Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Ops clone

Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Ops clone

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.098 FG = 1.018
IBU = 28 SRM = 45 ABV = 10.7%

Ingredients
15 lbs. (6.8 kg) 2-row pale malt
1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) British crystal malt (77 °L)
0.5 lbs. (0.23 g) black malt
0.5 lbs. (0.23 g) British chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. (113 g) roasted barley
1.5 lb. (0.68 kg) demerara sugar
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
8 AAU Summit hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14g at 16% alpha acid)
1.5 oz. (43 g) East Kent Golding hops (0 min.)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) or Lallemand Windsor yeast
7/8 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by Step
Adjust your brewing water with calcium chloride to reach 2:1 chloride to sulfate ratio. Mill the grains, then mix with 5.5 gallons (20.7 L) strike water to reach 122 °F (50 °C) and hold for 10 minutes, then raise to 154 °F (68 °C) and hold for 45 minutes. Mash out at 170 °F (77 °C), then proceed to vorlauf and sparge. If you don’t want to perform a step mash, you can utilize a single infusion mash by mixing 5.5 gallons (20.7 L) of 165 °F (74°C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear, and lauter.

Sparge the grains with enough water obtain 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort. Stir in demerara sugar until dissolved. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops and yeast nutrients 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), for the first seven days, then free rise to 70 °F (21 °C) and hold there until the completion of primary fermentation. Once the beer completes fermentation, transfer off of yeast.

Rack beer into a 5-gallon (19 L) heat-pasteurized white oak Bourbon barrel. Age for not less than six months at cellar temperatures (52 °F/11 °C). If you don’t have an oak barrel, you can alternatively rack beer into a secondary fermenter and add bourbon-soaked medium toast American oak chips (1 oz./5 gallons). Chips should be soaked for two weeks, then discard the liquid and add the wet chips to the beer. Age for not less than six months at cellar temperatures (52 °F/11 °C).

When complete, bottle. Re-fermentation in the bottle using 10 g/L of dextrose and 1.2 M/cells/mL of either Lallemand CBC-1 or Lalvin EC1118.

Brooklyn Brewery, “Black Ops” clone

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.098  FG = 1.018
IBU = 28 SRM = 45  ABV = 10.7%

Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.54 kg) pale liquid malt extract
1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) British crystal malt (77 °L)
0.5 lbs. (0.23 g) black malt
0.5 lbs. (0.23 g) British chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. (113 g) roasted barley
1.5 lb. (0.68 kg) demerara sugar
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
8 AAU Summit hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14g at 16% alpha acid)
1.5 oz. (43 g) East Kent Golding hops (0 min.)
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) or Lallemand Windsor yeast
7/8 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by Step
Bring 5.4 gallons (20.4 L) of water to approximately 162 °F (72 °C) and hold there. Steep grains for 15 minutes, then remove bag and allow to drain into the wort. Add all the liquid extract, and demerara sugar while stirring, and stir until completely dissolved. Bring wort up to a boil and boil for 90 minutes, adding hops and yeast nutrients 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), for the first seven days, then free rise to 70 °F (21 °C) and hold there until the completion of primary fermentation. Once the beer completes fermentation, transfer off of yeast.

Rack beer into a 5-gallon (19 L) heat-pasteurized white oak Bourbon barrel. Age for not less than six months at cellar temperatures (52 °F/11 °C). If you don’t have an oak barrel, you can alternatively rack beer into a secondary fermenter and add bourbon-soaked medium toast American oak chips (1 oz./5 gallons). Chips should be soaked for two weeks, then discard the liquid and add the wet chips to the beer. Age for not less than six months at cellar temperatures (52 °F/11 °C).

When complete, bottle. Re-fermentation in the bottle using 10 g/L of dextrose and 1.2 M/cells/mL of either Lallemand CBC-1 or Lalvin EC1118.

Tips for Success:
Brooklyn Brewmaster Garrett Oliver is genuinely excited to see what homebrewers can do with this recipe! He provided the brewery’s own ingredients and process, which I have done my best to replicate here, with as few adjustments as possible. Some, though, may be necessary.

Brooklyn step mashes this beer, so purists are welcome to do so, but single-infusion mash folks should be able to get similar results with a standard mash. The grist is not particularly exotic, but I wanted to present the brewery-authentic temperatures as well, in the interest of full disclosure!

The other major deviation will be in the oak aging step. This may be a good time invest in a five-gallon Bourbon cask, or procure a standard barrel and brew this one with a number of friends in order to fill it. If you choose not to, however, you can mimic the barrel-aged flavor using chips or cubes, as noted above. What I would also recommend, though, is aging in a standard bottling bucket. One significant flavor-developer in barrel-aged beers is the slow micro-oxidation of the beer, which a glass- or steel-aged beer might miss out on slightly. Most plastic fermentation buckets, though, are oxygen-permeable and might actually create a more authentic beer.

Good luck – and please feel to let Garrett and Brooklyn Brewery know how yours turned out!