Ballard Bitter?

[faber]

Since there is another thread on Longhammer IPA, I was wondering if anyone happens to have a recipe for a Ballard Bitter clone.

Anyone?

 

[TeleTwanger]

I've never made this but it looks good...It's from 'Microbrewed Adventures'

7.5lbs 2 row

1/4 oz cluster 7.5% 90 min
1/4 oz Fuggle 4% 90 min
1/4 oz Galena 12% 60 min
1/2 oz Cascade 5% 30 min
1/2 oz Cascade 5% 1 min
1/2 oz Fuggle 4% 1 min

wyeast Ringwood Ale or Irish Ale

og 1.045
fg 1.014
ibu 32

 

[faber]

Thanks, TeleTwanger!

I miss Ballard Bitter, with the trolleymen on the neck label and all. It was good stuff. A really good PNW IPA before the "hop bomb" trend went big. I used to live in Seattle and the old pre-AB Redhook was one of my favorite breweries in town, BITD.

That recipe...that's a pretty simple grain bill! No caramel 40 or anything? Just 2-row?

 

[TeleTwanger]

Thanks, TeleTwanger!

I miss Ballard Bitter, with the trolleymen on the neck label and all. It was good stuff. A really good PNW IPA before the "hop bomb" trend went big. I used to live in Seattle and the old pre-AB Redhook was one of my favorite breweries in town, BITD.

That recipe...that's a pretty simple grain bill! No caramel 40 or anything? Just 2-row?

Yup simple. Apparently Charlie P based this recipe from literature on the original Ballard's and from his memory of drinking it back in the day. He uses yeast that produce diacetyl something that he says the brewery 'cleaned' up at some point and no longer exists in the modern version, Red Hook IPA.

You could instead of trying to balance the diacetyl, add maybe a 1/4lbs of crystal 60-80 to get some caramel notes that the diacetyl probably provided. This will also add some color that you won't get with just 2-row, I don't know what they boiled in but when trying to match the color of a beer that's brewed in copper pots like Anchor Steam which uses only 2 row also it's impossble to get any color with stainless and short (60-90) minute boils. I think anchor does 2 hour boils in copper and my Anchor clone uses 12 oz 80L and it nails the Anchor Steam color which has a slight red hue. That's just a guess though.

 

[faber]

That's awesome, TeleTwanger! thx

Crystal 60 sounds in order (as I remember the taste/color). As far as the base malt, all the Redhook beers used to be based on klages sourced as close to Seattle as possible (so they said).

The recipe is now on queue. I appreciate the help.

Cheers!