Crazy Mountain Brewing Co.: Replicator
Dear Replicator,
I am an avid homebrewer and especially enjoy trying to replicate the great beers I come across in my journeys. I recently fell in love with Crazy Mountain Brewing Company’s Amber Ale and its floral-hoppy finish. To my dismay, I cannot find a clone recipe anywhere! I knew if anyone could tackle a project like this, it would be you. Thanks for all you do. Cheers!
Rion Dalby
Orange County, California
Thanks for the kind words, Rion! I don’t know if it’s true that we’re the only ones who could tackle a project like this, but I know we’re more than happy to try, and in this case the good folks at Crazy Mountain Brewing Company came through for all of us!
Crazy Mountain is a fairly “young” brewery, becoming the Vail Valley’s first production brewery in 2010. Co-founders Kevin and Marisa Selvy opened with a headquarters, brewery, and taproom in Edwards, Colorado, in full view of the glorious Rocky Mountains. In 2015, they lit out for the big city and opened an additional brewery and taproom in downtown Denver, with a prime location in the former headquarters of Breckenridge Brewing Company in the Santa Fe Arts District. The new facility included plenty of room (24 taps) for Crazy Mountain’s large roster of beers, which includes 10 year-round offerings and a wide range of seasonal, special, one-off, and collaboration beers.
There’s no question that this is a brewery focused on getting their product into the hands of craft beer drinkers. The original Edwards brewery turns out 20-barrel batches, and the Denver brewery (the sixth largest in the entire state of Colorado, which is hardly a brewing backwater!) cranks out 50-barrel batches, with a goal of producing 80,000 barrels per year.
Their laid-back mountain lifestyle survived their expansion into urban life, and the tap rooms have been known to close up shop early on epic powder days, and an impressive pack of dogs (listed proudly on the “Our Team” page of the website) prowl through the office, taking care of business. But don’t think that this means they don’t take their brewing seriously: Quite the contrary. In addition to the unique recipes that create their regular stable of beers (most of which are available in cans), they also find time to brew things like the “Local’s Stash” series. This is an ongoing – and weekly – one-off limited release series that is now the prime focus of the original Edwards brewery’s 15,000-barrel annual output. It’s also where some of their most unique beers are brewed — from beers aged in rye whiskey, gin, bourbon, and red wine barrels, to unique offerings like a barleywine with cranberries and a sour Belgian IPA (to name just a couple).
Like all good craft breweries, Crazy Mountain puts a premium on high-quality ingredients, creative and consistent brewing, and paying close attention to the high standards set by the local craft beer community.One of the more interesting, whimsical, and creative elements of the brewery is the fictional menagerie that supervise brewing on “Crazy Mountain.” Each beer features on its packaging and in its story a hybrid
animal comprised of real native Coloradan fauna, and has a brewing-specific task to perform. Crazy Mountain Amber Ale features (for example) a combination owl/mule deer/bobcat named Sheamus (“…the oldest resident of Crazy Mountain”), who is “bold but agreeable” and has the essential task of utilizing his superior eyesight to monitor the quality of the water that goes into the beer. The beers also feature a “recommended pairing” – not just of food, though that’s there, too, but of a trail hike that will go well with the chosen beer!
The recipe for the eponymous Crazy Mountain Amber Ale clone utilizes a good approach to a style that allows for a high degree of interpretation, but that lives in a strange twilight between hops-forward American pale ales and roasty/malty American brown ales. By including in the grist a solid mix of character malts (mid-Lovibond crystal and biscuit malt), a blend of base grains (2-row and Munich) and alternative grains (torrified wheat), you get a beer that approaches malty from some good, complementary angles — and even includes a dash of chocolate malt for just a touch of dry roast! But it’s in the hopping that this beer finds what Rion raved about: It’s big-time floral nose and flavor.
