in Fat Tire. It is a good beer but I really liked steamwhistle much more. Toronto has some good beer
 
I too am a big fan of steamwhistle, another great brew from ontario is Beaus, from Van Kleek hill ( just east of ottawa )
 
Ok i dug up an old thread, but has anyone had any success cloning this one?
Given the listed ingredients i came up with this as a starting point

7 lbs pale ale malt
.5 lb biscuit
.5 lb munich
.5 lb carmel
.2 lb chocolate

1 oz cascade @ 60
.5 oz cascade @30
1 oz cascade @ 15
.5oz cascade dry hop

Anyone think that may come close? Maby even go lighter on the chocolate malt?
I dont have beersmith or any programs so im not too sure if it may be off the target og and ibu's by a bit
 
Hey jason81, (I'm actually from st kitts area, now in waterloo btw)

I actually brewed my own all grain clone last night based on input from this topic. The recipe I came up with is close to yours:

8.5 lb 2 row
2.0 lb munich
5.0 oz chocolate
4.0 oz crystal 60
4.0 oz biscuit

hops:
1 oz cascade 60min
1 oz cascade 30min
1 oz cascade 15min

yeast:
S-05

I actually ended up with a little over 6g in the fermenter and my OG was a tiny bit low (1048).

In the fermenter bubbling away this morning when I woke up, I will say that it does seem dark, but the SRM (15.5) and IBU (39.8) are on course according to the software. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
cool, let me know how it urns out, im away for work for the rest of the month so i wont get a chance to brew anything before then, im a new brewer with only 2 brews and nothing bottled yet, but i just came up with those numbers by changing an american pale ale recipe in the john palmer book, wich is the first brew i did so il probably wait to see how it turns out to compare before trying this.
 
I can't wait to find out how this turns out crypt0. Tankhouse is one of my all time favorite brews and I'd like to try this recipe out.
 
I'm cold crashing the fermenter now and dry hopping with 1/2 oz cascade. It finished a little light - 1010 I was hoping for 1012. Clear as a bell and the malt profile is very close. Once its kegged I'll post pics.
 
I might have to post one more follow up where I compare the two beers side by side.

I didn't end up dry hopping the beer and I suppose I could have, but not having a real tankhouse in several weeks I don't remember the hop aroma being very strong.

The bitterness is great. the malt profile is extremely close - I might add a bit more buiscuit and a splash more chocolate to my next go-round. I've served this to my friends, who all quaffed down multiple pints. They say they like it better then the actual Tankhouse! This keg's going to go fast which means another brew is in order.

The colour might be a little bit lighter then the original, but this picture is under a halogen lamp to show the clarity. It's actually quite dark.

Easily one of my best brews to date.

tankhouse.jpg


tank_house_lacing.jpg


PS I apologize for the pilsner glass :)
 
I've actually had so much Tankhouse last year that I grew tired of it (although I can now say the same for Flying Monkey Hoptical Illusion). This is making me want to pick up a 6 for this weekend. Nice job crypt0 -- looks great!

I'm gearing up to do my first all-grain, hopefully soon. This might be a good candidate for my first brew!
 
I just finished brewing my clone atempt at this this morning, it was my first all grain brew and smoothest brew day so far. took me 4 hours start to finish including clean up and first time trying out a wort chiller i made. It cooled my wort to 68 degreese in 11 min i hit my target gravity of 1.051 and figured my mash efficiency at 27.8 ppg.
Heres the recipe i ended up with:

bg - 1.042
og - 1.051
ibu - 43
7# pale ale malt
1# munich
1/2# crystal 60
1/2# buscuit
30z chocolate
1oz cascade(7.8 aau) 60 min
1/2oz cascade 30 min
1/2oz cascade 15 min
us-05 yeast
im gonna dry hop with 1oz fresh leaf cascade
 
Hey jason81, (I'm actually from st kitts area, now in waterloo btw)

I actually brewed my own all grain clone last night based on input from this topic. The recipe I came up with is close to yours:

8.5 lb 2 row
2.0 lb munich
5.0 oz chocolate
4.0 oz crystal 60
4.0 oz biscuit

hops:
1 oz cascade 60min
1 oz cascade 30min
1 oz cascade 15min

yeast:
S-05

I actually ended up with a little over 6g in the fermenter and my OG was a tiny bit low (1048).

