Pliny the Elder Clone

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Netflyer

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Anyone brewed this beer from AustinHB? I have one comin'... my brother-in-law is dying for it so he funded the mission... they are running a $25 off sale on it too over there... 17 oz of hops ;p I can smell it from MD and it's still in TX...
 
My kit was delivered today.

17 oz of hops sounds like a lot until you get them and than you realize it's more than I thought.:D

After punching the recipe into BeerSmith - 243.7 IBU.
 
Dude... it's supposed to be 100IBU I thought, heh... I have this super huge grain bag I'm going to have to use as a hop bag... also it will soak up some serious amount of wort... So, are you going to brew it soon?

:cross:
 
Yup and it got a LOT of compliments, even people who had never had a hoppy beer(women) said it smelled like flowers.:)
 
According to Russian River it should be 100 IBU.

I'm brewing this a week from Saturday, this week I'm brewing a Boddington's Bitter Clone from AHS.

Just bottled Boddington's on Saturday... man, right out of the fermenter it was awesome...

So, do you think maybe when you plugged it into beersmith you accidentally put too much of the hops for too long?

I don't have the kit yet so I can't plug it in and check...
 
I cannot wait till my kit arrives :D


BTW, which yeast did you choose? I chose the WLP001 just because I never have had a bad experience with it. I never used the Wyeast before...
 
The 2.75 oz Warrior @ 15.4% AAU for 90 minutes gives 143.7 IBU's by itself.

Got it all the way down to 232 IBU by adjusting the Chinook mash hop.

Hmm, you think they screwed up the hops schedule? Should it be 60 min on the Warrior? Is their hops schedule based on a full boil? You're doing AG, right? The kit is for 5 gal. so for me that means about a 7.75 gal. boil, esp. with as much trub as this pup is gonna throw.
 
I cannot wait till my kit arrives :D


BTW, which yeast did you choose? I chose the WLP001 just because I never have had a bad experience with it. I never used the Wyeast before...

I got the Wyeast, I use it all the time but the geniuses of HBT have me making starters now so for this particular monster brew I'll make a giant starter... What is the OG on the kit?
 
My kit was delivered today.

17 oz of hops sounds like a lot until you get them and than you realize it's more than I thought.:D

After punching the recipe into BeerSmith - 243.7 IBU.

Beer only holds about 100 IBU or so, from what I've gathered. One can put in lots more hops, but when tested, the bittering value doesn't increase much.
 
I got the Wyeast, I use it all the time but the geniuses of HBT have me making starters now so for this particular monster brew I'll make a giant starter... What is the OG on the kit?

I am not sure of the O.G......yeah I know I will be making a 2 liter starter on my stirplate for this bad boy. What about your mash temp? Last time I mashed @ around 150 (between 150-147) I had the WLP001 ferment down to 1.006. I have a feeling that would be a tad dry for this recipe. I might try to mash at 152.
 
Hmm, you think they screwed up the hops schedule? Should it be 60 min on the Warrior? Is their hops schedule based on a full boil? You're doing AG, right? The kit is for 5 gal. so for me that means about a 7.75 gal. boil, esp. with as much trub as this pup is gonna throw.

You going to try and strain the hops out? If so, how? I think I am going to use some muslin bags on this one. I think it may just be too many hops for me to dump it right into the carboy...which is what I usually do.
 
I have some huge nylon grain bags for doing stovetop partial mashes. I'll use one of those. I typically clamp a 2 qt sized nylon grain bag to my kettle and put the hops in there. For this brew I'll just use more clamps... if you use muslin you will have to use a bunch! I'm also imagining some of that 17oz of hops is for dry hopping.

I will probably follow the directions for mashing :) Especially the first time I brew something I like to stick to the recipe as best I can.

Goldminer has his kit already, he can tell us the OG and the mash temp perhaps?
 
So, we should probably not worry if Beersmith showing IBU's much higher? Cause the final beer can't be more than 100 anyway?

Here's a quote in reference to Imperial IPAs from Jamil's "Brewing Classic Styles".

One very important thing to keep in mind is that in this beer the hop varieties and quantities are more important than their alpha acid levels. Once bittering gets past a certain level (100 to 120 IBU), you are only interested in the oils, resins, and other hop compounds that add flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel.

Hope this helps.
 
I have brewed the recipe from Austins and it is work getting.

On the IBUs comments, your tongue is not going to be able to disern much over 100 IBUs, that is part of the reason they post it as a 100 IBUs, there is more scientific stuff too but don't trust beersmith on 100+ IBU beers.
 
