Can you Brew It recipe for Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

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Took a gravity reading today and I am down to 1.010. A little low. But it tastes awesome. Going to dry hop on Wednesday and keg this weekend.
 
Mine is mostly carbed and tastes really good, going to pick up some mirror pond soon and try them side by side. I dry hopped 5 days.
 
I'm brewing a batch of this with the only recipe change is using Rahr Pale Ale malt (Not the Rahr American 2-Row malt) because it's available locally.

Does anyone have information about carbonation? I read some Beeradvocate reviews and people call it "moderate" carbonation. Any advice for bottling priming this clone?
 
DSmith said:
I'm brewing a batch of this with the only recipe change is using Rahr Pale Ale malt (Not the Rahr American 2-Row malt) because it's available locally.

Does anyone have information about carbonation? I read some Beeradvocate reviews and people call it "moderate" carbonation. Any advice for bottling priming this clone?
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I emailed Deschutes about Mirror Pond carbonation and got this response:

"When we pour Mirror Pond in our tasting room in Bend, the pressure is at 12-14 psi and we store it at 43 degrees."

This equals 2.3-2.5 vol CO2
 
brewed this yesterday and my efficiency must have went through the roof, I ended up with 6.25 gallons at about 1.063
 
timmy7649 said:
could i snag your 10 gallon recipe?
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You should be able to just use the 5 gallon batch and scale it up to 10 gallons for your system (assuming you have beersmith) - that's all I did. If you don't have beersmith simply double the 5 gallon batch and factor in grain absorption, boil off, etc for 10 gallons instead of 5. Feel free to PM me if you need anything on this.
 
I brewed a 10 gallon batch of this 2 weeks ago and just kegged it with 2oz of dry hops last night. It's my first time dry hopping in the keg so I'm interested to see how it turns out. I have it sitting in my basement with 12psi on it. I'll try it next weekend and report how it tastes. A sample from my hydro reading was really tasty!

My OG ended up being 1.049 with a FG of 1.010.
 
Way overshot my gravity at 1.061 watered it down to 1.057. I couldn't bring myself to add anymore water...
New store with a different mill setting, way higher efficiency.
 
I only have a have about a dozen brews under my belt but this is one of the tastier ones. I used way more dry hops than what is called for and I really like it. I used 2oz in 5gal and left it in the keg. It just keeps getting better and better every day!
 
Just brewed this today with Rahr Pale Ale Malt as the base and I'm using WY1272 for the yeast. I'll report back with my results.
 
hogwash said:
Just brewed this today with Rahr Pale Ale Malt as the base and I'm using WY1272 for the yeast. I'll report back with my results.
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Having an under carbonated pint of this right now and it's friggin great! Love the 1272 with this recipe. I also dry hopped with 2.5 oz instead of one...oops! Actually I meant to do it, was finishing off a pound bag and figured I'd just throw them all in. Anyway, I highly recommend this one. Great recipe.
 
Will brew this on Sunday

Will try one carboy with wyeast 1968 and one carboy with s-04
Curious to see which one will turn out the best

Using chinook for bittering as the local cascade here in montreal is at 4.4 AA

Planning a 70 minute boil
Will report results in 3-4 weeks

Used 80% Marris Otter and 20% 2-row malt
Can't have great west pale here....
 
terrenum said:
Will brew this on Sunday

Will try one carboy with wyeast 1968 and one carboy with s-04
Curious to see which one will turn out the best

Using chinook for bittering as the local cascade here in montreal is at 4.4 AA

Planning a 70 minute boil
Will report results in 3-4 weeks
Click to expand...

And will use 80% marris otter and 20% 2-row do not have access to great west pale....
 
