Help making a new recipe

[Chem-E-Brewer]

Hey, so I am looking at making a clone/similar style of beer for one my favorites. I really just wanna get something in the similar ballpark as this. The beer is called spare rib pale ale by coops brewery. It has a pretty light and delicate malt taste to me while having a strong hops flavor and aroma to it. I am completely new to making recipes and would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks!

quick description of the beer
http://coopaleworks.com/beers/spare-rib-pale-ale/

good reviews, i agree with the first comment on it
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19456/147075/

 

[McKnuckle]

Specs and description from the brewery:

• ABV = 4%
• SRM = 6
• IBU = 35
• Late hopped, low bitterness
• Lots of Columbus & Amarillo dry hops

Use California ale yeast such as US-05 or WLP-001, expecting 80% attenuation (ferment around 68-70º)
Mash low, around 149-150ºF
Target OG of 1.039-1.041, FG 1.008-1.009

Grain bill: 90% US 2-row, 5% malted wheat, 5% crystal 60
Hops: Here's where it always gets tricky. But you're aiming for 35 IBU, and focusing on late additions. I'd try to get there with a bittering charge at 30 min, then larger 10 and 5 minute flavor/aroma additions. Bomb it with dry hops as directed.

For a 5 gallon fermenter target at 75% mash efficiency, start with 7.5 lbs total grain and adjust as required for your equipment/process using software.

If I assume 16% AA for the Columbus and 9% for the Amarillo, given a 5 gal batch size:

• 8g Columbus @ 30
• 8g Columbus @ 10
• 8g Amarillo @ 10
• 10g Columbus @ 5
• 10g Amarillo @ 5

 

[Oginme]

First thing I would recommend is to call the brewery and ask the head brewer for help. I have found that the majority of time, they are willing to give you guidance. Usually, I phrase my request not as a clone, but looking for a base recipe upon which to experiment. Cite their beer as one of your favorites. Minimum, I usually get the malts used and hops used if not a better description of amounts and timing of hop additions.

To get a massive hop presence without racking up a lot of IBU, I would recommend hop bursting with a small add at 10 minutes or less to get base bitterness and then the rest as a whirlpool/steep and then dry hop massively as they state in their description.

Be ready to brew this several times with changes, hopefully improvements, as you repeat the recipe.

 

[Weezy]

Calling the brewery makes a lot of sense. I'd ask them real specific questions like are there any hops in boil or just whirlpool and dry hop? Pale or pale ale base malt? Any crystal or body enhancing grains? Is US-05 appropriate or would you recommend an English strain?

It's hard to help without having tasted it. That be advocate review says it's not very sweet or malty. Mcknuckle has a good stab at it there. But I'm wondering if just a pale base malt and nothing else is there. And maybe just flameout ops; no boil hops. But it's hard to say without having had it. It sounds good though! (I just brewed a 1.046 pale ale with just Belgian pale ale malt and Amarillo in a hopstand. It's in the fermenter now on US-05)

 

[McKnuckle]

I waffled at the crystal, but it got the color up to 6 SRM. True, one could use a tiny dab of just about any dark grain for that also. But I think some crystal meshes well with citrusy hops.

Calling the brewery (or emailing) is good advice. And folks are right about hops - it could be a very late addition for all the bitterness, and just whirlpool/dry hops. But I don't think it will make an enormous difference either way if you get the total IBU right, and use lots of dry hops.

Heck, you said "ballpark" after all.

You could also split a batch and ferment half with US-05, half with an English yeast such as WY-1968. The "delicate malt" could be enhanced by subtle English esters. Just be careful about the attenuation - you do want it to ferment dry, I'm pretty sure, with such a low OG and a 4% ABV target.

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

So I made a quick recipe. I kept the hop additions mentioned earlier in the thread. I also added a little rye to give just a bit of mouthfeel. I plan on brewing this in like 2 months so I wanna tweak this and make it pretty good for the first brew of it. Thanks for the help guys!
Luke

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: The Feared Light Non Key
Author: Luke Bower

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.032
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.008
ABV (standard): 5.27%
IBU (tinseth): 32.34
SRM (morey): 6.23

FERMENTABLES:
7.2 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (82.8%)
0.4 lb - German - Wheat Malt (4.6%)
0.4 lb - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (4.6%)
0.7 lb - German - Rye (8%)

