Recipe: Doin’ the Mango Tango

As part of our second-annual Homebrew Summer program, various San Diego County breweries have teamed with amateur brewers to produce their homespun recipes on their commercial systems, then tap the resultant beers in their tasting rooms. On top of that, the homebrewers involved are sharing their recipes so you can recreate them from the comfort of home.

Today’s homebrewer-to-homebrewer contribution comes from Spencer Wiederkehr, a Stone Brewing super-fan whose chance meeting with the head of brewing at the company’s Liberty Station brewpub turned out to be perfectly timed so he could bring his mango IPA recipe, Doin’ the Mango Tango, to life on that venue’s pro system. That fruity creation will debut at Stone’s 26-year anniversary event this weekend, but you can check out the recipe for it right now.

Check back to San Diego Beer News throughout the summer for more recipes as well as release dates for other pro-am beers. It’s shaping up to be a great summer for homebrewers and beer fans alike, and we’re glad to have you along for the ride!

It’s not very often that a guest comes to our Bistro specifically asking for me. It’s also not often that I have a lot of free time to step away from the brewery and/or my introverted self wants to leave the confines of comfort in the brewery to talk to people I’ve never met before. However, everything just fell into place the day I met Spencer and his family. The first time I met him the first thing he did was tell me how much of a Stone fan he was and then straight-out ask me to look at his homebrew recipe for his Doin’ the Mango Tango and let him know my thoughts. My initial reaction was that’s way too much crystal malt, but that the recipe itself looked solid with some nice additions of Cashmere, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe to go along with the mango. We ended up chatting more about homebrewing and I learned that Spencer had been enjoying that hobby from a very early age, and that he used to work at his family’s winery as its cellar manager. I also came to find out that Spencer was in the Navy and was stationed in San Diego a few years back, which further earned my respect. We ended up exchanging numbers with talks of a future opportunity for Spencer to observe our brewing operations for a day. A few weeks later when Brandon Hernandez of San Diego Beer News reached out about participating in the Homebrew Summer program, I immediately thought of Spencer and how his mango IPA would be perfect for the summer. Spencer agreed, and while timing was tough for both of our schedules, we decided to get the brew done on a Saturday then had an awesome time and later enjoyed a Stone Enjoy After 7.4.16 IPA that Spencer brought in…which aged really f***in’ nicely. We plan to debut this beer at our Stone Brewing 26th Anniversary Festival.”

Kris Ketcham, Liberty Station Brewing Manager, Stone Brewing

Being offered the unique opportunity to brew my beer recipe on a scale such as the system at Stone Liberty Station was incredible. When I got the call from Kris to set up a date to brew, I didn’t know what to say. I arrived to the brew house and was struck by the scale that I would be brewing on. Kris was very knowledgeable and helpful in all steps of the process. After milling the grain and beginning the mash, I realized how very similar everything was, even on a larger system. The whole process, from Kris contacting me, to the brewing and saying farewell has been an amazing experience and I cannot wait for another chance to brew with them again.”

Spencer Wiederkehr, Homebrewer