Anybody see these in the last issue? There were some interesting things about the recipes. First, most of them were very simple grain bills of 2-row and crystal. I guess you have to keep it that way when you mass produce brew. They also use Magnum as a late addition and dry hop, I hadn’t seen that before. And finally the 2.5-hr boil on the barleywine was surprising although that makes sense.
I’m looking forward to brewing the Ruthless Rye and the Bigfoot recipes.
Whats the ruthless rye recipe look like? I did a rye beer on a whim the other day and tried guessing at what ruthless was made with. I dont think itll turn out close but I was tasting ruthless in my head when I put the recipe together.
I’ll have to look when I get home, I know it only had about 1lb of rye malt in it (11oz?). I was surprised it was so low. The rest was something like 12lb of 2-row and some crystal, 60L I think.
The grain bill is 11.25lb 2-row, 13oz rye malt, 11oz crystal 40, and 1.5oz chocolate. I’ll leave you to get the magazine and find the hop schedule.
They also have a recipe for Ovila Quad, a beer I haven’t tried myself. Looks like a nice Belgian Dark Strong recipe.
Don’t leave me hanging on the Ruthless recipe…
I actually have a Ruthless clone in primary I made up and would sure like to know the hops and schedule. My grains were a little different, but it tastes awesome.
I did 11 lb. 2 row, 1.5 lb. rye, 3/4 lb. crystal 80 and 1/4 lb. chocolate for the grain and it’s was the perfect amount of rye. 13 oz seems like too little to me.
Heres a previous recipe that was supposedly from the brewery too, the hop schedule isn’t identical but very similar. Looks like your instincts were right on with the grain bill.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15532&hilit=SNPAA longer ingredient list does not equal better beer.
When I was at Beer camp, I had a chance to try one of the pre release test batches of Ruthless. I blurted out that it needed more rye and was told they had to limit it to just a bit because of their lauter system.
I did like the simplicity of their recipes. I think homebrewer’s often get caught up in the variety of stuff produced and feel the need to try everything when in reality you only need a handful (well, maybe more than a handful) of old standbys to make good beer. But of course that gets boring so the companies need to keep shelling out different grains to keep us interested. It’s good marketing really and that works at the homebrew scale. But with a massive system a brewery probably doesn’t have just a little bit of this laying around for only this beer and a little bit of that for that other beer.
I really liked this video talking about brewing simplicity and how easy it is to get caught up in adding tons and tons of different stuff into your beers because of the variety of grain available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSKHzmhrzYI was quite pleased to get that copy of BYO since SN is one of my fav’s but do you believe these are actual / original cut sheet recipes? Just curious I guess. Thoughts?
When I was at Beer camp, I had a chance to try one of the pre release test batches of Ruthless. I blurted out that it needed more rye and was told they had to limit it to just a bit because of their lauter system.[/quote]
You tell it like it is Denny! But that rye really does slow down a lauter.
I could certainly believe these are based on the actual recipes. Certainly the grain bills are simple enough, and we know SN is all about the hops.
When I was at Beer camp, I had a chance to try one of the pre release test batches of Ruthless. I blurted out that it needed more rye and was told they had to limit it to just a bit because of their lauter system.[/quote]
I could not agree more…draining for me was super slow as well. I see cascade in the list…I just had a few Ruthless and I guess I don’t recall any cascade flavors.
I am choosing to not dry hop either as I don’t believe it needs it as it would hide the rye flavor I have. I used Chinook, Citra and Mosaic hops in mine. If this one turns out as I expect, delicious, I will brew it all the time !
A longer ingredient list does not equal better beer.[/quote]
Totally agree…the best beers I’ve tasted started out with very simple grain and hop bills. Often, a longer ingredient list only produces a confused and muddled beer instead of the presumably intended flavor complexity.
2 quick comments…if lautering rye slows down your system, maybe you need to rethink your system. 
I’ve used up to 45% rye malt with no lautering issues.
A simple recipe is always best…except when it’s not! I don’t follow any rules about how many ingredients a recipe should have. I just try to make sure every ingredient makes a complementary contribution and is there for a reason.
[quote=“Denny”]2 quick comments…if lautering rye slows down your system, maybe you need to rethink your system. I’ve used up to 45% rye malt with no lautering issues.
A simple recipe is always best…except when it’s not! I don’t follow any rules about how many ingredients a recipe should have. I just try to make sure every ingredient makes a complementary contribution and is there for a reason.[/quote]
Is it because of the geometry of your mash tun in conjunction with a braided hose? I used to use a bazooka screen and it seemed to get gummed up and clogged easily. I’ve switched to a braided hose and it doesn’t seem to stick. I’m using a round (orange) cooler with a braided hose. Perhaps the square geometry works better…
[quote=“Beersk”][quote=“Denny”]2 quick comments…if lautering rye slows down your system, maybe you need to rethink your system. I’ve used up to 45% rye malt with no lautering issues.
A simple recipe is always best…except when it’s not! I don’t follow any rules about how many ingredients a recipe should have. I just try to make sure every ingredient makes a complementary contribution and is there for a reason.[/quote]
Is it because of the geometry of your mash tun in conjunction with a braided hose? I used to use a bazooka screen and it seemed to get gummed up and clogged easily. I’ve switched to a braided hose and it doesn’t seem to stick. I’m using a round (orange) cooler with a braided hose. Perhaps the square geometry works better…[/quote]
Unscientifically, I attribute it mainly to the hose. Cooler geometry might be a player, but I don’t know for sure.
Mine don’t stick, but the first runnings are thick and pour like molasses. I don’t really mind or I’d think of installing a larger ID hose.