I followed the recipe but used 80% maris otter and 20% 2-row for the pale malt as the nortwes is not available over here. I used safale us04 for yeast and ended at 1.010. Wondering if the fact that my FG is slightly lower than planned could contribute to the lack of malt flavor.
Clues anyone?
Thanks
 
Mischief_Brewing said:
Now if I could just get some of that great water they have up there...
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I heard that the city of Bend is looking to pass a law to limit the number of breweries because they are concerned about possible water shortages. Evidently a lot of water is being exported by all those breweries over there. That or the existing breweries don't want any more competition?

http://www.ktvz.com/news/Bend-s-Big...sues/-/413192/15292074/-/bi5ok0z/-/index.html

C'mon over to Eugene/Springfield. We're lousy with great H2O! (For now)
 
I just brewed this one yesterday, slightly dumbed down, because I am looking for a good pale ale that is not overly hoppy, and I am ok if I dont nail the clone:

I did 60/40 marris otter to american 2 row, Crystal 77, and carafoam. 65 minute boil with an ounce of cascade FWH. Everything else I kept the same.

My brother in law is bringing me back a 6 pack from out west, I look forward to tasting this beer, and seeing if I can brew something along the same lines as such a revered beer. I will post up in a month or so.
 
I've brewed this beer twice now. I use 100% Marris Otter as the base malt in addition to the two specialty malts. I also use my homegrown Cascades and free yeast from a local brewery. After getting a good deal buying the malt in bulk, this beer ends up costing me about 25 cents per pint and is delicious. I guess I'm not counting the water I use growing the hops, but either way, a very inexpensive and wonderful pale ale.
 
Tonight I kegged my first attempt at this clone and noticed for the first time, after many previous samples, an apple smell. I deviated from the recomended yeast by using Wyeast #1332. I pitched a 125 mL swollen smack pack into 3 gallons of 65 deg F oxygenated wort and held the temp for 7 days before raising to 68 for 2 days. I then raised the incubator to 70 for 2 days before cold crashing to 65 for about 1 day and then down to 35 for 36 h. I was actually hoping for some ester formation and is the reason why I chose this strain. My girl friend smells better than I can (and better than me too, im sure) and she's not so sure it's a green apple smell but the first thing that came to her mind was apple. Im wondering if this is from ethanal(aka acetaldehyde, but EASIER to spell!) or maybe an ester? Also, it doesnt taste like apple, and not slickness or hotness, but actually maybe young/green. Gravities were OG 1.053 and FG 1.014.

Thanks for clone info btw, awesome.
 
Brewed on 19 December 2014
Fermented with wyeast 1217
No secondary
OG 1.056
FG 1.015
Kegged on 4 January 2015
Dry hopped with 25gr Cascade
Tasted today from keg to check carbonation level
What an amazing brew that thing is!!!
Aroma and taste full of citrus and oranges,amazing color and white creamy head
It needs at least one week more in keg imo though to let the yeast settle down
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421154459.391937.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421154503.196256.jpg
 
Did anyone have a problem with this beer turning out thin? I was really close on all my temps and numbers. I finished 1010 though. Recipe calls for 149F mash. And I only mashed for 60mins at 150F. That's pretty low mash temp right? Could this have caused thin-ness. Thanks.
 
Yes, original seems to have more mouthfeel. Mine starts off pretty flavorfull and full, but then sort of fades to a more watery mouthfeel. I've been really trying to nail my process lately, so I picked this as a straightforward Pale ale recipe, that I could pick apart. I guess I could add some carapils. But I was hoping to reveal some sort of process related error. I know that's impossible to diagnose without explaining my whole process. I do seem to always finish a decent amount below Target FG. I used wyeast 1968 London ESB. But still finish 1010. Thanks for your info!
 
ssspargur said:
Yes, original seems to have more mouthfeel. Mine starts off pretty flavorfull and full, but then sort of fades to a more watery mouthfeel. I've been really trying to nail my process lately, so I picked this as a straightforward Pale ale recipe, that I could pick apart. I guess I could add some carapils. But I was hoping to reveal some sort of process related error. I know that's impossible to diagnose without explaining my whole process. I do seem to always finish a decent amount below Target FG. I used wyeast 1968 London ESB. But still finish 1010. Thanks for your info!
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When you say it starts off with a nice full mouthfeel and fades to something more watery, do you mean... in the package over the course of a few weeks?

