American Pale Ale Russian River Row 2 Hill 56 Clone

[Taranis]

I don't add any lactic acid or acid malt when I brew this. I have the same source water as Russian River, so the only additions I make are gypsum and campden tablets to deal with the chloramine.



It's one of my favorites too, and invariably what I order first when I'm at the brewpub.

I also live in Santa Rosa and have to treat the mash with acid to prevent astringent flavors caused by having too high a PH. Santa Rosa water is treated with Lye, and is ridiculously alkali.
I've pretty much given up on using SR water - BTW, I talked to the guys over at Russian River and they said that they have an RO unit and they adjust from there depending on style/recipe. But I talked to someone else and they said it's Santa Rosa water. I'm so confused!

 

[Taranis]

Double post...

 

[Jukas]

I also live in Santa Rosa and have to treat the mash with acid to prevent astringent flavors caused by having too high a PH. Santa Rosa water is treated with Lye, and is ridiculously alkali.

I've pretty much given up on using SR water - BTW, I talked to the guys over at Russian River and they said that they have an RO unit and they adjust from there depending on style/recipe. But I talked to someone else and they said it's Santa Rosa water. I'm so confused!

Interesting, when I had talked to Vinnie he mentioned using SR water without any mention of RO but that was a few years ago now. A commercial RO unit capable of producing > 500GPD would not only be expensive, but space consuming as you'd need a holding tank, pumps etc. I'd be surprised they were willing to sacrifice that much space for it, let alone two of them (don't they still brew at the pub as well as their new production brewery?).

I should send off a sample from my tap to ward labs as there are dramatic differences being reported between the water agency and the city of Santa Rosa. As for what to do? You could boil, cool and siphon off the particulates, or easier would be to cut with R/O at either 2:1 or 1:1 and adjust as needed.

 

[Taranis]

Interesting, when I had talked to Vinnie he mentioned using SR water without any mention of RO but that was a few years ago now. A commercial RO unit capable of producing > 500GPD would not only be expensive, but space consuming as you'd need a holding tank, pumps etc. I'd be surprised they were willing to sacrifice that much space for it, let alone two of them (don't they still brew at the pub as well as their new production brewery?).

I should send off a sample from my tap to ward labs as there are dramatic differences being reported between the water agency and the city of Santa Rosa. As for what to do? You could boil, cool and siphon off the particulates, or easier would be to cut with R/O at either 2:1 or 1:1 and adjust as needed.

I would LOVE to see a ward labs report on Santa Rosa city tap water. What I have is:
Ca+2: 22
Mg+2: 14
Na+: 18
Cl-: 7
SO4-2: 13
Alkalinity: 142 (HCO3)
pH: 8.4

What you say about the space requirements for an RO system makes sense - yes they brew in @ both the Pub and their offsite location

 

[skinnyterror]

Water shmater! This beer is tasty. Even my wine making, "best palate" in the world having, father in law loved it. This recipe is going in the keezer rotation.

 

[undefined]

This was pretty good. Might try it again sometime with some other hops.
Switched the Crystal 20 for CaraRed, and added some hops around 15 minutes.

Looks a little darker than it really is.

Oh, and of course – a big thanks for the recipe!

 

[drunkmonk59]

I brewed 12 gallon batch of this almost two weeks ago. Built up r/o water to match what FW uses for their pale 31. I got crazy efficiency that day and ended up with an OG of 1.068. I was worried about my bitterness, but the hydrometer samples both had a really nice bitterness with very nice pine, citrus, and lemon flavors. It's crashing now at 33 degrees. I dry hopped each 5 gallons with 2.85 ounces since my OG was higher.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Interesting, when I had talked to Vinnie he mentioned using SR water without any mention of RO but that was a few years ago now. A commercial RO unit capable of producing > 500GPD would not only be expensive, but space consuming as you'd need a holding tank, pumps etc. I'd be surprised they were willing to sacrifice that much space for it, let alone two of them (don't they still brew at the pub as well as their new production brewery?).

