AHA winners circle recipes

Anybody brew some of the recipes from the AHA winners circle? I thought it might be cool to have a place to post what people have done with those recipes and lesson learned. I was thinking about brewing the 2004 Amber winner "drunk monk" and ran into a couple of questions only somebody who has brewed it before would be able to answer, such as the homegrown hops listed- what would be the best fit? I am also interested in anybody else's experience with any of the other recipes on the page, so we can learn from experience on top of experience. Thanks for checking this one out and for your feedback on the recipes listed!

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/AHA-National-Homebrew-Competition-Winners-Circle

Really? No takers, eh?

I brewed the Bye, Bye, Miss American Rye last summer. I had Simcoe on hand so I subbed that in for the Amarillo and Liberty. Turned out really well. I'll probably brew it again next Spring.

I used the miss American rye and combined it with a BYO recipe I read about for terrapin rye, which I haven't had, but liked the sound of. I hopped with a "C" approach.

Here is a link to my take on that rye recipe
http://hopville.com/recipe/1620360

I think I will do it again. I am interested in exploring the kolsch ale yeast option, and possibly subbing out the CTZ for more centennial. Thoughts on that?

Also, please tell me about the kolsch ale yeast experience you had. White labs? Wyeast? Temp used?

I've always wanted to try one of the recipes on there but the 5+/- times I've actually plugged the ingredients into beersmith I get wildly different numbers than what's listed so I always end up moving on to something else. Anyone else get this?

Example: 2011 American Ale winner is an amber ale that is based on Jamil's first amber recipe in BCS. The recipe shows 19 IBUs but I'm already at ~41 IBUs when I enter the 1.2 oz of horizon at 60 min, not to mention the 2.18 oz of centennial/cascade at 10 min.

Maybe I should just ignore the IBU/OG/SRM numbers and brew the recipes as listed. I just don't get why the numbers are off by so much.

Aa760 said:

I used the miss American rye and combined it with a BYO recipe I read about for terrapin rye, which I haven't had, but liked the sound of. I hopped with a "C" approach.

Here is a link to my take on that rye recipe
http://hopville.com/recipe/1620360

I think I will do it again. I am interested in exploring the kolsch ale yeast option, and possibly subbing out the CTZ for more centennial. Thoughts on that?

Click to expand...

Your recipe looks good. I liked the intensity of using 50% 2 Row and 50% Rye but yours looks like it'll have some good complexity. I have to admit that I'm not a big Centennial fan but I'm sure it'll work well with the Rye spiciness.

One of the main reasons why I picked the Miss American Rye was because of the Kolsch yeast. That's by far one of my favorite strands. I used Wyeast for that recipe but I usually use White Labs. I fermented the Rye in the upper 60s (65-68) for a couple of weeks before racking it to secondary and lagering it for about 3 weeks. The hint of fruit character added another nice dimension to the recipe, I think.

That's exactly the info I am looking for out of these discussions. Thanks for sharing. Upon rebrewing this, I think I may up the rye percentage a bit and try the kolsch yeast. What temps do you consider lagering temps for the kolsch yeast? I hear it really slows down below 62. Just curious about those details. And, yes, centennial is not for everyone, but I thought it sure went well with the rye character.

Anybody try the drunk monk recipe? I am curious about the experience anybody has had with the recipe, especially as it references "home grown hops" which could be just about anything. Anyone have any Rex's for a sub that would fit/compliment the home grown addition in this brew?

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/DrunkMonkPaleAle

Aa760 said:

That's exactly the info I am looking for out of these discussions. Thanks for sharing. Upon rebrewing this, I think I may up the rye percentage a bit and try the kolsch yeast. What temps do you consider lagering temps for the kolsch yeast? I hear it really slows down below 62. Just curious about those details. And, yes, centennial is not for everyone, but I thought it sure went well with the rye character.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've heard that the Kolsch yeast doesn't ferment so well below that temp. I usually keep my primary fermentation in the mid 60s when I use it then rack to secondary and lager around the low 40s for a few weeks. It's mostly to clear the beer (that strain is notoriously powdery) and to clean up the "ale" character just a bit.