Mexican Cake clone info - directly from Westbrook Brewery

[lilbova3]

2 Row @ 78%
Roast Barley @ 6.75%
Chocolate Malt @ 6.75%
Dark Crystal @ 4%
Black Patent @ 1.35%
Flaked Oats @ 2.6%

CTZ @ .33 oz per gal
Dextrose @ 1.5 oz per gal
Candied Sugar @ 5 oz per gal

Vanilla bean @ .02 oz per gal
Nibs @ .3 oz per gal
Cinnamon @ .005 oz per gal
Habanero @ .02 oz per gal

That's scaled from brewery. I'm sure this won't work at a homebrew level as the Westbrook brewer said in the first post.

 

[rented_mule73]

How did it come out....

 

[TravelingLight]

plus cake is a stupid descriptor for this beer. does it taste of eggs, milk, baking powder and all purpose flour? of course not. the obvious model for the flavors is chocolate con chile, aka mexican hot chocolate with chiles.

FWIW, they added "cake" to the name because this beer was first released (commercially, at least) to commemorate their one year anniversary, i.e., their birthday.

[Originally, the owner brewed it to offer as parting gifts at his wedding.]

 

[nikvolkert]

What temperature did you ferment at?

 

[mbbransc]

I've recently brewed a similar Mexican "Fake". I pitched at 63.5° for 1.5-days. Allowed to free rise to 66°; stayed there 3-days. Then free rise to 72°. Kept it in primary for 3wks prior to cold crashing and kegging. I used S-04 and US-05 to ferment.

 

[nikvolkert]

Bought all my ingredients, and going to brew this soon. Will be using the yeast cake from an ESB I brewed using WLP002.

Any tips or further advice from anyone who has brewed this?

 

[rented_mule73]

How the heck has no one updated their results.......!!

 

[Wingnutt73]

I'm getting in on this. I have a recipe I use for a stout already that I'm going to tweak. I'll up date for sure.

 

[rented_mule73]

So I built a recipe similar to those listed here. It has been in the primary for 8 days... Still have some airlock activity OG came in at 1.087.....

I am now looking for feedback on the spice tea and soak wood chips.

Thanks in advance.

 

[nikvolkert]

I brewed this up on Sunday:

16 lbs Briess 2-Row
1.5 lbs Chocolate 350L
1 lb Crystal 120L
0.75 lb Flaked Oats
18 oz Turbinado Sugar @ Flameout
16 oz Belgian Candi Syrup 90L @ Flameout
1.3 oz Columbus (17.8%AA) @ 60 min

Mashed at 150F for 90 min. Temp drifted quite a bit, hopefully it's not too dry.
Got distracted by visitors and added way too much water for my batch sparge, decided i'd let it mash for an hour while I boiled off some extra volume from the first runnings. Slowly added the second runnings and then boiled until I thought my volume was right. Added 60 min hops and continued as normal. When I got it moved into the fermenter, I had 4 gallons of wort that was higher than 1.300 (top end of my hydrometer). Decided to add some filtered water so my volume would be 5 gallons which brought my OG down to 1.112. Pitched a ton of WLP002 yeast cake I harvested from an english bitter a couple weeks ago. It had a slow start which really surprised me, so at 48hours I gave it another shot of pure O2 and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient and it has been blowing out my blowoff tube ever since. Struggling to keep temp down (wrapped in a wet towel in my bathtub and adding ice to the water in the tub, so far highest I've seen is 73). Got my tincture ready and really looking forward to this beer. Hope all my misadventures in making this beer don't hurt it too badly.

 

[IFMracin]

What are you plans for the adjuncts and quantities?

 

[nikvolkert]

I've got a pint jar with 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 sliced vanilla beans, 5 chopped habaneros, and 4 oz cocoa nibs covered in vodka that I will add a week before bottling.

 

[lilbova3]

I've got a pint jar with 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 sliced vanilla beans, 5 chopped habaneros, and 4 oz cocoa nibs covered in vodka that I will add a week before bottling.

