Widmer Bros "Drifter Pale Ale"

[Loudog]

Any new up dates on any of the Drifter Clones? I LOVE this Beer!! I can only seem to find it in a Mixed Veriety pack there is only 3 in there... I would love to make a 5 gal. batch for the summer, Hell I would even settle for an extract recipe.

Thanks guys

 

[JonW]

Any new up dates on any of the Drifter Clones? I LOVE this Beer!! I can only seem to find it in a Mixed Veriety pack there is only 3 in there... I would love to make a 5 gal. batch for the summer, Hell I would even settle for an extract recipe.

Thanks guys

I'd like to find a good recipe for this also. In the mean time, hit up BevMo, they have 6 packs of it.

 

[Loudog]

Thanks Jon, I'll check out BevMo I think theres one in Brea. Also nice Brew Rig!

 

[bjorn_brewery]

Hey guys, I'm looking to brew a drifter clone pretty soon and I was wondering how your batches turned out. Like discussed before I'm a bit worried about the residual sweetness from all the crystal that goes into this recipe. Any thoughts from your experience?

 

[dwarven_stout]

Hey guys, I'm looking to brew a drifter clone pretty soon and I was wondering how your batches turned out. Like discussed before I'm a bit worried about the residual sweetness from all the crystal that goes into this recipe. Any thoughts from your experience?

I've brewed it a few times now, and have had no trouble when mashing low (say 149). I suppose an alternative approach would be to cut the crystal and mash higher to keep some body, but then you'll have issues with color (if that's important to you). Anyway, I've taken my recipe as given above out and about, and it gets rave reviews. It's quite the tasty beer- just don't dry hop it too long!

 

[jman300sd]

I tried the below extract recipe as my first batch ever two nights ago. As soon as I put a mash tun together I definitely want to try an AG version an add the cara pils and the cara 20. I couldnt get my hands on any cara 80, so I just used some cara 60 and steeped it for just a little longer.

6 lbs DME
4 oz cara 60
6 oz caravienna
.4 oz warrior pellets (15.8%AA) -60 mins
.25 oz Nelson Sauvin pellets (12.4%AA) - 2 mins
.25 oz Summit pellets (18.7%AA) - 2 mins
1/4 oz of both summit and Nelson Sauvin at flameout
Wyeast American Ale 1056 smack pack

Initial gravity came out to 1.053. Didnt use a starter for the yeast though I definitely want to next time. Still, the Lag time was only about 9 hours. I plan on adding another 1/4 oz of summit and Nelson to dry hop for only a week in the secondary fermentor. I'm super excited to try it. Will report how it comes out. Should be ready April 1st.

 

[mhochman]

I've brewed it a few times now, and have had no trouble when mashing low (say 149). I suppose an alternative approach would be to cut the crystal and mash higher to keep some body, but then you'll have issues with color (if that's important to you). Anyway, I've taken my recipe as given above out and about, and it gets rave reviews. It's quite the tasty beer- just don't dry hop it too long!

Can you post your updated and refined recipe? Looks like you mentioned some tweaks in your subsequent posts but never posted a totally updated recipe. Thanks so much. I've only been able to find drifter once as it's not available around here (as best I can tell).

Sent from my iPad using HB Talk

 

[CA-LT1]

Hey dwarven, you could post your recipe in the tried-and-true recipe section if you feel it's refined enough.

Based on this thread, here's what I did:
5.25 gal batch
9 lb 2-row
12 oz C.20
8 oz C. 80
8 oz Caravienne
4 oz Cara-Pils
.5 oz Warrior 15.5% 60 min
.25 oz Summit 17% 5 min
.25 Nelson Sauvin 12.4% 5 min
.5 each N.S and Summit dry hop
Yeast: US-05
OG:1.055
FG: 1.009

I think it came out pretty good. I must have mashed a little low, FG just a touch low.

Now, a question for you all. Where the heck is all the N.S. hops? Did Widmer buy all of it for their Deadlift IPA? I can't find any of it for sale anywhere, and i want to brew this again

 

[damdaman]

I recently brewed a Drifter clone based off this thread as well. I bottled it last week, only tasted hydrometer samples so far.

I have to say, the samples did taste a TAD sweet, but I'm wondering how that will change after bottle conditioning and carbonation. It wasn't overwhelming, just slightly noticeable (and to be fair, I was looking for that after reading this thread).

The hop flavor was very close to the real deal! I drank the sample side-by-side with the real thing.

