For those of you who can't get Stone products, I have attached a recipe for making a stronger version of Stone's Ruination Ale. This is based on their recipe, scaled up to Triple IPA strength. I only used the first runnings for this beer, and sparged the rest to make an XPA. I am just finishing off the keg, and it is some beer! Stone's recipe follows as well.
Stone Ruination (Triple IPA version)
Grain:
23# Domestic 2 Row 70%
5# Crystal 20L 15%
2# Crystal 80L 6%
3# CaraPils Dextrine Malt 9%
Hops:
2 Oz Magnum 11%A Pellet First Wort Hop
2 Oz Centennial 9.7%A Whole 10 Min
2 Oz Centennial 9.7%A Whole Dry Hop
Single Infusion mash at 154 F for 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Drain grain bed into boil kettle on top of Magnum hops, boil for 90 minutes adding Centennial hops 10 minutes before end of boil. Rack to fermenter, chilling to ~70 F, aerate wort and pitch LARGE scaled up batch of Chico Ale yeast. Rack to secondary fermenter once fermentation is nearly complete (about a week in my case) and add Centennial dry hops. Let sit on dry hops for a week, prime and bottle.
Enjoy!
And here is the article the above was based on:
So you love hops? And Alcohol? And massive flavor? All to the extreme? This beer is for you. Ruination was originally an anniversary beer for Stone Brewing, but demand was so high that they eventually made Ruination a part of the everyday lineup.
I spoke to Chairman Greg Koch and Head Brewer Lee Chase about their obsession with hoppy beers to get the lowdown on making Ruination IPA. Both Greg and Lee are clearly in love with this beer. Ruination is high alcohol and high hop bitterness. And both are higher than the IPA style calls for. The label on the back of the bottle says it best:
“Stone Ruination IPA. So called because of the immediate ruinous effect on your palate. The moment after the first swallow, all other food and drink items suddenly become substantially more bland than they were just seconds before. By the time you develop a taste for this beer, you may find that you are permanently ruined from being able to enjoy lesser brews. Good. We freely admit to doing this. On purpose even! People are sometimes crazy enough to thank us for this assault. To which we reply “You’re Welcome.”
Now there is a pint full!
At over 100 IBU’s of hop bitterness, this beer is bitter. Stone uses Magnum hops for the bittering hops. Magnum hops have a low co-humulone value, which allows for a high level of hop bitterness with a low level of hop harshness.
Lee says that Stone tries to keep it simple when making their beers. For Ruination they employ a single infusion mash at low temperatures to create the maximum amount of fermentable sugars. They add the finishing hops in the whirlpool (at the end of the boil, just prior to going through their wort chiller), and then add the dry hops to the fermenter just as the beer hits terminal gravity (dry hopping is adding raw hops, either in pellet or leaf form, to the beer after fermentation is done, to achieve high levels of hop aroma) Leave the hops in for dry hopping for about 3 to 5 days, and then bottle and enjoy!
For more information you can visit the Stone Brewing Company web site at:
http://www.stonebrew.com or by calling 760-471-4999.
Stone Brewing – Ruination IPA
(5 gallon, extract with grains)
OG=1.075
FG=1.010
IBU’S = 115-120
SRM= 6
Alcohol 7.7% by volume
Ingredients
6.6 Lbs Northwestern gold (light) malt extract syrup
2.0 Lbs. Northwestern gold (light) dry malt extract
1.0 Lb. Briess 2-row malt
1.0 Lb. Briess 15L Crystal Malt
1 tsp Irish moss for 60 min (boil 60 minutes for clarity)
36.0 AAU Magnum hops (bittering hop)
(2.25 Oz. of 16.0% Alpha acid)
15.7 AAU Centennial hops (aroma/finishing hop)
(1.5 Oz. of 10.5% alpha acid)
21.0 AAU Centennial hops (dry hop)
(2.0 Oz. of 10.5% alpha acid)
White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast or Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast
O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming.
Step by step
Steep the 2 crushed grains in 3 gallons of water at 149º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add Magnum hops, malt syrup, and bring to a boil. Add Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the first addition of Centennial hops at the end of the boil, and let steep for 5 minutes.
Now add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 75º, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º, and hold at this temperature until the yeast has finished fermentation. Then add last addition of Centennial hops for dry hopping. Dry hop for 3 to 5 days, then bottle your beer, carbonate and enjoy!
All grain option:
This is a single infusion mash. Use 13 Lbs. Of 2-row malt, and 1.0 Lbs of Crystal 15L malt in your grain bill. Mash your grains at 149º for 60 minutes. Stone uses fairly hard water, so Lee said that you should harden your water with things like Burton water salts to make this beer. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield (approximately 7 gallons). Lower the amount of Magnum boiling hops to 1.75 oz. to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.