I think you're fine on the total amount of crystal as long as you keep the mash temp around 152 or below, however, I'm not familiar with caraaroma, what's the Lovibond rating? As for the dark crystal I think your ok with it but with my last hoppy brown I just used C60. I'd up the chocolate malt to atleast 4 - 6 oz. My question is why the 3 different base malts?
Below is correspondence with a couple of real generous gents; John Stuart from GreenMan and Luke Dickinson from Wicked Weed. I made some inquiries into their collaboration and they kindly responded. I set up a recipe based on their input. I set up my above recipe as a "toned down" version. So, this is where all of my ingredients stem from. I'm pretty excited to tackle this for Holiday time. See what you think - here's both mine and then their responses:
[From me:]
Hello Mr. Stuart and Mr. Dickinson,
I obtained your names from this article https://beerstreetjo...da-tater-ridge/ and I have to tell you that if you both collaborated with SN on Tater Ridge, you hit that beer out of the park. My only regrets are 1) I only have one bottle left out of two and the Beer Camp 12-pack would have been better served if there was more Tater Ridge!
I am an avid home brewer in south Florida and am going to "try" to make a version of your highly quaffable, mildly bitter and oh so Scottish Ale. The article referenced has given me some good bread crumbs to work with but I was wondering if you might offer any other advice.
I am happy to see that 6-row was used even though many brew friends shy away from the taste it can bring. However to me that Special-K flavor might have brought more richness to your ale. May I ask an approx percentage?
I can also appreciate the sweetness of Golden Promise and assume chocolate malt was used for color balance and richness in flavor. Another article I read suggested some rum-raisin in the nose. Might a little Special B help?
I am curious about the yeast. My first inclination would be to maybe go with WLP004 Irish. If I assume the yeast is proprietary, would you maybe suggest something comparable?
The hops speak for themselves and I love Mosaic. I've never used Moteuka but have heard great things.
Anyway, thank you both for putting up with my long winded email. If there is any chance of getting my hands on more Tater, maybe you can advise if it will be available after the Beer Camp stuff dies down? A case in the fridge would honestly not be enough
Thank you and Cheers,
[From Wicked Weed}
Here is the recipe we used for 10bbls of beer
Rahr 2 row - 300lbs
Golden Promise malt - 165
Riverbend 6 row - 165
Weyermann Cara Aroma - 27
Simpsons Dark crystal 165 lovi - 27
Pale Chocolate Malt - 10 lbs
Hops
We bittered with a low cohumulone hop such as Magnum or warrior at about 20 ibus
finished in whirlpool with a nice amount of Matueka and Mosaic, I would do maybe 1.5oz of each in whirlpool for 6 gallons
We used Cal Ale 001 yeast..
Good luck-Luke
[From GreenMan]
Mike,
Thanks for the Kudos on Tater Ridge. It was a fun project to work on. Luke forwarded me his response, so I see you have a lot to get started with on your own version.
I thought I might throw in a few other thoughts..
The rum-raisin flavor you mention is attributed to the Simpson's Extra Dark Crystal 165L... No special B in this one. Be sure you use SIMPSONS, I have never found a more complex Dark Crystal malt... The stuff is brilliant.
The Golden Promise Pale malt was Simpson's as well.
The bittering hop used in full production was actually HBC experimental 366, which is similar to Magnum, but in my personal opinion, it is closer to Merkur, a German bittering variety that has Magnum parentage. It is slightly earthy, spicy, peppery .. And, low cohumulone, like Horizon. Luke wasn't there that day, so I made that call in production..
I know you won't find HBC 366, but if you can possibly find Merkur, it would be a better match than Magnum.
Put all the Mosaic in the whirlpool...
SMOKE those taters... We had the taters done by a local BBQ smoker, 12 Bones bbq, and he slit them in half and smoked them face down with Hickory wood until soft... Peel them, and puree them in a food processor...Try one tater per 5 gallons... Put the puree into your mash tun with the malt bill..
Shoot for a 17.5% Plato O.G.
Hopes this helps, Happy Tater Ridge brewing!