Brewday 13/12/2009 - Sam Adams Clone

[Frothy]

Hi Bosium

What's the fast ferment test?

Frothy

[simco999]

I used Hallertauer hopes in my latest Weiss - tasted good out of the FV.

Great pics - nice to see your reserve stocks!!!

[bosium]

Bosium, I know it's too late, but here's the Clone Brews recipe for Sam Adams Boston Lager - take with appropriate pinch of salt...

4.1kg US 2-row
.23kg 60L Crystal

Book says SA use a decoction mash (though book recommends a two stage infusion mash at 50C - 30min, and 65.5C for 60min) - your munich and melanoidin look fine for a single infusion version to bump the maltiness and body.

Hopping:
Tettnanger 57g 4.5% 60min
Hall. Mittelfruh 14g 15min
Tettnanger 14g 2 min
Dry hop Hall.Mittelfruh 7g

So actually, your recipe is pretty similar - they recommend 2206 or 2124, but not sure that would make a huge difference to the 2001. Sounds like a good one - hope it works out well!

Cheers Coates, yeah tbh generally I don't trust the Clone Brews recipes as far as I can throw them (as it were), but that one's probably not far off. I do think there aren't enough hops in it though - I really doubt you'd taste any difference from dry hopping with only 7g of a low-alpha hop like Mittelfruh.

This was my first stab at it and I think it actually got me pretty close. I agree - I think the real malt bill is 2-row and crystal 60 + decoction, but US 2-row is pretty hard to come by here! Pilsner malt just seemed like the right substitution for a lager, and UK medium crystal was as close as I could get to US crystal 60.

As for hops, I definitely over-did it a bit. I would dial down the hops by about 30% and use much more Hallertau than Tettnang as the Tett really dominates. I find it adds an almost chewy quality to the beer. I forwent the dry hopping in favour of a big steep instead. The beer had absolute bags of aroma, but did lack a certain resinous character that the commercial beer has.

Either way, this beer turned out to be one of the best lagers I've made, I haven't topped it since really. I will probably adjust the recipe slightly and re-brew it, maybe make a Christmas tradition of it. I've got a big yeast cake of WLP833 that I can use from my last pilsner, I tend to get one pitch of lager yeast going and then repitch it into three or four beers before changing strains.

Hi Bosium
What's the fast ferment test?
Frothy

A FFT is when you take some extra wort from the brew, and ferment it warm with a huge amount of yeast relative to the volume of wort. For eg, say you put 20L in your primary, you would take say 500ml of the same wort and pitch (ideally) the same yeast as you're using in the primary fermentation but at a much higher pitching rate, and ferment it at room temperature rather than refrigerate it.

The sample in the FFT will attenuate fully, and will give you a good idea of what the limit of attuation of your wort is. Say my OG was 1.054, and my FFT sample ended at 1.010, I'd expect my beer to finish a few points higher than the FFT - say 1.012-1.014. It's a useful tool for a number of reasons, especially so for lagers. Have a read of this link for more info, it's a great site: Fast Ferment Test

[coatesg]

tbh generally I don't trust the Clone Brews recipes as far as I can throw them (as it were), but that one's probably not far off. I do think there aren't enough hops in it though - I really doubt you'd taste any difference from dry hopping with only 7g of a low-alpha hop like Mittelfruh.

Snap - some of the clone brew recipes are a bit odd (pear essence in Duvel?) - but, most will produce decent beer, if not necessarily bang on... Though, this looks one of the more sensible recipes in there, but yourI''d agree on the hopping too - I find most recipes often under estimate hop amounts - I think a lot comes down to process and equipment, but 7g in 5 gallons isn't much at all...

[Frothy]

cool thanks, great site