Brewing Up a Revolution
When Revolution Brewing Company started making beer in and for Chicagoland 13 years ago, Founder Josh Deth might not have known what an absolute IPA powerhouse he was setting into motion. However, he wouldn’t have to wait long to see the signs. The first IPA out of the tanks in 2010, Anti-Hero IPA, was extremely popular right from the beginning. Considered by many a quintessential Midwest IPA, Anti-Hero is now Illinois’ highest-selling independent India pale ale. The East and West Coasts often get all the hype and love when it comes to IPAs, but Revolution has planted its flag firmly in the Midwest, with Anti-Hero leading the charge.
As the largest independent brewery in Illinois and 39th largest U.S. craft brewer in 2022 according to the Brewers Association, Revolution has put a laser focus on brewing innovative hoppy beer, but it isn’t only about the hops. Head Brewer Jim Cibak has a philosophy that prioritizes balance above anything else, whether that’s in the brewery’s hop-forward IPAs, easily approachable ales and lagers, collection of kettle-soured fruit beers, or big, boozy beers from their award-winning Deep Wood barrel program.
The brewing and barrel teams at Revolution have shared brewing advice and opened up their recipe books for us to pass along to our readers five of their most popular beers, including pro tips to help homebrewers make their own versions of these fan-favorite beers.
Origin Story
Josh Deth came up with the idea for Revolution Brewing while working as a cellarman and brewer at Goose Island in the late 1990s. It took a while, but eventually his vision became reality, and the brewery opened in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in early 2010 as a brewpub. There were only a few brewpubs in the city limits at that time — with a relatively larger number of breweries in the area more focused on packaging and distribution — and Deth was determined it was the right way to start.
“I knew I wanted to go direct to the people,” he said. “Make our beer and present it and taste it with you. The brewpub was a great model for that.”
Two years later, Revolution leased space to open its Kedzie production brewery facility and taproom, now home to three brewing systems: The main workhorse 120-barrel, four-vessel brewhouse, a medium-sized 45-barrel system (the original brewhouse of the Kedzie location), and a 1-barrel pilot system. Having multiple brewhouses of varying capacity allows for plenty of opportunity to experiment with ingredients and styles.
A decade later, in 2022, the brewery was able to purchase the Kedzie production facility, firmly establishing its brewing future in Chicago. The current distribution footprint is 11 states, centered in the Midwest with a large focus on its home state of Illinois. Its hometown pride is always on full display in beer branding and packaging with names and visual references to the city’s iconic four-star Chicago flag, historical figures, and art/architecture.
The need to expand beyond the brewpub was in large part due to the support of its flagship beer, Anti-Hero IPA. An excellent example of a Midwest IPA, the recipe, which the brewery has shared with us, has been brewed under the same name since the very first days of the brewpub. The success of it has not wavered, as Anti-Hero is now the beer that keeps many of the 800-barrel fermenters consistently full at the production brewery.
Early variations of the beer were simply named for showcased hop varieties: Galaxy-Hero IPA, Citra-Hero IPA, etc. Over the years there have been spin-offs of varying strengths and clarity such as Hazy-Hero and Every Day-Hero Session IPA. The beer has also provided the inspiration and foundation for hop exploration at Revolution that resulted in innovations like the League of Heroes mixed 12-packs, recent editions of which included beers like Subz-Hero Cold IPA, Jukebox-Hero Black IPA, and Soul-Hero West Coast IPA.
Life is a Balancing Act
Even though Revolution is often hyped as a hop-forward brewery, the main goal in any Revolution beer is drinkability. Cibak has been with Revolution since the very first brews at the brewpub and now oversees brewing operations at both locations. He says their beers’ high drinkability comes from a dedicated focus on balance.
“No matter if we’re brewing a 3.5% ABV English mild ale or a 17% ABV triple-barreled barleywine,” said Cibak, “we’re always trying to achieve balance in those beers and make them drinkable; a well-rounded experience. We want it to be as refined as we possibly can, even though sometimes the intensity level gets pushed about as far as you can go.”
Revolution’s Pro Tips on Dry Hopping (sidebar)
Dry hopping is a key element to elevate hop aromatics in Revolution’s many IPAs. Coincidentally, the brewers say, smart dry hopping begins with your yeast. “Know your yeast” is a mantra I heard repeated many times while talking with the Revolution team. Knowing a yeast strain is more than understanding its flavor profile or what alcohol content you can expect to achieve. It’s essential to be familiar with your yeast and know its timeline for fermentation because at Revolution, most IPAs are dry hopped based on percentage of fermentation before terminal gravity. So, knowing the performance of your yeast will help you better plan for dry hopping. Following are dry-hopping tips directly from Revolution’s brewing team.
It is important to dry hop when there is still fermentation activity to help break up the hop pellets, keep them from clumping or forming a layer on top of the beer, and encourage interaction with yeast to extract the cleanest aromatics from your hops as possible. At Revolution, this means dry hopping at specific parameters during fermentation — about 2–4 gravity points above terminal gravity and at 70 °F (21 °C) to get the most impactful aromatics from hops. (The brewery also considers this increase in temperature dual-purpose for a diacetyl rest, especially since they lean heavily on English yeast strains.) Dry hopping much earlier in fermentation or too close to high kräusen could result in a hoppy beer geyser or more aggressive fermentation that might scrub aromatics.
If at all possible, likely easiest with a conical fermenter, Cibak recommends rousing the vessel with carbon dioxide. “Just to hedge our bets, 24 hours after we add the dry hops, we always hook up CO2 and gently rouse the tank from the bottom. The CO2 bubbling up breaks up that thick layer of hops floating up there at the top of the tank, then the hops can drop through the beer.” Keeping CO2 pressure in the headspace when the fermentation and dry hopping are complete will also help preserve hop aromatics.
Try to use unopened bags of the varieties for your dry hops. Partial or previously opened bags of hops are better suited for kettle additions.
