McMenamins Breweries’ Terminator Stout: Replicator
Dear Replicator,
My wife and I recently treated ourselves to a vacation trip to Portland, Oregon and It was there that my bride actually loved a beer: Terminator Stout from McMenamins. As McMenamins is not available in Wisconsin, I was hoping to get hopping on making it for her.
Michael Peuse
Rosholt, Wisconsin
No trip to Portland would not be complete without visiting one or more of the McMenamins establishments.
Brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin have successfully created a pub empire that is unmatched anywhere else in the country, the beginnings of which can be traced back to the opening of the Produce Row Café in 1974. Here they began to serve tap beers that were outside the normal industrial yellow lagers. While driving through his native Portland in 1983, Mike, an out of work beverage wholesaler, noticed a recently closed old tavern that he had frequented. He stopped to talk to the landlord and by the time Mark left he had leased the building; and thus their first real neighborhood pub, The Barley Mill Pub, was created.
Mike saw great potential in the newly emerging craft beer market and wanted to try making his own beer to sell in the pub. Both brothers lobbied hard at the state capitol and in 1985 the Oregon legislature nixed a law forbidding bars to brew their own beer. This not only launched their road to success, but became the beginnings of the Oregon brewpub revolution.
Soon after the law change they opened the Hillsdale Brewery and Public House in Portland, which became the first post-Prohibition brewpub in Oregon. They also became the first brewery in the U.S. to legally include fruit in their brew with their Ruby Ale made with fresh raspberries. This beer continues to be part of their list of “standard ales.”
In 1987 they purchased a 75-year-old church just west of the downtown core. With extensive renovation, it became The Mission Theatre Pub, a place where you can watch a movie while enjoying a pint. That was the first of the brothers’ acquisitions of old, historic buildings. They have become famous for restoring classic properties that would otherwise be lost and converting them into brewpubs. Today, Mike focuses on the creative side while Brian handles operations. The empire totals well over 50 locations with about half of those brewing beer on premises. Many homebrewers start their professional brewing careers by apprenticing with one of their experienced brewers.
The Terminator Stout is one of their top year-round sellers. This classic stout doesn’t try to emulate any particular style guideline, instead choosing to stand on its own. Black as night and topped by a firm, tan head, this beer is what craft beer fans expect for stout appearance. A hefty malt backbone exhibits notes of fresh roast coffee and chocolate. Chinook hops provide just enough bitterness to offset the residual sweetness. It is truly a great beer for the dark of winter but enjoyable anytime.
McMenamins Breweries’ Terminator Stout clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.016 IBU = 27 SRM = 42 ABV = 6.3%
Ingredients
3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) Briess, light, unhopped, liquid malt extract
2.6 lbs. (1.2 kg) dried malt extract
2.25 lbs. (1.0 kg) Munich malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) crystal malt (40 °L)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) black barley malt (530 °L)
6.5 AAU Chinook hop pellets (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 13% alpha acids)
1.65 AAU Cascade hop pellets (30 min.) (0.3 oz./9 g at 5.5% alpha acids)
½ tsp. Irish moss (30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (15 min.)
White Labs WLP001 (American Ale), Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), SafAle US-05 (American Ale) yeast
Corn sugar for priming (if bottling)
Step by Step
Steep the grains in 2.25 gallons (8.5 L) of water at 156 ºF (69 ºC) for 30 minutes. Then rinse the grains with 2 quarts (1.9 L) of hot water. Add the extracts and boil 60 minutes. While boiling, add other ingredients as per the schedule. When finished, add the wort to 2 gallons (7.6 L) of cold water in a 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 and allow the beer to condition for 1 week and then bottle or keg.
All-grain option:
This is a single-step infusion mash using 10 lbs. (4.5 kg) of 2-row pale malt to replace the liquid and dried malt extracts. Mix all of the crushed grains with 4.75 gallons (18 L) of 173 °F (78 °C) water to stabilize at 156 ºF (69 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 60-minute Chinook hop addition to 5.2 AAU (0.4 oz./11 g) and the Cascade hop addition to 1.4 AAU (0.25 oz./7 g) 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.
