Anniversary Ale Clone... Recipe and Rationale!!

As summer approaches also does my desire to start making beer!! Over the last few weeks I have been wrestling with the idea of making something familiar and tasty.

Sierra Nevada Brewing co. is a pinnacle of Northern California brewing and represents a distinct taste and style that has become synonymous with the west coast. Of their many fine ales (and at least one lager I know of) one of my favorites has always been the Anniversary Ale IPA. Although not explicitly labeled as an IPA, anyone who has had the pleasure of drinking it knows that it couldn't be called anything else!!

After a couple of visits to the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, CA, I realized that the tour pamphlet that I brought home with me had every beer that is regularly sold by the company within it. Not only that, but each page had a caption that spells out the exact ingredients used in each beer. The wheels began to turn...

Below I have formulated a preliminary recipe. With the help of some online calculators I have settled on some proportions for the ingredients and have acquiesced a fairly clear picture of the IBU and Gravity potentials. As an amateur homebrewer I am typically limited to extract brewing and have substituted the Two-Row Pale malts normally used in making this beer with Pale liquid extract... Although I do not expect this to be a dead ringer for the Anniversary Ale, anything comparable will suffice.

Original Recipe Concept

6lbs. of Light Pale Malt Extract

½ lb. of Munich malt

½ lb. of Caramel malt

½ oz. of Chinook hops (11-14%), ½ oz. Centennial hops(9-11%)

(60 minutes)

½ oz. of Cascade hops (4-7%)

(15 minutes)

½ oz. of Cascade hops (4-7%)

(5 minutes)

½ tsp. Irish Moss

Wyeast American Ale 1056

Dry Hop: ½ oz. Chinook hops (11-14%), ½ oz. Centennial hops (9-11%), ½ oz. Cascade (4-7%) hops in the secondary carboy

Potential gravity: 1.050

(5 gallon batch)

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/gravity.html

Potential alcohol: 6.9%

Potential IBU (prior to dry hopping): 51.2 -67.2

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/ibu.php

Note: These numbers are calculated for a 5 Gallon batch, I may decide to do a smaller batch... and if so the proportions may be altered. These numbers look ideal and I will be shooting to replicate these potential results!! Also, the IBU calculation is prior to the addition of Dry hops. I figure this will alter the number somewhat... but the aroma should be amazing regardless!!!

... There will be more posts regarding this recipe once I start brewing, perhaps April or May!!!