Removing yeast and hops 3–4 days after the initial dry hop is crucial to retain the clean hop aromatics so the yeast doesn’t autolyze and the vegetal hop matter doesn’t begin to break down. Again, this is more easily accomplished with a conical fermenter using the dump port. Alternatively, if using buckets or carboys, stay on top of your fermentation timeline to make sure you’re racking the beer off yeast and hops before any detrimental effects occur.
Lastly, gently carbonating your beer to prevent foaming will also aid in your foam stability and let those hop aromatics you worked so hard to extract shine in your finished beer.
Roll Out the Barrels!
The flavor intensity levels reach stratospheric heights in the brewery’s barrel program and the beers of the Deep Wood Series. Managed by Marty Scott, the barrel program produces limited release and highly sought after barrel-aged beers like imperial oatmeal stout, barleywine, imperial Scotch ale, ryewine, and their many variants. As you’ll read more about in the sidebar, below, Marty has developed an intricate analysis and sensory program that is both art and science, working closely with the brewing team to produce different threads of each base beer that result in a complex selection of barrels to choose from when it comes time to blend them for packaging.
Art Meets Science with Barrel-Aged Beers (sidebar)
A large piece of Revolution’s reputation and relevancy is its massive barrel program and the Deep Wood Series of barrel-aged beers that are born from it. All of this is managed by Marty Scott, who worked his way through various cellar, brewhouse, and quality positions before taking on full responsibility for the barrel program. He works in the world of flavors created not only by the base beer, but also by time, the wood and spirit of the barrel, and the evaporative concentration of sugars. One of the most popular Deep Wood Series releases is Deth’s Tar, an imperial oatmeal stout aged in and blended from a plethora of Bourbon barrels. Revolution shared the recipe for the beer with us using oak alternatives (which you will find later), but we wanted to take a look at how the beer is crafted on a professional scale as well.
Aging in a barrel is a whole different beast than aging in steel or glass. Thus, Scott works closely with the brewing team to adjust brews for what is needed in blending later in the process. Sweeter finishing versions of the beers are brewed first so, as Scott puts it, there is “more aged sugar in the stacks” for months or years. Drier finishing batches are brewed closer to the expected date of blending and aged on their own for some time — maybe just weeks — but won’t build up quite the complex cosmos of flavors the sweeter brews will. Scott describes this staggered process as part of the brewery’s principle of dynamic aging.
“What established our concept of dynamic aging is really what’s happening in the barrel. Let’s make a sweet version as early in the season as possible, get it in the barrel, get it oxidizing and evaporating, developing new flavors. Then we can surgically brew and implement and blend in drier components,” he said.
The magic happens as the team selects specific barrels of both sweet and dry versions to create a balanced blend worthy of the Deep Wood Series name. Well, it’s not magic. It’s a unique kind of Revolution barrel science in which each barrel is assigned in-house data points that help Scott and crew make experienced decisions when devising a blend. Data such as:
MCV(m) [or Malt Complexity Value (expressed in months)] = Finishing gravity of a particular barrel x months in that barrel. This number gives Scott an idea of how much of that fig, dark fruit, jammy malt character he’ll establish with the base beer as it’s aging.
Balance Value = Finishing Gravity in °Plato ÷ ABV. Essentially, the relationship between sugar and alcohol; the sugar making the alcohol component more palatable. For example, the target balance value for Deth’s Tar is 0.45. That means for every unit of alcohol there is 0.45 units of sugar.
These are two important internal metrics (Revolution-isms, if you will) that each barrel of beer is designated in an effort to hit an overall target for a brand’s blend in a given year. Blending by these numbers just gets you in the ballpark and makes sure there is enough sugar in the stacks for blending. But we all know that numbers alone cannot replace sensory analysis. Each barrel is tasted and assessed for flavor, which might be more concentrated in some barrels and less in others, before drawing up a final blending plan and beginning blending trials.
With a barrel program of this size lending so many barrels and flavors to work with, creating the final blends is as much an art as it is a science.
’Tis the Season!
Like many beer lovers, Cibak finds seasonal beers very exciting because he loves to brew and drink seasonally. “I think a lot of beer drinkers are the same way,” he said. “When it’s a particular time of year, they look forward to a certain beer. Sometimes it’s beneficial for something to come and go away. It makes you appreciate it a little more as opposed to being there all the time.” Revolution’s seasonal catalog includes Repo Man Rye Stout for late-winter release; Sun Crusher, a summer ale dry hopped with Amarillo®, Mosaic®, and CryoTM Mosaic®; a decadently malty yet crisp finishing Oktoberfest for fall; and their festive Fistmas Holiday Ale, the recipe for which they shared with us. It’s a Christmas beer for hopheads spiced with ginger and sweet orange peel, a really fun beer to brew and share with those on your “nice list.”
Recipe Breakdown with Tips for Homebrewers
Note: Revolution Brewing uses Lake Michigan water, and as such suggests homebrewers refer to the Chicago water profile on your brewing or water calculation software. Any references to brewing chemical adjustments are based on that water profile as a starting point.
Anti-Hero IPA (Midwest IPA)
What makes a beer a great Midwest IPA? According to Cibak, Revolution’s goal with Anti-Hero IPA is brewing a sessionable hoppy beer with a firm malt foundation (but not overly sweet) and layered “C-hop” flavor and aroma. A beer where there’s enough malt to balance out all the wonderful kettle and dry-hop additions you’re throwing at it.
“We use very small amounts of specialty malt, if any, in these beers,” said Cibak. “If you have a high percentage of caramel malts in there, as that beer slowly oxidizes and the hop aroma fades, those malts really come to the forefront and take over the beer. We love to focus on pale malts, 2-row, sometimes we’ve even used Pilsner as a base malt in IPAs, and minimize the caramel additions.”
Bittered with ApolloTM and stacked towards the end of boil, whirlpool, and dry hop with Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, Crystal, and Citra® hops, Anti-Hero IPA has a clean, balanced bitterness and pushes citrus rind, piney, and floral notes. The brewery provided detailed amounts for hopping in the homebrew recipe, which is a perfect place to start. But, Cibak also suggests homebrewers might need to overshoot the IBU calculation on paper to achieve the target 60 IBUs in the finished beer, based on your process and compensating for loss during fermentation, yeast dumping, dry hopping, and packaging.
