ok i have spent a few hours looking online for a clone recipe for Anchor's Brekle's brown recipe. if any one has a good clone recipe that they are willing to share. thank you in advanced this has to be one of my favorite brown ales out there and also they do a great tour of the brewery. my wife and i were drunk in SF before 11am because the tour, they poor a lot but its all good beer.
Anchor Brekle's brown recipe
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That is definitely my favorite Brown ale too! I first had it at the brewery just like you did, and then i've bought it every time i've seen it in a store since. I don't have a recipe, i'll start looking, but I can tell you that it's 100% Citra hops in Brekle's Brown, and their website lists 2-row pale, Munich and Caramel as the malts used, so that's a starting point...
Hi there! Sorry to resurrect this, but i'm back with new information! I was just at Anchor Brewing company for a tour the other day and I got some great info from the guys there as well as a case of Brekle's Brown which i took home! So first of all, the guy that gave the tour wasn't a brewer, so we kinda have to take that into account, but it is a small enough brewery that everyone there knows what's going on. First of all, they don't do any water additions other than a "small amount of gypsum" and they brew with San Francisco water which comes straight from the Sierra Nevadas (Hetch Hetchy water). The yeast that is used for Brekle's is the same strain used for Anchor Steam beer, and most of their beers: the San Francisco lager yeast (white lab's strain: WLP810). The thing that really surprised me here is what my tour guide told me about the grain bill.: He said it was basically a SMASH beer they did with caramel malts and Citra hops! We knew it was a 100% citra hop beer (three additions in boil and then dry-hop with citra is what they do). But yeah, he said it was all caramel malt grains. Now, this is interesting and I may try a 1-gallon version of that, but do you think that could be right? A few things cause me to doubt that it's 100% caramel malt: 1) i'd already found the listing on their website that i quoted above which also list 2-row pale and Munich malts. 2) He works at Anchor brewing and asked me (as a homebrewer) how to cool his hombrew wort down quicker than by putting it in a sink. So anyway... that's the information that i was able to get out of them. I hope that helps. I'm going to go enjoy my case of Brekle's Brown and i'm going to think about how to formulate my version of a clone for it... Let me know if you want to compare notes...
Not sure how convinced I am about it beeing a SMASH. We know the hops and yeast now we need a grain bill. Im thinking there is some caramel malts but 2-row and a few others. Im thinking about 12-15lbs of grain.
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Here's a quick preliminary recipe i just put together in BeerSmith:
5 lbs 2-row
2 lbs crystal 80L
2 lbs crystal 40L
2 lbs Munich 20L
0.75 lb crystal 120L
That's 5 lbs 2-row and 6.75 lbs crystal and Munich, so definitely very crystal forward. The hops are all Citra and he told me it was done in three boil additions plus dry hopping, so I have,
0.25 oz Citra @ 60 min
0.50 oz. Citra @ 30 min
0.50 oz. Citra @ 10 min
1.0 oz. dry hop in secondary
This is just a try at a recipie that would work, if i do go brew this i'd likely tweek it a bit more. But this gives 6.0% ABV from a 1.059 O.G. wort. For this recipe BeerSmith tells me that color comes out at 29 SRM and bitterness at 35 IBU. Might be worth a brew, but that's a hell of a lot of crystal malts!
5 lbs 2-row
2 lbs crystal 80L
2 lbs crystal 40L
2 lbs Munich 20L
0.75 lb crystal 120L
That's 5 lbs 2-row and 6.75 lbs crystal and Munich, so definitely very crystal forward. The hops are all Citra and he told me it was done in three boil additions plus dry hopping, so I have,
0.25 oz Citra @ 60 min
0.50 oz. Citra @ 30 min
0.50 oz. Citra @ 10 min
1.0 oz. dry hop in secondary
This is just a try at a recipie that would work, if i do go brew this i'd likely tweek it a bit more. But this gives 6.0% ABV from a 1.059 O.G. wort. For this recipe BeerSmith tells me that color comes out at 29 SRM and bitterness at 35 IBU. Might be worth a brew, but that's a hell of a lot of crystal malts!
Looking at this again, I modifided the grain bill to be a bit more reasonable,
6 lbs Pale 2-row
2 lbs Munich 20L
1 lb Crystal 120L
1 lb Crystal 80L
1 lb Crystal 40L
That has 55% base malt which is a lot more reasonable and is still fairly crystal forward. Based on 75% efficiency, this would give 5.9% ABV and 24 SRM.
I'd go brew this right now if only i could find some Citra ...
6 lbs Pale 2-row
2 lbs Munich 20L
1 lb Crystal 120L
1 lb Crystal 80L
1 lb Crystal 40L
That has 55% base malt which is a lot more reasonable and is still fairly crystal forward. Based on 75% efficiency, this would give 5.9% ABV and 24 SRM.
