Let's clone Troegs Java Head!

I love that beer, can't get enough. Super hoppy, super roasty, and it works amazingly well. I'm going to make a go at coming up with something as close as I can.

Description from the Troegs website:

JavaHead Stout
Alcohol by Volume: 7.5%
Hop Bitterness (IBU's): 60
Color (SRM): Black
Availability: Seasonal, 22oz. Bottles Only
Malts: Pilsner, Crystal, Chocolate, Roast
JuJu: Oats, Blend of Coffee Beans
Hops: Cluster, Chinook, Cascade
Yeast: Unfiltered Ale

JavaHead Stout contains a blend of locally roasted espresso and Kenyan coffee beans by St. Thomas Roasters in Linglestown, PA.
JavaHead's recipe is based off of our original oatmeal stout. After the boil, the hot wort passes through our hopback vessel on it's way to fermentation. Packed full of whole leaf hops and a bed of ground coffee beans, the hopback vessel is similar to using a huge French press, intensifying the coffee nose and releasing subtle hints of coffee flavor. The result is a lush oatmeal mouthfeel balanced with cocoa, roast and subtle coffee flavors.

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I don't have a way to properly do the hopback so I'm going to use a french press to add a hop tea and cold brewed coffee at bottling.


Recipe as stands:
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Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Original Gravity: 1.073 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.5
Bitterness: 56.3 IBUs
Est Color: 31.5 SRM
Mash @ 152

11 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) - 73.0 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) - 6.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) - 6.3 %
1 lbs Carapils Grain 2 - 6.3 %
1 lbs Golden Naked Oats (1.0 SRM) - 6.3 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) - 1.6 %

0.75 oz Chinook [11.8 %] - Boil 60.0 min - 24.9 IBUs
1.0 oz Cluster [6.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min - 19.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Cluster [6.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min - 3.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min - 2.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00%] - Boil 10.0 min - 6.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0 min

3.00 oz total Chinook/Cascade/Cluster via french press, steeped 5min and added at bottling - I figured 3-4 IBUs
1 french press batch extra strong cold brewed coffee, heated to 170 and added at bottling
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Any thoughts/suggestions would be welcome!

So is this in the works? If so, I'm very interested in how this turns out, please keep us posted. Troegs Java Head is a superb beer.

It will be shortly after the 2011 pellet hop crop comes out, I'm waiting on the fresh batch to stock up.

I'd be super interested to see how this turns out too.

Just brewed this up, it's sitting in the fermenter right now! The recipe in the OP is spot on to what I did. I wound up hitting close to my numbers, got the volume right but am at 1.071. Good enough.

I'll post an update when it's ready to drink.

edit

@24hours, S05 doing its thing

Looking forward to the update.

I bottled this on 1/5/12 with 2oz cold brewed Kona coffee (didn't bother to heat it up) and also used 1oz each of Cluster, Chinook, and Cascade in a french press with boiling water for 5min per the recipe... I think it was waaaaaaaaay too much hops because I could only compact it down about 3/4 of the way in the french press even with so much pressure that I was afraid I was going to break the glass. The resulting liquid was super hoppy, greenish/brown and opaque. Seemed about right. The beer actually smells quite a bit like Java Head, it was quite chocolatey before I added the coffee and pressed hops, then it took on more of the aroma I was looking for.

The taste was in the ballpark of Java Head before adding the hops, it just needed... more hops, lol. I was pretty apprehensive about how this would turn out but after bottling that's turned to excitement. So long as the coffee doesn't clash with anything I think it'll be good. I'm excited to do a side by side once it's ready.

You hiding a Utopias back there?

Troeg's uses a blend of locally roasted espresso and Kenyan coffee beans by a local coffee house near their brewery.

Savage06 said:

You hiding a Utopias back there?

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Yup!

Good storage temp in there.

Kuhndog said:

Troeg's uses a blend of locally roasted espresso and Kenyan coffee beans by a local coffee house near their brewery.

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Yeah I think I saw that somewhere. I was thinking about getting some locally roasted coffee but decided to go with something I was familiar with. I wouldn't want something too highly roasted, a lighter Kona blend seemed to fit the bill for me.

When they say locally roasted espresso I don't really know what that means. Espresso is a coffee preparation method, not a specific type of bean or roast level. I kinda doubt they grind the beans down as fine as you would for espresso but I suppose you could do that with whole hops and more roughly chopped beans in a hopback.

So you pressed the coffee and the hops together? or did I miss a step there? I'm wanting to do a similar finishing step with the coffee and a dry hop, but this may save me a step.

and a little more detail. How much coffee (grounds by weight) to water for the cold brew, and time, please?