Revolution ferments the wort with Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale) at 68 °F (20 °C) until day 4 when the temperature is raised to 70 °F (21 °C) and dry hops are added. Dry hopping is essential to the flavor profile of Revolution’s IPAs. See the sidebar earlier for more details about the brewery’s dry hopping process with advice for dry hopping at home.
Infinity-Hero IPA (New Generation IPA)
Revolution calls Infinity-Hero IPA a New Generation IPA. “The whole intention of Infinity-Hero is to create more of a new-school IPA using unique hop varieties and different processes,” explains Cibak.
On paper, the beer might look like a cross between a classic American IPA and a Hazy IPA, but it’s not quite that easy as that on the technical side. “We didn’t want this to be a crystal-clear IPA, but also don’t want it to be full-on hazy. We aimed for partial haze and that biotransformation character from the interaction of fermenting yeast with hop pellets during fermentation,” says Cibak.
Infinity-Hero IPA is built upon a hop bill of ApolloTM, Citra®, Amarillo®, Nectaron®, Strata®, HBC #0586, and HBC #1019. This combination pushes a huge stone fruit character with notes of peach, tangerine, and other fruity aromatics you don’t get in an IPA every day. Revolution also wanted to create a unique drinking experience of a silky mouthfeel but not as heavy or full like many hazy IPAs. Again, the goal here is balance and drinkability. An increase in calcium chloride (compared to Anti-Hero IPA) helps create a smoother mouthfeel and soften the bitterness of the brewhouse hop additions.
Unlike many hazy IPAs, the grist for Infinity-Hero does not include any flaked adjuncts or even ingredients like malted wheat or malted oats; it is 2-row, Carapils®, and honey malt. The haze is created by the interaction of the yeast and hops added during fermentation. Infinity-Hero IPA is fermented with Omega Yeast Labs OYL-011 (British Ale V), a classic hazy IPA yeast. It is dry hopped following the regimen described in the earlier sidebar on day 3, versus day 4 for Anti-Hero IPA, due to the different performance of the British Ale V yeast strain. Dry hopping during the end of active fermentation is crucial to maximize biotransformation of hop oils and produce the unique fruit aromas in the beer.
To achieve its target level of haze, Revolution centrifuges the beer to a specification that removes yeast and hop solids but leaves behind an amount of that biotransformation haze. On a homebrew scale, Cibak suggests that it could be fun for homebrewers to see the results of using this haze-inducing yeast, but using a smaller than usual dose of silica-based finings like Biofine Clear once the beer is completely cold-crashed. This should help create the haze level you’re looking for, while maintaining those tropical biotransformation notes the brewery knows this yeast pulls from the hops. To aid in producing this soft semi-haze, note that finings should not be used in the kettle for this beer.
Freedom of Speach (Kettle Sour with Peach)
Revolution’s Freedom Series of fruited sour beers brings together the tartness of a lower-ABV kettle sour beer with a wide range of fruit flavors in a way that is unique to beer brewing.
“We weren’t trying to make seltzers or get into the seltzer game,” says Deth. “Instead, we wanted to focus on and develop Freedom sours to have a bold dimension of fruit. We de-emphasize malt and hops, and we emphasize fruit on that family of beers.”
The Freedom Series includes mouth-puckering fruit beers like Freedom of Press (black currant), Freedom of Expression (strawberry and rhubarb), and Freedom Lemonade (fruited with lemon and back sweetened with a cane sugar simple syrup). But the brewery’s original Freedom beer is Freedom of Speach, a peach sour beer.
All of these beers are built from the same base sour beer recipe with an original gravity (OG) of 1.040 wort made of 2-row, red wheat malt, and acidulated malt that is kettle soured with Omega Yeast Labs OYL-605 (Lactobacillus Blend), a blend of L. brevis and L. plantarum, before it’s fermented with Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale). Cibak says his team has found that Lactobacillus is very temperature-dependent; you don’t want to be over 100 °F (38 °C) or you start deactivating/killing the Lacto. It’s also very intolerant of hops, so all hop additions in Revolution’s kettle sours are added post-souring and additional precautions are even taken to protect the Lacto. “We’ll do the Freedom brewing at the very beginning of the week in a freshly CIP’d (Cleaned-In-Place) brewhouse from the week before, so we don’t have residual iso-alpha acids in any of our vessels.”
After mashing and running off the wort, it is boiled only briefly to sterilize it. The hot wort is then transferred to a heat exchanger and cooled to around 85 °F (30 °C), then moved back into the boil kettle and mash mixer (they do two 120-barrel batches of Freedom base beer at a time by souring in these two vessels), where it will sour for about 24 hours. For homebrewers, this can also be achieved by using an immersion or counterflow chiller (set up to recirculate wort back in the kettle) to bring the wort down to Lacto-pitching temperature.
To increase the Lacto population and get it ready for souring your wort, the brewing team suggests homebrewers prepare a 1-quart (1-L) starter with unhopped 1.040 wort cooled to 85 °F (30 °C) and allow this prop to incubate 24 hours prior to pitching into your brew kettle. After adding Lacto, cover, seal, and insulate your kettle to maintain temperature for souring. Add a blanket of CO2 to the headspace to prevent any contact with oxygen, which can create off-flavors and aromatics.
Give the Lacto 24 hours to drop the pH of the wort down to 3.3–3.5. Cibak recommends always taking a sample of wort for measuring pH during the souring phase with a sterile pipet because sticking your pH meter directly into the souring vessel can introduce brewer’s yeast to the souring wort. After reaching the target pH the wort is boiled 30 minutes with a small addition of hops, chilled to a fermentation temperature of 68 °F (20 °C), and pitched with London ESB Ale yeast, which Revolution’s brewers have found drops out very quickly and compactly once fermentation is complete. One other thing to note with this yeast is that it requires yeast nutrient to give it everything it needs to conduct a strong, complete fermentation in a lower pH environment.
