Freetail Brewing Company La Muerta Ale: Replicator
Dear Replicator, Whenever I’m in San Antonio, Texas, I stop at Freetail Brewing Company, which has a great selection of beers including some with unique ingredients like prickly pear. Recently I enjoyed their “Day of the Dead” beer, La Muerta. As I only get down to Texas once a year, I was hoping that I could brew my own with your help.
Dmitri Mayer
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
In the late 1990s my former corporate job relocated me to Austin, Texas, for three years. While much of the country was experiencing a microbrewery renaissance, Texas was almost a craft beer wasteland. That has changed over the past few years largely because of efforts to change state laws by Freetail Brewing Co. owner Scott Metzger and Brock Wagner of Saint Arnold Brewing Co. in Houston, who co-chair the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.
Scott is known within the Texas brewing community as somewhat of a renegade. He chooses not to brew beers to established style guidelines, but instead crafts recipes that will appeal to both the beer novice and the more adventurous consumer. It’s rare to find an owner with a background as diverse as Scott’s. When he is not busy with the brewpub, Scott is an economics professor at the University of Texas – San Antonio. He began homebrewing in 2004 and became active with the local homebrew club, The Bexar Brewers, and is still a big supporter. For the club’s annual competition, Alamo City Cerveza Fest, Freetail Brewing picks the winner for their “funkiest of show” category.
Scott believed in the future expansion of craft beer in Texas and opened Freetail in November 2008. Production was 600 barrels in its first full year of business. He projects 2013 production to be twice that. Head Brewer Jason Davis meets the demand using a 15 barrel system. About 95% of their production is in keg sales, with the other 5% being hand-filled into 22 ounce bottles.
Jason also got his start as a homebrewer in 1992 and has worked at Waterloo Brewing and Celis Brewery, both in Austin. When Scott met Jason he was brewing at the Blue Star Brewery in San Antonio, where they discovered they both had the same philosophy regarding adherence to styles. Jason has been with Freetail since the opening day.
La Muerta is brewed once a year and released on its namesake, Day of the Dead, Nov. 1. True to Freetail’s business model, it does not emulate any particular style but would best be classified as a smoked imperial stout. Black, rich and flavorful, the 9.5 barrels they bottle sell out within a week. The grain bill is balanced more toward chocolate and less roast to accent the smoked malt background. A firm, tan head tops this medium-bodied beer. A slightly sweet finish hides the relatively high alcohol content. This is truly a beer that begs to be sipped and is destined to cellar well.
Freetail Brewing Company La Muerta Ale clone
(5 gallons/19L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.092 FG = 1.020 IBU = 50 SRM =52 ABV = 9.5%
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. (3 kg) Briess, special dark, unhopped, liquid malt extract (90 °L)
2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) traditional dark, dried malt extract (30 °L)
3.0 lbs. (1.36 kg) Weyermann smoked barley malt
1.5 lbs. (.68 kg) chocolate malt (350 °L)
4.0 oz. (.11 kg) Munich malt
2.0 oz. (57 g) crystal malt (120 °L)
2.0 oz. (57 g) roasted barley (450 °L)
15.75 AAU SummitTM hop pellets
(60 min.) (0.9 oz./26 g at 17.5% alpha acids)
½ tsp. Irish moss (30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (15 min.)
White Labs WLP 007 (Dry English Ale) or Wyeast 1335 (British Ale II) or Safale S-04 (English Ale) yeast
¾ cup (150g) of corn sugar for priming (if bottling)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed grain in 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of water at 152 ºF (67 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (1.9 L) of hot water. Add the liquid and dried malt extracts and boil for 60 minutes. While boiling, add ingredients as per schedule.
After, add the wort to 2 gallons (7.6 L) of cold water in the sanitized fermenter and top off with cold water up to 5 gallons (19 L). Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC). Once cooled, pitch your yeast and aerate the wort heavily. Allow the beer to cool to 68 ºF (20 ºC). Hold at that temperature until fermentation is complete. Transfer to a carboy and allow the beer to condition for 1 week and then bottle or keg. Allow the beer to carbonate and age for 2 weeks and enjoy your La Muerta Ale.
All-grain option:
This is a single-step infusion mash using 11.5 lbs. (5.2 kg) 2-row pale malt to replace the liquid and dried malt extracts. Increase the smoked barley malt by 1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg), the Munich malt by 18 oz. (0.51 kg), the crystal malt by 14 oz. (0.40 kg), the roast barley malt by 12 oz. (0.34 kg) and reduce the chocolate malt by 10 oz. (0.28 kg). Mix all of the crushed grains with 6 gallons (23 L) of 173 °F (78 °C) water to stabilize at 152 ºF (67 ºC) for 60 minutes. Slowly sparge with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect approximately 6 gallons (23 L) of wort runoff to boil for 60 minutes. Reduce the SummitTM hop addition to 0.75 oz. (21 g) (13.1 AAU) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. The remainder of this recipe and procedures are the same as the extract with grains recipe.