Cascade is a hop variety that will never (or, at least, should never) go out of fashion. It’s a classic of American craft beer, has a respectable alpha acid content so it can be used for bittering, and showcases some great Noble-American flavors (spice, flowers, and citrus fruit) which makes it a wonderful all-purpose choice. That’s especially true in an American amber, where you’re not necessarily looking for a big, juicy hop bomb.
Crazy Mountain finishes off with a clean, simple American ale yeast fermentation at relatively cool temperatures, which lets the malts and hops shine through. There’s certainly nothing wrong with a touch of esters in an American amber, but here you’ll get plenty of complexity and flavor out of the other ingredients in the recipe. This is an outstanding all-purpose beer. There’s a reason it’s a flagship of the brewery and bears its name, and I’m sure that you (and the rest of us who brew this recipe!) will be enjoying it as a regular staple of your brewing for a long time to come. Enjoy!
Crazy Mountain Brewing Co.’s Crazy Mountain Amber Ale clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.052 FG = 1.012
IBU = 25 SRM = 11 ABV = 5.3%
This amber ale is somewhat of a hybrid between a hops-forward American pale ale with a big-time floral nose and flavor, and a roasty/malty American brown ale.
Ingredients
7 lbs. (3.2 kg) 2-row pale malt
1.5 lbs. (0.7 kg) light Munich malt
1.25 lbs. (0.6 kg) torrified wheat
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) crystal malt (60 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) biscuit malt
1 oz. (28 g) chocolate malt
12 AAU Cascade hops (10 min.) (1.5 oz./43 g at 8% alpha acids)
12 AAU Cascade hops (5 min.) (1.5 oz./43 g at 8% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Mill the grains and mix with 3.6 gallons (13.6 L) of 165 °F (74 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 154 °F (68 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear, and then lauter. Sparge the grains with 3.6 gallons (13.6 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to the ingredient list and Irish moss if desired.
After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast. Ferment at 66 °F (19 °C) until the completion of primary fermentation. Once the beer completes fermentation, reduce temperature to 32 °F (0 °C), then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes.
Crazy Mountain Brewing Co.’s Crazy Mountain Amber Ale clone
(5 gallons/19 L, partial mash)
OG = 1.051 FG = 1.012
IBU = 25 SRM = 11 ABV = 5.2%
Ingredients
4.5 lbs. (2 kg) pale liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.7 kg) light Munich malt
1.25 lbs. (0.6 kg) torrified wheat
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) crystal malt (60 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) biscuit malt
1 oz. (28 g) chocolate malt
12 AAU Cascade hops (10 min.) (1.5 oz./43 g at 8% alpha acids)
12 AAU Cascade hops (5 min.) (1.5 oz./43 g at 8% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Place the crushed grains into one large, or several smaller, grain bags. Bring 1.3 gallons (5 L) of water to approximately 165 °F (74 °C) then submerge all the grains into the water. The mash temperature should stabilize at 154 °F (68 °C) and hold there for 60 minutes. Remove the grain bags, and let drain fully. Add liquid extract while stirring, and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Stir until the liquid extract is completely dissolved before adding heat to the kettle. Bring the wort to a boil. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to the ingredient list and Irish moss as desired.
After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 65 °F (18 °C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch yeast. Ferment at 66 °F (19 °C) until the completion of primary fermentation. Once the beer completes fermentation, reduce temperature to 32 °F (0 °C), then bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes.
Tips for Success:
As Rion noted in his letter, this beer has a profoundly prominent floral hops nose, for which you can thank its big time late-hopping regimen! All 25 IBUs come thanks to the aroma hops additions, but don’t let the hops take over the beer. John Allshouse, Senior Technical Advisor at Crazy Mountain Brewing Co., notes that homebreweries often lack the efficiency of commercial systems and that your beer may be lighter in color and lack some malt character. I’ve made some adjustments here to help you minimize that, but if you find that your version lacks the wonderful malt balance that Crazy Mountain celebrates, then feel free to bump up the character malt additions accordingly!
