Homebrewer Granted the Honor of Brewing his Recipe at Mudshark Brewing Company

Homebrewer Granted the Honor of Brewing his Recipe at Mudshark Brewing Company By Bob Barnes How many amateur homebrewers get an opportunity to brew a batch of beer at a brewpub? Let's take it one step further. How about brewing your own recipe? I was fortunate to do just that at Lake Havasu's Mudshark Brewing Company. You'd be hard pressed to find a brewery that celebrates American Beer Month with more gusto than Mudshark. During beer month last July the Lake Havasu brewpub had a special event for every day of the month. They sponsored a bike ride, a pub walk (a walk to all three Havasu brewpubs in 120 degree swelter), a 10-cent pint night, and a homebrew competition. Mudshark's brewmaster Ron Chieffo and owner Scott Stocking made a bold commitment to brew the recipe of the homebrew that won Best of Show and serve it in their brewpub. When asked what they would have done if the winning entry was not of a quality to meet their standards Chieffo replied, "It never entered my mind. We had complete confidence in the homebrew community." I entered my trademark IPA and it was judged to be the best beer in the competition. It was a blind tasting; I assure you they weren't just kissing up to the Celebrator writer. I was showered with gifts: a $100 gift certificate for homebrew supplies at Steinbart and a couple of pounds of Cascade hops from Hop Union, but the most coveted prize was the chance to brew my own recipe and have it served to the Lake Havasu public. A few months later I made the trek down to Havasu from my home in Las Vegas to brew with Ron Chieffo. I was to partake in several honors during my brew day. The first "honor" bestowed upon me was the privilege of opening and pouring the grain into the mill-all 19 of the 55 pound bags equaling a total of 1,055 pounds. Another "honor" was getting to pour into the brewpot massive amounts of my most valued brewing ingredient-hops. I experienced the awe and ecstasy any hophead would as I handled several pounds of Chinook, Columbus, Cascade and Saaz hops. After the brew was done, I was further "honored" by being allowed to shovel all the barley out of the lauter tun and then clean out the vessel. Inside it was around 150 degrees and I received a free sauna treatment that I normally pay good money for at my health club. My final "honor" involved the final, most important step in the brewing process-pitching the yeast. According to Chieffo, "Pitching the yeast imparts the true breath of life to the beer." Sensing I had been given all the "honor" I could handle for one day, Chieffo volunteered to clean the brewpot and allowed me to limp back home to Las Vegas. Our IPA is now on tap at Mudshark. The flavor is amazingly similar to mine-a fair amount of bitterness with lots and lots of hop flavor and mouthfeel. True to Mudshark's traditions, the brew is named Indigent IPA, after four endangered species of fish indigent to the Havasu area. Mudshark brewmaster Ron Chieffo was faced with the daunting task of converting my extract recipe to all grain on a greatly increased scale. My 6-gallon recipe had to be converted to a 500-gallon batch. Chieffo did a lot of math and consulted a few sources. It was not a straight conversion, allowing for the differing utilization rates of his 15 bbl. Bohemia Brewing system. Here’s my recipe along with the version we brewed at Mudshark. Homebrew Recipe (6-gallon batch): Place 3 cups Crystal 10, 2 cups Crushed Wheat, and 2 cups Vienna in grain bags. Place in cold water, bring the temperature up to 170 and turn off the heat. Put a lid on it and leave for an hour. Remove the grain bags, bring the water to a boil and add 3.3 lb. Cooper's Amber malt extract and 5 lb. Laaglander Light dried malt extract. Boil 2 oz. Columbus (pellets) and .5 oz. Chinook hops for 60 minutes, .5 oz. Cascade for 45 min., 1 oz. Cascade for 30 min., 1 oz. Cascade for 15 min. and .5 oz. Saaz for 5 min. Cool wort and add White Labs California Ale yeast. Ferment for 8-10 days at 60-65 degrees. Mudshark Version (500-gallon batch): Lauter 825 lb. Pale malted barley, 110 lb. Vienna and 55 lb. Crystal 10. Boil 5.53 lb. Chinook (11.9% alpha) and 6.25 lb. Columbus (14.2%) for 90 minutes, 3.11 lb. Cascade (6.1%) for 60 minutes, 3.11 lb. Cascade for 45 min., 3.52 lb. Cascade for 30 min. and 2.13 lb. Saaz (3.9%) for 5 minutes. Cool and add White Labs California Ale Yeast. Bob Barnes is a regional correspondent for Celebrator Beer News and a homebrewer who now realizes how hard a brewer's job is. This article was written in October of 2000.