I should send off a sample from my tap to ward labs as there are dramatic differences being reported between the water agency and the city of Santa Rosa. As for what to do? You could boil, cool and siphon off the particulates, or easier would be to cut with R/O at either 2:1 or 1:1 and adjust as needed.

Lots of breweries, including bigger ones, like FW DO indeed have RO systems. FW goes all RO and builds back up, but other breweries will cut tap water (usually run through a charcoal filter system first) with RO and do it that way.

I don't specifically know about Russian River, because like you, I've heard both things. It's also feasible, that they RO at the main production brewery and go with filtered tap at the pub since they are in two distinct areas and possibly have different water sources/properties.

 

[chickypad]

Jukas, just wanted to say thanks for doing the legwork on this. Drinking my first keg now and it's spot on. I totally agree with your comments on freshness. Whenever I see those folks complaining that Pliny's not all that I have to think they've never had it fresh at the pub or 2 days in the bottle

Anyway, since I can't get up north with my growlers often enough I'm happy to have found this recipe.

 

[snowtires]

I am going to brew this today. Except with carastan 35l instead of crystal 20 and s04 yeast because that's all I have.

 

[snowtires]

Ended up at 1.050 oops

 

[Jukas]

Jukas, just wanted to say thanks for doing the legwork on this. Drinking my first keg now and it's spot on. I totally agree with your comments on freshness. Whenever I see those folks complaining that Pliny's not all that I have to think they've never had it fresh at the pub or 2 days in the bottle

Anyway, since I can't get up north with my growlers often enough I'm happy to have found this recipe.

Glad you liked it! I haven't brewed anything in a while as we're getting ready to sell our house, but this is the first brew on my list once we've moved!

I am going to brew this today. Except with carastan 35l instead of crystal 20 and s04 yeast because that's all I have.

Ended up at 1.050 oops

I wouldn't worry much about being 5pts off.

 

[snowtires]

Its fermenting happily away in the low 60's keeping the s04 in check

 

[crusader1612]

Its fermenting happily away in the low 60's keeping the s04 in check

04 is a interesting choice. Let us know how it turns out.


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[drunkmonk59]

Hey Jukas, thanks a ton for a wonderful recipe. My OG was high at 1.067, but what a wonderful beer this made! I've never been fortunate enought to try the real thing, but it is delicious.

My homebrew club had a pale ale comp last month and I just missed entering. The other night I brought this and it was tried along with 14 other pale's that were in the comp in a blind tasting. My beer won crowd favorite first place! :rockin:

I'll be doing another batch of this real soon.

Cheers!

 

[snowtires]

I'm drinking mine now, its got a little tank with the so4 and I wouldn't recommend using that yeast. Other then that I think its great

 

[Jukas]

Hey Jukas, thanks a ton for a wonderful recipe. My OG was high at 1.067, but what a wonderful beer this made! I've never been fortunate enought to try the real thing, but it is delicious.



My homebrew club had a pale ale comp last month and I just missed entering. The other night I brought this and it was tried along with 14 other pale's that were in the comp in a blind tasting. My beer won crowd favorite first place! :rockin:



I'll be doing another batch of this real soon.



Cheers!

Glad to hear you liked it. If you ever get up here try it at the pub, a fresh keg is pretty great.



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[user 156936]

Just wanted to drop a line and say Thanks Jukas for the great recipe.

I brewed this for the second time on Saturday. Nailed my numbers even with a stuck sparge.

First time I made this at the tail end of December I followed the recipe to a tee and it was a complete hit. This time I followed the recipe exactly again but I am experimenting by splitting my batch with White 001 for one half and White 002 for the other half. Looking forward to the side-by-side taste test.

Cheers!

 

[Jukas]

Just wanted to drop a line and say Thanks Jukas for the great recipe.

I brewed this for the second time on Saturday. Nailed my numbers even with a stuck sparge.

First time I made this at the tail end of December I followed the recipe to a tee and it was a complete hit. This time I followed the recipe exactly again but I am experimenting by splitting my batch with White 001 for one half and White 002 for the other half. Looking forward to the side-by-side taste test.

Cheers!

