Anyone got a recipe for "Mcmenamins Ruby Ale?"
- Thread starter splat
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splat said:
Almost all of their recipes are on their web site. They just don't give the exact amounts of grain they used. Ruby is a super easy recipe to duplicate. I only brew all grain, but switching to extract should be easy.
7# light LME, then anywhere from 4-6 pounds of REAL raspberries in the fermenter. To make it hazy, they boil the fruit for a minutes. I boiled mine for 5, then added it to the secondary.
Any hops with 5% AA or less for bittering should be fine. They don't state what hops were used. I don't use aroma because I want to smell the berries.
I just filmed an entire brew session with this, but I do not yet have it online. Hopefully within the week though. You can check out other videos at the web site myself and friend build. www.freebrewingvideos.com (pretty basic site)
Lukus
Well-Known Member
Man I miss McMenamins. I went to school at Portland State and would go there all the time. I would be interested in this recipe too my wife loved their Ruby, I am still pretty new to brewing so the more basic the recipe the better.
RoaringBrewer
Well-Known Member
splat said:
Hallarteu hops should do the trick - probably all added at 60 minutes to balance the malt sweetness, but to not overpower the berries on the backend... Never had, nor did I do any reading on this berry-brew before replying, but I'd put a large amount of cash on the fact that this is a very low IBU beer.
If you full boil, you may need less than 1 oz bittering addition, even with a low AA% (4.5 or so), to get what you need...
RoaringBrewer
Well-Known Member
Here's what I would do, based on the limited info on their website. Seems to be a pretty simply, low ABV beer:
GRAIN - Gives you 1.040OG (site says 1.038 - probably to compensate for the berries added later)
5.5lb Light Liquid Malt Extract
.5lb of Crystal 10L - Steep for 30 Mins around 150F before boil
HOPS (Low AA% yields a 10IBU for this beer - probably good for the low gravity and to allow berries to shine through)
.5oz of Hallarteau (4.8%AA) for 60 Min
OTHER
5lb Fresh Berries - Pureed - Add to secondary for 5-7 days
YEAST
Any neutral, good attenuation yeast. Nottingham or Safale S-05 would work great.
Good luck and let me know how this brews up if you decide to take my advice.
EDIT: Keep in mind this is for a full boil of 6g, resulting in ~5g of beer. If you can't full boil, you'll need to up the hops for utilization. For a 2.5g, partial boil, with the LME added at beginning, you'd need to use closer to .85oz of hops. Or you could probably stick with the .5oz if you did a late LME addition. I don't know much about late LME addition though. I've always added LME at the front end when I brewed extract. And now I AG...
EDIT2: I'm also just guessing at the fruit amount. It says they use 55lb of raspberries per batch, but I have no clue how big their batches are. If they are brewing on a 3-barrel system, then it would be less than 5lb for 5g and vice versa. You could always add 3-4lb. and let sit for 5 days, taste, and add another 1-2lb if its not to your liking...
GRAIN - Gives you 1.040OG (site says 1.038 - probably to compensate for the berries added later)
5.5lb Light Liquid Malt Extract
.5lb of Crystal 10L - Steep for 30 Mins around 150F before boil
HOPS (Low AA% yields a 10IBU for this beer - probably good for the low gravity and to allow berries to shine through)
.5oz of Hallarteau (4.8%AA) for 60 Min
OTHER
5lb Fresh Berries - Pureed - Add to secondary for 5-7 days
YEAST
Any neutral, good attenuation yeast. Nottingham or Safale S-05 would work great.
Good luck and let me know how this brews up if you decide to take my advice.
EDIT: Keep in mind this is for a full boil of 6g, resulting in ~5g of beer. If you can't full boil, you'll need to up the hops for utilization. For a 2.5g, partial boil, with the LME added at beginning, you'd need to use closer to .85oz of hops. Or you could probably stick with the .5oz if you did a late LME addition. I don't know much about late LME addition though. I've always added LME at the front end when I brewed extract. And now I AG...
