1554 Clone Recipe Idea

[mightynintendo]

Since it's one of my fiance's favorite beers, I figured I'd try my hand at a clone that will be ready when she returns from Gabon. After scouring the forums for a good 1554 clone, this is what i've come up with.

Brewhaus efficiency: 75%
Approx. Yeast attenuation: 70% (low due to unfermentables)
Post-boil volume: 6 gallons

Grain bill:
6 # 5L Munich malt
3.5 # 2.7L Belgian pale ale malt
3 # 6L Caramel Pils
1.5 # Crystal 60
0.5 # 525L De-bittered black

Hops/Spices:
1 oz. Crystal 4% AA @ 60 min.
1 oz. Magnum 14% AA @ 60 min.
1 tsp. Grains of paradise @ 1 min.

Mash:
156 degF for 1 hour

Yeast:
Wyeast Bohemian Lager - 2 activators in a 2 liter starter for 36 hours. Refrigerate, decant, and bring up to 70 degF before pitching.

Fermentation schedule:
3 weeks at 70 degF, let the temperature rise as it wants. Rack to a keg or secondary for another week before drinking.

SRM: 27
IBU: 55
OG: 1.0614
FG: 1.0184
ABV: 5.65%
Calories per 12 oz: 192

 

[Oldsock]

4.5 lbs of crystal/caramel malt is pretty excessive in my opinion, so is 55 IBUs. I would swap 3.5 lbs of the crystal/cara for more pils, and I would back down the IBUs to ~30 IBUs (I don't remember the beer being especially bitter). I would probably also ferment in the 60s, lager yeast can get pretty weird if you ferment it too hot even for something steam-beerish like this (I did a beire de garde with Bavarian lager yeast ~64 and really liked the results).

Good luck.

 

[mightynintendo]

I may have to consider fermenting in the sixties. I'll do more homework on that. While yes, those are excessive amounts of caramel malts, there is an email from a NB brewer that suggests such amounts are what to shoot for.

Hello Andy,

I am glad to hear you like 1554 so much. I'm not going to give you style guidelines because I think they're a bunch of hooey.

Malt: The basic idea is to brew a big beer, relatively high gravity with a lot of unfermentable content to keep the body high and the alcohol moderate. Some 2-row, but a lot of Munich, Caramel, and Carapils malts. Use chocolate and black malt extremely sparingly, a little bit goes a long way for color. If there were a black malt that had no bittering effect, that would probably be the one to use.

Hops: Bitterness is moderate to high, enough to offset all that extra sweetness. Water is kept soft to keep the bitterness quite mellow. There is no aroma hop in 1554. If anything, you could put in some kind of spice at flavor threshold.

Yeast: Lager yeast, ale temperatures. Particular strain doesn't matter, as long as it is a low sulfur producer.

Finishing wise, this beer is straightforward.

Hope this helps, good luck and happy brewing.

What do you think?

 

[Oldsock]

You are at 31% crystal/cara malt, 20% is about as high as I would consider (and that would be with a low mash temp). That said, for my tastes I would go even lower.

 

[mightynintendo]

Yeah I was thinking something along those lines too. Maybe dropping each by 5% and making up for it in Munich or a combination of Munich and Pale is a good idea. At 156 mash and 20% total caramel, do you think 70% yeast attenuation is still a good number to estimate?

 

[HBHoss]

I also like this beer and here's is what I came up with, but haven't brewed yet:

Prepare Ingredients for Mash
Amount Item Type
6.36 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
1.70 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain
1.36 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain
0.68 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain
0.45 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain

2 min Mash Ingredients
Mash In: Add 13.20 qt of water at 176.7 F
45 min - Hold mash at 158.0 F for 45 min
2 min Mash Out: Add 5.28 qt of water at 199.0 F
10 min - Hold mash at 168.0 F for 10 min
-- Sparge with 2.65 gal of 168.0 F water.
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 6.00 gal
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.050 SG with all grains/extracts added
Boil for 60 min Boil Ingredients
Boil Amount Item Type
35 min 0.71 oz Target [11.00 %] (35 min) Hops

-- Cool wort to fermentation temperature
-- Add water (as needed) to achieve volume of 5.00 gal
-- Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort.
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type
1 Pkgs German Lager (White Labs #WLP830) Yeast-Lager

1/26/2010 Measure Original Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.058 SG)
1/26/2010 Measure Batch Volume: ________ (Estimate: 5.00 gal)
14 days Ferment in primary for 14 days at 68.0 F
2/9/2010 Measure Final Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.013 SG)
-- Bottle beer at 60.0 F with 3.8 oz of corn sugar.
4.0 Weeks Age for 4.0 Weeks at 52.0 F

 

[Oldsock]

Lager yeast can ferment sugars that ale yeast cannot, but I still think 70% attenuation is too much to expect from a wort with 20% crystal and that high a mash temp. I'm not big on crystal malt though (especially in lagers), so I may not be the best person to ask. If it was me, I'd mash ~150, if not a degree or two lower. Have you taken an FG of the actual beer?

 

[mightynintendo]

Well I haven't brewed the beer yet. How do you propose to achieve the specific instructions of "The basic idea is to brew a big beer, relatively high gravity with a lot of unfermentable content to keep the body high and the alcohol moderate." Which include "Some 2-row, but a lot of Munich, Caramel, and Carapils malts."

Any thoughts about these instructions would be useful.

 

[HBHoss]

Google 1555 recipe. There was a site that had someone in back and forth mailings with the brewer at New Belgium and he thought he had it pretty close.

