BJ’s Grand Cru clone
According to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery their Grand Cru was designed to be a work of art.
“Setting out to brew a best-in-class golden ale, we used a special Belgian yeast strain in the brewing process. Belgian yeast strains produce a lot of flavors during fermentation – fruity flavor compounds called esters or spicy flavor compounds called phenols. The Belgian yeast we brew with produces a good amount of both esters and phenols. In addition to this special Belgian yeast strain, we also spice the beer with bitter orange peel and coriander to contribute even more fruit and spice notes.”
BJ’s Grand Cru clone recipe
BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery, multiple locations in U.S.
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.075 FG = 1.015
IBU = 18–22 SRM = 8 ABV = 7.9%
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. (3.0 kg) Briess golden light malt extract syrup
2 lbs. (907 g) crystal malt (15 °L)
2 lbs. (907 g) candi sugar (beet sugar, boil 20 min.)
0.75 oz (21 g) bitter (Curacao) orange peel (5 min.)
0.75 oz (21 g) crushed coriander seeds (5 min.)
5.25 AAU Czech Saaz hops (60 min.) (1.5 oz./42 g of 3.5% Alpha acid)
5.25 AAU Czech Saaz hops (5 min.) (1.25 oz./35 g of 3.5% alpha acid)
White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey II) or Lallemand Abbaye Belgian Ale yeast
O.75 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed malts in 3 gallons (11 L) of water as the water heats up to 160 ºF (71 ºC). Remove grains from wort, add the malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add the Saaz bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add the candi sugar for the last 20 minutes of the boil. Add the crushed coriander, orange peel, and second addition of Saaz hops for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Now add the wort to 2 gallons (7.5 L) of cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons (21 L). Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC), aerate the beer and pitch your yeast.
Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68 ºF (20 ºC), and hold at this temperature until the beer has finished fermenting. Dan Pederson recommends holding the beer at 68 ºF (20 ºC) for another 3 days for a diacetyl rest, and then to cool the beer to 32 ºF (0 ºC) for another 3 days to drop the yeast out of suspension and clear the beer. Then bottle and keg your beer and enjoy!
All-grain option:
This is a single step infusion mash. Replace the malt syrup with 9.5 lbs. of Belgian Pale malt, for at total of 10 lbs. (4.5 kg) Belgian pale malt, along with the 2 lbs. (907 g) of crystal malt. Mash the two grains together at 152 ºF (67 ºC) for 60 minutes. Collect approximately 7 gallons wort (26 L) to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield (21-L). As with the extract version, add the Candi sugar the last 20 minutes of the boil. Lower the amount of the Czech Saaz hops in the first addition of the boil to 1.25 ounces (35 g) to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.
