Myron's Walk Clone - Belgian Pale Ale - feedback?

[aslander]

Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp 12 pack this year included a beer called Myron's Walk from Allagash, which was a Belgian Pale Ale. The website for the 12 pack includes great information for all of the beers.

My wife and I liked this beer a lot and I want to try and make something very similar.
===============================
Here is the info from the website:

- ABV -
5.3

- Beginning Gravity -
1.047

- Ending Gravity -
1.007

- Bitterness Units -
38

- Yeast -
Belgian

- Bittering Hops -
Bravo

- Finishing Hops -

Cascade, Citra, Mosaic

- Malts -
Two-row Pale, Unmalted Wheat, Munich, Victory

- Other -
Coriander

Myron’s Walk is a Belgian-style pale ale combining the best of our two breweries. It features intense citrusy flavor and a complex aroma from the use of fruity and resinous whole-cone Citra and Mosaic hops offset by the complex spicy character of Allagash’s house Belgian yeast strain.

=========================

The actual beer had a lot of belgian spice to it. The aroma smelled hoppier than it tasted, but had some mild fruitiness (which I thought could stand to have a bit more to it). The beer was very clear, despite having yeast on the bottom of the bottle (which I harvested and intend on using to brew this).

Here is the recipe that I threw together based on the information. Note that I substituted a combo of Citra/Simcoe, as I do not have Mosaic and am trying to use ingredients I have on hand. I also plan on using malted wheat instead of unmalted.

Any feedback on the grain bill / hops schedule and amounts would be helpful!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.82 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.82 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 5.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 35.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 63.2 %
2 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 21.1 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 10.5 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.3 %
0.65 oz Magnum [11.90 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 28.9 IBUs
0.25 oz Citra [10.40 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 5.9 IBUs
0.30 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 7 -
0.20 oz Cascade (2013) [6.90 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 0.2 IBUs
0.15 oz Citra [10.40 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 9 0.3 IBUs
0.15 oz Simcoe (2013) [13.20 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 10 0.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafBrew T-58 or Allagash House


Mash Temp: 75 mins @ 147

 

[aslander]

Guess I will brew this tomorrow if no one has feedback

 

[Laurabobaura]

Allagash house yeast, the times I've used it, tends to have that Juicy Fruit/Chamomile thing on top of the standard Belgian flavors. I haven't had Myron's Walk--will soon--but I would bet that at least some of the Belgian Spice element you mentioned is due to their cropped/trained house yeast. When I want their house yeast I culture it from bottles of their White.

 

[aslander]

Just wanted to update this thread. Brewed this on Sunday (7.27.14).

I made a few changes during the brew process, so here is the updated recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.82 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.82 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 5.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 62.9 %
2 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 21.0 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 10.5 %
8.6 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.7 %
0.65 oz Horizon (2012) [12.00 %] - First Wort 60 Hop 5 32.0 IBUs
0.25 oz Citra [10.40 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 5.9 IBUs
0.35 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 7 -
0.23 oz Cascade (2013) [6.90 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 0.3 IBUs
0.20 oz Citra [10.40 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 9 0.3 IBUs
0.15 oz Simcoe (2013) [13.20 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 10 0.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafBrew Specialty Ale (DCL/Fermentis #T- Yeast 11 -

Mash In 148.0 F 75 min

---------------------

I wound up pitching 3.5 gallons with the Allagash Yeast and 2 gallons with T-58. Both are fermenting at 69 degrees right now.

I will update in a few weeks when I taste it.

 

[Tiedye]

This is a great beer! I'm very interested to hear how this turns out.
Sub'd!

 

[aslander]

Thanks for reminding me to post my results.

The first batch was decent, and my wife and I drank it up. I had originally bought 2 of the 12 packs of the Beer Camp sampler, so I did have a 2nd Myron's Walk to do a comparison.

Upon comparison, I thought it was in the ballpark, but not entirely the same. I thought that Myron's Walk had:

1) more of the Allagash floral flavor (I'm guessing I need to try a different fermentation temp since I used Allagash's yeast for this).
2) was wheatier
3) bitterness was the same but the other hop additions needed to be increased to be closer to the real deal

Also, I think I mentioned this before, but I used two different yeasts on the first batch (Allagash's yeast, and T-58). Both were pretty comparable, although the Allagash yeast had a slightly more pronounced flavor. OG was 1.049 and FG was 1.008 for Allagash and 1.005 for T-58 (fermented at 67 then raised into 70s after 5 days or so).

I wound up getting a chance to brew this again, so I experimented some more. I modified the recipe based on the taste comparison to try and get it closer and came up with this recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.20 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.75 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs 0.3 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 55.6 %
3 lbs 4.5 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 30.3 %
1 lbs 1.4 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 10.0 %
6.9 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.0 %
0.55 oz Horizon (2012) [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 21.1 IBUs
0.27 oz Citra [10.40 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 4.5 IBUs
0.44 oz Cascade (2013) [6.90 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 1.9 IBUs
0.44 oz Citra [10.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 2.9 IBUs
0.33 oz Simcoe (2013) [13.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 2.8 IBUs
0.55 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 10 -
1.1 pkg Belgian Wit Ale (White Labs #WLP400) [35 Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 13.1 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 16.75 qt of water at 160.0 F 150.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.71gal, 3.60gal) of 168.0 F water

===============

Key differences to note are that I bumped up the wheat by 10% and dropped back on the Victory. I still used Horizon for bittering since I felt it would be negligible taste diff in the final product. I upped the coriander a bit too. One significant difference was that I checked out my yeast cake and didnt trust using it because I hadn't stored it properly since I wasn't planning on brewing this recipe so soon after. I wound up having some WLP400 Belgian Wit that I had washed a few months ago and I pitched that.

I did this batch about a month ago, and bottled it about a week ago. I force carbed a liter of it using my carbonator cap when I was transferring it, and I have sampled a bottle of it that is bottle conditioning as well. I think my second batch is pretty damn close from the malt and hops perspective, but my yeast was a bad choice. I'm hoping it settles out over time, but the WLP400 has more of a phenol that I like to describe as slightly rubbery, like a rubber band might taste. I think had I used Allagash's yeast or T-58, that this would be a pretty damn close clone.

TL;DR - Use my second recipe and use Allagash's yeast. Probably ferment at 70 or so to try and bring out some phenols.