Can report back how it turned out in another week or two. I have 3 bottles of Drifter in the fridge for comparison, too.

Here was my recipe:

9lb 2-row
8oz caramel 20
8oz caramel 80
8oz caravienne
4oz cara-Pils

150* mash for 60mins

.4oz columbus 17.7% 60 min (LHBS was out of warrior)
.25oz nelson sauvin 12.5% 10 min
.25oz summit 18% 10 min
.5oz nelson sauvin dry hop 5 days
.5oz summit dry hop 5 days

Measured OG: 1.059
Measured FG: 1.012

 

[damdaman]

So I'm taste-testing the recipe I posted just above with a bottle of the real thing.

Color: almost identical
Aroma: hop aroma much more noticeable in mine, this could just be freshness though
Flavor: very close. Summit hops come through more on mine, nelson sauvin come through a little more on Widmer's. Bitterness is spot on. Maltiness of my version is just a tad sweeter, but hardly noticeable.

I have to say this recipe is pretty close.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

Hey brother was your recipe for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[damdaman]

Hey brother was your recipe for a 5 gallon batch?

Yep.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

So me doubling the recipe should get me close?

 

[ozzy1038]

Okay I realize this post is a few months old, but I had Drifter for the first time last night and am hooked. This is one of, if not the best beer I've ever had! My wife even liked it and she does not like beer. This will be getting brewed as soon as some nelson sauvin hops are in my hands.

 

[ozzy1038]

I just ordered 10oz of Nelson hops. That should keep me going for a little bit! :rockin:

 

[PJM]

Ozzy, did you brew this recipe and if so, how did it turn out? Had one for the first recently and was blown away.

 

[Calichusetts]

No idea how I missed this thread as it is also one of my favorite beers. Has anyone tried to recreate the "alchemy" hops by blending warrior, millenium and horizon?

Keep this thread alive as I'll probably try a clone this summer if the recipies are turning out as good as they say

 

[millhouse9]

I recently brewed a Drifter clone based off this thread as well. I bottled it last week, only tasted hydrometer samples so far.

I have to say, the samples did taste a TAD sweet, but I'm wondering how that will change after bottle conditioning and carbonation. It wasn't overwhelming, just slightly noticeable (and to be fair, I was looking for that after reading this thread).

The hop flavor was very close to the real deal! I drank the sample side-by-side with the real thing.

Can report back how it turned out in another week or two. I have 3 bottles of Drifter in the fridge for comparison, too.

Here was my recipe:

9lb 2-row
8oz caramel 20
8oz caramel 80
8oz caravienne
4oz cara-Pils

150* mash for 60mins

.4oz columbus 17.7% 60 min (LHBS was out of warrior)
.25oz nelson sauvin 12.5% 10 min
.25oz summit 18% 10 min
.5oz nelson sauvin dry hop 5 days
.5oz summit dry hop 5 days

Measured OG: 1.059
Measured FG: 1.012

What yeast did you use? Safale-05?

 

[SAMPLER]

Any recent updates or thoughts on this clone?

 

[allenH]

Hey dwarven, you could post your recipe in the tried-and-true recipe section if you feel it's refined enough.

Based on this thread, here's what I did:
5.25 gal batch
9 lb 2-row
12 oz C.20
8 oz C. 80
8 oz Caravienne
4 oz Cara-Pils
.5 oz Warrior 15.5% 60 min
.25 oz Summit 17% 5 min
.25 Nelson Sauvin 12.4% 5 min
.5 each N.S and Summit dry hop
Yeast: US-05
OG:1.055
FG: 1.009

I think it came out pretty good. I must have mashed a little low, FG just a touch low.

Now, a question for you all. Where the heck is all the N.S. hops? Did Widmer buy all of it for their Deadlift IPA? I can't find any of it for sale anywhere, and i want to brew this again

I used this recipe, mashed low, and subbed the Warrior for Magnum (on hand). Ran all the calcs through brew calculus and adjusted accordingly to what was on hand.



Beautiful beer, it was a little on the bitter side, after 2 weeks on the gas, it is much smoother. IMO, not quite Drifter, but damn good. I love Nelson Sauvin.

 

[CA-LT1]

Nice, glad it worked out

 

[Ebbtide]

The Drifter PA is my favorite. I'd really like to try this clone and wanted to see if anyone had an update to what they have brewed and from what recipe? Thanks for any feedback before I purchase the grain bill.