BeerBorg

In another thread, I mentioned that I could give some insight on the Yazoo recipes that I've replicated. I figured I'd start a thread over here with what I've learned from Linus and other brewers in discussions, from tasting a ton of the product, from brewing variations in the past, and from other means. I enjoy the challenge of trying to replicate my favorite beers, so it has been a lot of fun to work on these. I feel that they are pretty good representations of the actual product.

Note that I do most of my brews at either 2.4 or 3 gallon, but I'll scale these to 5 gallon with a 75% efficiency. You can obviously adjust, round, scale as you see fit, as I just let BeerSmith adjust them, and thus there are some weird amouts that could easily be rounded.

Note that these are my homebrew takes on these beers, and any similarity to the actual Yazoo recipes is purely coincidental... well, that's not totally true... I intend to try to make them similar to the real McCoy, but you get my drift...

Dos Perros

I've made this one a few times, with the last one being fairly spot on. This is Yazoo's flagship beer. It is an ale, but is a spin on a Mexican brown (which is normally a lager, but I digress). Quite sessionable at 3.5%, but packs a lot of flavor. Note that they have recently changed this to [4.9% abv/16 IBU/13.7 SRM], so this is technically a clone of the old version's recipe. I'm considering adjusting things to hit something close to that, but I have yet to give that a go. But I kind of like the sessionability of the this recipe, so I may leave it intact. Regardless, it's on my short list for another go...

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.49 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 58.51 %
2.49 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 32.51 %
0.36 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 4.73 %
0.23 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 2.96 %
0.10 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1.30 %
0.84 oz Pearle [5.40 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 19.4 IBU
0.42 oz Saaz [4.90 %] (5 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.041 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.73 %
Bitterness: 21.0 IBU
Est Color: 13.9 SRM

Gerst Amber

This is a historic beer in Nashville. You can read the history a bit in my Six Pack Project. Another very sessionable beer that plays like a lager but is actually an ale. You want to ferment this one cool to get the lager-like qualities. I liked my result here and want to take another cut at it to further perfect, but here's where Linus pretty well laid out the recipe if you want to adjust based on his comments.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.75 lb 2-Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 49.83 %
3.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 31.47 %
1.18 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 12.41 %
0.60 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 6.29 %
0.25 oz Pearle [7.70 %] (55 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
0.25 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (20 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.25 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (7 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale


Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.93 %
Bitterness: 10.5 IBU
Est Color: 6.7 SRM

Hop Project IPA

Hop Project changes hop variety and schedule each time, so I can't offer true assistance here, but I can show one that I did (I don't remember which Project number this one was based on). The current variety (#74) uses "mostly East Kent Goldings and Progress hops. I used some Cascade for flavor and a touch of Chinook for a stronger bitterness." You can hit their blog to get an idea on what the hop schedule is for each batch (the one above, for instance, doesn't give enough detail to totally build the schedule, but sometimes they break it down in total). The grain bill generally stays the same...

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.50 lb Two Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 65.52 %
3.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 24.14 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 10.34 %
2.12 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 53.8 IBU
5.29 oz Centennial [1.67 %] (10 min) Hops 10.2 IBU
5.29 oz Cascade [1.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.059 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.70 %
Bitterness: 70.0 IBU
Est Color: 9.8 SRM

Pale Ale

This is, I think, the version I sent Kealia. If it's not, it was very similar. I note, however, that the current specs list the beer at 47IBU, and my version was at 40IBU, which may account for some of the difference that Kealia tastes (I'm going to go get a bottle of Pale this weekend to do my own comparison). My recipe is based on their recipe from a couple years ago, so they've obviously adjusted a touch. I've liked the versions I've produced of this, but I will likely adjust a bit on the next batch.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.95 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 89.30 %
0.71 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 6.38 %
0.32 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2.88 %
0.16 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 1.44 %
0.88 oz Pearle [5.40 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 14.1 IBU
0.56 oz Amarillo Gold [8.20 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 13.6 IBU
0.32 oz Cascade [5.30 %] (30 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
3.20 oz Cascade [5.30 %] (5 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.80 %
Bitterness: 40.3 IBU
Est Color: 6.0 SRM

Sly Rye Porter

Big disclaimer here... This is one I've always intended to do, but have never actually done. Based on reading and discussions, I'm pretty darn confident that my grain percentages are pretty well on target, as well as my hop schedule. I recently finished a case of the actual Yazoo product, so I'm kinda burnt out on it now, but I imagine this will be in the near-term schedule...