Sounds good but what's your batch size? Five habaneros is going to be spicy!

 

[nikvolkert]

Sounds good but what's your batch size?

5 Gallons

 

[McUbermensch]

5 Gallons

Whoa.

 

[Wingnutt73]

Seems like a bit much with 5 Habs for 5 gallons. I was thinking at the most 2 would do.

 

[Morrey]

I've got a pint jar with 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 sliced vanilla beans, 5 chopped habaneros, and 4 oz cocoa nibs covered in vodka that I will add a week before bottling.

Yeah, vanilla beans have gone wild in price. I have some Mexican vanilla extract I bought in Mexico, so maybe I can complement with that and use one bean.

I am thinking to make a tincture of this entire list, strain and pitch at kegging. (two habaneros)

TravelingLight and I live close enough to Westbrook to visit their taproom. Let me tell y'all this beer is something special for sure. Can't believe they shared this info as this beer is their claim to fame as far as dark beers go.

 

[lilbova3]

5 Gallons

I think when I made a Mexican Cake clone like beer I cut a habanero into quarters (four even pieces) then cut that into four equal strips and only put two strips in the beer. Gave some good heat but not over powering.

 

[bolus14]

Sub'd, looking to brew a big stout in the next month or so and loved Mexican Cake when I got my hands on a bottle a couple years ago.

 

[nikvolkert]

What kind of final gravity are you guys getting? I ended at 1.030 which seems too high to me. I used WLP002 ang got 71% attenuation. Should I bother adding another yeast?

 

[Wingnutt73]

I ended up at 1.010 fg putting mine at 9.5% ABV. Racked it onto my tincture and will try it in a few days to see what we got!! View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1491444000.243732.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1491444016.346950.jpg

 

[nikvolkert]

So my beer has carbed up, and I tried a bottle over the weekend and wanted to update this. I did add some WLP099 a couple days before bottling to make sure I had viable yeast to carbonate since I bottle condition. My OG was 1.112 and FG ended at 1.030, which I was afraid it would be too sweet, but after tasting it this weekend I think that the higher FG helps the beer hold up to the habaneros (I used 5). It definitely has some heat, but doesn't seem too overpowering. A wonderful tasting beer.

 

[Wingnutt73]

Mine definitely smells and tastes like cake. I think I could have used another Hab or 2 in the recipe but didn't want to put it over the top since I'm serving it this weekend at a homebrew festival.

 

[Roadie]

They just released this again today. Already most places are out and I don't feel like driving 35 minutes away to Whole Foods who I guess is selling with no limit. Had someone put a couple bottles away for me.

 

[TravelingLight]

They just released this again today. Already most places are out and I don't feel like driving 35 minutes away to Whole Foods who I guess is selling with no limit. Had someone put a couple bottles away for me.

If anyone is in Columbia, it's here. I got a pair of bottles at Total Wine on Harbison yesterday (2 per limit). And one more from Green's on Assembly today (1 per limit).

 

[phyllobeddo]

I got one bottle yesterday in Central Alabama. Hope to get a couple more this year. I was able to get three last year. I hear that this year's version has more heat to it than last year's. That's good news to me. I thought the heat was really lacking last year. Still a great beer and one of my favorite, nonetheless.

My clone of this beer which ended up at something like 12% ABV is still sitting in a keg downstairs. I will sample it some time this fall. I suspect it will be nothing like Mexican Cake in the end.

 

[StrainedSky]

Funny thing is I was able to obtain the actual Westbrook recipe (2014) which was taped to a fermenter in their brewery. There is no mention of candi syrup only "raw cane sugar". Maybe they've changed it. Going to brew a batch in the upcoming months to see how it is.

Do you mind posting the recipe ?

 

[DevilsCups]

Do you mind posting the recipe ?

I guess he did mind :cross:

 

[Roadie]

I messaged it to him.

 

[paarman]

I wouldn't mind seeing the recipe as well if you could message it to me also. Thanks in advance if so