At the brewery, all Freedom Series beers are dosed with the fruit component — in Speach’s case, a high-Brix peach concentrate — and flash pasteurized to inhibit any further fermentation in cans. For homebrewers who can’t pasteurize, the brewers recommend this be a draft beer only for concern of re-fermentation in bottles or cans. They say once you get your process down and can produce a clean kettle sour beer the sky’s the limit for fruit, spice, or botanical additions. You can even produce hoppy versions through dry hopping. Cibak has one word of warning, though, if you use fruit purees. “A lot of times you’re incorporating a lot of fruit solids in there and that could create pectin haze issues, or lots of loss and particulate that you might have to deal with and rack several times to avoid. By using a fruit concentrate, we keep 100% of the volume; half of it isn’t going to be fruit solids that we have to try to separate out.”
Deth’s Tar (Barrel-Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout)
Describing this beer (part of the Deep Woods Series barrel program at Revolution) could fill a whole separate article, but we’ll try to do it justice here and in the related barrel program sidebar earlier. The base beer of Deth’s Tar is an English-style imperial oatmeal stout that Revolution ages in whiskey barrels. To create Deth’s Tar, Revolution actually brews numerous batches that are treated as components for the final blended beer months or even years apart, aging them separately in barrels, then blending to brewery specifications for release. “There are usually about a dozen different components ranging from sweet, dry, young, and old,” Scott said.
While some homebrewers might have a barrel (or barrels) and can go that route, we know there are many more out there looking for a way to make something close to Deth’s Tar using oak alternatives, namely chips or cubes. Here we have tips from Cibak and Innovation Brewer Andy Lautner, whose all-grain homebrew recipe for the beer is built as a double mash process.
You will conduct two separate mashes and run off half the desired kettle-full volume for each mash. Munich liquid malt extract (LME) is called for to help bump up the huge original gravity in the kettle to 1.134, if needed. If you have the opportunity to grind your own dark grains it is extremely beneficial to relax your mill setting so you don’t pulverize them into dust. Grinding these grains too finely can cause problems with your wort runoff, which will reduce your efficiency of sugar extraction from the grain bed.
Begin each mash with just the pale malt and rice hulls. Save the flaked oats for sprinkling on top of the mash to keep them as high and as far from your false bottom as possible. The brewers say you have to get a bit savage when you brew a big beer like this, but you also have to make calculated steps to prevent major issues with your lautering process. This also includes adding the separately milled dark grains towards the end of the mash to make sure you don’t extract any harsh tannic flavors from them and they don’t drop the pH down too far and create starch conversion issues. Once you run off both mashes you should have about 9–10 gallons (34–38 L) of wort. You start with a larger amount to offset the volume lost from a three-hour boil. Boil bittering hops for only 90 of the 180 minutes.
The yeast is going to be extremely stressed in this high sugar concentration wort, so providing it with nutrients and a lot of oxygen (if using a liquid yeast) in solution before going into battle is crucial for strong and complete fermentation. This is going to be a vigorous fermentation, and Revolution uses an anti-foam addition to reduce the mess and preserve as much volume in the fermenter as possible.
Stay on top of yeast dumps or racking from primary to secondary vessels. This is a high-gravity fermentation and high-ABV beer, so the yeast will be extremely stressed and start to quickly create off-flavors if beer is left to rest on spent yeast. You want to make sure the beer is as clean and clear as possible before aging it on oak; expect unpleasant results if you age yeasty beer on oak for a year.
When it is time to prepare your oak alternatives to simulate time in a Bourbon barrel, Lautner suggests either American oak chips, spirals, or cubes. If you would like to replicate the heavy char that a Bourbon barrel contains inside, you can take a torch and char the oak. Once cooled, soak it in a container of your favorite Bourbon or American whiskey. After added to the beer, Lautner suggests aging it on the oak for up to a year at 50–60 °F (10–16 °C).
The issue using oak alternatives in lieu of a barrel is you’ll never really achieve the oxidation and evaporation components of a true barrel. With that in mind, Barrel Program Manager Marty Scott has two suggestions for homebrewers. “If the head space is 100% relative humidity,” said Marty, “it can’t take anymore alcohol and water vapor. So, there’s no more concentration of flavor and aroma components. However, if you replace that headspace with CO2, now you’re going to reduce the relative humidity and headspace and you’re going to allow that evaporation to resume on a small scale. But, doing that is going to arrest your oxidation. I would recommend you pull your airlock and take a tiny sensory sample, which will introduce a bit of oxygen. Maybe even wait a day or two and then re-blanket it with CO2. You could do these things that gently, very gently, encourage these two actions to happen.”
The key to finding success with barrel- or wood-aged imperial stout is harmony between ABV, IBU, final gravity (residual sweetness), aging time, roasted malt astringency, and your charred American oak. If done properly it can be a balanced symphony of aromatics and flavors. Gently carbonating your beer to prevent foaming will also aid in foam stability and spotlight those beautiful aromatics you’ve created.
Fistmas Holiday Ale (Hoppy Christmas Beer)
Appropriate for the season, Fistmas is a holiday beer for hopheads!
“As a homebrewer, I always would do spiced ales around the holidays,” Cibak said, “but honestly, they just wore out my palate. Fistmas goes more with Revolution’s theme of brewing hoppier beers. I kind of broke my own rule on this one — of not using many caramelized malts in the grist of hoppier beers — but the resulting reddish color does remind you of Christmas.”
Kettle, whirlpool, and dry-hop additions of Cascade, Chinook, and Citra® hops combine with whirlpool additions of crystallized ginger and sweet orange peel to result in a beautiful red-hued beer with a festive hop punch described by Cibak as reminiscent of holiday fruit cake with its layers of citrus, spice, and fruitiness — perfect for family get-togethers and cozy nights by the fire. Using a straining bag to contain the crystallized ginger and sweet orange peel is key to contain them and allow for easy removal from the whirlpool when steeping is complete.
