Sasquatch Brewing Company: Replicator
Dear Replicator, Last fall I made a trip up to that great beer city, Portland, Oregon, to visit a good friend. He took me to the southwest part of town to Sasquatch Brewing. They had only been brewing for a few months but all of their beers were excellent. by far my favorite was the OSA (Oregon Session Ale). It was low alcohol but with great body and balance. I would love to be able to brew this at home and hope you can get some info.
David Ranker
San Diego, California
Tom Sims, the Owner and Head Brewer at Sasquatch Brewing Co., is relatively new to commercial brewing but his success can’t be denied. With his good friend Steve Neely, Tom entered the world of homebrewing a mere three years ago and he was immediately hooked.
Tom developed a plan to combine his hobby with a new business in August 2011 and signed a lease on a closed Italian restaurant. Once the restaurant was up and running, Tom began to assemble equipment for a 7-barrel brew house. He found a used industrial boil kettle on Craigslist. The mash tun is a used, open-top dairy tank with a copper tube drain manifold. He bought new wine fermenters, two 7-barrel and one 14-barrel. Those, combined with used Grundy conditioning tanks in a large walk-in cooler, and his system was complete.
Knowing that their homebrew recipes would not be linear in scale, the services of a well-known local brewery consultant were solicited. The first batch, a pale ale, was brewed in February, 2012. Since then, eight other styles have been added to their lineup of beers. Sasquatch beer was featured twice at the Portland Spring Beerfest and the 2013 Cheers to Belgian Beers event.
Assistant Brewer Charlie Van Meter came on board to help Tom out in late-fall of 2012. Charlie brewed his first homebrew batch as soon as he turned 21. Charlie also helped out with the startup of the popular Portland U-Brew.
The Oregon Session Ale is based on a cream ale recipe developed by their consulting company, Northwest Brewery Advisors. This clear, straw-colored beer exhibits a white, creamy, long-lasting head. Just enough bitterness is supplied to balance the residual sweetness, and it’s an easy-drinking beer with delicate grain flavors that demand another pint.
David, you’ll be able to enjoy your new favorite session ale anytime because now you can “Brew Your Own.” For further information about Sasquatch Brewing Company and their other fine beers, visit www.sasquatchbrewery.com or call the brewery at 503-402-1999.
Sasquatch Brewing Company’s OSA (Oregon Session Ale) clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.048 FG = 1.009 IBU = 20 SRM = 3.1 ABV = 5.1%
Ingredients
3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) Muntons, extra light, unhopped, malt extract
10 oz. (0.28 kg) light, dry malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) pale malt
1.75 lb. (0.79 kg) flaked corn
8.0 oz. (0.22 kg) flaked barley
8.0 oz. (0.22 kg) Carapils® dextrin malt
5.5 AAU Willamette hop pellets (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 5.5% alpha acids)
1.37 AAU Willamette hop pellets (15 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g at 5.5% alpha acids)
½ tsp. Irish moss (30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (15 min.)
White Labs WLP 001 (American Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
0.75 cup (150 g) of corn sugar for priming (if bottling)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed grain and flaked corn in 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water at 152 ºF
(67 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (1.8 L) of hot water. Add the liquid and dry malt extracts and boil for 60 minutes. While boiling, add the hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient as per the schedule. Once the boil is complete, 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 to prevent aerating the beer. Allow the beer to condition for one week and then bottle or keg. Allow the beer to carbonate and age two weeks.
All-grain option:
This is a single step infusion mash using 4 lbs. (1.81 kg) Pilsner malt and an additional 2.25 lbs. (1.02 kg) 2-row pale malt to replace the liquid and dried malt extracts. Mix the crushed grains with 6 gallons (22.7 L) of 173 °F (78 °C) water to stabilize at 152 ºF (67 ºC) for 60 minutes. Sparge with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect approximately 6 gallons (22.7 L) of wort runoff to boil for 60 minutes. Reduce the 60-minute Willamette hop addition to 0.8 oz. (23 g) (4.4 AAU) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. Follow the remainder of the extract with grains recipe.