In the fermenter bubbling away this morning when I woke up, I will say that it does seem dark, but the SRM (15.5) and IBU (39.8) are on course according to the software. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Being one of my favourite beers, does anyone have the ability to help me convert this recipe to a grain-with-extract version? What's the general procedure (if any) to do this?

EDIT: Think I got it.

Steep @ 150 for an hour:
5oz chocolate malt
4oz crystal 60L
4oz biscuit
2lb munich

Top up to 6.87 gallons, boil
Add: 6.6lbs briess golden light LME

Follow same hops/yeast procedure. Final batch size of 6 gallons, 15.1SRM, OG1.053, FG1.013, ABV5.24%. Should be pretty close, if not bang-on.
 
Being one of my favourite beers, does anyone have the ability to help me convert this recipe to a grain-with-extract version? What's the general procedure (if any) to do this?

EDIT: Think I got it.

Steep @ 150 for an hour:
5oz chocolate malt
4oz crystal 60L
4oz biscuit
2lb munich

Top up to 6.87 gallons, boil
Add: 6.6lbs briess golden light LME

Follow same hops/yeast procedure. Final batch size of 6 gallons, 15.1SRM, OG1.053, FG1.013, ABV5.24%. Should be pretty close, if not bang-on.

I just stumbled on this thread. How did the extract/grain version turn out? I have gone AG but I have some extract to use up and was wondering what to brew and then I think I found a recipe... this one!
 
I just stumbled on this thread. How did the extract/grain version turn out? I have gone AG but I have some extract to use up and was wondering what to brew and then I think I found a recipe... this one!

I'd like to know how it turned out also. I just tried Tankhouse for the first time and it is fantastic.
 
Mine are still not carbed enough - I'm waiting until the weekend to try another. Getting impatient with this one.

I have moved them to the laundry room now - the warmest room in my house.
 
Going to brew this clone this weekend. Can anyone confirm if they hit the mark with their recipe? Still undecided on how much chocolate to use and 1 or 2 lbs of Munich.
 
Very interesting that this comes back into discussion today, as, in another forum I follow *gasp* somebody was asking about a Tankhouse recipe. Most of the posts were for recipes I'd seen floating around the net already, but there was also this post:

A CABA newsletter from a number of years ago contained a 5gallon homebrew recipe in it that was the precursor to the commercial version of TankHouse, as follows:

73.6% 2row
9.6% UK ?Medium crystal
9.6% wheat malt
6.4% flaked barley
0.8% black

60mins@ 154F

31IBU Cascade @60
3.7IBU Cascade @30
2.9IBU Cascade @20
1oz Cascade @flameout

Wyeast #1028

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.011
37IBU
10SRM

I don't know how close this will get you, but I thought it was interesting both because - if the poster is correct - this may have been a stepping stone on the path towards the actual recipe, and because none of the other recipes I've seen called for the wheat or flaked barley additions. I'm not enough of a reverse engineer to say with confidence if I can detect either of those in Tankhouse, but I figure maybe someone will see this and something will click.

Either way, it's a damn fine beer, so I wish anyone going for it the best success.
 
I didn't. Made an extract version that came out too dark. Should've added it all near the end of the boil.

Plus, I got the stupid banana smell again - too high fermentation temps. I have since fixed this problem, but it's a bummer with these past couple of batches.

What would I do differently? I'd make it all-grain. Goign to try this again early in the new year.

EDIT: Just read the recipe above more closely. THAT is what I'll be trying. In my head, it looks way closer than what I did.
 
EDIT: Just read the recipe above more closely. THAT is what I'll be trying. In my head, it looks way closer than what I did.

Sweet! Glad to hear that it helped. I'm actually really curious about this one. I'd try it myself (and likely will at some point) but my carboys are full to the teets right now.

Would love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
 
Well, I'll let ya know. But I won't be brewing anything new until the New Year. Have some cold-fermenting stuff in my primaries right now, and busy with Christmas and finishing the basement, yadda yadda.
 
Well, I'll let ya know. But I won't be brewing anything new until the New Year. Have some cold-fermenting stuff in my primaries right now, and busy with Christmas and finishing the basement, yadda yadda.

So.... this beer has finally come around. The weird fruity taste has subsided enough that I can barely notice it, and other people cannot at all. The head on it is nice and thick, and then sort of dies down a bit after a minute or so.

Anyway the big test came on Friday night. I was at a buddy's place, and we were playing some NHL 09 (yes, 2009 - WTF) before heading out. His neighbor stopped by and my buddy offered him one of my beers. I poured it for him, and he started drinking it. He says "what is this, Tankhouse? I love Tankhouse". I said "sort of - I made it but that's what its supposed to taste like". The guy didn't believe me, especially when he saw that it came from an actual Mill St. Tankhouse bottle that I reused. I had to show him the cap to prove it. He was shocked, in a good way.

The extract version I made is too dark, but an AG version would be spot-on.
 
He says "what is this, Tankhouse? I love Tankhouse". I said "sort of - I made it but that's what its supposed to taste like".

The extract version I made is too dark, but an AG version would be spot-on.

Great news! Depending on the weather I am heading to TO/Oakville on the coming weekend so I'll be able to pick up some AG supplies.

My last 2011 or first 2012 will be a Tankhouse Ale clone.

B
 
I'm currently drinking the following brew that I have in my Kegerator. It is inspired by Tankhouse. Besides using a little bit of Columbus hops, this came out really great and resembles tankhouse

76% 10lb 0 Pale Malt (Maris Otter)
6% 0 12oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
5% 0 10oz Caramunich I
3% 0 6oz Carafoam
3% 0 6oz CaraWheat
2% 0 3oz Chocolate Malt (US)
2% 0 3oz Briess Special Roast


HOPS
60 mins 1.0 Magnum

boil 50 mins 0.25 Magnum

boil 40 mins 0.125 Columbus

boil 15 mins 0.5 Cascade

boil 10 mins 0.125 Columbus

boil 5 mins 0.25 Cascade

boil 1 min 0.25 Cascade

boil 1 min 0.25 Columbus

post-boil 1 min 0.125 Cascade

post-boil 1 min 0.125 Columbus
Original Gravity
1.057 / 14.0° Plato

Final Gravity
1.012 / 3.8° Plato

Color
16° SRM

Mash Efficiency
75%

6% ABV
60 IBU


Hint of floral at first, with a nice citrus flavor that lingers. The chocolate malt adds a nice roast flavor that is not overwhelming (just enough to know that it is there).

If i were to try and match Tankhouse EXACTLY, I would take out the 40 min and 10 min columbus hop additions, and go a little heavier (5 oz) with the Special roast malt.

Overall, this is one of my best batches. I would definitely make this again.
 
Guys, I decided to make up a Tankhouse type recipe for a buddy of mine, based on all I've ready here and all I've tasted of it. I live around the Toronto area so I'm no stranger to Mill Street's beers, including Tankhouse, which is a wonderfully sessionable not-even-pale ale. Now, I should say that my attempt here is not the Pepsi Challenge of clones...my friend just wanted something very similar to Tankhouse, and close enough is good enough for us. Here's what I came up with:

34 IBU
14 SRM
OG 1.050
FG we'll see

Maris Otter 68%
Biscuit (Weyermann Abbey Malt) 11.3%
Munich 11.3%
Crystal 80 8.2%
Chocolate 1.1%

Mashed @ 66C
Boil one hour

11 IBU Cascade FWH
19 IBU Magnum FWH
25g Cascade @ 10 minutes
25g Cascase @ flameout and steep 5 minutes

S05

Today was brew day. I'll let everyone know how it turns out once it's drinking. I filter and force carb, so it'll be as close to Mill St's process as possible.

Cheers!
 
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