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Author Topic: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone  (Read 12867 times)

Offline deepsouth

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shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« on: August 06, 2010, 01:29:08 pm »
my buddy has just gotten into craft beer and he's looking for something close to a pete's wicked ale clone...  here is his story....

"I am new to homebrewing with only 3 kits brewed so far. Am also new to drinking ales and lagers and other types of craft beers. I guess I'm the tyipcal BMC burnout, totally got burned out on the typical american beers and quit drinking beer for a while. With my new found interest in hombrewing I have tried roughly 75 different commercially available craft beers. Both my wife and I have not gotten taken by the hop thing "yet" and every trip to our local well stocked store we grab something we haven't tried yat and a 6 pack of Pete's wicked ale...kind of our run to session beer.......so I started my internet search for a clone, and surprisingly didn't find very many...I did settle on this one..

http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=754

and with the help of a friend homebrewer we came up with this at Brewmasters warehouse..

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/64af300/

Any opinions from those with experience as to what this may turn out like. I'm also not sure if the first link I posted is for the original Pete's or the supposed different "newer" version..the newer obviously being what we would like.
Thanks in advance..

Wess"


thanks in advance.

have a great weekend.
Hoppy Homebrewers of South Mississippi (est. 2009)

AHA# 196703

bottled:     white house honey ale

Offline majorvices

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2010, 06:32:32 am »
I really have no idea and I haven't had a Pete's Wicked anything in years. Do they still make that stuff?

Offline deepsouth

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2010, 08:04:11 pm »
they do indeed still make it.
Hoppy Homebrewers of South Mississippi (est. 2009)

AHA# 196703

bottled:     white house honey ale

Offline dmtaylor

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2010, 01:46:42 pm »
Pete's Wicked Ale is one of my old favorites.  I haven't brewed it yet, but a couple of years ago I got my hands on what was supposedly the REAL recipe.  Here's how that one looks.

6.625 lb Maris Otter malt
5 oz Chocolate malt
1.75 lb Crystal 60
0.75 oz Brewer's Gold (60 minutes)
0.75 oz Brewer's Gold (10 minutes)
Danstar Windsor ale yeast

Here's how your recipe and mine differ:

Mine is obviously all-grain.  Yours is partial mash.  Are you comfortable with mashing?  The 2-row malt in your recipe must be mashed.  If this is your first time mashing, it's pretty easy -- keep a thermometer in your kettle and "steep" the grains at about 150 F for about 40 minutes before removing the grains, heating up, and adding the extract.  The mash will convert starches to sugars.  Without mashing, your beer will be more of a starch soup, sort of like when you overcook rice or potatoes and it turns into glue.

Your recipe has special roast.  This should give a very pleasant roastiness.  It's not a bad ingredient, but possibly would not be authentic for a true clone.  I don't get a big roasty flavor when I taste Pete's Wicked.  Big sweetish caramelly malt, but not roast.

Your recipe also has a lot of hop additions.  I don't think Pete's Wicked is nearly that hoppy in character.  It has enough bitterness and a little hop flavor to balance out the big malt flavors, but it's not big on hoppiness IMO.

Finally, your choice of yeast will be more attenuative than mine.  My recipe would finish higher in gravity and be more sweetish, with alcohol by volume of around 5%, whereas yours will be more dry and have a bigger kick at about 6%.  This, I think, is a matter of personal preference.  But might be worth looking at a bottle of the real stuff to see how much alcohol theirs has -- I'm not sure.

Any way you go, you will have yourself a very tasty beer.  Wishing you the best of luck with your clone attempt.
Dave

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Offline babalu87

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2010, 02:02:23 pm »
I wonder if they changed things?

According to their website the ingredients are:

INGREDIENTS
MALTS: Pale and Caramel
HOPS: Cascade and Brewers Gold

http://www.peteswicked.com/site_nonflash.html

I used to love their Lager, it was a nice beer.
Jeff

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jaybeerman

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2010, 10:15:48 pm »
the recipe dmtaylor shared will get you fairly close to the original pete's (yes their recipe has changed).  years ago i had a few beers from an EG kit that the beer nut put together.  if you really want a good clone it would be worth your while to call or email the beer nut to see if they still have the kit and/or will steer you in the right direction.  cheers, jason

www.beernut.com/

Offline wessb

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2010, 11:35:50 am »
Thanks for all the great replies, I have tweaked my brewmasters recipe, hopefully for the final time. I did find a retail clone at midwestsupplies, here is a picture of the recipe on their box
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/catalog/product/gallery/id/1715/
 Would it be more advisable to just buy this from them or stick with my brewmasters blend.
Thanks again for all the great advice.

