I am a new brewer on my fourth batch of extract beer. I am building the setup for all grain.
My question relates to a flavor in the Tallgrass buffalo sweat beer. I enjoyed this brew at a local restaurant. It had a very distinct additional flavor that I enjoyed. Has any one had this beer and be able to identify the flavor so that I may be able to introduce it to other recipes.
Thanks in advance for any help.
KartRacer
I’ve never had it, but if you described the flavor and we could help you work it out. The lactose will give you a little residual sweetness and along with the oats some mouthfeel. The yeast choice will definitely change the flavor of the product (NB uses WLP007 or Wyeast #1098). But “distinct flavor” doesn’t give us much to go by.
Here is the AG recipe from Beersmith:
7 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Ale Malt, Northwestern (Great Western) (4.1 SRM)
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)
6.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM)
1.0 oz Willamette [5.5%] - Boil 60 min
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15 min)
0.2 oz Willamette [5.5%] - Boil 5 min
1 pkgs Denny’s Favorite Wyeast #1450
If you’re doing the NB partial mash, then they’ll probably give you the barley, patent and Vienna, maybe the victory if the NB recipe uses it. Not sure if it’s protocol to partial mash oats though, maybe someone with PM experience can chime in.
I found the same recipe independently, with the exception that my notes say that the brewer actually uses WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast. Fermentation temperature is 67 F, although for homebrewers it wouldn’t hurt and might help to bring this down to about 65 F if possible.
Northern Brewer’s extract recipe is partial mash, which is not hard – basically a glorified steep of a higher proportion of grains. If it’s your first time with partial mash, it’s no big deal, just try to keep the “steep” temperature in the 140s or 150s for 40-60 minutes and you’ll be fine.
I love the Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat! The special flavor that I taste in this beer is a hint of vanilla. It’s slightly possible that they add this at the end of fermentation as a special ingredient, but more than likely it is from their complex combination of malts, especially English black malt, and the English yeast. I’m finding that English yeasts will often give off a very slight hint of vanilla flavor. So if you want authentic flavor, I would try WLP007, or perhaps WLP002 which I’ve also had good success with.
If you do use a lower attenuating yeast (i.e., something other than WLP007), then I would either skip the lactose addition or mash longer and lower in the 140s or it might turn out way too sweet.
:cheers:
I find a lot of commercial beers have an above-average malt flavor and aroma that I struggle to duplicate. I think some of it is fresh ingredients, some is lack of oxidation from a commercial process.
I am way out of my league here. Thanks to all who replied with soooo much experience. Dave I think that you have probably identified that very different flavor as hint of vanilla. I am looking forward to trying a recipe and see how it turns out.
Also thanks for the patience as I don’t relay what I taste very well yet. Hope to improve on it. At this point I am hooked and none of the store bought brews satisfy me at this point. Probably not a good thing.
Thanks again for the input.
Tallgrass has two different versions of the Buffalo sweat. One is of course just the regular and the second is “Vanilla bean Buffalo sweat”. I can pull a little vanilla from the regular one , but the vanilla bean edition is packed full of vanilla (when fresh). For me brewing clones of commercial beers are hard to nail perfectly because like Tom said having that perfect precision and fermentation control isn’t likely on a homebrew scale.
I totally understand. I would never expect to be able replicate any recipe just want to get it close as possible.
I have nothing to add but
[quote]Tallgrass buffalo sweat flavor[/quote] is fucking hilarious.
