Treehouse Brewing Good Morning Clone

[triticus]

Got a growler of this last time it was released and it was fantastic. I'm working on trying to put together a recipe to try and match it.

I know it's an American Imperial Stout, they use Maple syrup, it's got nice milk chocolate and coffee notes.

I've heard they do a 120 min boil and add the Maple syrup at the beginning. What would that do other than concentrate the beer? What does maple syrup add to a beer other than obvious maple character? Does the coffee/chocolate character come from actual coffee and chocolate additions or is it all from the malt?

This is a Frankenstein recipe from several sources I'm just using as a starting point. It's mainly from "Brewing Better Beer" in the cold steeping dark grains section. But I've pulled in some pieces from other stout recipes I've seen, the amounts/ingredients might be messed up/duplicated as it's totally a rough draft.

ALL-GRAIN
------------
OG: ??
FG: ??
IBUs: 30
ABV: 8.4%
COLOR: SRM ?? (Dark obviously)

MALT/GRAIN BILL
--------------------
10 lb MCI Pale Stout Malt (I like what I've heard of this base malt for stouts)
1 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Briess Caramel 60
¾ lb Pale Chocolate Malt or 170g Chocolate Malt? (Aiming for a milk chocolate character)
½ lb CaraPils malt
½ lb Flaked Barley
¼ lb Briess Special Roast Malt
¾ lb Roasted Barley (Light?)
170g Weyermann® Dehusked Carafa® III
⅛ lb Black patent malt
1 lb Lactose (Last 15 min of boil)
X oz Grade A Dark Amber Maple Syrup (Yes Very)

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS
-------------------------
x oz Steeped Coffee ?Will there be enough coffee character from the malt?
X oz Cocoa Nibs (or cocoa powder) (again does the chocolate malt cover this)
X oz Steeped vanilla beans (Too much going on?)

HOPS SCHEDULE
-------------------
3ml Hopshot @ 60 min. (Been looking to The Alchemist's use of hop extract for a clean bitterness, seems like an appropriate product for a stout)

DIRECTIONS
-------------
Mash pH 5.2. Mash XX minutes at XXX°F. Cold steep dark grains.

Mash water treatment? Boil water treatment?

120 minute boil?

Add steeped dark malts to fermenter.

Extras
-------
½ tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.
½ Whirlfloc @ 10 min.

Yeast
------
??? Probably something English. Appropriate starter size.

Any answers/thoughts/suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Thyrodent2]

A little research revealed that Good Morning is a imperial Double Shot base recipe brewed with maple syrup. So we would definitely be adding some coffee to the stout. I don't think the coco nibs will be all that necessary but I may be wrong. I think the best plan would be to brew, taste and adjust. Hell, maybe I'll just call them tomorrow and ask for the recipe - worst they could say is no. From reading their story they started out as a bunch of backyard homebrewers not all that long ago. Maybe they will have a soft spot for us.

 

[mbbransc]

Interested to see if they offer some advise...

 

[Holybarfly]

A clone of this is #1 on my list of priorities.

Everything I've read says that it's reallllly hard to get a proper maple aroma and flavor with just syrup, and that if you use syrup, get the roughest, most unprocessed grade you can and add it to secondary.

A few folks recommended using extract and this one in particular. I picked it up and plan on giving it a go.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001M0Z4S?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

 

[Ruckusz28]

I haven't done much with Maple Syrup to have the flavor come out. Resources online suggest to use grade B maple syrup in larger than life quantities. Just be prepared to tap a few extra trees! Best of luck.

 

[Schumed]

Do you taste any maple with this beer? If you do there is no way its added during the boil...ive tried using maple alot of different ways...onlu way to achieve is to add maple at kegging and not let the keg start fermenting ...a maple barrel has decent results...every other way it just ferments out and boozes up your beer

 

[gprop3]

Not sure if this helps, but I have used maple syrup for priming and found that it made nice addition to a simple brown ale I made. Also, the bubbles in the head seemed much finer than when I force carb or use corn sugar for priming which was neat. The flavor definitely came through. Seems like a $$$ waste to boil the syrup.

 

[12thHoleBrewer]

It makes sense that the later maple is added in the process, the more flavor remains. How much maple syrup did you use for priming? Do you recall what grade it was, i.e. Amber, dark, very dark? I'm not sure if the different grades have different sugar content.

 

[Braufessor]

Do you taste any maple with this beer? If you do there is no way its added during the boil...ive tried using maple alot of different ways...onlu way to achieve is to add maple at kegging and not let the keg start fermenting ...a maple barrel has decent results...every other way it just ferments out and boozes up your beer

I agree - if it has a fair amount of maple flavor, I don't think they use maple syrup. Also, what is the finishing gravity? If it is really high like a lot of these types of stouts are (1.030-1.060 Finishing gravity)..... it is unlikely they use maple syrup. Maple syrup ferments out leaving little flavor and a drier beer.