Revolution Clone Recipes
Revolution Brewing Co.’s Anti-Hero IPA clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.014
IBU = 60 SRM = 7 ABV = 6.7%
Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.5 kg) North American pale ale malt
2 lbs. (0.9 kg) Weyermann Munich Type 1 malt
10 oz. (283 g) Briess Carapils® malt
9 oz. (255 g) red wheat malt
2 oz. (57 g) Simpsons Naked Golden OatsTM malt
8.5 AAU ApolloTM hops (80 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 17% alpha acids)
9.2 AAU Centennial hops (30 min.) (0.7 oz./20 g at 13.1% alpha acids)
6 AAU Cascade hops (10 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 6% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Centennial hops (0 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) Chinook hops (0 min.)
2 oz. (57 g) Centennial hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Cascade hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Chinook hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Citra® hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Crystal hops (dry hop)
1 tsp. Irish moss (10 min.)
1 oz. (30 mL) Biofine Clear (or similar fining)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale), White Labs WLP002 (English Ale), or Mangrove Jack’s M15 (Empire Ale) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step By Step
This recipe uses a single-infusion mash at a ratio of 3:1 water-to-grain. Add 4.8 gallons (18.3 L) of water at 163 °F (73 °C) to the mash/lauter tun and stir in 1⁄2 tsp. each of gypsum and calcium chloride. Mash in grains targeting a temperature of 153 °F (67 °C) and rest there for 40 minutes. Vorlauf slowly for 20 minutes to complete starch conversion and clarify wort before collecting in the brew kettle.
Begin collecting first runnings in kettle. Start sparging 170 °F (77 °C) water when the grain bed is beginning to become exposed. Fill your kettle to 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort, cutting your sparge when about 6 gallons (23 L) is collected to allow the sparge water to pull through the grain bed. Total boil time is 80 minutes. Add hops according to schedule.
Add the final kettle hop addition at the end of the boil and use a spoon or paddle to get your wort spinning to break up the hop pellets. Once you are done stirring your wort, start a 20-minute timer to allow your trub pile to form.
After your whirlpool, cool wort to 66 °F (19 °C) and pitch yeast. If using a liquid strain and you have an oxygen tank and regulator, Revolution targets their oxygen flow at 8 L /minute during the entire transfer of wort to the fermentation tank. Transfer as much clean wort away from your trub pile as possible to maximize the volume you are sending to the fermenter. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) and follow the fermentation timeline:
Day 4: Check the gravity. When it is 1.016–1.018, 2–4 gravity points above terminal gravity, harvest or dump thick yeast that has settled to the bottom of the fermenting vessel (or rack to another carboy), add the dry hops, then raise the temperature of the fermenter to 70 °F (21 °C) to begin a diacetyl rest.
Day 8: Fermentation should be complete. Dump the trub that has settled to the bottom of your fermenter or rack to another carboy. Set temperature to 32 °F (0 °C) to further drop yeast and hop matter.
Day 10: Add Biofine or similar fermentation fining agent and gently swirl (or CO2 rouse your fermentation vessel from the bottom if you have a conical fermenter) to ensure good mixing. Within a few days of fining you should see a major improvement in clarity.
Day 12: Transfer to a keg and force carbonate or prime and bottle condition to 2.5–2.6 volumes of CO2.
Extract with grains option:
Replace the pale ale, light Munich, and red wheat malts with 6.25 lbs. (2.8 kg) pale ale dried malt extract and 1 lb. (0.45 kg) Munich dried malt extract. Place the crushed grains into a muslin bag and steep in 5 gallons (19 L) water as it heats up to 170 °F (77 °C). Remove the grains, allowing them to drip back into the kettle. Remove from heat and stir in the dried malt extract. Once fully dissolved, turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe instructions, being sure to top up the fermenter to 5.25 gallons (20 L) before starting fermentation.
Tips For Success:
Target a yeast pitch rate of 1 million cells/mL/°Plato. When using a liquid strain, having a healthy active yeast pitch going into fermentation and a yeast propagation before brewing this beer is helpful.
The brewers at Revolution stress the importance of dry hopping at 0.5–1 °P (0.002–0.004) above terminal gravity and at 70 °F (21 °C) to get the cleanest citrus, pine and floral aromatics in this beer.
Removing the yeast and hops 3 to 4 days after the initial dry hop is crucial to retain the clean hop aromatics so the yeast doesn’t autolyze and the vegetal hop matter doesn’t begin to break down.
Keeping CO2 pressure in the headspace of your beer when the fermentation and dry hop are complete will help preserve hop aromatics, which is key to a beer like Anti-Hero.
Gently carbonating your beer to prevent foaming will also aid in your foam stability and let those hop aromatics you worked so hard to extract really shine!
Revolution Brewing Co.’s Infinity-Hero IPA clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.013
IBU = 45 SRM = 5 ABV = 7%
Ingredients
12 lbs. (5.2 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
14 oz. (397 g) Briess Carapils® malt
6 oz. (170 g) Gambrinus honey malt
8.5 AAU ApolloTM hops (80 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 17% alpha acids)
3.9 AAU Citra® hops (20 min.) (0.3 oz./8.5 g at 13.1% alpha acids)
0.5 oz. (14 g) HBC 586 hops (0 min.)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Amarillo® hops (0 min.)
2.6 oz. (74 g) HBC 586 hops (dry hop)
1.6 oz. (45 g) Nectaron® hops (dry hop)
1 oz. (28 g) HBC 1019 hops (dry hop)
0.26 oz. (4.5 g) Strata® hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (15 mL) Biofine Clear (or similar fining)
Omega Yeast Labs OYL-011 (British Ale V), Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III), or LalBrew Verdant IPA yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step By Step
This recipe uses a single-infusion mash at a ratio of 3:1 water-to-grain. Add 4.4 gallons (16.7 L) of water at 162 °F (72 °C) to the mash/lauter tun and stir in 1⁄2 tsp. gypsum and 1⁄2 tsp. calcium chloride and 0.7 mL phosphoric acid. Mash in grains targeting a temperature of 152 °F (67 °C) and rest there for 40 minutes. Vorlauf slowly for 10 minutes.
Collect first runnings in brew kettle (take a first wort gravity and pH reading). Start sparging 170 °F (77 °C) water when the grain bed is beginning to become exposed. Fill your kettle to 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort, cutting your sparge at about 6 gallons (23 L) to allow the sparge water to pull through the grain bed.
