Furious Slam Double IPA - Extract

Hey Guys,

We're brewing a double IPA this weekend that we've been mulling over for a few weeks now. Being from Minnesota, we drink a lot of Surly Furious (not a double, but a great IPA) and we love the citrusy notes. However, we also love Bell's Hopslam, with it's smooth honey finish and complex hop schedule. We wanted the color somewhere between Furious and Hopslam, but the IBU's around the Hopslam region. We tried to get the ABV higher to match the Double IPA standard, but not as high as Hopslam's 10%.

So, we created a recipe that mixes the Furious hops with some of the Hopslam malts... here goes nothin'.


Recipe: Furious Slam IIPA
Style: Imperial IPA
Type: Extract/Specialty Grains

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.083 SG
Estimated ABV: 8.4% ABV
Estimated Color: 13 SRM
Estimated IBU: 74.3 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients
--------------------------
79% 9.5 Lbs. Briess DME Gold
8% 1.5 Lbs. Clover Honey (late addition)
6% 0.5 Lbs. Briess Caramel 60L
4% 0.5 Lbs. Honey Malt
2% .25 Lbs. Aromatic Malt

0.75 oz Warrior pellet 15.0 60 Mins
0.5 oz Simcoe pellet 13.0 30 Mins
0.5 oz Amarillo pellet 7.0 20 Mins
0.5 oz Simcoe pellet 13.0 10 Mins
0.5 oz Amarillo pellet 7.0 5 mins
2.0 oz Simcoe leaf 13.0 Dry Hop 7 Days

1.75L Starter - White Labs California Ale (WLP001)


I'll follow up on brew day with some photos!

Cheers!

Yeasties are munching away! Made a 1.75 Liter starter tonight, brewing on Sunday!

For a Hop Slam clone, that looks seriously hop-deficient (not bad, mind you; just not what I think when I think of that beer). Here is a beer that claims to be almost identical to Hop Slam, and it has a lot more hop going for it, both in the early and late stages. You might want to consider upping your amounts (particularly in the late stages) if you're after something along those lines.

EDIT: Sorry, I realize yours isn't intended to be a direct HS clone, but you claimed that you wanted its IBUs, in which case you still need more hops. I didn't mean for this to come across as quite so harsh a critique as it might've seemed .

I think you may want some more bittering hops, go for at least 1:1 OG to IBU.

Thanks for the feedback! No, we're not trying to match Hopslam's hop schedule or amounts, just the smooth finish that comes with their honey inclusions.

We're actually quite a bit higher in IBU's that Hopslam, no offense but that recipe is way off. Bell's has said their IBU's are only in the upper 60's. We actually worked from this thread, since some members have talked to Bell's about their recipe.

Our hop schedule is actually closer to Surly Furious, who start with Warrior and add doses of Simcoe, Amarillo, and Ahtanum. We chose to simplify it a bit and skip the Ahtanum, but we are dry hopping with Simcoe - so I guess that can be considered similar to Bell's Hop Slam. Either way, it's not going to taste like either of them, but maybe it will have a unique taste that we'll enjoy!

Thanks for the response!

Steelers77 said:

I think you may want some more bittering hops, go for at least 1:1 OG to IBU.

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Ya we have thought about that too. We may add a full ounce of Warrior to start. By our calculations, that should put the IBU's around 87 and the BU:GU to around 1.06.

If you want a hop schedule like Furious, I would go with something close to the Northern Brewer Pro Series Furious hop schedule. http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-Furious_Pro_Surly.pdf

And the Pro kit uses 8.5 oz. for dry hop. I think I saw that the dry hop blend was something like 6 oz. of Simcoe, 2 oz. of Ahtanum, and .5 oz. of Amarillo

No offense taken, and as I said, I don't think your recipe looks bad, just different from what I'd expect. I agree with Steeler though; I'd definitely add at least a little bit more IBU to it in the early stage.

HappyLoon said:

Thanks for the feedback! No, we're not trying to match Hopslam's hop schedule or amounts, just the smooth finish that comes with their honey inclusions.

We're actually quite a bit higher in IBU's that Hopslam, no offense but that recipe is way off. Bell's has said their IBU's are only in the upper 60's. We actually worked from this thread, since some members have talked to Bell's about their recipe.

Our hop schedule is actually closer to Surly Furious, who start with Warrior and add doses of Simcoe, Amarillo, and Ahtanum. We chose to simplify it a bit and skip the Ahtanum, but we are dry hopping with Simcoe - so I guess that can be considered similar to Bell's Hop Slam. Either way, it's not going to taste like either of them, but maybe it will have a unique taste that we'll enjoy!

Thanks for the response!

Click to expand...

One thing I would do, is that when I have done extract brews with high gravities they often finish with high gravities, because of lack of control of the fermentability. Maybe think about some corn sugar to dry it out.

In all fairness, the honey should take care of that.

smagee said:

In all fairness, the honey should take care of that.

Click to expand...

Yes that's the plan. We are hoping the clover honey ferments out enough to finish around 1.020. We're adding it late so the yeast can feast!

We'll give some thought to the increased bittering hops. Not sure if more warrior makes sense, or if increasing the first Simcoe hop addition would be better. Thoughts?

