American IPA Four Peaks Hop Knot Clone

Assuming 78% efficiency (adjust grain bill as needed):
10lbs 2-row
3lbs Pale Ale (3.5L)
12oz Crystal 20L
Mash at 150*

20g Magnum @ 90
24g Liberty @ 30
24g Glacier @ 30
24g Simcoe @ 5
24g Cascade @ 5
48g Simcoe @ 0
48g Cascade @ 0
Dry Hop: 48g each of Simcoe and Cascade
For those that are metric challenged, 24g = 0.86oz, and 48g is 1.72oz.

WLP007 Fermented at 62F for the first few days. As soon as it slows down, raise the temp to 65, and continue to raise the temp to 68* until it finishes out. Ignore the US05 in the initial post. It makes an excellent IPA, but it's a little too clean to be Hop Knot. If you can't ferment this beer in the low 60s, use US05.

The recipe looks pretty similar to the one I originally posted. A little less Crystal, a little less bittering, and much more hops in the finish.

If you have a hop back, use it. The 5 minute addition is meant to mimic a whirlpool, and the 0 min to mimic the hop back. I add the whirlpool hops at flameout, whirlpool my wort for 15min, the add the hopback hops right before I kick on the chiller.

Targets: OG: 1.065, FG: 1.013, SRM: 6.5, IBU: 47, ABV: 6.7%

This is a fantastic IPA. Its lighter in color than most, and surprisingly well balanced with since its only 47IBU, but it is extremely floral and citrusy from all the late hop additions. This is a very sessionable beer due to it's balance, but doesn't leave you wishing it was more bitter.

This is the tweaked recipe discussed in post 20-30 or so of this thread. It's dead on, just brew it.

**Updated Photo**

This is an updated photo from the updated recipe. The real Hop Knot and the clone. This photo was taken three days after it was kegged.

This is not only one of my favorite IPA's but has a special place in the hearts of me and the misses. I at least owe part of the success in our relationship to the balanced, clean, and floral flavors of this IPA.

Early in the relationship with my now wife we made a trip to Arizona and found this brewery. Although she typically does not like highly hopped beer she loved this as much as me and we left the brewery with a growler full and had an almost magical experience in Sedona.

scottland, how do you think this would replicate with Ringwood yeast? Will give it a try since I already have the yeast starter going.

Also are the 0 minute hops the dry hop or just flame out? I am taking the recipe to mean hop addition at flame out and then 2 oz dry hopped. Just want to make sure that I will need 7 oz of hops total.

Thanks for posting, I have been searching for a clone of this for over a year.

You've got it. I Loved hop knot as well because it isn't nearly as bitter as most. IPAs, but it's extremely hoppy in it's nose. Four peaks once said in a newsletter mow many hops per barrel they use for hop knot, I scaled that down to 5gl, which got me here. 0min additions are flameout additions. If you have an extremely fast wort chiller, let them steep a little, as four peaks uses a hop back. If you have a simple immersion chiller, just add at 0min, and start chilling right away. I think ringwood would work fine, anything with that British flavor will get very close. FYI, this recipe is written for 82% efficiency and 6.4%ABV. Hop knot is 6.0, I added a little extra 2-row for a little more alcohol. If you get 75%, leave the recipe as is, but if you get 80%+ cut back the 2-row a little so your OG is around 1.060-1.062. Good luck

Well I've brewed this two more times since posting this recipe, and I had some actual hop knot tonight, and I can tell you this recipe is pretty dead on. Super small differences. Side by side the color is near identical, the real thing is about 1SRM lighter. Possibly 2oz less crystal would get the clone there, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble to try it. Hop Knot is definitely a little lower in OG, and a little drier as well. I'd guess FG around 1.012 or 1.013 or so. If you want an exact clone, use the recipe above, and if you get 75% efficiency, you should be dead on.

The aroma is dead on, as hop knot is definitely hopped with Simcoe and cascade. Four peaks definitely utilizes a hop back, so if you wanted the beer to be identical, you'd need To run it through hop back. But other than that, ya, it's like 95% there. I'm very, very tempted to brew this with WLP007. I'm thinking if kept in the low 60s it could be very close.

