American Pale Ale Coldwater 420 - Special Pale Ale

[rockdemon]

I got a friend thats in town for 3 months and he loves 420, anyone brew the AG version and how did it turn out?

Ive made three different attempts at this beer, done small changes everytime and it just gets better and better( im becoming a better brewer i guess).
It becomes a really tasty pale ale with just pilsnermalt, vienna and carapils(I dont have light munich, just regular munich and it messed up the color). At the latest batch i had gotten a bit sick of the cascades so i made it with 50/50 centennial and citra and that was great aswell but with the cascades it gets closer to the original.

 

[clint404]

I drink this on the regular. They sell it at my local flash foods along with SNPA. Its danky for sure its got something in it besides cascade that pulls that dank weed smell out.

 

[bunker45]

In order to do a 5 gallon batch, would you recommend just cutting the original recipe in half? It seemed close to a 10 gallon batch. Thanks. Still trying to figure out the recipe stuff instead of the biab stuff.

 

[brew703]

I know this is an old thread but I will be brewing this weekend. I tried Sweetwater at a brew pub in NOLA and i liked it alot. Unfortunately I cannot get in the stores so i'm hoping this one comes close.

 

[brew703]

Brewed this weekend. Preboil OG was 1.055/ post boil OG was 1.075. This is 12 points higher than it should have been. Double checked my grain and water and all was good. Not sure why I didn't hit my numbers.

 

[hopdropper]

Fellas...have a freezer full of homegrown cascade and this recipe was next in line. However, local homebrew supply store doesn't carry caraaroma. What can/should a dude substitute? Some sort of mid-range crystal? Charts say c120 but that seems excessive...thoughts?

 

[slym2none]

From the Weyermann description:

Very dark caramel malt with aromatic properties. Adds deep red color and aroma. Amber ales, dark lagers, bocks. Substitute for Belgian Special B or 120L caramel malts.

EBC: 300-400
Lovibond: 110-150
Usage: to 15%
Moisture:: 4.5-7.0%
Total nitrogen:: 10.5-12.5%
Extract% (dry basis): 74-79
Soluble Nitrogen Ratio: N/A

 

[user 125772]

a number of the bars here have 420 on tap , and I drink it fairly often . Personally, I think the Sweetwater 420 is dry hopped. Something like 1oz for 10 gallons for at least 7 days

 

[rockdemon]

They now have this info on their webpage:

Grains – Munich, 40L, 2-Row

Hops – Centennial, Cascade

 

[slym2none]

I drink this on the regular. They sell it at my local flash foods along with SNPA. Its danky for sure its got something in it besides cascade that pulls that dank weed smell out.

Stone got lots of "dank" out of their first version of Ruination using Centennial only. 420 has both Cascade & Centennial, so I am betting it's that.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

Brewing this during the life shutdown...can't wait! Had the Sweetwater at a local restaurant a couple of weeks back and realized that I missed it.

 

[Lurker]

Anyone tries austinhomebrew.com's clone recipe of this one?

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Anyone tries austinhomebrew.com's clone recipe of this one?

1 lb of 40L doesn't seem right to me. I know in older references to the recipe there is talk of 40L but their website doesn't currently list it as a malt, and when I taste this beer I don't get quite the crystal sweetness 1 lb of 40L would bring. I actually made a semi-clone of Starr Hill Northern Lights and used 1 lb of 40L and it came out good. The bar I used to go to sometimes had both of them on tap and Starr Hill definitely tastes more malty to me than 420.

 

[Lurker]

1 lb of 40L doesn't seem right to me. I know in older references to the recipe there is talk of 40L but their website doesn't currently list it as a malt, and when I taste this beer I don't get quite the crystal sweetness 1 lb of 40L would bring. I actually made a semi-clone of Starr Hill Northern Lights and used 1 lb of 40L and it came out good. The bar I used to go to sometimes had both of them on tap and Starr Hill definitely tastes more malty to me than 420.

Thanks for your thoughtful responce! I ordered the kit and will try it as the kig comes then
do a direct comparison with 420 which I can get around here. I will follow up with thoughts then try again replacing the crystal with base malt and see how it changes. As always the members here are a constant source of information and experience. cheers!

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Thanks for your thoughtful responce! I ordered the kit and will try it as the kig comes then
do a direct comparison with 420 which I can get around here. I will follow up with thoughts then try again replacing the crystal with base malt and see how it changes. As always the members here are a constant source of information and experience. cheers!

Sounds good. If you've already got the kit definitely do it. I'd be curious to know how the kit compares to the original vs something with 2 row/munich/wheat which their website lists.

 

[Lurker]

I brewed the Austin Homebrew kit and then killed the keg in a weekend. It was delicious! I made a few changes and moved the flameout hops to a 170* whirlpool for 20 min then added 1 oz of cascade to dryhop 3 days before kegging. I cant say it was a perfect clone of 420 but I can say it was a really teriffic pale ale. The malty backbone was subtle which I really liekd. I do think the color was too dark from the crystal 40. Im gonna brew it again soon.