Glad you liked it! For me the hops are the star of this beer and the malt bill is the backup chorus. I like the clean wlp001 and personally feel and English ale yeast would bring a yeast profile that I don't want in this beer.

I'll be curious to hear what you think after a side by side comparison.





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[rickyrich]

So I made this recipe and everything went great. However, i accidentally pitched WLP320 instead of Cali ale. (Labels on harvested yeast from now on)

The beer doesn't taste anything like Row 2 nor am I getting any of the dank simcoe aroma or flavor. The aroma is heavy passionfruit and even the taste is passionfruit. It reminds me of Kona Wailua Wheat. It actually taste really good. My question is should I dry hop it? I'm suppose to be dh with simcoe as scheduled per this recipe but it seems that now I should change that. Any suggestions? What kind of hops would accentuate that passionfruit flavor/aroma? I'm scared of losing that.

 

[Jukas]

So I made this recipe and everything went great. However, i accidentally pitched WLP320 instead of Cali ale. (Labels on harvested yeast from now on)

The beer doesn't taste anything like Row 2 nor am I getting any of the dank simcoe aroma or flavor. The aroma is heavy passionfruit and even the taste is passionfruit. It reminds me of Kona Wailua Wheat. It actually taste really good. My question is should I dry hop it? I'm suppose to be dh with simcoe as scheduled per this recipe but it seems that now I should change that. Any suggestions? What kind of hops would accentuate that passionfruit flavor/aroma? I'm scared of losing that.

Reading the above the first hop that jumped to mind is Citra. I find a little goes a long way in dry hopping though.

If you don't have any Citra and want to stay with a fruity aroma you could look at Centennial or Amarillo, if you want a little more spice to go with the hefe yeast you could look at Cascade.

 

[rickyrich]

I also have some NZ hops. Pacific Jade, Wai Iti, Motueka. Thanks for the quick reply!


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[Sleepyemt]

Do you have Nelson?


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[thadius856]

So I made this recipe and everything went great. However, i accidentally pitched WLP320 instead of Cali ale. (Labels on harvested yeast from now on)

The beer doesn't taste anything like Row 2 nor am I getting any of the dank simcoe aroma or flavor. The aroma is heavy passionfruit and even the taste is passionfruit. It reminds me of Kona Wailua Wheat. It actually taste really good. My question is should I dry hop it? I'm suppose to be dh with simcoe as scheduled per this recipe but it seems that now I should change that. Any suggestions? What kind of hops would accentuate that passionfruit flavor/aroma? I'm scared of losing that.

I love the huge passionfruit notes from this recipe.

I'd say stay the course and dry-hop with Simcoe.

Or split the batch and do a side-by-side.

 

[Jukas]

You could do Nelson, but I'm worried the white wine type profile could get lost in the existing passionfruit.

You could also try Sorachi Ace to bring a bit of lemon citrus to the beer.

I'm curious to hear what you decide and how the beer ends up.

 

[autiger]

Brewed this last Sunday. Had a small boil over at the 90 minute addition so I tossed in some Columbus to account for the hops that ended up on my balcony! Fermenting at 68 with S-05 and will dryhop on Tuesday if FG has been reached.


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[coldcrash]

So not ready for prime time, but this smelled so good yesterday when I bottled it, just couldn't resist tonight.

Never had the original but this is ridiculous.

Thanks Jukas!

 

[rickyrich]

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to update the thread. I ended up dry hopping with Simcoe and Centennial. The beer turned out excellent. One my friends compared it to Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin. I haven't had that though so I can't commment.

I will def brew this again with the correct yeast. However, the WLP320 still produces a unique/great beer.

 

[berley31]

Brewed this recipe a couple of weeks ago; curious to see how it turns out, as the hopping rates are low compared to so many other APAs out there now!

Brew notes from my day are here:

http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/06/brewing-russian-river-row-2-hill-56.html

 

[rickyrich]

I went to RR a few weeks ago and got a growler of R2. I noticed a change in color and body. The beer seemed more malty. I'm thinking about adding some Munich to this grain bill. What do you guys think? How much should I add?


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