Fiend's Manna

~ Fiend's Manna ~​

This wicked brew started as an effort to clone Double Bastard. Not content with the recipe, I decided to put my own spin on things.

For those that want to do a straight Double Bastard clone, make the following substitutions: 2-row for Maris Otter; 150L for 120L; Chinook for Nugget; Centennial for Cascade.

*Recipe based upon ~80% mash efficiency. Adjust as necessary.*

Partial Mash

Boil Volume: 6.5 gallons
Final Volume (before trub/transfer loss): 5.25 gallons

10 lb Maris Otter
4 lb, 4 oz Briess Light DME (43 ppg)

1.5 lb Crystal 120L
.5 lb CaraPils

Hops:

All hops are whole/leaf. Cascade at 6% AA, Nugget at 12% AA.

1.25 oz Cascade @ 60 min
2 oz Nugget @ 60 min
1 oz Cascade @ 5 min
.75 oz Nugget @ 5 min

1 oz Cascade (dry hop)
.5 oz Nugget (dry hop)

Additional:

1 Whirlfloc tab @ 10 min
1/2 tsp Wyeast nutrient @ 10 min

Notes:

Mash at 154*F for 60 minutes. 3 weeks in the primary, followed by a 5-7 day dry hop.

With ultra-OG brews, I've gotten into the habit of gently rousing the bottles once a week for the first three weeks, to ensure the yeast fulfill their yeasty duties. This may or may not be of any practical benefit, so I'll leave this one up to you.

4 weeks in bottles minimum before sampling.

A stir plate is more or less mandatory for a brew of this nature. A 1 liter on the plate will just get you the cell counts you need, but a 2 liter certainly won't hurt. WLP007 is a vigorous and forgiving strain, so no need to go nuts.

**Blow-off tube also mandatory.

Cost to brew is about $50. After loses, you're looking at two cases, give or take a six pack. Above average price tag by homebrew standards, but far and away better than any $25/case commercial offering. Certainly much more forgiving when compared to paying $150+ for the equivalent in Double Bastard.

Stay tuned for a full taste review...

Fiendish dry-hop....

If you ever get the chance to tour Stone Brewing and speak to the brew master he isn't real forthcoming with details, but will tell you that he cant stand Cascade hops. When I spoke with him and told him I was attempting an AB Clone and was looking at using Centennials all he did was nod.....is it right I don't know but will try brewing this after my mead comes out of the primary in about 10 days

I'm somewhat the opposite, in that I prefer Cascade to Centennials (assuming I had to pick just one). A personal choice I suppose, as both hops are highly regarded in the beer community.

A trend I've noticed in Stone brews is that they use high AA hops universally for bittering/flavor/dry hop, etc. This makes economical sense for a big brewery, but as an individual I'm afforded a bit more latitude by way of choice, and felt I could poke around with the double bastard base a bit, to see what I come up with.

That said, Stone brews are, of course, among the best. Probably my favorite brewery, all things considered.