Wess

Offline deepsouth

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2010, 12:45:26 pm »
welcome to the forum wess!
Hoppy Homebrewers of South Mississippi (est. 2009)

AHA# 196703

bottled:     white house honey ale

Offline wessb

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2010, 02:49:18 pm »
Thanks it got a little tricky trying to get logged in...but it's working now, Thanks fror all you help as well.

Wess

Offline dmtaylor

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2014, 09:07:43 pm »
Resurrecting this blast from the past!

First of all, no, they don't make this stuff anymore.  Pete's went belly-up a couple of years ago.

Just wanted to say that I finally got around to brewing the recipe I posted above.  This is the real original recipe from Pete himself.  Just popped the first bottle tonight.  My thoughts: Color and flavor are right on.  Bitterness seems a little high, but on the other hand, I bet in the past I have always tasted bottles that were sitting on store shelves for a couple of months, how much you want to bet.  So in other words, I bet this recipe will taste more authentic after a few months of aging.  Surprisingly, even though my final gravity was 1.021 with that Windsor ale yeast, I swear it does NOT TASTE SWEET OR THICK AT ALL.  It is very well attenuated, and if anything it tastes a little on the thin side!?  Also some tartness that bugs me a little bit.  If I make this again, I'll reduce the IBUs slightly, and try a different yeast.  However, I do think this recipe is really close.  To those wanting to re-live the 1990s, give it a try.
Dave

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Offline 69franx

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2014, 09:29:31 pm »
Dmtaylor, was this 5 gallons or 3 for the recipe you posted? What were you targeting for OG, IBU, and color? I remember loving Pete's and would not mind taking a shot at this, just need your guidance


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Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2014, 08:03:16 am »
Dave,

I get tartness from Windsor and Nottingham.  It's kind of there in the background, more with Notty than Windsor, but I get it to the point where I combed all my brewing notes to see if I was crazy.  I don't think I am and pretty much stopped using Nottingham on account of this.  They're new packaging maybe eliminates it?  I dunno.

We used to get Pete's Wicked and Grant's Celtic Ale at the old American Liquors back in the day.  Way back in the day.  Not only can you not get those beers, but the liquor store is gone, too.

I may have to brew this, but I'll probably go with a different yeast.
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Offline dmtaylor

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2014, 08:33:18 am »
69franx, the recipe I posted is for 5 gallons.  Further specs:

OG=1.052
ABV=4.9%
IBU=29
SRM=21

Next time I would reduce IBUs to about 26 (personal preference) and maybe try a White Labs or Wyeast English Ale yeast.  Mash at 150 F for 40 to 60 minutes (your call).  Ferment in the low 60s for a week or so or until well beyond finished fermenting.
Dave

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Offline dmtaylor

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #13 on: April 04, 2019, 06:26:27 am »
Please excuse the resurrect; I just HAVE to add:

After about 6 months of aging, the recipe above tasted absolutely PERFECTLY aligned with my memory of the now defunct Pete's Wicked Ale.  The aging mellowed the bitterness slightly and developed more depth of malt character as well.  I do indeed believe this is the real recipe, and I wouldn't change a single thing.

This resurrect was prompted by a mention on the following thread in BeerAdvocate, where we are discussing what the heck about an American Brown Ale makes the beer "American" anyway?  I mean... in the case of Pete's Wicked, and Moose Drool, and I'm sure many other American examples of the style.... they use a ton of British malts, hops, and yeast.  So....... does anything in the style NEED to be American in nature?????

Mind blown.

For anyone interested in joining an active forum:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/averagely-perfect-american-brown-ale-poll-13-yeast-strain.610496/#post-6446268
Dave

The world will become a much more pleasant place to live when each and every one of us realizes that we are all idiots.

Offline Robert

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Re: shooting for a Pete's Wicked ale clone
« Reply #14 on: April 04, 2019, 07:18:20 am »
Dave, I'll toss in here my view of what makes American browns American.   They use roasted malts to get their color, which also impacts flavor.  All British "brown ale" is ultimately really bottled dark Mild, or in a few (Northern) cases bottled "brown bitter," and like all historically true to style British beers these are composed of base malt and sugar with caramel color.  Roast malts or significant amounts of crystal have no place here.  These malts only came late to the party in the UK and have never seen widespread use (except of course in porters.)  So the character of American browns is distinct because of chocolate and crystal character.  Even if those malts (and your yeast) are from British sources, the formulation is distinct.   

Interesting topic, and thread; I'll have to check out BA some more.  PS I really really miss both Pete's Wicked and Grant's Celtic.   Find a genuine recipe for the latter and I'd be forever grateful.
Rob Stein
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