I need help making a Sierra Nevada Narwhal Clone

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I had a chance to try the Sierra Nevada RIS the other day and think it was pretty outstanding, but it is hard to find around here. So I am looking to clone it. Google gave me no useful information, but the Sierra Nevada website tells what kind of grains they use and some other basic info.

TWO-ROW PALE, CARAMEL & CHOCOLATE, HONEY, CARAFA & ROASTED BARLEY

IBUs= 60
OG= ~ 1.1
FG= 1.026
10.2% ABV
Bittering hops = aroma and challenger
aroma hops = challenger

The caramal malt should be pretty dark. Maybe 120?

Maybe this would work:

18 lb pounds american 2 row
1 lb roasted barley
1 lb crystal 120L
1 lb carafa II
1 lb ounces chocolate malt
.5 lb honey malt

1 ounce magnum (55 min) 32 IBU
1 ounce challenger (55 min) 21 IBU
1 ounce challenger (10 min) 7 IBU

wyeast 1056

mash @ 150 for 1 hour

Any thoughts on this?
 
Per Sierra Nevada's website:
Ingredients

Yeast | Ale yeast
Bittering Hops | Magnum, Challenger
Finishing Hops | Challenger
Malts | Two-row Pale, Caramel, Chocolate, Honey, Carafa, Roasted Barley

That means you need to use Chocolate Malt and Honey Malt, not chocolate and honey.

Also, 1.5 lbs of Roasted Barley seems excessive. A little goes a long way with that, and with Honey Malt.
 
Correct, you should be using chocolate and honey malt, not chocolate and honey.

1.5 is a touch high for the roasted barley. I remember this stout being rich but smooth in flavor, not as aggressive as some stouts with bigger roasted barley charges. I would maybe drop the roast to 1 lb, up the choc malt to 1 lb.

I would also mash closer to 150 to ensure you get full attenuation. The beer will likely finish too high at 155.

Let us know how it goes, Narwhal is a badass beer!

Oh, and BTW, No Party--your Sho'nuff avatar is freakin sweet.
 
Per Sierra Nevada's website:
Ingredients

Yeast | Ale yeast
Bittering Hops | Magnum, Challenger
Finishing Hops | Challenger
Malts | Two-row Pale, Caramel, Chocolate, Honey, Carafa, Roasted Barley

That means you need to use Chocolate Malt and Honey Malt, not chocolate and honey.

Also, 1.5 lbs of Roasted Barley seems excessive. A little goes a long way with that, and with Honey Malt.

Yep, that was a typo on my part. I fixed that and adjusted the recipe based on the recommendations you guys gave. I might drop the honey malt down to five ounces too. I'm hoping to brew this sometime next week. I will let you guys know how it goes.
 
I really didn't dig this beer for some reason. My take would be since the coffee flavor was really smooth and from my experimenting with coffee the coffee went in cold. If you expose the coffee to heat it tends to be to bitter for my palet. "dry hoping" with coffee tends to give a good smooth coffee flavor.
 
I sent an email to the brewery and got a confirmation that the yeast is the SN house strain. They said they would get back to me on the lovibond rating for the crystal malt.

Anyways, I have already bottled this beer and it should be ready in a week. I ended up using 6 ounces of honey malt instead of a half pound. I probably wont be able to try it side by side with the SN version because it is hard here to find herein Georgia.

I didn't quite get the efficiency I was expecting (my fault) and ended up around 1.090. I am not sure exactly what the final gravity is because my buddy bottled it and he is not exactly a "by the numbers" sort of guy. It spent about three and a half weeks in the primary fermenter.
 
I'm all over this like white on rice. I'm drinking one right now, and would love to put this on tap. Very interested to see how it comes out, and what you would tweak.
 
I got word back from sierra nevada and they said the crystal malt they used in this beer is crystal 60. I used crystal 120 and I think it came out fairly similar but could still use some tweaking. It still tastes great though. Next time I try this, I will sub out the crystal 120 for crystal 60 and maybe change the hop schedule a bit. Its hard to say exactly what needs to change because its been so long since I had the Narwhal.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I only used .75 lbs chocolate malt this time. I thought it would be easier to start low then move high. I think the 1 pound that the recipe originally calls for might have been better. I also would drop the crystal 60 down because this really is a bit too sweet.