It doesn't look like either of the LBHS around us have Simcoe leaf hops... not good. I know most people say there is no substitute for the taste and aroma of Simcoe, but does anyone have any suggested alternatives for dry hopping? Would Centennial or Citra mix well with Amarillo?

Here's our updated hop schedule after some conversation above..

60 mins 1.0oz Warrior pellet 15.0
20 mins 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
20 mins 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
10 mins 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
10 mins 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
5 mins 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
5 mins 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
1 min 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
1 min 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0

Dry Hop 7 days 1.0oz Amarillo leaf 7.0
Dry Hop 7 days 1.0oz Simcoe* leaf 7.0

I love Citra, but I'd go with Centennial to pair with Amarillo. It won't be anything like Simcoe, but they play together very nicely. If you want to try and get closer to Simcoe itself, you could try a bit of Chinook, but you should be fine with Centennial and Amarillo.

We brewed this today.

Here is the final recipe. Luckily we were able to get Simcoe leaf hops, so we'll be good to go for dry hopping. Unfortunately, we missed our OG by quite a ways. I'm not sure what happened, but it could be we didn't stir enough before taking a reading. Hopefully we are still OK.

Our starting gravity came out to 1.070.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.081 SG
Estimated ABV: 8.1% ABV
Estimated Color: 10 SRM
Estimated IBU: 84.2 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients
--------------------------
77% 9.5 Lbs. Briess Gold LME
17% 2.0 Lbs. Clover Honey (added with 8 minutes left in boil)
2% .25 Lbs. Briess Caramel 60L
2% .25 Lbs. Honey Malt
2% .25 Lbs. Aromatic Malt

60 mins 1.0oz Warrior pellet 15.0
20 mins 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
20 mins 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
10 mins 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
10 mins 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
5 mins 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
5 mins 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
1 min 0.5oz Amarillo pellet 7.0
1 min 0.5oz Simcoe pellet 13.0
Dry Hop 7 days 1.0oz Amarillo leaf 7.0
Dry Hop 7 days 1.0oz Simcoe leaf 13.0
Dry Hop 7 days 1.0z Ahtanum leaf 6.0

1.75L Starter - White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

That looks pretty dang good to me

It's bubbling away now... fairly vigorously but I'm hoping it stays steady for awhile. It will stay here for a few weeks until our FG is met, then transferred to secondary for dry hopping.

I tasted our hydrometer sample. Very sweet and hoppy, so hopefully that honey ferments out. Smells great though, one of the best smelling beers we've brewed.

Thats weird that you missed your gravity with extract. Was your sample cool?

The sample was about 72 - 75 degrees. Not as cool as it could be, but it shouldn't have been that far off. I really think we needed to stir more, as I've heard with higher gravity beers a lot of sugars sit at the bottom. We'll know for next time, but we'll never really know the exact ABV of this batch.

By the smell of it and the brief sample I tasted before fermenting, we'll be brewing this one again!

Yeah, somethings gotta be up with the sample.

Anywho, definitely keep us all updated. I'm really interested as I was going to brew a similar AG batch using 2 row, c-30, carapils, honey malt, and orange blossom honey. Bittered with Calypso, and lots of late Simcoe and Amarillo. SG 1.102 and ~67 IBUs.

waddsworth said:

I'm really interested as I was going to brew a similar AG batch using 2 row, c-30, carapils, honey malt, and orange blossom honey. Bittered with Calypso, and lots of late Simcoe and Amarillo. SG 1.102 and ~67 IBUs.

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Sounds tasty. A little honey malt goes a long way, we started with .5 lbs and cut back. Hope it turns out ok.

After 7 days of fermenting in primary, I took a reading last night. It's safe to say we've learned our lesson with clover honey, as it fermented down to 1.011. I think if we would have hit our OG, it would have been perfect.

I tasted the sample as well, it's got a sweet honey finish but the citrusy hops are really coming out. I'll be transferring to secondary this week, and dry hopping for 7-10 days. We should be bottling around December 1st, and ready to drink by my birthday on December 17th!

Here's the sample, a bit hazy but it will clear up in secondary I'm sure.

Transferred to secondary last night... no need for an updated post, except for the hop porn. Man, I love hops.

Enjoy!

If the OP is still around, I'd be very curious as to how this turned out...If not, sorry for resurrecting a dead thread.

I'd also like to know. Also, I've never dry hopped with leaves, will they eventually get soaked and drop?

mpenn35 said:

If the OP is still around, I'd be very curious as to how this turned out...If not, sorry for resurrecting a dead thread.

Click to expand...

It turned out great! I posted the final recipe here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/happyloons-hophaven-honey-double-ipa-284740/

verbhertz said:

I'd also like to know. Also, I've never dry hopped with leaves, will they eventually get soaked and drop?

Click to expand...

They did soak up quite a bit, and working with leaf hops in a carboy is messy, but worth it. I don't quite recall but I'd guess I lost about 1/4 gallon to the hops in secondary.

This beer was gone in 2 weeks. Tasted great, exactly the flavor profile I was going for. A bit of sweetness but very citrusy. Easy to drink, the 8% sneaks up on you!

Cheers guys!