HeadyG
Active Member
I received a request from @InspectorJon in a different thread to post what I'm doing in this forum to see if we can put our minds together and come up with a decent Abraxas clone. Basically I brewed a slightly modified version of Perennial's Fantastic Voyage recipe that Perennial owner Phil Wymore generously shared on beerandbrewing.com. I also watched Wymore's video course on brewing imperial stouts that is linked in that recipe, which I highly recommend. In that course, he not only discusses brewing the coconut-forward Fantastic Voyage, but he shares a bunch of information about how they brew Abraxas. I also reached out to Wymore via email for some guidance on how much cassia to use in place of cinnamon (he said in the course that's what they use), and he very graciously pointed me in the right direction.
Wymore says Perennial essentially has one base imperial stout that they use for all of their stouts, and they bump the roasted barley up or down depending on the adjuncts. The description of the Fantastic Voyage recipe says it is a version of their base stout scaled down for homebrewing. The FV recipe doesn't actually include any roasted barley, so I bumped up the black malt a bit for additional roastiness (another recipe for Perennial's Take 10 chocolate pretzel stout called for more black malt). The FV recipe also calls for a ton of flaked oats and maltodextrin for body and mouthfeel.
I should state at the outset that I'm definitely on the novice end of the spectrum. I also did not set out to attempt a true clone of Abraxas with this batch — I'm using a big dose of liquid cacao instead of nibs and will include a coffee addition, because I like mocha stouts. I also used muscovado sugar in place of the brown sugar, because I've had good success with the extra molasses flavor in brewing and baking previously. Here is the recipe I'm using:
Batch size 5 gallons
OG 1.124
FG 1.048
IBUs 60
ABV 10%
Grain Bill
14 lbs, 2 oz Rahr 2-row
3 lbs 12.8 oz Flaked oats
1 lb 10 oz Carafa II
1 lb 3.2 oz Black malt
1 lb Caramel 60L
Hops and additions
2 oz Magnum hops (60 min)
7.6 oz Dark brown sugar (60 min)
7.6 oz Maltodextrin (60 min)
7.6 oz Lactose (60 min)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (15 min)
1 Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)
Yeast
OYL-004 West Coast Ale (I made a 2L starter with one packet and pitched a second packet as a bit of insurance)
Adjuncts
32 oz Cholaca liquid cacao (5 days) - Abraxas uses cacao nibs, I'd guess 8 oz. Maybe more.
1 oz Cassia bark chips (5 days) - Wymore told me in an email they use cassia powder (cheap grocery store cinnamon) for better extraction but said this is approximately the amount of powder they use when scaled down
2 oz Dried ancho chilies, de-stemmed and torn into pieces (5 days)
4 TBSP Homemade vanilla extract (5 days) - Abraxas uses whole vanilla beans, liquified in a blender
3 oz Mexican single-source freshly roasted whole coffee beans from Up Coffee Roasters here in Minneapolis (1 day) - Note: regular Abraxas does not use coffee, though there is a coffee version.
Mash at 156 for 60 minutes (this is what the FV recipe calls for). You're looking for a pre-boil gravity of 1.080. Wymore says in the course they just take the first runnings and they don't sparge. Wymore also said their St. Louis city water is nice and slightly alkaline, so they just filter it but otherwise don't treat it. I used Ice Mountain bottled water, which was easily acquired at Target and according to the company has a ph of 7.9-8.1 (I realize that may be disputed). But I took Wymore's advice not to sweat the water too much. Because Beersmith told me I needed nearly 12 gallons of water, and I BIAB in a 10-gallon kettle, I split the 22-pound grain bill in half and did two mashes using a second 10-gallon stock pot. I will be putting a larger kettle on my shopping list for next time. My gravity reading came in a bit light so I added 1 lb of light DME to bump it up for the boil.
The recipe calls for a 3-4 hour boil, depending on your evaporation rate, until you reach about 5 gallons and the desired OG of 1.124. I ended up boiling for 3 hours and 45 minutes, and ended up with somewhere around 4 3/4 gallons in my fermenter with an OG of 1.118. Cooled to 63 degrees, hit it with gently bubbling O2 for about two minutes and pitched the yeast. Put it in my fermentation chamber at 63 degrees for two weeks. I'm coming to the end of that period tomorrow, and I let it warm up to 64 degrees yesterday and today. I have not touched it since it went in the chamber. I'm adding most of my adjuncts in a couple days and and bottling next weekend. I made a vodka tincture this morning with the cassia chips and ancho chilies that I will add with the cacao and vanilla. I am not transferring to a secondary vessel, though Wymore recommends racking onto the adjuncts for 5-7 days after primary is complete.
One last note. In the course, Wymore recommends a formula of 1 part vanilla beans, 40 parts ancho chilies, 280 parts cacao nibs by weight. I definitely varied from that in my recipe a bit.