New malt bill should look like this:

18 lb pounds american 2 row
.75 lb roasted barley
.5 lb crystal 60L
1 lb carafa II
1 lb chocolate malt
.5 lb honey malt

Also, the head on this beer is awesome.
L6t0DhU.jpg
 
So, I'm going to brew a Narwhal clone next Wednesday. I ordered grains according to this hopville recipe but am shooting for 11 gallons yield so "upped" it to what I've listed below (with 5 gallon equivalent in ( )'s after. I would appreciate anyone's thoughts and input...
http://hopville.com/recipe/1667969

36.2 lb pounds american 2 row (16.6#)
1.4 lb roasted barley (10 oz.)
4 lb crystal 60L (I have C75 1.8#)
1.4 lb carafa II (10 oz.)
2.2 lb chocolate malt (1#)
2 lb honey malt (~14 oz.)

So I was headed much higher on crystal and honey malts...but you said yours is too sweet...help!
 
So, I'm going to brew a Narwhal clone next Wednesday. I ordered grains according to this hopville recipe but am shooting for 11 gallons yield so "upped" it to what I've listed below (with 5 gallon equivalent in ( )'s after. I would appreciate anyone's thoughts and input...
http://hopville.com/recipe/1667969

36.2 lb pounds american 2 row (16.6#)
1.4 lb roasted barley (10 oz.)
4 lb crystal 60L (I have C75 1.8#)
1.4 lb carafa II (10 oz.)
2.2 lb chocolate malt (1#)
2 lb honey malt (~14 oz.)

So I was headed much higher on crystal and honey malts...but you said yours is too sweet...help!

I don't think that they sweetness was overpowering, but only that it didn't seem quite balanced to me. Keep in mind that I haven't had the actual beer in a while, and I had already been drinking of my brew when I posted that. Thinking back, I think the sweetness is fine but it just needed to be balanced out by more chocolate malt. Maybe try using 2.5 lbs of chocolate malt and drop the honey down to a pound (for 11 gallons), keeping the rest the same. I bet that would be good.
 
Sounds awesome! I might give this a whirl next month. I'm thinking about aging mine on whiskey-soaked oak chips for a few months...:mug:
 
Just reading Sierra's ingredients list, I would probably change up the grainbill. The way they've written it, it looks like they're listing them in order of amounts: Mostly 2-row, chocolate and caramel malts in equal proportion, a little honey malt, and then a small amount of carafa and roasted barley.
 
Any news on these brews? I'm going to be brewing a clone of this in the next few weeks and was hoping to find a little more info on the grain bill.
 
I've only drank 2 or 3 bottles of the batch so far but I think it tastes great. As mentioned by a previous poster, it's been too long since I had the real thing. I hear it's headed to this end of the country in a couple months. I'll be ready. I intended this to be my holiday beer all along. I put it all up in those aesthetically pleasing 16.9 ounce bottles. More reports later...
 
Bumping this year old thread, I see according to SN's website Narwhal uses Magnum and Challenger with a total of 60 IBUs. Brewsday or Cognitive-Dissonance, can either of you tell us what was the hop schedule you used?
 
Yah i stumbled on this week before i plan to make my next batch of beer, which I was thinking would be my first imperial stout / RIS. Screw that, I'm going to try to make a Narwhal clone instead! Probably won't get the full gravity of the real beer but want to give it my best shot. Doing a 5 gallon BIAB would like to see the hop amounts and timing, and overall boiling duration people are using? Also toying with the malt/hop amounts and so far have following. is it bad ratio?

malts:
14 lb two-row pale
1.5lb caramel/crystal 60
1.5lb chocolate
0.5lb honey
0.5lb carafa
0.5lb roasted barley

bittering hops:
magnum, 2oz, 60 mins / 80mins??
challenger, 1oz, 30 mins


finishing hops:
challenger, 1oz 0 mins / 5 mins??
 
Nothing like reawakening a 9 year old thread.

Just poured this incredible beer (SN Narwhal) and I need to brew this for the holiday season 2022. Please tell me there is a semi-standardized recipe of this wonderful creation! Has anyone nailed the grain bill? Best choice yeast?

There are plenty of Imperial Stouts out there, but this one makes me want to get a 10gal foeder just to age this properly. It is special for sure.
 
Seemed like the yeast would be chico, if it's the Sierra strain, right? I'm interested to watch what comes of your question, might try it myself.
 
I am also interested! I have my first brew in the fermenter right now. Tomorrow will be 7 days. It was the MoreBeer cali-stout clone which to me is basically “narwhal lite” hahaha. I will say as a complete noob who knows nothing…I checked on my fermenter minutes before I cracked a barrel aged narwhal, and was pleased to be greeted with a similar smell (from a distance) between my fermentation chamber and the Narwhal I poured minutes after. Words cannot describe how excited I am to try my first beer hahaha. I would absolutely love a narwhal clone recipe. Definitely in my top 3 stouts
 
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