I have made this recipe twice now (once using S-05 and another using ringwood ale). One is on tap now, but in my haste I don't remember if its the one with ringwood or S-05.

Only had enough simcoe to dry hop the first batch. Will have to use all cascade for the other batch unless I can find some simcoe real soon.

I must say this is a damn good clone. Was just in AZ again this past May and made the obligatory visit to Four Peaks. Dry hopped batch one when arrived home and had a drink a few days later. The taste is pretty close as well as I remember. Wish Four Peaks distributed out east so I could compare side by side.

This will be in my regular spring/summer rotation. Thanks again for the recipe.

Ya, Four Peaks said they won't distribute outside of Arizona until their sales stop growing by leaps and bounds in AZ. Makes sense. On the bright side, they now sell Hop Knot in cans, so you can take some home with you!!

Ringwood was probably the closer clone. I really like the beer made with US-05, but Hop Knot definitely has some subtle English esters. Ringwood, S-04 or WLP007 would probably be damn close. I think I'm going to try WLP007 here soon.

On a third note, Four Peaks updated the chalk board at the brewery saying that Hop Knot is now 6.7% ABV. The cans say 6.7% ABV, and the website says 6.7%. Safe to say, it's now 6.7%. To adjust the recipe just add more two row or pale malt to get the OG to 1.066-1.067 (this will depend on your brewhouse efficency. For me at about 80%, that means an extra pound 2-row). Shoot to finish around 1.014-1.015.

Thank you for posting Scottland!!! This has become my favorite ipa recently. Just a few questions:

1. Your recipe indicates 3 lbs pale ale. I'm plugging this into beer smith and pale ale isn't listed. Maybe I just don't understand the short hand ( if any used). Is this grain or donu mean pale liquid extract? I know thisnis an all grain recipe. Just looking for some clarification.

2. I know four peaks uses reverse osmosis water then adds proper minerals/ salts. Any insight into those mineral stats? I'm guessing I should match water in England.

3. Also, I'm planning on using irish moss. Not listed in the recipe but I'm guessing this was presumed?

4. Any ideas for 8th street ale clone? haven't even looked yet for one but I love that brew

5. Doesn't it make u mad that hop knot in cans goes for 17.99 per 12 pk at total wine for a locally brewed beer? I know ipa 's r more expensive but wow! I get modus hoperandi from colorado for 7.50 a six pack and they use almost twice the hops per batch! Just throwing it out there.

Thanks again for the post. Much appreciated!!

1. Pale Ale malt is a slighty more toasted pale malt(2row). It's like 3-4L. ESB malt or marris otter is a sub. Brewers connection has Pale ale malt. At the end of the day, it's not super critical to the recipe, but side-by-side you'd notice the difference.

2.RO water is definitely the way to go in Metro Phoenix. The water is too variable not to. Sometimes it's perfect for brewing, sometimes it's awful, and it's always full of chlorine. Use RO water, and add 2tsp calcium chloride and 1tsp gypsum for every 5gal of water treated. Add 2% acid(acidulated) malt to the grain bill, so about 4oz. (this water profile is for an IPA)

3. Irish miss is perfectly fine. Whirlfloc is also great. I try to always use one of the two.

4. I'm working hard on an 8th street clone, that one is tougher than I thought it would be. It's got a little sweetness to it, and lots of hop flavor. They call it a best bitter, but I think it's closer to an ESB. I'll be taking a third shot at it soon. PM me if you want my work in progress recipe

5. I'm with you, it's pricey, but I love it.

6. Yeast choice: if you can control ferment temps, use WLP007, pitch a 2QT starter, and ferment at 62-64*. If you don't have great temp control, use Safale US05. Its a subtle difference in the beer, but US05 is more temperature tolerant.

No worries on the recipe, I just try to help out where I can. Lord knows this forum has given me more help than I can pay back.

