Help me analyse my clone

I know I can't send people samples, but I was hoping for some feedback on how to brew my next version of the beer I am trying to clone, Clown Shoes Galactica.

I email the brewery and they were kind enough to send me some helpful tips and grain bill and hops and while my first edition is very drinkable it's not on target.

1. Color. According to the brewery they use "mainly 2-row malt and a small amount of Crystal 2". I did 16.75# 2-row and 1.1# C20 and the color was way lighter.

2. Flavor (bitterness). Out of inventory I used Columbus to bitter though the brewery said to use Nugget or Magnum. If I substituted 1:1 by IBU does the bittering hop used make impart an actual flavor? I guess I've always thought of bittering as a more generic term and maybe that's my problem.

3. Danky?? There's a middle note that I am missing. It's not bitter, it's not floral or piney.... that I think is that dankyness. They said to use Galaxy and Cascade at flame out (which I did) and a mix of Galaxy, Citra, Casdade and Ella (I couldn't find Ella so I doubled up on Galaxy) for dry hop. So what does Ella add? If that is my missing element.

The beer I made it good, surprisingly my wife enen said so (she usually does a spit take when she tastes it) but I missed the mark, maybe by 40%, 30%.

So how do I change my recipe to try and get closer on the next iteration?

I wish I could send you all a pint but in the absence of that, what do you try to do to get a recipe closer to some target?

Cheers.

1) Crystal 2 sounds like a British description. eg Thomas Fawcett Crystal II. It's a medium crystal around 60. That would fix the color.

2) Yes, bittering hops matter. Magnum is much smoother than Columbus. Some flavor certainly can come through, but that probably depends on the beer. With that much late hops, I wouldn't think you would notice much, but it is one variable that is easy to eliminate.

3) I don't think it's the Ella. I haven't actually tried it, but it supposedly is similar to noble hops. Did you just use flamout and dry hops, or did you have any middle additions? For me, the dank aspect seems to come out more in the middle additions. Did you do a hop stand or whirlpool with those flameout additions? A production brewery likely has a 30+ minutes whirlpool that would make those additions pretty different than a flameout addition followed by immediately cooling a 5 gallon batch.

billl said:

1) Crystal 2 sounds like a British description. eg Thomas Fawcett Crystal II. It's a medium crystal around 60. That would fix the color.

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That was a typo on my part. It was specifically Crystal 20 in their response. I wonder if that much color would come from mailard reaction and carmenization in the kettle. I might switch to C40 and see if that adjusts it.

billl said:

2) Yes, bittering hops matter. Magnum is much smoother than Columbus. Some flavor certainly can come through, but that probably depends on the beer. With that much late hops, I wouldn't think you would notice much, but it is one variable that is easy to eliminate.

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As soon as I typed it I realized how ridiculous it sounded to say they didn't matter, so next iteration will use their recommended bittering hops.

billl said:

3) I don't think it's the Ella. I haven't actually tried it, but it supposedly is similar to noble hops. Did you just use flamout and dry hops, or did you have any middle additions? For me, the dank aspect seems to come out more in the middle additions. Did you do a hop stand or whirlpool with those flameout additions? A production brewery likely has a 30+ minutes whirlpool that would make those additions pretty different than a flameout addition followed by immediately cooling a 5 gallon batch.

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This may well be a biggie change I need to make. It was all flame out and dry hops (per their direction) but I probably didn't do and extended whirlpool or let the kettle stand very long before I started chilling it. Next time I'll leave the flame out additions whirlpool for 30 minutes before I start chilling.

Probably a good general technique for the hoppy beers, which I am still working on learning to make good.