Can you Brew It recipe for Stone Arrogant Bastard

[JimTheHick]

You misheard what he said. He said there was a sweetness present in the homebrew that is not in the commercial beer -- they all discussed how Tasty's beer was (uncharacteristically) slightly under-attenuated.

C15 has no logical place in an Arrogant Bastard Ale recipe. It does not contribute the dark, raisiny fruit flavors present in ABA. C15 is lightly sweet like watered down honey.

I brewed my take on their clone with 14% Special B, the rest 2 row, and color/aroma/taste were on the nose. Period. For my future brews, I'm not changing a thing.

Hey, man enjoy your perfect clone. I'm making this beer just because I can't buy it not because I'm seeking a holy Grail.

I'm not going to relisten to the whole show but what im recalling is mitch saying the clone was missing a slight carmely sweetness. Not underattenuated taste.

And even better im brewing it today and will be UNABLE to obtain a commercial sample to rain on my parade!

 

[SourHopHead]

Next try in a few weeks:

12.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins)
25.78 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 85.0 %
2.43 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -150L (150.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.0 %
2.12 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.0 %
96.00 g Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 90.0 min 68.4 IBUs
96.00 g Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 45.0 min 58.7 IBUs
96.00 g Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min 31.7 IBUs
118.00 g Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
4.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins)
2 pkg Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007) [35.00 ml] Yeast 11 -

 

[JimTheHick]

Brewed mine on Saturday, 11% special B OG=1.070. Just took blowoff out and checked gravity= 1.010. Not bad for 72 hours work yeasties!

Lookin' good so far. Tastes nice.

 

[LVBen]

Subscribed

 

[SourHopHead]

I asked Tasty for his latest grain bill and he says this is the closest so far:

91% Two-Row
9% Special B

 

[LVBen]

I'm gonna have to attempt this on one of my next brews.

Has anyone tried measuring the final gravity of real AB?

 

[DustBow]

With such a simple grain bill, shouldn't this be a pretty easy extract recipe?

Steep Special B grains, then use enough extract to reach the target OG, add Chinook accordingly?

My only concern would be if the extract would ferment down to a low enough FG. But I don't think that is as much of a concern with this beer, right? Something like a Pliny you need to get as low and as dry as possible to just showcase the hops. But the Bastard has a whole lot more going on.
The yeasts most people are using should be able to able to attenuate 75% which is pretty much the limit with extract.

I usually brew AG but when time is a factor I might have to try this.

what do you guys think?

 

[LVBen]

what do you guys think?

I can't argue with that.

 

[LVBen]

Since I'm not getting any answers, I guess I might have to put a few ounces of AB in a jug, shake the crap out of it and then let it sit for awhile so I can measure the final gravity. I have a hard time believing anyone that says it is less than 1.018.

 

[DustBow]

Yeah, Stone is so tight-lipped about this one, I don't think I've ever seen any official numbers on it except for the ABV%
If you have one of the gravity numbers, you can back into the other one.

I saw the one post where a Stone rep said there are 2 hops in it, not sure if anyone has really pursued that or not. The Chinook & malt flavor is so strong that if there is another hop, it's either purely for bittering or gets swallowed up

 

[LVBen]

Yeah, Stone is so tight-lipped about this one, I don't think I've ever seen any official numbers on it except for the ABV%
If you have one of the gravity numbers, you can back into the other one.

I saw the one post where a Stone rep said there are 2 hops in it, not sure if anyone has really pursued that or not. The Chinook & malt flavor is so strong that if there is another hop, it's either purely for bittering or gets swallowed up

Yep! We can definitely test for the FG, and since we know the ABV%, we can easily determine the OG as well.

If the other hop is only used as a bittering hop, I don't think it is too important since it would only contribute a very small amount of aroma and flavor.

 

[EricCSU]

With such a simple grain bill, shouldn't this be a pretty easy extract recipe?

Steep Special B grains, then use enough extract to reach the target OG, add Chinook accordingly?

My only concern would be if the extract would ferment down to a low enough FG. But I don't think that is as much of a concern with this beer, right? Something like a Pliny you need to get as low and as dry as possible to just showcase the hops. But the Bastard has a whole lot more going on.
The yeasts most people are using should be able to able to attenuate 75% which is pretty much the limit with extract.

I usually brew AG but when time is a factor I might have to try this.

what do you guys think?

I think this could be a fantastic extract recipe. I would brew it first using extra pale extract and special B. Pitch the appropriate amount of WLP007, it is a monster yeast and attenuates well. If that doesn't get you the FG you want, substitute some of the DME with table sugar. Start with 1/2 a pound of sugar and go from there.

Eric.

 

[DustBow]

Well, I went ahead and brewed it yesterday.
Used 1.5# Special B and 11# of LME.
My LHBS only had Chinook in whole leaf though, so I added more water to the recipe but forgot to compensate by adding a little more extract, so my OG was lower than I wanted.
Pitched 2 packs of Wy-1272 anyway since they were already smacked at that point.

Will report back in 6 weeks or so.....

(BTW, I hate using whole leaf hops, what a mess. And after drinking a bomber of AB after the brew, I'm starting to think there is another hop in there. Maybe Ahtanum or something at flavoring/flameout?)

 

[JimTheHick]

Could someone post the FG from a commercial bottle of AB? I'm really curious and can't get it here.