Edit: Found it:

What I get from the brewery (Grady Hull, asst brwmstr):
60% Pale malt, then carapils, munich, black and chocolate. Mash at around 154° for 45m.
21 IBU's of Target for 35m, lager yeast fermented around 65ish. He also commented on my recipe assumptions, which gave a few more hints.
I'm now thinking something like:

1555

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 7.33 gal
Boil Time: 75 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %
Actual Efficiency: 78.12 %

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.22 %
1 lbs 14.0 oz Munich II (Weyermann) (8.5 SRM) Grain 16.13 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 12.90 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.45 %
8.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.30 %
0.75 oz Target [11.00 %] (35 min) Hops 21.9 IBU
1 Pkgs German Lager (White Labs #WLP830) Yeast-Lager

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.058 SG (1.050-1.075 SG)
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.010-1.022 SG)
Estimated Color: 34.9 SRM (30.0-40.0 SRM)
Bitterness: 21.9 IBU (35.0-75.0 IBU)
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.61 % (5.00-7.00 %)



Mash Grain Weight: 11.63 lb Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 4.14 gal
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 14.53 qt of water at 168.9 F 154.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 5.81 qt of water at 209.8 F 168.0 F 10 min


Carbonation and Storage Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2)
Carbonation Volumes: 2.6 (2.3-2.9 vols)
Estimated Pressure: 14.4 PSI
Kegging Temperature: 42.0 F
Age for 2 weeks
Storage Temperature: 42.0 F

 

[Oldsock]

That certainly sounds closer overall, but I think there is too much black/chocolate, the beer has a pretty smooth roast character and I think that will end up more like a stout/porter. I think mostly debittered black or carafa special (as the email suggested: "If there were a black malt that had no bittering effect, that would probably be the one to use.")would be the way to go with a couple ounces of chocolate to round it out.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I agree with oldsock about the dark malts. I think you could get the color with about half that amount of each or about 5% combined (plus Crystal 80L).

That last recipe doesn't have any Crystal and those brewer comments earlier itt said "Some 2-row, but a lot of Munich, Caramel, and Carapils malts.

 

[mightynintendo]

Yeah I like that recipe a lot better.

Ok, so the adjusted recipe for 6 gallons post-boil is:

8.2 # Belgian pale malt 3.8L
3 # Munich II 9L
1.7 # Carapils 7.5L
4 oz. Chocolate malt 350L
8 oz. De-bittered black malt 500L

mash temp: 154
Single step infusion and batch sparge (yes, i'm lazy)

90 minute boil, chill to 70 degF, siphon to primary, aerate, pitch yeast
3 weeks in primary at 70 degF, rack to keg, refrigerate at about 34-35 for 1 week while force carbonating. I would do 42 degF if I could but I only have one chest freezer and will have some things lagering. Maybe I'll let the keg sit a week in my garage if it's still cool enough by then. oh, the thought of warmer weather coming up puts a smile on my face!

Hops/Spices:
Magnum 0.5 oz. (14% AA) @ 60 min
Crystal 1 oz. (4% AA) @ 60 min
Grains of paradise (1 tsp) @ 1 min

Results (adjusted for 75% extraction and 70% attenuation)

SRM: 27
IBU: 35
OG: 1.0613
FG: 1.0184
ABV: 5.6%
Calories per 12 oz: 191

 

[HBHoss]

Go for it and report back how it turns out.

 

[mightynintendo]

OK well yesterday I brewed the recipe listed above. I missed my OG by one point but maybe I stopped boiling a hair too soon. 1.059. Whatever I'm not worried about that. The thing that concerns me the most is the color. 1554 has a deep reddish undertone to it when held up to the light. This beer has brown undertones. The de-bittered black is responsible for this. Replacing the de-bittered black with german chocolate malt would fix this problem but at the cost of adding more bitterness which is what I was trying to avoid with the de-bittered black malts.

I went ahead and pitched 2 activators of Wyeast Bohemian Lager yeast into a 2L starter and let it go for 24 hours, then refrigerated. Day of brewing I decanted and let the yeast rise to room temp (fermenting temp) which is about 65 degrees. Yeah, it's cold in my house now as I have the thermostat set at 61. Anyway this morning I checked on it and it is bubbling away. I drank a couple bottles of 1554 last night and I think the taste will be close but we'll see in a month or two.

EDIT: Oh yeah, one more thing. I forgot to add the grains of paradise at the end of the boil. Guess I'll use them in whatever Belgian I brew next.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

The thing that concerns me the most is the color. 1554 has a deep reddish undertone to it when held up to the light.

Did you use any Crystal other than Carapils? A darker Crystal will get those red hues.

 

[mightynintendo]

Well well well! It's been a week since I brewed so I decided it was time for the first gravity reading. Currently sitting at 1.019 so I have a couple more points to go but I'm ALMOST there. To my great delight the color that was a muddy brown has changed to a deep amber, just like the original. So that's awesome! The best thing, however, is the flavor. FREAKING CLOSE MAN!!! Even after 1 week it smells just like the real thing and the taste is right there as well, not quite though it still needs to age and it's missing the grains of paradise but other than that, yeah! I'm pumped!

 

[Oldsock]

Glad to hear. You could probably get away with making a tea with a bit of hot water and the grains of paradise, just add it at bottling to taste. Alternatively you could just toss them in now, alcohol and water are excellent solvents even on the cold side.

 

[mightynintendo]

You think so? I'm not bottling this but I'm concerned that the GoP will be too strong if I let them sit with the beer. They're quite potent so I hear and I'm hesitant to mess with something that is already pretty good.

 

[Oldsock]

I love split batches, you can always bottle half as is, then add the GoP tea to the second half in the bottling bucket and bet a ~case of each to compare.