Replicator November 2001 Warthog Ale & Blue Whale Ale Dear Replicator: I appreciate your previous responses to requests about New Belgium Brewing clone recipes. Regarding our neighbors to the north, I have been driving two hundred and some miles to buy a traditional Canadian ale called "Warthog Ale" brewed by Big Rock Brewery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (www.bigrockbeer.com). Has anything been previously written about this? I would love to be able to come close to brewing it at home. Thanks, I look forward to the fall so the issues start coming in again. Tim Kober, Great Falls, MT ______________________________________________________________________________________ Tim, Big Rock Brewery in Calgary was established in 1984, and has evolved into one of North America’s premier breweries. Big Rock is all about quality, and when it was time to look for a Brewmaster, they went all the way to Europe to hire Bernd Pieper, who had brewed Guinness in Africa and had been the head brewmaster for Lowenbrau in Zurich. Bernd is a reserved man, but I was able to get some hints from him on what this beer is all about. Warthog Ale is a crossbreed of a British mild ale and an American cream ale according to Bernd. This means a lighter bodied beer, with some crystal malt for a bit of a malty flavor, and relatively low hop bitterness. The Big Rock web site also states that this beer has some resemblance to British brown ales, with a nutty finish. To keep the lighter body in an all malt beer, I suggest using a high attenuation yeast that will ferment a higher percentage of the malt sugars. A lighter bodied beer like this needs to be extremely clean to allow the delicate flavors to come through. Keep a close eye on the fermenting temperature, not allowing this beer to ferment above 68º. Most of all, enjoy the brewing process and pass the enthusiasm on into the beer! Big Rock Warthog Ale (5 gallons, extract with grains) OG = 1.045 FG = 1.011 IBUs = 14-16 Ingredients 3.3 Lbs Coopers Light Malt Syrup 2 Lbs Extra-light dry malt powder .5 Lb. 40L Crystal malt 3.75 AAU’s Willamette hops (.75 oz. of 5% alpha acid) (bittering) 4.4 AAU’s Centennial hops (.5 oz of 8.8% alpha acid (aroma) 1 tsp Irish moss for 60 min. White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast or Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley ale yeast .75 cup corn sugar for bottling Step by step Steep crushed crystal malt in 3 gallons of water at 150º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup and dry malt extract to wort, and return to a boil. Add Willamette hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add Centennial hops for the last 3 minutes of the boil. W
