Mirror, Mirror, on the Pond - Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale Clone

I am a big fan of most of the podcasts on The Brewing Network. I find them informative and I definitely enjoy their entertainment value on my 40 minute drive in and out of work each day. One of the shows, The Jamil Show - Can You Brew It focuses on cloning commercial beer. The general format of the show is to call up the brewmaster, extract a recipe from him or her, along with some tips, and brew up a batch. Then, live on air, they do a blind tasting of the commercial beer along with the homebrewed version. The beer is judged "cloned" if the majority of the tasters state they could not change the recipe to get any closer to the commercial example.

I have made a couple of the beers featured on Can You Brew It and I have a list of additional ones I would like to try. However, I must say that I have only tried about six of the commercial beers they have attempted to clone, as the rest of them are beers that I can't get around here. This does not dissuade me from attempting them, as the goal, for me, is not to get a perfect clone, but to make interesting beer. In general, some part of Jamil's description or discussion of the beer peaks my interest and then I want to make it.

The beer I am attempting to clone here is Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, which is featured on the September 28, 2009 Can You Brew It show. Deschutes describes this beer as "a quintessential American pale ale. Mirror Pond elegantly blends the sweetness of malted barley with the bite of hops (which add bitterness and aroma). It's refreshing, loaded with strong hop flavors, and perfectly balanced." The name comes from Mirror Pond, which is a scenic pond along the Deschutes River that is a choice spot for summer festivals and concerts and is just three miles from the brewery. The beer has won many awards and has garnered quite a following.

Here are the statistics of my clone brew attempt and the tasting notes:

Brewed: 1/23/2010

Kegged: 2/3/2010

Original Gravity: 1.050

Final Gravity: 1.011

IBU: 42

Alcohol By Volume: 5.0%

Carbonation Volume: 2.8 (15 psi at 40 degrees F)

The beer pours with an uber-thick creamy head. The sheer volume of foam makes me think there is a nucleation site inside of my tap or beer line. In fact, it is so large that I have to let the foam settle out before topping off the beer, as evidenced by the foam "cap" in the picture. The beer is the color of amber or dark honey, with a light chill haze being evident. I get a nice citrus aroma from the all-cascade hopped beer, with a hint of pine resin. The beer has an interesting malt character that appears at the beginning of the taste. It is vaguely reminiscent of toast and biscuits and is likely derived from the Mutons pale malt that makes up half of the base malt. As an aside, I have discovered a real love for this malt of late and have begun using it more than Maris Otter. The mid-palate has a strong bitterness to it; one that I must say is not balanced by the beer's body. The bitterness lasts through to the end of the taste, which is nice and dry.

On a whole, I am pleased with my Mirror Pond clone attempt. Having never actually tried the real beer, I can't attest to how close my attempt came to the original. However, it is a nice beer and we have cleaned out the keg fairly quickly. My only real complaint is the bitterness, which is not in balance with the beer's body. I suspect that I miscalculated the bittering hop addition, either through over-estimating how much alpha acid was lost to age or mis-measuring the actual hop addition.

I hope to someday try the real Mirror Pond. Until then, I have to say thanks to The Brewing Network for getting me to try this interesting American pale ale.