Mayflower Brewing Company: Replicator
Dear Replicator, I’m not a hop head and usually don’t go for IPAs but recently I had the opportunity to tour the Mayflower Brewery in Plymouth, Massachusetts while traveling on business and tasted their IPA. It was the best IPA I have ever tasted. I recently began to brew my own beer and would love to be able to make that IPA.
Vincent Andreozzi
via e-mail
We could not take time for further search or consideration our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.” So reads William Bradford’s entry in the Mayflower ship’s log of 1620. The weary pilgrims landed in Plymouth because they were out of beer. The pilgrims chose that location because of, “the very sweet brook” that provided pure water. Mayflower Brewing Founder Drew Brosseau, drawing from his lineage as a thirteenth generation descendent of John Alden — a cooper on that voyage — uses that same water for their great beers.
Growing up in Sonoma County, California, Drew’s first exposure to craft brews came at the New Albion Brewery. He began homebrewing in 1982 and his love of homebrewing carried on through graduate school. To hone his brewing skills he completed the American Brewers Guild program in 2006 and established Mayflower in May of 2007.
Head Brewer Ryan Gwozdz began homebrewing in 2006. He started his brewing career on the bottling line at Buzzard’s Bay Brewery in Westport, Massachusetts. He also attended the American Brewers Guild program in 2007 and has been with Drew at Mayflower from day one.
The IPA is one of their core beers and is designed to be closer to the English style. Ryan advises that it has evolved slightly from the specifications on their website with slightly higher bitterness and a lower alcohol level. Good fermentability is created by having a low mash temperature and the first two hop additions do a fine job of balancing the residual sweetness. Lots of late hops and dry hopping provides a wonderful aroma. It is truly a beer that the pilgrims would have wished for.
For more information about Mayflower Brewing Company visit the website www.mayflowerbrewing.com or call the brewery at 508-746-2674.
MAYFLOWER BREWING COMPANY MAYFLOWER IPA CLONE
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.062 FG = 1.014 IBU = 72 SRM = 27 ABV = 6.2%
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. (3 kg) Coopers light, unhopped, malt extract
4 oz. (0.11 kg) light, dried malt extract
1.5 lb. (0.68 kg) two row pale malt
18 oz. (0.51 kg) Munich malt (8 °L)
10 oz. (0.28 kg) Weyerman CaraRed® malt (40 °L)
9.75 AAU Nugget hop pellets (0.75 oz./21 g of 13 % alpha acids) (60 min.)
12.8 AAU Simcoe® hop pellets (1 oz./28 g of 12.8 % alpha acids) (30 min.)
5 AAU Amarillo® hop pellets (0.5 oz./14 g of 10 % alpha acids) (5 min.)
5 AAU Amarillo® hop pellets (0.5 oz./14 g of 10 % alpha acids) (0 min.)
1.0 oz. (28 g) Glacier hop pellets (dry hop)
½ tsp. Irish moss (last 30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (last 15 min.)
White Labs WLP 002 (English Ale) or Wyeast 1099 (Whitbread Ale) or Safale 04 (English Ale) yeast
0.75 cup (150 g) of corn sugar for priming (if bottling)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed grain in 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water at 150 ºF (66 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (1.8L) of hot water. Add the liquid and dried malt extracts and boil for 60 minutes. Add the hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient as per the schedule. 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). 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, avoiding any splashing. Add the dry hops and allow the beer to condition
for one week and then bottle or keg. Allow the beer to carbonate and age for two weeks.
All-grain option:
This is a single step infusion mash using an additional 10 lbs. (4.53 kg) two-row pale malt to replace the liquid and dry malt extracts. Mix all of the crushed grains with 5 gallons (19 L) of 171 °F (77.2 °C) water to stabilize at 150 ºF (65.6 ºC) for 60 minutes. Sparge slowly with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect approximately 6 gallons (27.3 L) of wort runoff to boil for 60 minutes. Reduce the 60-minute Nugget hop addition to 0.6 oz. (17 g) (7.8 AAU) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. Follow the remainder of the extract with grains recipe.
