Celebration Ale Clone Question

Hey guys, I'm brewing a SN Celebration Ale clone in a few days and am using the recipe from December 2012 issue of BYO. The recipe they give is:
12.5# 2-row
15oz Crystal 60

That's it for the grains. Doing my research and listening to the BN where they tried to clone the beer, they interviewed the founder of Sierra Nevada where he gave the same recipe scaled up to their 100 barrel system. He did give the percentages of the grains though and he said they use about 11-12% of crystal 60. Putting the BYO recipe into BeerSmith, it is telling me that the Crystal 60 is only 7%.

BYO also says the SRM is 12 and BeerSmith says the SRM is 9, but it also calls for a 100 minute boil with the first hop addition at 100 mins.

With all that said...my question is...should I bump up the crystal 60 to 11% to match the suggestion that is said on the BN...or do I stick with the BYO recipe?

Also on my mind is will the 100 minute boil darken the wort 3 SRM? (from 9 to 12)

Thanks for the help!

I would say to bring the Crystal to 1.5 lbs.

That would bring you to roughly 11.5 SRM depending on whose 2-row malt you use.

The additional boil time will not appreciably darken the color.

I always do
12# Domestic 2 Row Malt
1# English Crystal Malt 45-50L

1 oz Chinook 60 min
0.25 oz Chinook 30 min
1 oz Cascade flameout
0.5 oz Cascade dry hop
0.5 oz Centennial dry hop

That was what I was thinking too because I know this beer has a nice sweetness to it. I think I'll bring it up to 1.5# of Crystal. I'm using Briess 2 row as the base malt. BeerSmith lists the SRM at about 11. I'm not as concerned about the SRM as I am the taste of the beer. The mash temp is 157.5 and I don't want the FG to be too high, so I don't want to over do it with the Crystal 60, but I think 10-11% should be alright. I figured that if I'm 3 SRM off the mark, then I must be a little low on the crystal malt. Any other suggestions with this beer? Thanks for the help

The thing is I already have the ingredients for this recipe. I have 12.5# of briess 2-row crushed mixed together with 1# of Crystal 60. I did buy another pound of crystal 60 today because I was thinking about adding more, so I figured I'd pick some up while I'm at my LHBS

The color may be off a point or two but the taste is spot on as long as your hops are fresh. If they are not this years crop increase by 30+/- %

niquejim said:

The color may be off a point or two but the taste is spot on as long as your hops are fresh. If they are not this years crop increase by 30+/- %

Click to expand...

What Jim said! I have a batch of this about to be kegged. I've brewed it a couple dozen times. It's pretty much a dead ringer for Celebration.

@Denny - when you brew it do you mash at 157? I've never mashed that high before.

PJM said:

@Denny - when you brew it do you mash at 157? I've never mashed that high before.

Click to expand...

Nope, I mash at 153. Not a huge difference.

Thx

Does this clone recipe give the same color as Celebration? I want to mimick that really awesome red!

If it isn't dead on, it's really really close! Here are a few pics...one was the sample and the other is one I pulled off my keg to sample.

Johnnyboy1012 said:

If it isn't dead on, it's really really close! Here are a few pics...one was the sample and the other is one I pulled off my keg to sample.

Click to expand...

Beautiful! Thanks!

niquejim said:

The color may be off a point or two but the taste is spot on as long as your hops are fresh. If they are not this years crop increase by 30+/- %

Click to expand...

Revisiting an old thread. I'm going to be brewing the Celebration Ale soon. Do you really increase the amount of hops by 30% if they are from 2012 crop? I typically buy in bulk and freeze in vacuum sealed bags. I did not realize they would lose that much potency.

In Case anyone is still brewing this one this year. I emailed SN and got this as a reply.

Here is the information that I was given in relation to our homebrew version of this beer for you to review::

Celebration:
o Malts:
o Pale 2-row: 89%
o Caramel (60L): 9%

o Mash at 157.5 F
o Original Gravity: 16.0 Plato
o Ending Gravity: 4.0 Plato
o ABV: 6.8%

o Hops
o 0 min: Chinook & Centennial
o 90 min: Cascade
o 100 min: 2/3 Cascade & 1/3 Centennial
o 100 min: Whirlpool

o IBU: 65
o Dry Hopped with 2/3 Cascade & 1/3 Centennial
o Yeast: California Ale

Happy Brewing

slcdawg said:

Revisiting an old thread. I'm going to be brewing the Celebration Ale soon. Do you really increase the amount of hops by 30% if they are from 2012 crop? I typically buy in bulk and freeze in vacuum sealed bags. I did not realize they would lose that much potency.