 

[Lurker]

The Austin Homebrew recipe calls for 1lb of crystal 40L, 8.5lb of 2 row and 2lb of Munich. On the Sweetwater website it states their grain bill as 2 row Munich Wheat and Midnight wheat. If I were to keep the 2row and Munich amounts the same what amounts of the wheat and midnight wheat do you think I should use?

I was thinking 1lb of wheat and .25lbs Midnight wheat. I would of course enter into my brewing software to make sure the gravity etc was on point. Thoughts? Thanks E

 

[VirginiaHops1]

The Austin Homebrew recipe calls for 1lb of crystal 40L, 8.5lb of 2 row and 2lb of Munich. On the Sweetwater website it states their grain bill as 2 row Munich Wheat and Midnight wheat. If I were to keep the 2row and Munich amounts the same what amounts of the wheat and midnight wheat do you think I should use?

I was thinking 1lb of wheat and .25lbs Midnight wheat. I would of course enter into my brewing software to make sure the gravity etc was on point. Thoughts? Thanks E

What was your SRM with the kit vs the SRM with the new recipe? What % of the grain bill does the midnight wheat come out to with the 4 ounces? That grain seems out of place in a pale ale but they must be just using a very small amount(1-2%) for a slight color adjustment.

 

[Lurker]

So here is my new take on the recipe. My 1st brew was using the Austin Homebrew Clone. Now this 2nd time I took out the crystal and added 1lb of wheat and also .0625lb of midnight wheat. The color falls into the acceptable scale of Pale ale. Austin version 16.7EBC and this new version 17.8 I also changed the bittering addition to centenial and doubled down on dryhopping at 2oz. The Austin version didnt call for any dryhopping. Iwould love to hear any thoughts! Thanks Erik

 

[Lurker]

Tapped the new keg of this clone yesterday and did a blind taste test with a few friends. My take was that this clone was so similar. All but one taster chose my version over the real 420. They were so similar the real only difference I could tell was that mine was just fresher which I know vs a bottle beer from a liquor store isnt quite fair.

Now on to the color. I used the 1 oz of midnight wheat because its on Sweetwaters grain bill. However my color was wayyyy to dark compared to the color of Sweetwaters. My next attempt will be to drop the midnight wheat all together or sub it with a crystal malt...maybe crystal 20.

Either way this beer is great and I encourage anyone interested to brew my recipe in above post. Cheers, E

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Nice update. FWIW I wouldn't use any crystal on this recipe. I've never used midnight wheat so have no experience with it's potency but they must use a very small amount. Scaled down we may be talking about a few grams. Probably not worth it to even try to incorporate into a homebrew size batch.

 

[elproducto]

Interesting...I have used Juice quite a bit, and it typically rips through the sugars and is at terminal within 4 days. I often ramp it to 70 on day 3.

Tapped the new keg of this clone yesterday and did a blind taste test with a few friends. My take was that this clone was so similar. All but one taster chose my version over the real 420. They were so similar the real only difference I could tell was that mine was just fresher which I know vs a bottle beer from a liquor store isnt quite fair.

Now on to the color. I used the 1 oz of midnight wheat because its on Sweetwaters grain bill. However my color was wayyyy to dark compared to the color of Sweetwaters. My next attempt will be to drop the midnight wheat all together or sub it with a crystal malt...maybe crystal 20.

Either way this beer is great and I encourage anyone interested to brew my recipe in above post. Cheers, E

I have tried a few times to clone this, and my attempts never have that amazing floral citrus hop character the the commercial version has. I always assume it's the hops.

Can I ask where you are sourcing your Cascade/Centennial?

 

[Lurker]

Hey there...So I completely agree and will forget the midnight wheat the next time I brew this. I just dont think its necessary and on a 5 gallon batch it would be such a small amount. I think 420 is much lighter than most pale ales. Either way this is a great recipe and will 100% be my house pale ale from now on.

I dryhopped with 2 oz on day 11 and left in through cold crashing and kegged at day 15. I get my hops from Morebeer.com. They do such a volume of business I always was pleased with the quality of hops. Good luck and let me know if you brew this and what you think. Cheers

 

[elproducto]

Thanks! I live in Canada but travel to Florida often (when not in pandemic). 420 is one of my favorites and is incredible on draft. I won't have any to compare, but I've had enough of it that I should be able to remember.

I brew pretty well the exact same grainbill as you posted for my single hop Pale Ales but use Dark Munich. Now that I think of it, the colour is VERY close to what I remember 420 being like.

Cheers

 

[Lurker]

I may try that next time. Thanks for all the input guys!

 

[elproducto]

Ok so here is my clone attempt and I'm a ways off. Mine is much darker so I'm going to use all light Munich instead of mixing light and dark. The commercial version is much hoppier and brighter. I used Wlp007 because it's what I had but I'll switch to Chico for the next brew.

Sweetwater 420 Clone - Chris George Brewfather