EDIT2: I'm also just guessing at the fruit amount. It says they use 55lb of raspberries per batch, but I have no clue how big their batches are. If they are brewing on a 3-barrel system, then it would be less than 5lb for 5g and vice versa. You could always add 3-4lb. and let sit for 5 days, taste, and add another 1-2lb if its not to your liking...
newbrewr4fun
Well-Known Member
So the proper way would be to puree the berries by boiling them for 5 minutes then mashing them through a strainer. Pouring the liquid into the carboy and then racking right on top? Since I have a 5.5 gallon carboy, do you think this is worth the effort? I guess I could leave a gallon in the primary and bottle later, but am not sure how the beer would turn out with out the berry flavoring.
utexasche
New Member
RoaringBrewer,
First off, thanks for the recipe! My wife and I moved to NY from the Seattle area last December and have been desperate for a good ol' Ruby. I have a batch in the secondary ready for bottling and am confused about whether or not I should add corn sugar to the bottling bucket or rely upon the fructose from the raspberries for carbonation (if there is enough). What are your thoughts on this?
Also, I'm going on six days with in the secondary, and there is still a little activity. Should I wait until it stops before I bottle it? If is do so, it seems that additional sugar will be required. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Harley
First off, thanks for the recipe! My wife and I moved to NY from the Seattle area last December and have been desperate for a good ol' Ruby. I have a batch in the secondary ready for bottling and am confused about whether or not I should add corn sugar to the bottling bucket or rely upon the fructose from the raspberries for carbonation (if there is enough). What are your thoughts on this?
Also, I'm going on six days with in the secondary, and there is still a little activity. Should I wait until it stops before I bottle it? If is do so, it seems that additional sugar will be required. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Harley
KenSnowbrew
New Member
Any results yet? Would like to know how it turns out. Would guess if you do a full secondary fermentation that you would have use priming sugars as usual.
Ken
Ken
utexasche
New Member
Hey Ken,
The beer turned out to be pretty good. In the spirit of the original, it's a nice light ale with a fantastic aroma. It really is nice to have a fruit-flavored ale without the burdening, sickly-sweet overhead that typically accompanies fruit flavored ales and wheat beers.
In the end, the secondary quieted down on (or around) the seventh day in the secondary, and I added priming sugar to the bottling bucket as usual. The only problem that I have with the final product is that there is a "seedy" bite to it that I think is from having possibly boiled the raspberries too long. I was a little distracted during the boiling, and I think that they boiled for a good ten minutes before I took them off the heat. There was also the issue of separating out the flesh of the fruit from the beer when transferring it over to the bottling bucket. The last gallon or so was a real mess.
We actually have another batch going into the secondary this weekend. This time, I'm going to try taking it off the heat shortly after it reaches a boil nstead of waiting a full five minutes. Also, once the berries have cooled, I'm going to wring them trough a cheesecloth so that I can harvest some of the flesh of the fruit along with the pectin (which imparts the familiar haze) without having the mess to deal with come bottling time. I'll let you know how this approach goes.
Harley
The beer turned out to be pretty good. In the spirit of the original, it's a nice light ale with a fantastic aroma. It really is nice to have a fruit-flavored ale without the burdening, sickly-sweet overhead that typically accompanies fruit flavored ales and wheat beers.
In the end, the secondary quieted down on (or around) the seventh day in the secondary, and I added priming sugar to the bottling bucket as usual. The only problem that I have with the final product is that there is a "seedy" bite to it that I think is from having possibly boiled the raspberries too long. I was a little distracted during the boiling, and I think that they boiled for a good ten minutes before I took them off the heat. There was also the issue of separating out the flesh of the fruit from the beer when transferring it over to the bottling bucket. The last gallon or so was a real mess.
We actually have another batch going into the secondary this weekend. This time, I'm going to try taking it off the heat shortly after it reaches a boil nstead of waiting a full five minutes. Also, once the berries have cooled, I'm going to wring them trough a cheesecloth so that I can harvest some of the flesh of the fruit along with the pectin (which imparts the familiar haze) without having the mess to deal with come bottling time. I'll let you know how this approach goes.
Harley
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