Click to expand...

I'd definitely adjust the hops to the proper IBUs. Who's to say their hops are not a bit higher or lower in that department.

aStoutObserver said:

In Case anyone is still brewing this one this year. I emailed SN and got this as a reply.

Here is the information that I was given in relation to our homebrew version of this beer for you to review::

Celebration:
o Malts:
o Pale 2-row: 89%
o Caramel (60L): 9%

o Mash at 157.5 F
o Original Gravity: 16.0 Plato
o Ending Gravity: 4.0 Plato
o ABV: 6.8%

o Hops
o 0 min: Chinook & Centennial
o 90 min: Cascade
o 100 min: 2/3 Cascade & 1/3 Centennial
o 100 min: Whirlpool

o IBU: 65
o Dry Hopped with 2/3 Cascade & 1/3 Centennial
o Yeast: California Ale

Happy Brewing

Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I've been brewing for years. Keep in mind that the way they give the hop schedule is kinda the opposite of the way homebrewers think of it. The hop additions are listed as minutes into the boil, not the length of time they're boiled. For instance, what they list as 0 min. is actually the first addition in a 100 min. boil.

aStoutObserver said:

In Case anyone is still brewing this one this year. I emailed SN and got this as a reply.

Here is the information that I was given in relation to our homebrew version of this beer for you to review::

Celebration:
o Malts:
o Pale 2-row: 89%
o Caramel (60L): 9%

Click to expand...

What is the other 2% ?

niquejim said:

What is the other 2% ?

Click to expand...

Math error. I know for a fact that those are the only malts in there.

I have a Celebration Ale in the fridge right now. It isn't red though. I never knew the commercial product to be red. My goal was about 14 SRM (80% 2 row, 10 % Caramel malt 80, 10% Caramel Vienne Malt 20%)

Denny said:

Math error. I know for a fact that those are the only malts in there.

Click to expand...

I was being a math Nazi. It's the mild OCD that makes me see things like that, and also to put all the shopping carts stacked together in a row in the cart corral

masskrug said:

I have a Celebration Ale in the fridge right now. It isn't red though. I never knew the commercial product to be red. My goal was about 14 SRM (80% 2 row, 10 % Caramel malt 80, 10% Caramel Vienne Malt 20%)

Click to expand...

Here's a 2012 celebration. Seems fairly red to me.

masskrug said:

I have a Celebration Ale in the fridge right now. It isn't red though. I never knew the commercial product to be red. My goal was about 14 SRM (80% 2 row, 10 % Caramel malt 80, 10% Caramel Vienne Malt 20%)

Click to expand...

I was just saying last week when I bought a 6-er that it looked way light this year - like dark golden. The pic mrrshotshot posted is more what I'm used to.

I brewed a celebration ale two weeks ago, have been dry hopping for 4 days, will probably transfer it to keg tomorrow. I went from the recipe on this site:

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/153-attack-of-the-hop-clones

Edit to see that link is from a 2004 issue. Obviously the recipe has been upgraded, should've checked that before posting. I noticed mine's pretty light color wise and that's probably due to using crystal 40 instead of 60.

Oh well, subscribed to this thread big time as SNCA is one of my favorites. I'll perfect this recipe if I have to make it 100 times or more.

This year. Bad picture.

jeff62217 said:

I brewed a celebration ale two weeks ago, have been dry hopping for 4 days, will probably transfer it to keg tomorrow. I went from the recipe on this site:

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/153-attack-of-the-hop-clones

Edit to see that link is from a 2004 issue. Obviously the recipe has been upgraded, should've checked that before posting. I noticed mine's pretty light color wise and that's probably due to using crystal 40 instead of 60.

Oh well, subscribed to this thread big time as SNCA is one of my favorites. I'll perfect this recipe if I have to make it 100 times or more.

Click to expand...

The Celebration recipe has not changed in many years. I was told that by friends who work there in high level positions. 90% 2 row pale, 10% C55-60, mash at 158, pitch 1056, ferment at 68. That's the way they do it.

Yeah, I guess it's not as light as I thought the other night. I do remember in the past thinking it was quite red, but this looks orange. I would trust Denny to know about the recipe.