I’ve been coming up empty in attempts to find a recipe for Sierra Nevada’s Narwhal, and after contacting them directly, got some pretty good guidance from their brewing team. There are a few gaps, making it not as complete recipe as I’d like, so I thought I’d put this out there for us to noodle on to nail down something more concrete. From SN:
Here, what I think, are the key pieces missing to make this a complete recipe:
90 min Sterling @ 15 IBU
60 min Sterling @ 15 IBU
60 min Sucrose
0 min knockout
What else?
OG: 24.0 Plato (1.096)
FG: 6.0 Plato (1.024)
ABV: 10.2%
IBU: 55
Grainbill
Pale 2-row 75%
Caramel 60L 8%
Honey Malt 4%
Chocolate Malt 4%
Roast Barley 4%
Carafa III 4%
Smoked Barley 1%
Mash at 152F
Boil
0 min: Mandarina Bavaria
120 min: Sterling
150 min: Sterling & Sucrose (to get to 24.0 Plato)
210 min: Whirlpool
California Ale yeast
62°F pump-in; 68°F ferment
Here, what I think, are the key pieces missing to make this a complete recipe:
- Mash length – I don’t think anything longer than 60min would be necessary at 152°F.
- Smoked malt – I was surprised to see this, as it’s not stated on the beer’s page. I would guess something smooth & subtle is needed here (ie avoid malts smoked with peat).
- Sucrose - The amount needed to theoretically hit 24.0 P was about 9% (after plugging this all into BeerSmith) - about 6 oz more than the C60 amount.
- Hops – I was a bit surprised to see a completely different hop bill from what the site says (Cascade, Ekuanot, Magnum). I also didn’t get any direction on how much bitterness (IBU) to shoot for at each addition, and with a 3.5 hr boil, there’s a LOT of room to play. Here’s my first-pass attempt:
90 min Sterling @ 15 IBU
60 min Sterling @ 15 IBU
60 min Sucrose
0 min knockout
What else?
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