Total boil time is 80 minutes. Add hops according to schedule. At the end of the boil, add the whirlpool hops and use a spoon or paddle to get your wort spinning to break up the hop pellets. Once you are done stirring your wort, start a 20-minute timer to allow your trub pile to form.
After your whirlpool, cool wort to 66 °F (19 °C) and pitch yeast. If using a liquid strain and you have an oxygen tank and regulator, Revolution targets their oxygen flow at 15 L/minute during the entire transfer of wort to the fermentation tank. Transfer as much clean wort away from your trub as possible to maximize the volume in the fermenter. Begin fermentation at 68 °F (20 °C) and follow the fermentation timeline:
Day 2: Raise the temperature to 72 °F (22 °C) after 24 hours of active fermentation.
Day 3: Check gravity. If it is 1.015-1.017, 2–4 gravity points above terminal gravity, harvest or dump thick yeast that has settled to the bottom of the fermenting vessel (or rack to another carboy) and add the dry hops.
Day 5: Dump all thick trub out of fermentation tank, if possible. Revolution says this is a critical step if you have the ability in order to preserve hop aromatics from interaction of yeast and hop oils during dry hopping.
Day 6–8: Confirm a stable terminal gravity and then set temperature to 32 °F (0 °C) to further drop yeast and hop matter when terminal gravity has been seen for multiple days.
Day 9–10: Add fining agent and gently swirl (or CO2 rouse your fermentation vessel from the bottom if you have a conical tank) to ensure good mixing. Within a few days of fining you should see a major improvement in clarity.
Day 12: Transfer to a keg or bottle condition to 2.5–2.6 volumes of CO2.
Extract with grains option:
Replace the pale malt with 7 lbs. (33.2 kg) extra light dried malt extract. Place the crushed grains into a muslin bag and steep in 5 gallons (19 L) water as it heats up to 170 °F (77 °C). Remove the grains, allowing them to drip back into the kettle. Remove from heat and stir in the dried malt extract. Once fully dissolved turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe instructions, being sure to top up the fermenter to 5.25 gallons (20 L) before starting fermentation.
Tips For Success:
Target a yeast pitch rate of 1 million cells/mL/°Plato. When using a liquid strain, having a healthy active yeast pitch going into fermentation and a yeast propagation before brewing this beer is extremely helpful. Oxygenation prior to fermentation is crucial with British Ale V and Revolution targets twice the oxygen flow rate when using it vs. London ESB.
The brewers at Revolution stress the importance of dry hopping at 0.5–1 °P (0.002–0.004) above terminal gravity and at 70 °F (21 °C) to get the cleanest, brightest biotransformation characteristics from the interaction of actively fermenting yeast and hop oils for this beer.
Removing the yeast and hops 5 days after the initial dry hop is crucial to retain the clean hop aromatics so the yeast doesn’t autolyze and the vegetal hop matter doesn’t begin to break down.
Achieving a faint, stable haze in a finished beer is tricky. Skipping any kettle finings and cutting your Biofine Clear in half (compared to Anti-Hero IPA) should get you in the ballpark.
Keeping CO2 pressure in the headspace of your beer when the fermentation and dry hop are complete will help preserve hop aromatics, which is key to a beer like Infinity-Hero IPA.
Gently carbonating your beer to prevent foaming will also aid in your foam stability and let those hop aromatics you worked so hard to extract really shine!
Revolution Brewing Co.’s Freedom of Speach clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.040 FG = 1.006
IBU = 7 SRM = 4 ABV = 4.5%
Ingredients
5.5 lbs. (2.5 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) red wheat malt
9.5 oz. (269 g) acidulated malt
10 fl. oz. (296 mL) peach concentrate (60 °Brix)
1.5 AAU Herkules hops (80 min.) (0.1 oz./3 g at 15.1% alpha acids)
3 AAU Crystal hops (10 min.) (0.6 oz./17 g at 5% alpha acids)
1 Whirlfloc tablet
1⁄2 tsp. yeast nutrients
Omega Yeast Labs OYL-605 (Lacto) or favorite strain of Lactobacillus
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale), White Labs WLP002 (English Ale), or Mangrove Jack’s M15 (Empire Ale) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Prepare a 1-quart (1-L) Lactobacillus starter with unhopped 1.040 SG wort. After boiling, cool starter wort to 85 °F (30 °C) and pitch the Lacto. Allow this to incubate 24 hours prior to pitching it in your brew kettle. This will increase the Lacto population and get it ready to get to work souring your wort.
This recipe uses a single-infusion mash at a ratio of 3:1 water-to-grain. Add 2.3 gallons (8.8 L) of water at 160 °F (71 °C) to the mash/lauter tun and stir in 1⁄2 tsp. gypsum and 1⁄4 tsp. calcium chloride. Mash in grains targeting a temperature of 150 °F (66 °C) and rest there for 50 minutes. Vorlauf slowly for 10 minutes to complete starch conversion and clarify wort before collecting in the brew kettle.
Collect first runnings in brew kettle. Start sparging 170 °F (77 °C) water when the grain bed is beginning to become exposed. Fill your kettle to 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort, cutting your sparge at about 6 gallons (23 L) to allow the sparge water to pull through the grain bed.
Bring wort to a boil and add 1 fluid oz. (30 mL) of food-grade phosphoric acid to the kettle. Target pre-souring pH of 4.8–5.
Cool wort to 85 °F (30 °C) while minimizing any splashing of wort. Add Lacto starter to kettle and blanket souring wort with CO2. Give your Lacto about 24 hours at 85 °F (29.5 °C) to drop the pH of your wort down to 3.3–3.5.
When it reaches the desired pH, bring wort to a boil for 30 minutes. Add finings and hops as indicated. At end of boil, use a spoon or paddle to get your wort spinning and rest for 20 minutes to allow trub pile to form.
After your whirlpool, cool wort to 66 °F (19 °C) and pitch yeast. If using a liquid strain and you have an oxygen tank and regulator, Revolution targets their oxygen flow at 12 L/min. during the entire transfer of wort to the fermentation tank. Transfer as much clean wort away from your trub as possible to maximize the volume in your fermenter.
Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) and follow the fermentation timeline:
Day 4: Dump thick yeast that has settled to the bottom of the fermenting vessel (or rack to another carboy). Raise the temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) to begin the diacetyl rest.
Day 8: Fermentation should be complete. Dump the trub that has settled to the bottom of your fermenter or rack to another carboy. Set temperature to 32 °F (0 °C) to further drop yeast and hop matter.
Day 10: Add fining agent then gently swirl (or CO2 rouse your fermentation vessel from the bottom if using a conical) to ensure good mixing. After fining your beer it should take a few days to see a major improvement in clarity.
Day 12: Transfer to a keg and add peach concentrate, keeping the temperature at or as close to 32 °F (0 °C) as possible. Gently CO2 rouse the vessel to make sure peach concentrate mixes evenly. Keep constant CO2 pressure on the headspace of the keg (8–10 psi) to gently force carbonate up to 2.5–2.6 volumes of CO2 for serving via draft.
Extract only option:
Replace the pale, red wheat, and acidulated malts with 4 lbs. (1.8 kg) extra light dried malt extract and 0.5 lb. (230 g) wheat dried malt extract. Add 1 tsp. 88% lactic acid to 5 gallons (19 L) of water and heat to ~170 °F (77 °C). Remove from heat and stir in the dried malt extract. Once fully dissolved, turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe instructions, being sure to top up the fermenter to 5.25 gallons (20 L) before starting fermentation.
Tips For Success:
Revolution flash pasteurizes their fruited kettle sours before canning to avert the risk of secondary fermentation in the can. Homebrewers should only keg this beer. Adding fruit to the primary or secondary fermentation tends to drive off a great deal of fruit aroma and flavor, especially with a delicate fruit like peach.
Revolution brewers state that “using fruit concentrates for our Freedom-series kettle sours is easier and more efficient than aseptic fruit purees, which tend to carry high levels of solids. If you use puree, you will require extra steps to strain or settle fruit solids out, so expect some loss.”
With your Lacto culture, it is crucial to use unhopped wort for propagation and souring. The OYL-605 Lacto blend is very hop-sensitive. If you have a lid with a spray ball, that is a great place to hook up a CO2 line for blanketing your wort during wort souring in the kettle.
Revolution Brewing Co.’s Deth’s Tar clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.134 FG = 1.040
IBU = 30 SRM = 80 ABV = 12.7%*
* ABV is calculated prior to barrel aging or aging on whiskey-soaked oak alternatives, which may bring the actual ABV up to 13.5–14.5%
Ingredients
Mash #1
15 lbs. (6.8 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Thomas Fawcett’s roasted barley
1.3 lbs. (0.59 kg) flaked or rolled oats
14 oz. (397 g) oat malt
9 oz. (255 g) Thomas Fawcett’s chocolate malt
8 oz. (227 g) Thomas Fawcett’s Dark Crystal II malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) rice hulls
Mash #2:
15 lbs. (6.8 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Thomas Fawcett’s roasted barley
1.3 lbs. (0.59 kg) flaked or rolled oats
14 oz. (397 g) oat malt
9 oz. (255 g) Thomas Fawcett’s chocolate malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) rice hulls
Post-Mash:
Munich dried malt extract (optional)
7.5 AAU Magnum hops (90 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 15.1% alpha acids)
0.6 oz. (16 g) Centennial hops (0 min.)
1 tsp. yeast nutrients (15 min.)
Whirlfloc (10 min.)
1 oz. (30 mL) Biofine Clear (or similar fining)
American oak chips, spirals, or cubes
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale), White Labs WLP002 (English Ale), or Mangrove Jack’s M15 (Empire Ale) yeast
LalBrew CBC-1 (if priming)
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
It is recommended that you repitch yeast from a previous batch of beer for adequate pitch rates. If that is not easily attainable, a large yeast starter (if using a liquid yeast strain) or pitching 3 sachets of dried yeast, is recommended. Revolution targets a pitch rate of 3 million cells/mL/°Plato.
We are conducting two separate, 60-minute, single-infusion mashes and running off half the desired kettle volume from each mash. Have Munich malt extract on-hand to help bump up the gravity in the brew kettle to 1.134 near the end of the boil, but only if needed.
Begin the first mash at a water-to-grain ratio of (3.5:1). Add 5.7 gallons (21.6 L) of water at 161 °F (72 °C) to the mash tun and stir in 1 tsp. calcium chloride and 1⁄2 tsp. calcium carbonate (if using soft or reverse osmosis water). Add the Mash #1 grains except the roasted barley and chocolate malt targeting a temperature of 151 °F (66 °C). Rest at this temperature for 40 minutes and then stir in the roasted barley and chocolate malt gently, keeping them as close to the top of the mash as possible. You may have to add additional hot liquor to hydrate dark grains properly. This grist:water ratio will yield a thicker mash and higher first wort gravity.
Vorlauf or recirculate wort for 10 minutes to clarify. Collect first runnings in brew kettle. Start sparging 170 °F (77 °C) water when the grain bed is beginning to become exposed. Fill your kettle to 5 gallons (19 L) of wort, cutting your sparge at about 4 gallons (15 L) in kettle to allow sparge water to pull through the grain bed. Simmer the wort in your kettle the whole time you are mashing and vorlaufing Mash#2.
Repeat the same steps from the first mash with Mash #2. Once you run an additional 5 gallons (19 L) of wort from the second mash to your kettle you should have between 9–10 gallons (34–38 L) of wort in your kettle. We are starting with a larger quantity to offset the volume lost from a 3-hour boil. If you need to boost the gravity to 1.134, add malt extract 30 minutes prior to flameout. Add the Magnum hops, yeast nutrient, and kettle finings at times indicated.
At the end of the boil add the whirlpool hops and use a spoon or paddle to get your wort spinning and break up all of your hop pellets. After a 20-minute rest, cool wort to 66 °F (19 °C).
Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) and follow the fermentation timeline:
Day 2: Raise tank temperature to 72 °F (22 °C).