HOPS:
8 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 14.52
8 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 6.85
8 g - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 3.57
10 g - columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 4.71
10 g - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2.7
2 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 0 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Sparge, Temp: 148 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 10.9 qt
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 81%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 54 - 77 F
Fermentation Temp: 72 F
Pitch Rate: 0.5 (M cells / ml / deg P)


Generated by Brewer's Friend - https://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2017-04-04 15:57 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2017-04-04 15:56 UTC

 

[Morrey]

[Hops: Here's where it always gets tricky. But you're aiming for 35 IBU, and focusing on late additions. I'd try to get there with a bittering charge at 30 min, then larger 10 and 5 minute flavor/aroma additions. Bomb it with dry hops as directed.

Spot on!

 

[Tommytomtom17]

Did you brew this yet? If so, how'd it come out? I've fallen in love with spare rib and have been wanting to try a clone.

 

[Chem-E-Brewer]

Sadly i have not. I will be getting around to it soon though. Its gonna be a small batch experimentation of brewing tasting and tweaking this coming fall. Ive been doing a stockup of normalish beers for the semester currently.

 

[Tommytomtom17]

I will try the recipe this weekend. I can't brew enough to stock up, only 2 carboy to try and fill 6 kegs... I'll post any variances and how it turns out in a few weeks.

 

[Tommytomtom17]

Well it turned out pretty good. It's a bit more bitter and less hop smell than the original but still tasty! I just finished brewing another batch today and mashed at 150 to maybe give it a little more sweetness and added first hops at 20 min to lessen the bitterness.

 

[TTfireman]

How did the second batch turn out?

 

[Morrey]

Well it turned out pretty good. It's a bit more bitter and less hop smell than the original but still tasty! I just finished brewing another batch today and mashed at 150 to maybe give it a little more sweetness and added first hops at 20 min to lessen the bitterness.

For my personal tastes, I love the flavor and aroma of hops but don't care for the bitterness that can be found in some hoppy beers. I have been using CTZ Hop Extract from Yakima Valley for my 60 min bittering addition and have been very pleased at the smoothness. I get good IBU's w/o the harsh bittering often associated with the first addition.

For your recipe, I may target 18-20 IBU's from this 60 min addition, then this leaves the door open for later additions in the boil, whirlpool after flameout and dry hopping. I often shoot for around half of my total IBU goal with this hop extract, then make up the balance of my IBU goal with hop additions later in the process.

Harsh or sharp bitterness is all but eliminated, yet the hops come thru beautifully.

 

[Tommytomtom17]

Second batch came out much better. It's not as bitter, a little sweeter but still missing that nice hop aroma the commercial beer has. This is defiantly closer to what I think it should taste. I'm not sure why I'm not getting the aroma. I will do a 3rd run at it soon and try to go to the extreme and add an extra oz at flame out.

 

[TTfireman]

I emailed the brewery a while back to see if I could get some tips on making something close. They emailed me back with these tips.

-Use lots of wheat in the grain bill along with your base malt as well as some dextrin-ous malt and/or adjuncts to help maintain mouthfeel and texture with the lower alcohol style
-If you are doing all-grain or partial mash, use a higher mash temp
-A small bittering addition and a moderate flame-out edition is all you’ll need for brew day followed by a generous dry-hop near the end of primary fermentation
-We use Falconer’s Flight, Citra, and Columbus to make it happen, but any of your favorite West Coast varieties should turn out great

I am gonna try something soon, but I am a pretty new brewer and don't get to brew as much as I would like. You guys will probably get to test this info out before I do.

 

[Tommytomtom17]

Excellent information fireman! I will definitely incorporate this into my next batch and see how it goes. I'm not much on dry hopping so I may do a hop tea at keg time instead. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm planning on doing another batch Monday.

 

[Tommytomtom17]

Okay, so I have finally gotten around to this receipt again...
Mashed 153 for 90 mins
7.2 lb 2 row
.6 lb German wheat
.4 on 60L
.7 on German Rye
.5 oz Columbus @30 min
.5 oz Columbus @10 min
.5 oz Amarillo @ 10 min
.5 Amarillo @ 5 min
Dropped to 120 degrees during cooling and added 2 oz of columbus for 15 mins the continued to pitching temp, 65 degrees.
Just kegged it and tastes very nice but needs more hops! So I threw another oz of columbus in the keg and will see in a week what it does.