ChiechiBrouw
Well-Known Member
Mirror Pond is my White Whale. I've brewed it close to a dozen times, extract, partial-mash, and all-grain, so I'll share my experiences.
I started with complex recipes involving a half-dozen hops and, honestly, it came pretty close, but it never had that "Mir Pon" feel, so I'm back to basics. (FYI I only have access to Belgian malts)
Brewferm Pale 7 EBC (3 kg)
Cara-amber 60 EBC (0.5 kg)
The rest is whole-cone Cascade hops in various amounts and times.
Last time it felt a bit weak all around, so I upped everything, shooting for ~5.5% abv... Overshot and wound up with 6% and the beer is a bit stronger (with respect to malts and hops) than I would like. It's still really tasty!
That batch is sitting in the keg right now:
Belgian Pale 7 EBC (4 kg)
Cara-amber 60 EBC (1 kg)
35 g Cascade 6.8% @ 60
30 g Cascade 6.8% @ 15
Irish moss at 15 min
Re-pitched Wyest 1056 (this is it's third go-around with Mirror Pond)
14 days fermentation at 18 °C.
50 g Cascade 6.8% 14-day dryhop at 18 °C.
I've found the late hop additions to be critical. Usually I split the last addition between 15 min and 5 min, and I think that is a good idea because this batch has a nice nose, but that fresh Cascade hop taste is not as present as it should be. Next time I'm going to try the Dogfish head continuous hopping method and see where that takes me.
I started with complex recipes involving a half-dozen hops and, honestly, it came pretty close, but it never had that "Mir Pon" feel, so I'm back to basics. (FYI I only have access to Belgian malts)
Brewferm Pale 7 EBC (3 kg)
Cara-amber 60 EBC (0.5 kg)
The rest is whole-cone Cascade hops in various amounts and times.
Last time it felt a bit weak all around, so I upped everything, shooting for ~5.5% abv... Overshot and wound up with 6% and the beer is a bit stronger (with respect to malts and hops) than I would like. It's still really tasty!
That batch is sitting in the keg right now:
Belgian Pale 7 EBC (4 kg)
Cara-amber 60 EBC (1 kg)
35 g Cascade 6.8% @ 60
30 g Cascade 6.8% @ 15
Irish moss at 15 min
Re-pitched Wyest 1056 (this is it's third go-around with Mirror Pond)
14 days fermentation at 18 °C.
50 g Cascade 6.8% 14-day dryhop at 18 °C.
I've found the late hop additions to be critical. Usually I split the last addition between 15 min and 5 min, and I think that is a good idea because this batch has a nice nose, but that fresh Cascade hop taste is not as present as it should be. Next time I'm going to try the Dogfish head continuous hopping method and see where that takes me.