I'd go brew this right now if only i could find some Citra ...
It's been a while for this one, but I finally got me some Citra hops and i'm trying this Brekle's Brown clone as my next brew!
For the grain bill i'm looking at:
6.0 lbs Maris Otter Pale malt
1.5 lbs Crystal 80L
1.0 lb Crystal 40L
1.0 lb crystal 120L
1.0 lb Munich 10L
0.5 lb Brown malt
That should give me an O.G. of around 1.060 and est ABV of ~6.4% assuming 75% efficiency. Those numbers are a bit high, but that should be ok. I was tempted to use more of the crystal 80L and brown malt because i have a bunch on hand, but upping those by 0.5 lb each just pushed the numbers too high. I think this is my best compromise.
Kettle hops will all be pelletized Citra hop.
0.5 oz. 60 min
0.5 oz. 30 min
0.5 oz. 10 min
0.5 oz. at flame-out
This way they can all come from the same 2 oz. bag of pellets, and then after primary i'll dry hop with 1.0 oz. of Citra whole hops I have left over from last year in my freezer. Should dry hop for about 7-14 days probably.
As far as yeast, i will either use Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast which i have plenty of on hand right now from the porter I brewed last, or I could run out once again and grab a vial of WLP810 which I know to be the yeast they use for Brekle's Brown and that would do better in the warmer temperatures we've been having, but then i'd have to make another new starter...
I'll probably brew this sometime next week. Until then, any feedback or advice is greatly welcome!
For the grain bill i'm looking at:
6.0 lbs Maris Otter Pale malt
1.5 lbs Crystal 80L
1.0 lb Crystal 40L
1.0 lb crystal 120L
1.0 lb Munich 10L
0.5 lb Brown malt
That should give me an O.G. of around 1.060 and est ABV of ~6.4% assuming 75% efficiency. Those numbers are a bit high, but that should be ok. I was tempted to use more of the crystal 80L and brown malt because i have a bunch on hand, but upping those by 0.5 lb each just pushed the numbers too high. I think this is my best compromise.
Kettle hops will all be pelletized Citra hop.
0.5 oz. 60 min
0.5 oz. 30 min
0.5 oz. 10 min
0.5 oz. at flame-out
This way they can all come from the same 2 oz. bag of pellets, and then after primary i'll dry hop with 1.0 oz. of Citra whole hops I have left over from last year in my freezer. Should dry hop for about 7-14 days probably.
As far as yeast, i will either use Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast which i have plenty of on hand right now from the porter I brewed last, or I could run out once again and grab a vial of WLP810 which I know to be the yeast they use for Brekle's Brown and that would do better in the warmer temperatures we've been having, but then i'd have to make another new starter...
I'll probably brew this sometime next week. Until then, any feedback or advice is greatly welcome!
Hey, glad to hear your brewed it too! I've been drinking mine recently and it turned out very well! I think it's a lot like Anchor's, but my older citra dry hops did contribute a kind of subtle herbal flavor to it. I brought it to a new club I may join, and it was well-recived:
"(new)Andrew's breckles brown clone- 100% citra. nice brown toast and roast with a sort of umami flavor, good beer."
I mashed at 65C for 75 mins and boiled for 60 min. I do think the WLP810 San Francisco lager yeast added a lot of the right character.
I think it is a bit on the dark side of brown, so next time I will probably lessen the brown malt and the C-120 and C-80, and try to use all fresh hops, but I'm really enjoying drinking this beer right now! Hope yours turns out well too!
"(new)Andrew's breckles brown clone- 100% citra. nice brown toast and roast with a sort of umami flavor, good beer."
I mashed at 65C for 75 mins and boiled for 60 min. I do think the WLP810 San Francisco lager yeast added a lot of the right character.
I think it is a bit on the dark side of brown, so next time I will probably lessen the brown malt and the C-120 and C-80, and try to use all fresh hops, but I'm really enjoying drinking this beer right now! Hope yours turns out well too!
Awesome, thank you for working out and posting the recipe. I can't wait to give this one a go. Breckles is one of my favorite beers.
I've brewed a few different versions of Anchor Steam. I am from the Sacramento area and love the idea of brewing a recipe with roots so close to home.
I can't wait to do the factory tour, I hear there is a hefty waiting list.
I've brewed a few different versions of Anchor Steam. I am from the Sacramento area and love the idea of brewing a recipe with roots so close to home.
I can't wait to do the factory tour, I hear there is a hefty waiting list.
The tour at Anchor is a really good one. You just call them up, see when a tour spot is available, have them put your name down, and then go over to San Francisco for the weekend! The tour doesn't cost anything, you just have to plan it in advance and it's well worth it!
ncoutroulis
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curious if you ever found anything. i found these:
https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/brekles-brown-clone
http://www.maltosecart.com/brown-ale-recipes/anchor-brekles-brown-clone/
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