So that's about it. I will post my results when the beer is ready. I plan to bottle condition for a month before trying it, then I want to cellar it all summer and enjoy it in the fall. I hope this can be a useful starting point for others. Please feel free to add your feedback, critiques or suggestions, and any experiences you may have trying to reproduce Abraxas. I truly think it's just about a perfect beer.
Wymore says Perennial essentially has one base imperial stout that they use for all of their stouts, and they bump the roasted barley up or down depending on the adjuncts. The description of the Fantastic Voyage recipe says it is a version of their base stout scaled down for homebrewing. The FV recipe doesn't actually include any roasted barley, so I bumped up the black malt a bit for additional roastiness (another recipe for Perennial's Take 10 chocolate pretzel stout called for more black malt). The FV recipe also calls for a ton of flaked oats and maltodextrin for body and mouthfeel.
I should state at the outset that I'm definitely on the novice end of the spectrum. I also did not set out to attempt a true clone of Abraxas with this batch — I'm using a big dose of liquid cacao instead of nibs and will include a coffee addition, because I like mocha stouts. I also used muscovado sugar in place of the brown sugar, because I've had good success with the extra molasses flavor in brewing and baking previously. Here is the recipe I'm using:
Batch size 5 gallons
OG 1.124
FG 1.048
IBUs 60
ABV 10%
Grain Bill
14 lbs, 2 oz Rahr 2-row
3 lbs 12.8 oz Flaked oats
1 lb 10 oz Carafa II
1 lb 3.2 oz Black malt
1 lb Caramel 60L
Hops and additions
2 oz Magnum hops (60 min)
7.6 oz Dark brown sugar (60 min)
7.6 oz Maltodextrin (60 min)
7.6 oz Lactose (60 min)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (15 min)
1 Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)
Yeast
OYL-004 West Coast Ale (I made a 2L starter with one packet and pitched a second packet as a bit of insurance)
Adjuncts
32 oz Cholaca liquid cacao (5 days) - Abraxas uses cacao nibs, I'd guess 8 oz. Maybe more.
1 oz Cassia bark chips (5 days) - Wymore told me in an email they use cassia powder (cheap grocery store cinnamon) for better extraction but said this is approximately the amount of powder they use when scaled down
2 oz Dried ancho chilies, de-stemmed and torn into pieces (5 days)
4 TBSP Homemade vanilla extract (5 days) - Abraxas uses whole vanilla beans, liquified in a blender
3 oz Mexican single-source freshly roasted whole coffee beans from Up Coffee Roasters here in Minneapolis (1 day) - Note: regular Abraxas does not use coffee, though there is a coffee version.
Mash at 156 for 60 minutes (this is what the FV recipe calls for). You're looking for a pre-boil gravity of 1.080. Wymore says in the course they just take the first runnings and they don't sparge. Wymore also said their St. Louis city water is nice and slightly alkaline, so they just filter it but otherwise don't treat it. I used Ice Mountain bottled water, which was easily acquired at Target and according to the company has a ph of 7.9-8.1 (I realize that may be disputed). But I took Wymore's advice not to sweat the water too much. Because Beersmith told me I needed nearly 12 gallons of water, and I BIAB in a 10-gallon kettle, I split the 22-pound grain bill in half and did two mashes using a second 10-gallon stock pot. I will be putting a larger kettle on my shopping list for next time. My gravity reading came in a bit light so I added 1 lb of light DME to bump it up for the boil.
The recipe calls for a 3-4 hour boil, depending on your evaporation rate, until you reach about 5 gallons and the desired OG of 1.124. I ended up boiling for 3 hours and 45 minutes, and ended up with somewhere around 4 3/4 gallons in my fermenter with an OG of 1.118. Cooled to 63 degrees, hit it with gently bubbling O2 for about two minutes and pitched the yeast. Put it in my fermentation chamber at 63 degrees for two weeks. I'm coming to the end of that period tomorrow, and I let it warm up to 64 degrees yesterday and today. I have not touched it since it went in the chamber. I'm adding most of my adjuncts in a couple days and and bottling next weekend. I made a vodka tincture this morning with the cassia chips and ancho chilies that I will add with the cacao and vanilla. I am not transferring to a secondary vessel, though Wymore recommends racking onto the adjuncts for 5-7 days after primary is complete.
One last note. In the course, Wymore recommends a formula of 1 part vanilla beans, 40 parts ancho chilies, 280 parts cacao nibs by weight. I definitely varied from that in my recipe a bit.
So that's about it. I will post my results when the beer is ready. I plan to bottle condition for a month before trying it, then I want to cellar it all summer and enjoy it in the fall. I hope this can be a useful starting point for others. Please feel free to add your feedback, critiques or suggestions, and any experiences you may have trying to reproduce Abraxas. I truly think it's just about a perfect beer.
Last edited: