Woodie Gold Clone? Help?

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dragonlor20

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Location
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Hi,

Are there any Southern California/San Diego brewers that have tried to brew a Karl Strauss - Woodie Gold clone? I layed out a design for it, and everything matches except for the calories that are supposed to be in the 12oz serving.

Official beer stats are:
SRM: 6
IBUs: 19
ABV: 4.6
Calories: 160.92 cal./12 fl. oz
Carbohydrates: 17.1 g/12 fl. oz
Fat: 0g/12 fl. oz

Here is the official beer description:
Woodie Gold is a nod to a classic European lager. We use noble Saaz hops for the spicy floral aroma and soft hop bitterness true to authentic Czech pilsners. A base of bread-like malt flavors from the finest pale barley provide a delicate balance. Softening techniques to duplicate the water found in the Bohemian countryside and cold conditioning give Woodie Gold its crisp refreshing taste.

Here is what I have come up with so far (@65% efficiency):
9# Pale Malt (2 Row)
1# Caramel/Crystal Malt 20L
1oz Saaz @ 60min
0.25oz Saaz @ 15min
0.5oz Saaz @ 5min
Nottingham Yeast w/ starter @ 58 degrees

This yields all of the above stats EXCEPT the calories, which Beersmith calculates at 43/pint in my brew, so I am missing something, or a couple of somethings. I am thinking it will have to be fermentable as any more increase in grains will change the color (I could go to 10L crystal I guess).
 
Hi,

Are there any Southern California/San Diego brewers that have tried to brew a Karl Strauss - Woodie Gold clone? I layed out a design for it, and everything matches except for the calories that are supposed to be in the 12oz serving.

This yields all of the above stats EXCEPT the calories, which Beersmith calculates at 43/pint in my brew, so I am missing something, or a couple of somethings. I am thinking it will have to be fermentable as any more increase in grains will change the color (I could go to 10L crystal I guess).

I had the same problem with the calories in general. I just got a new laptop so I don't have beersmith in front of me but I do remember having to change a setting or two so the calories would be correct. There is a way to do it, I will look when I have beersmith in front of me.
 
I had the same problem with the calories in general. I just got a new laptop so I don't have beersmith in front of me but I do remember having to change a setting or two so the calories would be correct. There is a way to do it, I will look when I have beersmith in front of me.

Actually, I hadn't added in my "actual" numbers. When I put these the same as the estimated OG and FG, it put me OVER the calories! So now there is somewhere I need to cut... I am thinking I can go up a level or two on crystal Lovibond to get the same color with fewer calories... The flavor of this beer is just really unique. It maintains a lot of caramel flavor.
 
Actually, I hadn't added in my "actual" numbers. When I put these the same as the estimated OG and FG, it put me OVER the calories! So now there is somewhere I need to cut... I am thinking I can go up a level or two on crystal Lovibond to get the same color with fewer calories... The flavor of this beer is just really unique. It maintains a lot of caramel flavor.

yup that was it, you need to enter your OG and FG's. Would you add more base grain to replace the amount of crystal you are not using to keep the same alcohol % or just make it lower in alcohol?
 
yup that was it, you need to enter your OG and FG's. Would you add more base grain to replace the amount of crystal you are not using to keep the same alcohol % or just make it lower in alcohol?

That's the question I guess... Maybe they are not brewing a standard pale malt. They describe it as pale malt, but do the calories differ between the different pale malts significantly?

I may just brew as-is to see how close I get with it. I feel like I have to be missing at least one malty grain though, as I don't think pale malt + crystal + saaz = woodie gold. I sent Karl Strauss Brewery an email asking for more grain info, we will see if I get a reply.
 
Good luck with the reply from them. I don't think a base malt will differ in calories from specialty malts or crystal malts. The calories will mainly come from the alcohol, as far as I know. How many calories are you getting with 4.6% in beersmith?
 
How does it taste? This is the beer I want to make. I made one that sort of taste like it, but doesn't have that bread/caramel taste to it
 
How does it taste? This is the beer I want to make. I made one that sort of taste like it, but doesn't have that bread/caramel taste to it

I never actually made it, but knowing what I know now, I would probably not use Nottingham at all and switch the yeast to a Kolsch yeast. Also, I think it needs some more complexity for the residual sweetness - I am thinking either a honey or a munich/vienna kind of malt. Also an option is brown sugar. They are adding something to get that flavor, next time I am in the brewery I am going to ask.
 
Well I kind of made something based off this. Didnt really come close but didnt turn out too bad. I used honey and biscuit steeping grains. Next time I would use honey only and I don't think nottingham was a good pick either. Funny, I was thinking about using brown sugar too but didnt. I think Ill try those tweaks next and let you know.

p.s. Im only doing extract as of now.
 
Well I kind of made something based off this. Didnt really come close but didnt turn out too bad. I used honey and biscuit steeping grains. Next time I would use honey only and I don't think nottingham was a good pick either. Funny, I was thinking about using brown sugar too but didnt. I think Ill try those tweaks next and let you know.

p.s. Im only doing extract as of now.

Well, next time you are brewing let me know - maybe we can double up and try it out with a couple of variations and see how we do. We could do it all grain on my "system" (such as it is) if you want.
 
Well I kind of made something based off this. Didnt really come close but didnt turn out too bad. I used honey and biscuit steeping grains. Next time I would use honey only and I don't think nottingham was a good pick either. Funny, I was thinking about using brown sugar too but didnt. I think Ill try those tweaks next and let you know.

p.s. Im only doing extract as of now.

Did you ever make another version of this?
 

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