Anchor Summer Ale clone

Going to be brewing a clone of the Anchor Summer Ale as a gift for my dad on Father's Day. Was wondering if anyone has attempted this in the past and if you had any luck.

From their website I gathered that the desired ABV is 4.5%, hops utilized are Goldings and Glacier, and the grain bill is 50% malted wheat and 50% 2-row pale (I'm thinking they might slip some crystal in there as well and are just not saying).

For the hop character: I know from the taste of the beer there is very little initial hoppiness when drinking, but there is a finishing/lingering hop taste at the end which makes me think there might be a 1oz hop addition at 60min and then a late 1oz hop addition at maybe 15min, 5 min or at flameout. I'm almost certain it's not dry hopped, the aroma's would be more present in the head of the beer.

For the malt character: I think the grain bill might be somewhere around 11lbs. I looked up the grain bill for Anchor's Liberty Ale and it is 10.5lbs 2-row and 0.5lbs Crystal 60L with a 90 minute boil which produces an 1.058OG, an expected FG of 1.013 and an ABV of 5.9% . I'm thinking 5.5lbs wheat, 5.5lbs American 2-row, and maybe 0.5lbs crystal 15L with a 60 minute boil will bring me into the 1040's for my OG which should bring me to an approximate ABV of 4%-4.5%.

Yeast will of course be White Labs California Ale WLP001 because it finishes so clean. I'll ferment at about 64F, maybe even lower like 60F or 62F. Then slowly bring it up.

Anyone else enjoy this beer? Give me some feedback if you think I'm off in my assessment.

My girlfriend was a big fan of that beer last summer. I am no expert, but your reasoning seems sound to me. Please post your final recipe and how it worked out. Good luck and happy brewing! Cheers!

Update
I brewed the Anchor Summer Ale clone yesterday. I had to brew on my covered back porch because the day was miserably wet and rainy here in Charlotte, NC. Yet, there is something about brewing next to the warm flame, wort steaming, hop aromas filling the air while the cold wind is blowing and the rain is falling. Beer has been made, it was a good day!

Anyway, here is what I did and why. I mashed at 150F for 60min to ensure minimal residual and non-fermentable sugars were left in the beer to give it a thin body and then batch sparged bringing the remaining water to 170F, let sit for 10min on grains, then drained. I targeted for an OG of 1.048, again to obtain a thin body and the right ABV of 4.5% as indicated on Anchor’s website. I brewed for 60 mins w/ a hop addition at 45min and at 5min. After tasting the beer I figured this was their method, not a lot of hop character, but there is a definite residual hoppiness to the beer in the aftertaste.

Beer Name: Anchor Summer Ale Clone

Beer Style: American Pale Wheat Ale

Desired OG: 1.046 – 1.052 (this range seems acceptable to me)

Batch size: 5.25 gallons

Boil Time: 60 min

Grain Bill:
5lbs Light Wheat
5lbs American 2-row Pale Ale Malt
8oz Crystal 10L
1lb rice hulls (to prevent stuck sparge)

Hops:
1oz German Brewers Gold @ 45min
1 oz Glacier @ 5min
Whirlfloc Tablet @15min

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale w/ 1 Liter Starter

Fermentation:
I think I will ferment it at about 66F – 68F for the first day or two, then drop it down to 62F – 64F to ensure it keeps a nice thin body void of any potential ester characteristics or anything that might give a heavy mouth feel to the body. I plan to ferment it two weeks in primary then bottle it, no need for a secondary with this beer. I do like to let my beers sit in secondary for a couple weeks, but that’s just a personal thing. This beer just does not need that and I want it to be ready to drink for Father’s Day.

My desired OG was 1.048 and I finished with an OG of 1.052. I am fine with this seeing as there were no guidelines. If I did not add half a pound of the crystal I assume I would have been right on target at 1.048. I just felt for some reason they may have had a little bit of crystal in there. The website states the hops are Golding and Glacier, so there is no way to know which Golding they are referring to. Kent Goldings, Brewers Gold, Styrian Golding, or some other type of “gold” hop. Having had one of the beers while brewing and then smelling the German Brewers Gold, I think it was the right choice. The hop taste and aroma you get when drinking the ale leaves a unique flavor and as soon as I smelt the hop it did seem similar. In my opinion, the Goldings (Kent and Styrian) seemed a bit too delicate of an aroma where the German smell appeared spot on. Again, this is only from the smell of the ingredient and not the taste of the final product…all this might change.

This is a bit long, but if I were a reader I would want to know the reasons and justifications for why another brewer did what they did especially if I might dedicate an entire day in the near future to brewing this recipe. I will post some pics to this thread during the process as well as a review of how it tastes come Father’s Day weekend.

Thanks for the update!

Here it is fermenting away. I will post another pic tomorrow because I have to put it in some chilled water, cover it with a t-shirt and put a fan on it so I can chill it down to 64F. With all the fermenting it has hit 70F which I don't want. It's an interesting contraption, but it'll work until I get my fermenting chamber built.

So how did the beer taste? Have you brewed it again?