My Sam Adams Inspired Homebrew Recipe
Recipe I used for making a high gravity beer of the goal to fermenting to 25%.
HOME BREWING RECIPE
Chad Huss
4/2/20262 min read
I have been intrigued for a few years now after learning about Sam Adam's Utopia, to try and create my own version of a beer fermented up to 25% ABV. To start this is the recipe I am using to make this beer:
9 lbs Pale Malt
4 1/2 lbs Bolander Munich Malt
2 1/2 lbs of Caramel60 Malt
6.6 lbs of Munich Liquid Malt Extract
8 lbs of Maple Syrup
6 lbs of Blueberry Fruit Wine Base
3 lbs of Corn Sugar
8 oz of Hallertau Hops
8 oz of Tettnanger Hops
8 oz of Spalt Hops
Lactic Acid (Acid Adjustments)
5g Baking Soda (Water Adjustment)
8g Calcium Chloride (Water Adjustment)
Red Star Premier Blanc Champagne Yeast
I did my typical step mash for the Pale Malt, Bolander Munich Malt, and Caramel60 Malt. I start at 144 fahrenheit for 30 minutes, then to 154 fahrenheit for 60 minutes, next 164 fahrenheit for 30 minutes, and finally 170 fahrenheit for 10 min. I remove the and squeeze out whatever as much wort as I can from the grains. Normally I would sparge the grains to gain some additional sugar that might be stuck inside my grain bag. But for this project I wanted to use as little water as possible to really concentrate the sugar content. Then I did my typical hour boil with hop additions. Hallertau for 60 minutes, Tettnanger for 25 minutes, and Spalt for 15 min. I then addid 3.3 lbs of Munich Liquid Malt Extract. Let the wort cool. Made acid adjustments to get the wort to a pH of 3.7. Lower pH than I normally do for a beer and couldn't find any information on the pH for Sam Adam's Utopia. Added oxygen with an aquarium air pump for 30 minutes. Hydrated Red Star Premier Blanc Champagne yeast and then pitched with yeast nutrients. The other ingredients I added in steps to continually feed the yeast. Something I did differently as well is that I decided to go with blueberries instead of cherries such as they did with the 2021 Utopia Release.
I will have future blog post updates and include some things I would do differently on future batches. As I want to make a batch each year that then gets blended with versions of previous batches. If you want to stay updated with this project and future experiments follow our social media and subscribe to the blog.