Stone TBA

Caught the YouTube video for this and was hooked pretty instantly, seems somewhat similar to something like Tasty's Janet's Brown or another hoppy west coast style brown ale. I never knew a subset of this style was called Texas Brown Ale. Here are the ingredients given by Stone:

Vital Statistics:
7.1% abv
IBU: 81

Malts: Pale 2-Row, Crystal 60, Toasted Wheat, Victory, Chocolate

Adjuncts: Brown Sugar and Molasses Hops: Bravo, Columbus, Cascade, Brewer's Gold

Anyone care to post up how Stone might brew this? I know they have stated before that they only hop once in the kettle at 90 min, and then do a whirpool hot steep for finishing. So I'm guessing on the hops:

90 min Bravo for 70 ish ibu
Colombus at whirpool 1-2 oz.
Dry hop - cascade and brewers gold - stated in the YouTube video.

Anyone care to guess on the percentages for the malts and adjuncts?

I saw the video. It looks really interesting. A dark, hoppy, ale. Anything stone is delicious, this should be no exception.

duckmanco said:

Vital Statistics:
7.1% abv
IBU: 81
....
90 min Bravo for 70 ish ibu
Colombus at whirpool 1-2 oz.
Dry hop - cascade and brewers gold - stated in the YouTube video.

Anyone care to guess on the percentages for the malts and adjuncts?

Click to expand...

AFAIK the whirlpool hops would add no IBU's so the 90 min Bravos would have to be the full 81 IBU.

voltin said:

AFAIK the whirlpool hops would add no IBU's so the 90 min Bravos would have to be the full 81 IBU.

Click to expand...

ummm.....totally not true. I think it would be unwise to simply go along with your statement, but it has been made known on multiple occasions on this website and podcasts like the brewingnetwork that while the amount of isomerization that happens in the whirlpool, you cannot simply ignore it. isomerization is dependent on wort temperature, and if you are a homebrewer that whirlpools, and then chills, you will absolutely be getting some stray IBU's out of your whirpool. even flameout additions followed by immediate chilling will lend a few IBU's to the beer. so in essence, I respectfully disagree with everything you just said. sorry bro.

Nah, they add some bitterness, as reported by Stone and other pro and home brewers. Apparently Heretic's Evil Twin has been made with ONLY a whirpool addition, and although it used more hops, they still hit the target ibu's.

According to the Pope, isomerization still happens at sub boiling temps as long as the wort is north of 170ish. I've found this to seem to true on the homebrew level with beers I add a whirpool hop steep addition to.

Anyway, I'm really wondering what percentage for the malts and adjuncts. Maybe I'll fire off an email to them and see if they'd be inclined to let the percentages go.

I stand corrected, you learn something new everyday.

This is what they list for the hops:

Hops: Bravo, Columbus, Cascade, Brewer's Gold

Hi guys,

Glad you like the video

I know a few things about the choices made here. Mitch (Stone) was with Matt Cole (Fat Head's) about a year ago at I think, Cleveland beer week. Matt brought up Texas Brown's and ever since then the two have wanted to get together and brew a collab. Bear Republic was a natural fit with their relationships to both Stone and Fat Head's in addition to having a lot experience with Brown's.

As it happens, the derivation of a Texas Brown Ale goes back to homebrewing in the 80's. California homebrewers were taking British style Brown Ale kits and as Matt said in the video, they were adding more Chocolate and Crystal malts and amping it up with Cascade hops for flavoring and dry-hopping. The result was a supercharged Brown with higher ABV and very hop forward flavors and increased bitterness.

These Cali homebrewers began submitting their beers to homebrew competitions in Texas. However, the judges were having a hard time with it since it was not a beer that fit the traditional Brown Ale category, but the beer was super tasty. I don't know if it was the Brewer's Association back then, but whoever named and created new beer styles decided that this beer was in need of it's own style and since, for them, the beer was from Texas competitions (by way of Cali), the newly named style was Texas Brown Ale.

Also, TBA was bittered with Bravo and then flavored/bittered with Columbus in the boil. I don't remember exactly when in the boil, but about halfway. When they added the Columbus they also added the brown sugar and molasses. Cascade went into a dry whirlpool so the wort was dumped onto it. Dry hopped again with more Cascade and the Brewer's Gold.

The big decision behind Cascade and Brewer's gold had to do with a tip of the hat to the original Pete's Wicked, which in addition to being one of the early commercial craft beers, was also a Texas Brown, and they used Cascade and Brewer's Gold.

Thanks for the interesting back story. I had a growler filled with TBA yesterday and its quite tasty.

tcgraham said:

Hi guys,

Glad you like the video

I know a few things about the choices made here. Mitch (Stone) was with Matt Cole (Fat Head's) about a year ago at I think, Cleveland beer week. Matt brought up Texas Brown's and ever since then the two have wanted to get together and brew a collab. Bear Republic was a natural fit with their relationships to both Stone and Fat Head's in addition to having a lot experience with Brown's.

Click to expand...

Thought I'd update, email sent but as of yet no reply. However, if I hear anything back you guys will be the first to know.

***Update***

...and it ain't a good one. I heard back from Stone:

"Hey,

We appreciate your curiosity and how quickly you contacted us, but we're not releasing the recipe or malt bill for the Bear Republic / Fat Head's / Stone TBA just yet. We typically release recipes for homebrew publications or, as in the case of The Craft of Stone Brewing Co., our own books. In the future we may also release this one. I recommend staying patient and keeping on the lookout. I'm sorry I can't give you the recipe today, Jeremy. I hope you don't hold it against us. Cheers!"

Guess I really didn't expect them to give it all up, but something in the way of percentages for the malt bill would have been nice. Oh well, I won't hold it against them.