Thanks Scottland. Great advice. Very precise. I'm gonna keep an eye out for your 8th street recipe. I've got a few batches on deck and won't be able to attempt it for a while.

Going to be kegging 5 gallons of this tomorrow and bringing this to my fantasy football draft party on the 2nd. I can not wait to try this! If this is anywhere as tasty as my samples have been, it is going to be a hit! I'll report back fo sho.

Glad to see you updated the abv. I e been here 2 years now and im pretty sure it's always been 6.7% since I've been here. I also expected more than 1oz at 60min. I'll definitely be giving this a try.

Also, did someone here say 8th street is an esb? Pretty sure its an english pale ale.

Hop knot isn't very bitter, and magnum bitters well. It works out well.

Esb and English pale ale are synonymous

jkq1206 said:

Also, did someone here say 8th street is an esb? Pretty sure its an english pale ale.

Click to expand...

ESB is an extra special bitter, which is an English pale ale. There are three kinds of English pale ales or bitters: Ordinary, Best or special, and extra special. Four peaks calls 8th street a Best/Special bitter, but I think it's closer to an ESB

Bump. Did you ever brew this with 04/007? I really like this beer and plan on doing a similar IPA soon. Which is closer to the recipie 04/05?

I brewed an IPA with the same malt bill with WLP007, and the yeast character was very close.

04 would definitely get you closer than 05, but only if you can ferment it cool. I read in an interview that Four Peaks ferments this at like 17C which is 62.5F, which is pretty cool. Any of the drier, cleaner english ale yeasts would work well (WLP007, ringwood, dry witbread, S04, etc)

scottland said:

I brewed an IPA with the same malt bill with WLP007, and the yeast character was very close.

04 would definitely get you closer than 05, but only if you can ferment it cool. I read in an interview that Four Peaks ferments this at like 17C which is 62.5F, which is pretty cool. Any of the drier, cleaner english ale yeasts would work well (WLP007, ringwood, dry witbread, S04, etc)

Click to expand...

I have a ferment chamber so I can ferment at the required temperature. I am going to brew a similar recipe but using mostly amarillo/simcoe.

Have you had Lumberyard IPA (Flagstaff)? I had it at The Roosevelt and felt it was a "similar" beer to Hop Knot. I feel it is definately has simcoe in it also.

I was also at the DFH night at Popago, it was nice to finally have DFH120 on tap after many years of looking for it or missing it.

Ya, lumberyard is a really nice IPA. It has a bit more crystal (or at least higher-lovi crystal) and it's definitely firmly bittered. I'm not really sure which hops go into it. I get a lot of citrus from that beer, mixed with some floral notes and dank/onion/pine qualities. I'd guess they use a mix with some of the usual suspects: cascade, centennial, simcoe, columbus. I couldn't tell you exactly what they use though.

As I write this I am sitting in four peaks enjoying a hop knot. The beer is so good I quickly looked up a recipe here knowing I would want to make this myself.

Must say I really look forward to brewing this for myself.

I'm jealous. I haven't been to Four Peaks in about two months, i need to pay a visit.

Good luck with the brew. I still feel it's pretty dead on. If I rebrew it, I might try to swap the 10min Cascade addition for Simcoe instead, but I don't see that making a big difference.

Funny enough, reading this, sitting at four peaks, drinking a Hop Knot, reading a thread about a beer I also made. It's pretty spot on after some time. Better to add more late hops and double the dry hop to get closer.

The beer is sitting in my basement in its happy new carboy home.. Virtually flawless brew day, so excited to try this one out.

I love this beer... you can get a 12pk in cans at sunflower market. Im thinking about brewing this soon.

It's a darn shame they do not export outside of AZ.

Props to AZ breweries...http://www.azbrewguild.com/

So I really want to try to get this recipe 'right'. It's very close in it's current state, but needs a little tweaking. To do this, I started thinking like a professional brewer, and starting thinking about ingredients at their scale.

Four Peaks brews on a 20bbl brewhouse with 40 and 60bbl fermenters. So every beer is at least brewed twice, sometimes three times for one ferment. Pro brewers have to buy specialty grain in 50lb sacks, and hops in 11 or 44lb bags.

