Long Trail rocks (Harvest Ale recipe in thread)

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wizardofza

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It just so happens that Long Trail Harvest is my wife's favorite beer so I set out to make her a batch. On a whim I submitted the 'contact us' form on Long Trail's site not expecting much.

The response I got was great - 4/5 paragraphs of information from their Asst Quality Assurance Manager. Below is his reply:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your interest in Long Trail Brewing Company.
Our Harvest went through a small revision a few years ago which is why things appear a little vague on the web site.

We use 2-row barley malt, Caramel 80L, and Chocolate malt in the Harvest. There is also a very small amount of maple syrup added in the boil. I can tell you to go light on the syrup addition as anything approaching 1% by weight of the total grain amount will produce a winey off flavor that will detract from the roasted/chocolate backbone.
Go light on hops with a single 60 minute addition and target 13 IBU’s. Nuggets are a good bittering hop J

The Brewer’s Association style guidelines offer the following for Brown Ale:

English brown ales range from copper to brown in color and has a medium body with sweet maltiness and very little hop flavor or aroma. Roast malt tones contribute to the flavor and aroma profile. Low to medium-low levels of fruity-ester flavors are appropriate. Diacetyl should be very low, if evident. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures.
Original Gravity (ºPlato) 1.040-1.050 (10-12.5 ºPlato) ● Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (ºPlato) 1.008-1.014 (2-3.5 ºPlato) ● Alcohol by Weight (Volume) 3.3-4.7% (4-5.5%) ● Bitterness (IBU) 15-25 ● Color SRM (EBC) 13-25 (26-50 EBC)

Stay on the low side of these guidelines for OG and FG. Our color target for Harvest is 18 SRM. SRM is the same as Lovibond if that helps.
Ferment with an American Ale yeast in the mid 60’s range to help keep the beer from producing too much estery aroma.

Good luck.
Cheers,
Brandon


**********************************************
Brandon Mayes
Assistant Quality Assurance Manager
Long Trail Brewing Company
5520 US Route 4
Bridgewater Corners, Vermont 05035

This is the recipe I came up with based on that which I plan on doing next week :

Code:
BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Harvest Ale
Brewer: Chris
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.75 gal      
Boil Size: 8.51 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 18.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
9 lbs 8.0 oz  Pale Malt (2 Row) CA (2.0 SRM)            Grain        83.77 %       
1 lbs 8.0 oz  Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)     Grain        13.23 %       
4.0 oz        Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)                Grain        2.20 %        
0.50 oz       Nugget [13.00 %]  (60 min)                Hops         20.9 IBU      
1.4 oz        Maple Syrup (35.0 SRM)                    Sugar        0.79 %        
1 Pkgs        California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)       Yeast-Ale                  


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11.25 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
60 min        Mash In            Add 4.28 gal of water at 164.9 F    152.0 F

This is why I love the craft brewing industry!
 
Thanks for posting the response from the brewery and your recipe. My wife and I are interested in brewing a Harvest Ale this weekend and are interested in using an extract (with specialty grains) version of your recipe. How did it taste/turn out? Any tips or suggestions you have would be appreciated.
 
The beer turned out fantastic. The only thing that I would change is lessen the amount of maple syrup. I would probably go 1oz or maybe .75 oz. There was a wine-like characteristic to it - just a hint mind you - but it increased as the beer aged.

Other than that, the beer was spot on with Long Trail's.

Good luck!
 
Sounds like a good beer. That is such a small amount of syrup, I would just leave it out for simplicity's sake. Especially if its just causing problems.
 
I wouldn't say it was causing problems and you could leave it out if that's what you want, but my intent was to re-create the Long Trail Harvest. I know when I taste theirs, you can definitely taste the maple syrup in it.

You use grains at that amount (and less!), why not maple syrup?
 
I suppose you're right for the purposes of being authentic. And I only use grain in that weight for color adjustment. You can't actually taste such a small addition. You could always do 2 batches, one with syrup, one without, and note the differences. Or maybe I will.....
 
