posted this a while ago on TastyBrew, but only had one hit, so I’ll try it here. Hope you have had a chance to try The Bruery’s Humulus Lager, which is a highly-hopped light-bodied lager, really a pleasure to drink since it gives you that West Coast hop bomb satisfaction without the weight of some DIPA’s. The Bruery was willing to tell me that the beer uses the following ingredients:
Two-Row
C-15
Flaked Rice
Simcoe
Summit
Centennial
Mexican Lager yeast at 52F
However, they wouldn’t give me amounts. Anyone willing to take a stab at a clone recipe? I’m not great at starting from scratch on a recipe, but I know a lot of you thrive on that. The Bruery website says there are 4 lbs of hops per barrel and ABV is %7.2.
I’ve never tried the beer, but I would get 80-85% of the fermentables from the 2-row, 5-10% from flaked rice, and 5-10% from the C-15. Mash at 152F.
Enough Summit to get 50 IBUs @ 60 min
An ounce each of Simcoe and Centennial @ 15 min
An ounce each of Simcoe and Centennial @ 5 min
An ounce each of Simcoe and Centennial, plus 1/2 ounce of Summit @ 0 min
An ounce each of Simcoe and Centennial @ dry hop
Something along those lines anyway, you can play with the hop additions quite a bit.
Good ideas. I’m pretty convinced that once more people try this it will be a big hit, and possibly pointed to as the originator of the IPL (India Pale Lager) style. Very refreshing to get all the West Coast hop flavor and aroma that you could want with the bracing bitterness of a good pilsner and a very light malt presence. I guess it has a really small distribution right now. The brewer says they are trying to work it into their year-round line-up, but tank space is at a premium.
I’ve tried to duplicate this one as well. From trial and error I think the 60 min hop additions are close to 35 IBU’s.
I’m surprised that they use Mexican Lager yeast. I was thinking it was a maltier Lager yeast with more flavor. However, it tastes like it finishes at 1.014-1.015. The finish on this beer doesn’t taste that dry, and that is why I think the pungent hops work well.
I don’t think that should comes as that big of a surprise. According to Chris White from White Labs, the Mexican Lager yeast generally ranks the highest when they do their sensory panel studies. I have yet to brew a lager since I learned this info, but the man does know his yeast ;D
A local place had an IPL on tap when they opened a little over a year ago. They are primarily a lager brewery. They use WLP-833 for many of their beers, and the Mexican Lager too.
Well if it was first released in 2011, I can tell you that they were not the first to make an IPL. Many breweries have done one before, generally as a seasonal. Even here in Nebraska one of the local brew pubs did an IPL way back in the fall of 2010 with locally grown hops.
You may be correct. H. Lager is still a great beer, and I think the style may be on the verge of becoming more widely-brewed. Definitely worth more thought and recipe formulation from the homebrew community.