Long Trail Double Bag

Visited the Long Trail Brewery today for lunch and "research". Ordered the sampler: Raspberry Wheat, Belgian White, Hef, L.T. Ale, IPA & Double Bag. The star was the Double Bag... described as an Altbier, 7.5 ABV, Ingredients: Ale malt, caramel malt, Chocolate malt, Northern Brewer, Willamette & Mt. Hood. I thought it was malty, smooth, sweet & "thick", with little hops bitterness / aroma.

I tried to create a clone recipe, based on the ingredients and came up w/ this:

Bag It
19-A Old Ale

Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 255.29 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.076 (1.060 - 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.019 (1.015 - 1.022)
Color: 19.5 (10.0 - 22.0)
Alcohol: 7.55% (6.0% - 9.0%)
Bitterness: 37.07 (30.0 - 60.0)

Ingredients:
13.5 lbs Pale Ale Malt
0.25 lbs American Chocolate Malt
1.0 lbs 2-Row Caramel Malt 80L
1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.5 oz Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
0.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 ea Danstar Nottingham

I'm thinking a higher mash temp... maybe 154-155 to get the creamy mouth-feel and batch sparge.

Please critique. TIA

There should also be some malted wheat in there.

Glibbidy said:

There should also be some malted wheat in there.

Click to expand...

Right. Forgot that. How about this?

Original Gravity: 1.076 (1.060 - 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.019 (1.015 - 1.022)
Color: 19.4 (10.0 - 22.0)
Alcohol: 7.57% (6.0% - 9.0%)
Bitterness: 37.07 (30.0 - 60.0)

Ingredients:
12.5 lbs Pale Ale Malt
0.25 lbs American Chocolate Malt
1.0 lbs Wheat Malt
1.0 lbs 2-Row Caramel Malt 80L
1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.5 oz Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
0.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 ea Danstar Nottingham

Well it's funny because Longtrail calls it an Old Ale. BA calls it a Sticke Alt. FWIW If I were making an old ale (non German style) I'd say you are pretty close. If I were making an Alt I would go with Pilsener malt, and add some Munich as well.

I came up with the list of ingredients... minus the wheat... which I forgot...because they were listed for each beer on this card you get when you order the sampler.... reminded me of the "map" you get in a box of chocolates. Listed the style, ingredients, hops & ABV.

The website says Strong Ale... but the card said AltBier and it listed Willamette hops... which aren't on the website. The malt listed was 2-row... I just assumed ale malt.

I thought it tasted malty... more caramel sweet than roasted and with understated hops flavor & aroma.

Probably will go with the ale malt as I just bought 3 55# bags last week

Thanks for the feedback

Looks like I'll have to cut back on the hops as well. Listed as 25 IBU.

You'll have a winner. The double bag is one fine beer.

And I was pleased with the results. Much as I remembered it... with some warm alcohol tones... will probably subside with further conditioning. I've gotta pick a bottle of Double Bag and do a side by side tasting

Glibbidy said:

Well it's funny because Longtrail calls it an Old Ale. BA calls it a Sticke Alt. FWIW If I were making an old ale (non German style) I'd say you are pretty close. If I were making an Alt I would go with Pilsener malt, and add some Munich as well.

Click to expand...

They recently changed the classification to American Strong
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/94/273/

Ah, Double Bag from Long Trail, perhaps my favorite "cold weather" brew. Love the beer, but am even more keen on the name, label, and innuendo implied.

Pleased to report I wasn't too far off in my first attempt at a clone.

Bumping this thread, drank one (commercial version) tonight, gotta finally get around to trying to brew this.