 

[Irrenarzt]

It's probably around 1.014-1.016 I would say but I have not measured it.

 

[LVBen]

Could someone post the FG from a commercial bottle of AB? I'm really curious and can't get it here.

I'm going to do it within the next few days.

 

[rayg]

Some tasting notes were that, several people liked the extract one, but thought it had a different bright flavor to it (extract twang was evident head to head with all grain versions). also said B

That's odd. Extract brews shouldn't have any more "twang" than
any other beer unless it was poorly brewed. Tasty himself said on
the show that AB itself has a "crystal malt twang" that he was
trying to reproduce.

Ray

 

[bigbeergeek]

They measured it in the original CYBI Arrogant Bastard episode. Just search for it and give it a listen. That's how they calculated the original gravity -- interestingly enough, the lab analysis of the beer had a slightly higher alcohol content than the "7.2%" listed on the bottle... if memory serves correctly, anyway

 

[JimTheHick]

Eric has it listed on the first page as 1.013.

I don't re-listen to shows. Too many commercials and Adam and eve promo codes.

 

[rockfish42]

That's odd. Extract brews shouldn't have any more "twang" than
any other beer unless it was poorly brewed. Tasty himself said on
the show that AB itself has a "crystal malt twang" that he was
trying to reproduce.

Ray

If the extract is old or mishandled it can have a twang of oxidation. I used to get my extract from a store with low turnover and it definitely added a certain off flavor to all my brews.

 

[LVBen]

Eric has it listed on the first page as 1.013.

I don't re-listen to shows. Too many commercials and Adam and eve promo codes.

On the first episode, they said the lab reported it as 1.014, but they also said the lab reported the abv as 7.65%!

I want to measure it myself for sanity purposes, so I stuck a bottle in my fridge so that I can drink some tomorrow and measure the last few ounces.

 

[DustBow]

On the first episode, they said the lab reported it as 1.014, but they also said the lab reported the abv as 7.65%!

I want to measure it myself for sanity purposes, so I stuck a bottle in my fridge so that I can drink some tomorrow and measure the last few ounces.

It's a rough job/hobby, but someone has to do it

I may have to buy another bomber just to back up your scientific research...

 

[LVBen]

It's a rough job/hobby, but someone has to do it

I may have to buy another bomber just to back up your scientific research...

It's wonderful what some people are willing to do in the name of science!

 

[Reidman]

I've brewed this a couple times with excellent results, color-wise and taste. Took the recipe right out of BYO mag from 4 years ago. I'm sure Stone's recipe has been modified since but I can hardly tell the difference between this clone and the real deal.

17lb (91.9%) 2-row
1lb 8oz (8.1%) C120

1oz Centennial FWH - 27.4
1oz Chinook 90min - 35.7 IBU
1oz Centennial 90min - 24.9 IBU
1oz Chinook 60min - 35.7 IBU

2pkgs - S-05

Trying to remember if the magazine called for centennial or if that was on my part. Either way, pretty close. I'm grabbing a bomber today and will be brewing this again very soon, maybe with some changes from this thread!

 

[mcgregor666]

We made a perfect stones A B. Heaps of Green bullet on the boil, with a cheap coopers real ale extract, morgans master beer enhancer.

 

[LVBen]

Ok, so I finally got around to popping open a bottle of AB. I poured some into a glass and swirled several times, and let it warm up for about an hour.

I measured the gravity, and...

1.019

WTF? That is close to what I thought it was based on taste, but that is nowhere near the supposed 'lab report' from CYBI!

 

[maida7]

I think you'd need to totally remove the co2 before you'd get an accurate reading.

 

[LVBen]

I swirled it over and over again until there was no more bubbles or foam. There is no way to get rid of all of the CO2. Even when we measure our FG on our homebrews, there is CO2 in the solution.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Was this a hydrometer reading? What temperature was the beer at when you measured it? Have you calibrated the hydrometer in distilled water? The beer is going to need more than an hour or two on the counter before the CO2 is out of solution. Take a whisk to your sample in a bowl for 10 minutes. That should knock most of the gas out.

While I'm sure you're reading your hydrometer correctly, I'm more sure that the lab reports are infallible. And I doubt Stone would have that much variance in FG between batches of the Bastard.

 

[LVBen]

Was this a hydrometer reading? What temperature was the beer at when you measured it? Have you calibrated the hydrometer in distilled water? The beer is going to need more than an hour or two on the counter before the CO2 is out of solution. Take a whisk to your sample in a bowl for 10 minutes. That should knock most of the gas out.

While I'm sure you're reading your hydrometer correctly, I'm more sure that the lab reports are infallible. And I doubt Stone would have that much variance in FG between batches of the Bastard.

Yes, I used my hydrometer. I have checked to see if my hydrometer is accurate in water, and it is spot on.

Geez! I didn't just leave it on the counter and hope the CO2 would leave in an hour. I swirled it vigourously until there were no more signs of CO2. There were no bubbles left when I measured the gravity and then I drank it, and it was definitely flat!

Also, the lab report showed that the abv was 7.65% even though we all know that AB is 7.2%, so it seems like the bottle that the lab got may have had a wild yeast infection or a slight mutation that caused an increase in attentuation, which would explain a drop from 1.019 to 1.014 and an increase in abv from 7.2% to 7.65%.