Mirror Pond by Deschutes

[postalbunny]

Ok, ill give 1187 a shot. What base grain did you use that turned out good? Pale 2row or marris otter?

 

[Nugent]

I use Gambrinus ESB malt for the base.

 

[dlutter]

Hi,
Like many, Mirror Pond is my favorite beer. I've been lurking on and off for a while, but this is my first post. I have brewed about 12 batches using The Joy of Homebrewing 3rd ed ranging from easy all extract to a couple of advanced all grain batches. Most of them have turned out pretty good. I decided this weekend to try my hand at a partial mash Mirror Pond.

I used this recipe as a guide with a couple of changes:

guys, i met one of the brewers from Deschutes when he came down to our homebrew competition in dallas back in March. he and i hit it off pretty good and have stayed in touch ever since. i asked him about a mirror pond recipe and these are the details he sent me. he knew i was doing partial mash and tried to scale it as best he could.
7 lbs of pale malt extract
0.6 lbs of C75
0.5 lbs of Dextrin
all hops are cascade
schedule as follows...
75 min 0.5 oz
30 min 0.75 oz
5 min 1.5 oz
dry hopped for 2 weeks with 3 oz of cascade
Wyeast 1187 is what they use and that is their house strain.

i brewed this about a month ago and it came out pretty close. my fermentation temp got a little too high which caused some off flavors so i am going to brew it again. these notes are straight from the brewer at Deschutes so it should be good to go.

Here are the changes:
Steep 0.5 lb 80L crystal malt at 160 for 30 min in 2 gal water.
Add 0.5 Dextrin & 7 lb light LME
Boil for 80 min; same hop addition schedule as above
Total batch volume 5 gal
Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale

OG was read at 1.030, which seems too low. I know the wort was warmer than 60 but am almost certain it was less than 80. Even with temp correction it still seems low. Oh well, I am sure it will still taste good.

My plan is to transfer to secondary ferment next weekend and dry hop for 2 weeks. I will post here to let you know how it turns out. I think I will try all grain next time. Any thoughts?

 

[postalbunny]

Just a heads up, I emailed the brewery and got confirmation that ringwood ale (1187 wyeast) is the closest thing to their house strain.

Mine shld be ready to try this week, ill post the recipe I used with the taste test.results.

 

[terrenum]

Just a heads up, I emailed the brewery and got confirmation that ringwood ale (1187 wyeast) is the closest thing to their house strain.

Mine shld be ready to try this week, ill post the recipe I used with the taste test.results.

Any updates from brewers that used the RIngwood?

Planning to brew this clone this week-end.
thanks

 

[ChiechiBrouw]

Any updates from brewers that used the RIngwood?

Planning to brew this clone this week-end.
thanks

I have been using Ringwood for all of my Deschutes clones and there absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is the closest commercial yeast to their house strain. I brewed a dead ringer for Black Butte by combing the "recipe" from the Deschutes website with recipes from HBT and substituting Ringwood.

My advice is to give the beer a diacetyl rest; I just let it sit on the yeast cake for two weeks instead of one before racking/dry-hopping. In my experience, Ringwood + diacetyle rest = that je ne sais quoi of Deschutes beer. (Now I just need to figure out the hop schedule for Mir Pon...)

 

[evandena]

What did you guys use for your base grain with 1187?
I'm looking to brew this this weekend. I think I'll try NW 2-row Pale Malt, according to their website that is what they use.

 

[ChiechiBrouw]

What did you guys use for your base grain with 1187?
I'm looking to brew this this weekend. I think I'll try NW 2-row Pale Malt, according to their website that is what they use.

Use NW-2 row if you can get it. I can't get it where I live so I use Marris Otter, which seems to be a reasonable substitute.

 

[evandena]

Wow 13 ounces of Cascade for 10 gallons. Man, I don't remember mirror pond being that hoppy.

 

[ChiechiBrouw]

Wow 13 ounces of Cascade for 10 gallons. Man, I don't remember mirror pond being that hoppy.

Most of is late additions, no? ...at least that has been my biggest challenge with Mir Pon; getting that crisp, fresh Cascade nose without getting to bitter.

 

[evandena]

Most of is late additions, no? ...at least that has been my biggest challenge with Mir Pon; getting that crisp, fresh Cascade nose without getting to bitter.

Yeah, I'm a cheap a$$ brewer, so I'm not used to adding that many hops.