I'm assuming Hop Knot is done in 40bbl fermenters. Knowing the tendency of most professional brewers, all open sacks will be used between those two batches. For example, if they're using Glacier hops, we need to count on at least 11lbs between two batches.

So here's what I came up with:
300lbs of Pale Ale malt (6 sacks)
75lbs C20 (1.5 sacks, the other half sack for the second batch)

5.5lb Magnum @ 90
5.5lb Liberty @ 30
5.5lb Glacier @ 30
5.5lb Cascade in the Whirlpool
5.5lb Simcoe in the Whirlpool
11lb Simcoe Leaf hops in the Hop Back
11lb Cascade Leaf hops in the Hop Back

Dry Hops
11lb Simcoe
11lb Cascade

The IBUs calc out correctly, it's exactly 3.5lbs/bbl of hops, and between the two batches, all hops are in 11lb quantities. I think that's pretty damn close to what Four Peaks brews. So let's scale it down.

10lbs 2-row
3lbs Pale Ale (3.5L)
12oz Crystal 20L

24g Magnum @ 90
24g Liberty @ 30
24g Glacier @ 30
24g Simcoe @ 5
24g Cascade @ 5
48g Simcoe @ 0
48g Cascade @ 0
Dry Hop: 48g each of Simcoe and Cascade
For those that are metric challenged, 24g = 0.86oz, and 48g is 1.75oz.

The recipe looks pretty similar to the one I originally posted. A little less Crystal, a little less bittering, and much more hops in the finish.

Obviously, if you have a hop back, use it. The 5 minute addition is meant to mimic a whirlpool, and the 0min to mimic the hop back. My plan is to add the whirlpool hops at flameout, whirlpool my wort for 15min, the add the hopback hops right before I kick on the chiller.

I'm going to be brewing the revised recipe in a couple months. I'll report back how it turns out.

Thanks for all the research into my favorite Pale, scottland! I'll definately be brewing this soon. I'm curious to know how your latest recipe tweak came out.

I'm going to be brewing this next weekend, so It'll be another 4-5 weeks before I have any results.

Side Note #1, Hop Knot won Gold at the World Beer Cup for American Strong Pale Ale!
Side Note #2, Hop Knot has been tasting much hoppier in the past couple years than it used to. If you ask me, they are definitely throwing more hops at that beer.

scottland, I just plugged your latest recipe into BeerToolsPro and I come out at 80 IBU. The Four Peaks site says theirs is 47. Did I type something in wrong?

It calcs out to 49 IBU for a 6 gallon batch with the tinseth formula. Go with what you know, and adjust accordingly though.

I brewed this yesterday with the recipe I posted above. We'll see if it's closer than the original. Brewed a 10gal batch. 1.065 OG

10 gal of Hop Knot... mmmmmmmmm

Down to 1.014 today. It might attenuate another point or two. Hydro sample tastes dead on. It's still going to be a couple more weeks before the verdict is out on the new recipe.

FG settled in at 1.013. So it came in at 6.8% ABV. I'm racking to secondary today. It tastes very close.

pickedup the ingredients today to brew this up tomorrow...

doing 5 gallons with saffale 05 & 5 gallons with wl007 to see if we can see the difference...

question, what's the volume of water to mash at? i did not notice that in the instructions?

thanks

Dan

I personally don't feel mash thickness makes a big difference. I mash thin (1.5qt/lb), but I can't see it making much of a difference. I'd do what you normally do?

I'm kegging mine Thursday or Friday, so we'll have results soon

It's only been in the keg one day, but the initial reports say: 100% cloned. It needs two weeks in the keg before I'll know for sure, but ya.... the revised recipe is dead on.

P.S. I was just at Four Peaks less than an hour ago, so the taste is still fresh in my memory.

Nice! Congrats on your success! Did you end up using the exact recipe in post #27?

Warrior instead of magnum, but yes. Which I can't see making any noticeable difference.