This is off-topic but my wife and I stayed at the October Country Inn across the street from Long Trail in Bridgewater Corners, VT for a biking weekend. One of our biking guides was a brewer at Long Trail. What a great guy and a great brewery. We would bike 40-50 miles a day and then head over to the "visitor's center" for a few pints. I haven't had the Harvest but the standard Long Trail Ale (I think they call it an Altbier) was dynamite. Cheers.
 
This is off-topic but my wife and I stayed at the October Country Inn across the street from Long Trail in Bridgewater Corners, VT for a biking weekend. One of our biking guides was a brewer at Long Trail. What a great guy and a great brewery. We would bike 40-50 miles a day and then head over to the "visitor's center" for a few pints. I haven't had the Harvest but the standard Long Trail Ale (I think they call it an Altbier) was dynamite. Cheers.

That sounds great. Do you have a website or any other info about the Inn and/or the trails around there? I'm in NY, but my wife and I have always wanted to visit and do something similar.
 
HERE is their website. The inn was built in 1860 or something. The owners are great and the trails are excellent, IMO. Some "road", some paved trail, some crushed limestone, some dirt paths. The hosts cook for you everything he had was fantastic. They have a "barn of bikes" and these were great for what we needed them for. Also, HERE is a link to some posts I made about this trip on our local brewing board complete with some pics. In that report, I mention that we started our trip in Burlington which has a great beer culture. I even met, had a beer with and took a picture with Greg Noonan! Cheers & enjoy if you go.
 
Are you sure about that? Greg Noonan passed away in 2009...

The trip was in 2007. I posted links to my report and there are pics in that link including one with me and Greg standing among his fermenters. It would have been easy for you to see.
 
kenlenard said:
The trip was in 2007. I posted links to my report and there are pics in that link including one with me and Greg standing among his fermenters. It would have been easy for you to see.

Missed the link with HBT mobile, it read as if it was a recent encounter. Sorry for the mistake, Nice pics.
 
I know this post is almost a year old but I'm responding anyways. First of all I'm putting this on my brew calendar so I can have this ready to drink come fall. Second I love the fact that they sent you guidelines for their beer. I've never seen anything like that
 
I bottle this up almost two weeks ago. I cracked a bottle a few days ago just to see how it tasted. Malty, sweet, and carmel is what I got out of it. There was also a hint of woodiness, if that's the right way to describe it. I'm going to leave it sit for another month or so. It's going to be my fall beer. I think it's going to be really nice.

--edit: I did not use the California Ale yeast described in the recipe. I used the Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast.
 
Sorry for reviving a 2 yr old thread, but I just had this in Long Trails Fall Variety pack and it would be a nice year round beer, IMO. I picked up some nice chocolate notes in the finish, does the clone recipe have that? Any consensus on whether the maple syrup is worth adding or not? I didn't pick up an syrup in the taste but it might play a complimentary role in bringing out some other nuances I was thinking.

I also was thinking of building up some WLP090 from a Black IPA I made since I have had better luck hitting my target FG's with it than I have with another other "clean" strain. I was going to wash some yeast from the fermenter and forgot, so now it's either by another smack pack or build it up from bottles...
 
Sorry about the late response. I haven't been frequenting this site as often as I used to (or would like).

It's my understanding that their current Harvest recipe is different from the one that I posted the recipe for. They changed it about two years ago, and quite frankly, I don't care for it.

But to answer your question, I brewed the recipe as posted and it came out true to the original. :)
 
I didn't have it before this year so i'm unsure of what it used to taste like. In this years there's something up front that I don't care for but the chocolate taste in the finish is great, so if the original had that I might still give your recipe a shot.
 
Going to brew tomorrow. I bumped everything up to hopefully get an ABV of 6%. Shooting for low 20's for the IBUs which is about .5oz of Nugget depending on what the AA is.
I may or may not add some NY maple syrup, I don't think it contributes much, if anything, to the final product so from the other comments about it add a wine character I'd prefer to avoid getting that.
 
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