If so, I would check your carbonation levels. Higher carbonation levels can make a beer lose body character.
 
On your system you might need to mash higher. On Brew Strong they always say that what produces one result on one system may not give the same result on another. Maybe mash 2-3F higher?
 
Actually I meant as you taste the beer. I guess the thiness is more apparent on the back end of the taste. That could just be the nature of how your mouth perceives body. Thanks.
 
Thanks. I plan on calibrating the thermometers and I have been definitely considering just bumping the mash temp a couple degrees. I did drain the mash tun cooler pretty fast as well. Not sure if I lose some of the dextrines there as well.
 
Tenten - do you mind sharing your recipe - any tips/tweaks you did to the ones posted earlier in this thread? It looks great, and if it's in the range of a passable clone thanks to some small change you did, I'd love to learn from your experience. Looks great, and I'm glad you like it!
 
I have used this recipe 3 times now, I think I've finally nailed it. For me the key was slightly higher mash temp (68C) and some serious dry-hopping. I used 50gr of cascade (6.8%) and wow, it came alive.

The smell of this thing when it gets into the fermenter is unreal.

Thanks for the great recipe!
 
Their "homebrew recipe" on their website lists Munich malt. So I'm going to try adding 1/2 lb of dark munich when I brew it.
 
Hey rmyurick,

If you havent listened to this podcast yet, make sure you do that before you make your final recipe plans. It is very informative from both the head brewer side and the homebrewer side. If nothing else, at least you will know why this recipe was formulated the way it was.

As always though, its your beer in the end.
 
I have listened to it, but I wonder if they haven't tweaked the recipe since then. Deschutes own website suggests that there is some Munich malt used.
 
Thanks OP for the recipe, been meaning to make this for some time. Brewed her up last night, used all Maris Otter for the base. A little high gravity-wise (1.060) but that's not so bad! Really solid brewday, love the cascade aroma from the kettle and into the fermenter. Went with a healthy 1.25L starter of WLP002. This will be a welcome thirst quencher come mid/late June!:rockin:
 
Brewing this one again as I type...I think it is my 5th or 6th time with this one. My home brew shop carries a british pale ale malt that I use as the base, everything else is as the recipe states.

One of these days, I need to get a hold of the real thing.
 
Last time I brewed this, I did my first 10 gallon batch and did half regular, then the other half 2oz cascade and 2 oz chinook. The chinook was a clear stand out (I know this is no longer a clone, but it was a damn good beer).

This time up, completely off the reservation, going to a C45 and the cascade/chinook dry hopping.

News and noteworthy: After brewing this recipe for 2 years multiple times, I finally got to drink this off a keg. I was not impressed. Hopefully it was old, but they have started up their Roanoke brewery and I was really counting on this being all that I had heard about.

This should probably be 2 separate posts.
 
brokebucket said:
Last time I brewed this, I did my first 10 gallon batch and did half regular, then the other half 2oz cascade and 2 oz chinook. The chinook was a clear stand out (I know this is no longer a clone, but it was a damn good beer).

This time up, completely off the reservation, going to a C45 and the cascade/chinook dry hopping.

News and noteworthy: After brewing this recipe for 2 years multiple times, I finally got to drink this off a keg. I was not impressed. Hopefully it was old, but they have started up their Roanoke brewery and I was really counting on this being all that I had heard about.

This should probably be 2 separate posts.
Click to expand...

There's not a lot overly special about Mirror Pond and it's a pretty simple beer, as this recipe suggests. It was my gateway beer in the craft beer some 17 years ago during a camping trip on the Oregon Coast.
It's just a simple, classic pale ale with cascades. And because it's Deschutes, it's well-made. If had never had it before until now, with expectations built up, I could see how disappointment might follow. ... especially with all of the different hop varietals and whatnot around today.
 

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