I would buy some maple flavored coffee - whole bean. I would throw the beans into the secondary for a day or two before transferring it to serving keg.

I have a RIS stout I did this with - lots of coffee, lots of maple. If you grind beans you get more coffee and less maple. If you leave the beans whole you get more maple and less coffee. I go 1-2 ounces of beans per gallon.

I secondary in kegs..... I add the beans for a day or 2 and then jump it to a serving keg to carbonate leaving the beans behind.

 

[robopp]

They definitely use maple syrup. Nate has mentioned that adding this beer to his brewing schedule is dictated on access to Maxwell Road maple syrup. In fact, they say so on their website:

http://treehousebrew.com/beers/

 

[gprop3]

It makes sense that the later maple is added in the process, the more flavor remains. How much maple syrup did you use for priming? Do you recall what grade it was, i.e. Amber, dark, very dark? I'm not sure if the different grades have different sugar content.

I used some sort of light colored fancy stuff I found at Costco. It would most likely be amber and I just used a priming calculator online to prime it. I have upgraded my note taking system so I can't recall the specifics, but I remember the maple flavor being noticeable and pleasant. I haven't used maple syrup since, but this thread gets me thinking I should revisit it.

 

[12thHoleBrewer]

I used some sort of light colored fancy stuff I found at Costco. It would most likely be amber and I just used a priming calculator online to prime it. I have upgraded my note taking system so I can't recall the specifics, but I remember the maple flavor being noticeable and pleasant. I haven't used maple syrup since, but this thread gets me thinking I should revisit it.

Thanks for the input! By any chance do you recall the priming calculator you found on line for maple syrup? I found a couple but neither includes syrup as an choice.

 

[gprop3]

Thanks for the input! By any chance do you recall the priming calculator you found on line for maple syrup? I found a couple but neither includes syrup as an choice.

This one from Northern Brewer. http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

[mbbransc]

I have a coffee stout that was a little lacking so I decided to do some experimenting.

With about 2gal left, I added 4oz dark amber maple syrup and 2oz of vodka cinnamon extract. Tasted better but the maple was still hidden. Following some advice from here or another board, I bought some Beanilla Maple Natural Concentrate. I added 1oz to the 2gal of beer and the maple aroma was fantastic! I mean, total punch you in the face with maple, fantastic. In fact, the cinnamon was totally hidden. So I ended up adding another 1oz of cinnamon and it swung too far the other way, and ended up adding another 0.5oz Beanilla Maple. It's really tasty, but the coffee is nearly covered up now.

I'll definitely do this again, but I'm start with much smaller quantities of maple and cinnamon and slowly try dialing it in. But using some real maple and Beanilla is the ticket.

 

[gprop3]

I have a coffee stout that was a little lacking so I decided to do some experimenting.

With about 2gal left, I added 4oz dark amber maple syrup and 2oz of vodka cinnamon extract. Tasted better but the maple was still hidden. Following some advice from here or another board, I bought some Beanilla Maple Natural Concentrate. I added 1oz to the 2gal of beer and the maple aroma was fantastic! I mean, total punch you in the face with maple, fantastic. In fact, the cinnamon was totally hidden. So I ended up adding another 1oz of cinnamon and it swung too far the other way, and ended up adding another 0.5oz Beanilla Maple. It's really tasty, but the coffee is nearly covered up now.

I'll definitely do this again, but I'm start with much smaller quantities of maple and cinnamon and slowly try dialing it in. But using some real maple and Beanilla is the ticket.

This looks great, and the price I found doesn't seem too terrible, especially compared to real deal syrup. The extract plus syrup for priming would be what I would do. I think I may have to make this beer now.

 

[mbbransc]

I have a coffee stout that was a little lacking so I decided to do some experimenting.

With about 2gal left, I added 4oz dark amber maple syrup and 2oz of vodka cinnamon extract. Tasted better but the maple was still hidden. Following some advice from here or another board, I bought some Beanilla Maple Natural Concentrate. I added 1oz to the 2gal of beer and the maple aroma was fantastic! I mean, total punch you in the face with maple, fantastic. In fact, the cinnamon was totally hidden. So I ended up adding another 1oz of cinnamon and it swung too far the other way, and ended up adding another 0.5oz Beanilla Maple. It's really tasty, but the coffee is nearly covered up now.

I'll definitely do this again, but I'm start with much smaller quantities of maple and cinnamon and slowly try dialing it in. But using some real maple and Beanilla is the ticket.

I entered this beer into a local competition (21A, 2008 BJCP) and took first place out of 19 entries. I haven't got the score sheets back yet.

 

[Chuglifee]

So I'm guessing they didn't give you the clone recipe?

 

[morganm]

So I'm guessing they didn't give you the clone recipe?

I think you guessed right...