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 73.39 %
1.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 8.90 %
1.00 lb Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 8.88 %
0.59 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 5.29 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.22 %
0.15 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 1.32 %
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 15.9 IBU
0.36 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 3.6 IBU
0.86 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
1.43 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.6 IBU

Est Original Gravity: 1.059 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.70 %
Bitterness: 28.0 IBU
Est Color: 29.0 SRM

Looks interesting. I've often thought of putting carafa III in my rye just to see what it would do. Also have been thinking of some roasted barley (maybe 3 oz for 6 gallons) with rye in place of carafa. Never had the guts to do it.
But a rye porter, now I can't say I've ever had that!

Sue

Sue is Yazoo's award winning smoked porter. I've done this twice, and the second one was spot-on (using the recipe below), except that I missed my gravities a bunch and it was a percent or so low on the ABV. I love this beer (Kealia drain-poured it, so YMMV... )... it's a big, smoky, roasty porter that is a real sipper. I won't brew again for a while because I have about 8-9 bombers the actual Yazoo product in my cellar, but it will make the rotation again as that supply diminishes...

Amount Item Type % or IBU
12.08 lb Pale Malt 2-Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 68.12 %
1.81 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 10.23 %
1.81 lb Cherry Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 10.21 %
1.02 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 5.74 %
0.85 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.78 %
0.16 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 0.92 %
1.72 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 57.8 IBU
1.32 oz Pearle [5.40 %] (30 min) Hops 14.2 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale


Est Original Gravity: 1.094 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.024 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.22 %
Bitterness: 72.0 IBU
Est Color: 38.8 SRM

Thank you so much!

Some of these - if not many of these - are going to go into my list of things to brew. The fact that they are putting Munich and/or Vienna into just about anything pushes all my buttons, as I like to put Munich and/or Vienna into just about anything too!

And London ESB is one of my favorite English yeasts.

If there was any question of me hanging out at Yazoo if I end up in Nashville again, there isn't now.

Hap and Harry's Tennessee Lager

This is another one I have yet to do, but I feel pretty good about the recipe based upon the info I've seen/read/heard/tasted. This is Yazoo and Lipman (their distributor)'s answer to the BMC pale lager category. Yazoo's version has a bit more character and hop presence than the standard BMC, and it's my go-to when I am in the mood for a pale lager. You can see the spec list here if you'd like to play with this. I plan to do this as my next lager...



Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.05 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 69.57 %
2.64 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 26.09 %
0.44 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
0.42 oz Pearle [7.70 %] (60 min) Hops 11.3 IBU
1.26 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
1 Pkgs German Bock Lager (White Labs #WLP833) Yeast-Lager


Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.41 %
Bitterness: 14.8 IBU
Est Color: 5.5 SRM

mashani wrote:Thank you so much!

Some of these - if not many of these - are going to go into my list of things to brew. The fact that they are putting Munich and/or Vienna into just about anything pushes all my buttons, as I like to put Munich and/or Vienna into just about anything too!

And London ESB is one of my favorite English yeasts.

If there was any question of me hanging out at Yazoo if I end up in Nashville again, there isn't now.

The London ESB is Linus' house yeast. They are expanding the yeast profile a bit now with the sours, saisons, etc., but most of the base beers use it. I had the wheat recipe (they handed out at the homebrew store during Nashville Beer Week), but I can't put my fingers on it. I'll add it if/when I find it.

Gotta bump this thread for goodness sakes. The Sue and Gerst will be in my lineup somewhere.

We have to make the Gerst. After all, it has Pearlllleaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Its spelled wrong. Its Perleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Inkleg wrote:We have to make the Gerst. After all, it has Pearlllleaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Beer-lord wrote:Its spelled wrong. Its Perleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

After drinking that I think I will be doing a batch!