Cayuga said:

So you pressed the coffee and the hops together? or did I miss a step there? I'm wanting to do a similar finishing step with the coffee and a dry hop, but this may save me a step.

and a little more detail. How much coffee (grounds by weight) to water for the cold brew, and time, please?

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Not together. I steeped 2oz of coffee in the french press overnight in the fridge using about a quart of cold water.

For the hops, at bottling I steeped them in about a quart of boiling water for 5 minutes. 3oz is a bit excessive as the hops absorb a lot of the water, half that much would probably be better.

I hear that the effect of this isn't quite the same as dry hopping, it comes off more like a late addition. That's just what I've read though, I haven't tried it before.

Is the 2oz of coffee enough to really get the flavor? Seems light to me.

Can't get Troegs here, wish I could. For my coffee stout I use 5oz of course ground beans in secondary for 3-5 days.

Cayuga said:

Is the 2oz of coffee enough to really get the flavor? Seems light to me.

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Well I don't get a strong coffee flavor from Java Head, it's there but it's light. I thought being heavy handed with the coffee might clash with the hops so I used about half as much as I normally would.

What was your mash time / yeast? this recipe looks crazy interesting.

Mashed at 152*F for 60min, yeast was S05. A clean yeast seemed appropriate to me.

I had a taste after 2.5 weeks in the bottle. It's not ready yet but my initial impression is that it needs more hops, it tastes like a green American Stout with a hint of coffee. I was wondering if a lack of a dry hop would be an issue. My thought right now is that for round two I'll significantly increase the late addition hops and move at least half the french press hops to a dry hop.

As I said though it's still green so I'm waiting on a proper tasting and comparison to make any decisions. Even if it's not exactly where I want it, it'll be tasty, that's for sure.

So I know the Java Head recipe is based off their original oatmeal stout that they no longer brew. I lived in the area when they brewed it and it was my favorite. You wouldn't happen to have an insight to their grain bill on the original?

nocsimian said:

So I know the Java Head recipe is based off their original oatmeal stout that they no longer brew. I lived in the area when they brewed it and it was my favorite. You wouldn't happen to have an insight to their grain bill on the original?

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Nope no actual insight, I just put together a grainbill that made sense to me. I'll do a comparison once I recover from this headcold, probably next week.

Oh yeah, totally forgot about it but Troeg's actually puts up some decent videos (and sometimes their grainbills) up on Youtube. Here's the JavaHead vid.

nocsimian said:

Oh yeah, totally forgot about it but Troeg's actually puts up some decent videos (and sometimes their grainbills) up on Youtube. Here's the JavaHead vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeNq...UCGXQYbcTJ33ac_6GtS-8vYPd1yUOGKvoWoDe9_4JAGbs

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Awesome info, I'll def take this into account when trying to hone in closer to the real thing. The Kona is medium which should be just a bit lighter of a roast than a full city roast. The flavor contribution from the beans will be less earthy than Kenya but overall should be similar, sometimes people sub Kenya AA for Kona if they can't find any.

A day at the St. Thomas Roasters in Harrisburg. Take a look at their roasting process for the beans used in Tröegs Java Head Stout. They use a Full City roast with Kenya AA beans. Music by Colebrook Road.

Uploader Comments (TroegsBrewingCompany):
The coffee is cold steeped and added during the fermentation.

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Any update on how this turned out? and if there is a closer #2 yet? Love Javahead.
My wife drinks Mad Elf so surprised me and took a day and drove to the brewery last year for some naked elf (without the cherries) six packs and bought me a javahead shirt
would love to try a close clone but even after 4 years of brewing it's not in me to even try to figure out how to clone something.
Will be trying the mad elf clone from this forum in about two weeks, then in august may be able to brew the stout if you have any suggestions.
Ben

Ah man I totally forgot to update this thread!

The beer turned out really well, in fact once it was nicely conditioned I think I drank it in less than two weeks. It took longer to develop than what I'm used to (about 9 weeks in the bottle) so for a good while I thought it just didn't work out well. Then all of a sudden, it was delicious.

It was actually quite close in flavor to Java Head. It was slightly roastier, the coffee seemed about right to me and the hop profile seemed accurate as well. I personally would add more hops next time but in a direct comparison the level was about right. Appearance wise they were identical.

All in all, close in flavor and overall very tasty. I'll likely be making an iteration of it as the weather cools down with more hops overall but less in the french press (as 3oz was not very efficient at all). It won't be as close to Java Head but it'll sure be tasty!

speaking of java head i got a bag of the coffee they use in it i need to get ground for the mornings thanks for reminding me. lol i love all of troegs beers once i start brewing i think these clones will be my favorite.

thanks for the update. just did a clone of mad elf and have a yards pale ale clone waiting then in 3 weeks hopefully can do this. 9 weeks in bottle it will be ready for october, good timing.
thanks ben