Day 4 or 5: Dump yeast that has settled or rack into another clean, sanitized, CO2-purged carboy.
Day 7: Dump the trub that has settled or rack to another carboy. Set temperature to 32 °F (0 °C) to further drop yeast and hop matter.
Day 10: Gently stir in 1 fluid oz. (30 mL) of a fining agent. Begin preparing your oak alternatives by adding them to a jar of your favorite Bourbon or American whiskey, unless you have a Bourbon barrel to age this beer in. (Optional: To simulate the char of a Bourbon barrel consider charring your oak alternatives and cooling prior to soaking them.)
Day 14: Transfer beer into a cleaned, sanitized, and CO2-purged tank containing the oak alternatives and age the beer for up to a year at 50–60 °F (10–16 °C).
If kegging post-aging, transfer your clear beer off the oak to a Corny keg that has been cleaned, sanitized, and purged with CO2, and set the temperature at or as close to 32 °F (0 °C) as possible and force carbonate up to 2.4–2.5 volumes.
If bottling directly from the carboy, pitch a cask-conditioning yeast such as LalBrew CBC-1.
See the Recipe Breakdown section in this story for more tips on brewing this monster of a beer.
Revolution Brewing Co.’s Fistmas clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.068 FG = 1.018
IBU = 30 SRM = 21 ABV = 6.5%
Ingredients
12 lbs. (5 kg) North American 2-row pale malt
15 oz. (425 g) Weyermann CaraMunich® III malt
7 oz. (198 g) Weyermann CaraRed® malt
6.8 oz. (193 g) red wheat malt
2.4 oz. (68 g) Weyermann CaraMunich® II malt
1.2 oz. (34 g) Weyermann Special W® malt
0.2 oz. (6 g) Weyermann Carafa® Special Type III malt
1.5 AAU Herkules hops (80 min.) (0.1 oz./2.8 g at 15.1% alpha acids)
0.3 oz. (8.5 g) Cascade hops (0 min.)
0.7 oz. (20 g) Chinook hops (0 min.)
2 oz. (57 g) Chinook hops (dry hop)
1.6 oz. (45 g) Citra® hops (dry hop)
0.24 oz. (6.8 g) crystallized ginger (0 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) sweet orange peel (0 min.)
1 oz. (30 mL) Biofine Clear (or similar fining)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB Ale), White Labs WLP002 (English Ale), or Mangrove Jack’s M15 (Empire Ale) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This recipe uses a single-infusion mash at a ratio of 3:1 water-to-grain. Add 4.6 gallons (17.4 L) of water at 164 °F (73 °C) to the mash/lauter tun and stir in 1⁄4 tsp. gypsum and 3⁄4 tsp. calcium chloride. Mash in grains targeting a temperature of 154 °F (68 °C) and rest there for 40 minutes. Vorlauf slowly for 10 minutes to complete starch conversion and clarify wort before collecting in the brew kettle.
Collect first runnings in kettle (take a first wort gravity and pH reading). Start sparging 170 °F (77 °C) water when the grain bed is beginning to become exposed. Fill your kettle to 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort, cutting your sparge at about 6 gallons (23 L) to allow the sparge water to pull through the grain bed.
Total boil time is 80 minutes, with the first hop addition added at the beginning of the boil. At the end of the boil, place ginger and orange peel in a nylon bag and add it plus the whirlpool hops and use a spoon or paddle to get your wort spinning to break up all of the hop pellets. Once you are done stirring your wort, start a 20-minute timer to allow your trub pile to form.
After your whirlpool, cool wort to 66 °F (19 °C) and pitch yeast. If using a liquid strain and you have an oxygen tank and regulator, Revolution targets their oxygen flow at 8 L/min. during the entire transfer of wort to the fermentation tank. Transfer as much clean wort away from your trub as possible to maximize the volume you are sending to your fermentation tank. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C) and follow the fermentation timeline:
Day 4: Check the gravity. When it is 1.020-1.022, 2–4 gravity points above terminal gravity, harvest or dump thick yeast that has settled to the bottom of the fermenting vessel (or rack to another carboy), add the dry hops, then raise the temperature of the fermenter to 70 °F (21 °C) to begin a diacetyl rest.
Day 8: Fermentation should be complete. Dump the trub that has settled to the bottom of your fermenter or rack to another carboy. Set temperature to 32 °F (0 °C) to further drop yeast and hop matter.
Day 10: Add Biofine or similar fermentation fining agent and gently swirl (or CO2 rouse your fermentation vessel from the bottom in you have a conical fermenter) to ensure good mixing. Within a few days of fining you should see a major improvement in clarity.
Day 12: Transfer to a keg and force carbonate or prime and bottle condition to 2.5–2.6 volumes of CO2.
Extract with grains option:
Replace the pale and red wheat malts with 7 lbs. (3.2 kg) extra light dried malt extract. Place the crushed grains into a muslin bag and steep in 5 gallons (19 L) brewing water as it heats up to 170 °F (77 °C). Remove the grains, allowing them to drip back into the kettle. Remove from heat and stir in the dried malt extract. Once fully dissolved turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe instructions, being sure to top up the fermenter to 5.25 gallons (20 L) before starting fermentation.
Tips For Success:
Target a yeast pitch rate of 1 million cells/mL/°Plato. When using a liquid strain, having a healthy active yeast pitch going into fermentation and a yeast propagation before brewing this beer can be extremely beneficial.
Using the straining bag to contain the crystallized ginger and sweet orange peel makes it much easier to contain them and allow for easy removal from the whirlpool once transfer of wort to the primary fermenter is complete.
Removing the yeast and hops 3 to 4 days after the initial dry hop is crucial to retain the clean hop aromatics so the yeast doesn’t autolyze and the vegetal hop matter doesn’t begin to break down.
Keeping CO2 pressure in the headspace of your beer when the fermentation and dry hop are complete will help preserve hop aromatics, which is key for a beer like Fistmas.
Gently carbonating your beer to prevent foaming will also aid in your foam stability and let those hop aromatics you worked so hard to extract really shine!
