Nearly 2 years ago I tried this batch, and it was terrible – When looking for a cheap batch to do after the Cigar City clone, my finger landed on this page again.  Can’t be worse than last time.

Brewer’s Notes

The recipe came from Clone Brews, and we had tried it before, ending up with a keg full of acetaldehyde.  A few months of aging got rid of most of that, but I fed it to our helpdesk team.  This brew was a mess, I was trying to do it along with make dinner and was pretty distracted.  Luckily everything turned out OK.  The mash was done in two steps, mashing in at 122F for 30 minutes, then 10 minute rise time to 155F for 60 minutes.  Mash temps were held from -5F to +10F, so not great.  I added 1 gallon of water after rinsing the grain to bring volume up to 3gal before adding the malt extract.  Luckily, that added about another .25gal of volume, so we did not have a boil-over.  After the boil, added 1.5gal to bring to 5.125gal of fermenter volume.  The thermostat in the fermenter is still broken, so no temperature control for the primary.

Taste is biscuity?  More hops than expected, with a clean finish.  Color is ruby red and very clear.

OG:1.051 @ 80F, target 1.055
FG: @ F, target 1.014

Fermenting Notes

Primary

Target Temperature range: 70F

No temperature control

5.7.2015 – Checked on the status, beer all over the floor.  Vigorous fermentation meant that it overflowed a bit and the airlock is full of trub.  Cleaned out and refilled with water.  Leaving it go for a while longer.

Secondary

Target Temperature: 65F

Average: 65.01F

Standard Deviation: 0.31

copper_ale_2_secondary
5.11.2015 1.014 @ 61F – Racked to secondard, added 1/2oz of Tettnang in the dry hop. Vigorous fermentation in primary generated a lot of krausen and a 1.5″ deep yeast cake on the bottom. Flavor is young, some green apple (expected), which should clear in a few weeks of aging. Hoping that will also take sharpness off and the Tettnang brings a floral aroma.
 

Tasting Notes

5.18.2015 1.015 @63F – Racked to keg, burnt flavor, like roasted barley. Bitterness comes through in finish. Leaves malty, barley aftertaste. Appears to be over-bittered with flavor hop, peppery aroma. Not picking up acetaldehyde, which is good. Needs more body, tastes young. Will allow to age for a month as per the recipe.

7.13.2015 – This beer came out pretty well, and we have brought it to a few parties. The pepper seems to have gone away, as well as the over-bitterness. Pretty good beer – very drinkable.
8.24.2015 – The keg is almost empty, after having come off the tap for a while to make room for the Stone Pale Ale. Soon we will have room for 2 kegs, and I won’t have this problem! The beer did not age well, likely due to the temperature swings. Tastes a bit oxidized now. I don’t think this would, in general, stand up well to the original, so we may put this recipe to the wayside for a while. It needs a lot of tuning, I think it is really susceptible to fermentation issues.

Recipe