Pliny's IBU's are actual and not calculated so that is your difference. You want it to finish down towards 1.010. To dry it out some, Vinnie uses some dextrin to help out with that. Here's his recipe if it helps...

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/1Pliny the Elder clone PDF.pdf

I have one I built off the the grain schedule and my own schedule in the better bottle right now. Expect to lose quite a bit from the hop material. If I ever make one of these again I will invest in a false bottom for my boiler to strain it.
 
Still even in a hop bag, I expect the amount of wort lost will be large... From that link an 8 gallon gross yielded 5 gallons, after dry hoping and such you think that loss was all due to hop soakage?
 
A combo of both massive hops and that there is more break material than a normal brew due to its higher than normal gravity. I will end up with about 4 gallons by the time it hits the kegerator.
 
I'm brewing this on Sunday... I'll report back :) I asked in another thread about a few issues on the supplied brewsheet... mash temp at 150 for 60 min, and 1.5 oz of Chinook Hops (is it a first wort or a mash hops)... I'll post the answers here. I'll either get an answer before Sat on that thread or I'll call AHS...
 
One more initial q, the brewsheet says not to run off more than 6.25... why? I need to boil 8 gallons to get me 5 gal over 90 min with my kettle. I guess I just have to adjust the grist w/beersmith? I thought it was ok to sparge to my starting boil volume, even if it is 8 gal. I mean 6.25 gal boil over 90 min would yield much less than 5 gal finish with even a moderate evap and trub loss. So, I'm a bit confused there..
 
One more initial q, the brewsheet says not to run off more than 6.25... why?

I've noticed this in the directions for all the AHS all grain kits. I think it's intended to be a generic guideline and something that doesn't have to be followed all the time. Especially for this situation. I myself did this kit and realized just like you that I needed much more than 6.25 gallons preboil for a 90 minute boil. :rockin:
 
I mashed @ 150 for 60, performed iodine test, then I ran off almost 7 gallons. probably explains why I missed the 1.074 OG on the sheet. Mine was 1.067. But it was only my third all-grain on my system. I'm still working all the bugs out.
 
I've noticed this in the directions for all the AHS all grain kits. I think it's intended to be a generic guideline and something that doesn't have to be followed all the time. Especially for this situation. I myself did this kit and realized just like you that I needed much more than 6.25 gallons preboil for a 90 minute boil. :rockin:

Exactly what I figured, generic directions... Man, for something this special they should do a new brewsheet... Thanks!
 
Way to much is being made of this beer, it's good, not exceptional. It's simple to make with good results. Brew it as you would any other all grain beer, it just has a few more hops.

Fwiw, my preboil was 10 gallons!
 
My friends and ordered one of these kits as well. Should Arrive today but I think we are supposed to brew up the November Brew (A couple months late) Denny's Imperial Bourbon Vanilla Porter first. Have really done and imperial yet and our next 2 brews will be. But anyway just reading to hear for everyone's impressions on the PtE Clone.
 
Just finished brewing er' ... Took me about 6 hours cause I'm slow. It was very cold and dry out and that combined with the silly amount of hops/trub even with a hops bag I only ended up with 4 gallons in the fermenter. My initial boil was 7.5 gal and it should have been 8.5... oh well. My OG was 1.075 and I could have added some water but didn't. The kit says 1.073 so I wasn't off by much. My clothes smell like hops and frankly it may be the best smell I have ever smelled like. SWMBO helped me brew this one but she hid in the house while I stood over the hop bomb inhaling... The final brew looked very clear and pale... I can imagine after the dry hoping I'll end up with like 3.25-3.5 gal.. pretty weak return... Go for larger boils, learn from my mistake!

:cross:
 
Made from the AHB store kit. Bought two kits as I do 10 gal batches. We brewed Sunday (yesterday).

I tried my hand a using HERMS on this, primarily for the protein rest at 122° to help clarify the finished product. SWMBO decided that my Christmas present would be that she would brew with me today. I was glad, and afterwards she asked me when we were going to brew again.

I over shot the protien rest by a degree or two, but then did a 40 min rest at 140° and a 20 minute rest at 150°. Then I got it up to 170° to mash out. My 1st runnings (which won't have any of the corn sugar yet from the kit) was about 1.086. My pre boil (still with no corn sugar) was about 1.071. This made me very happy with my mash. The OG when I went to flame out was about 1.092, right where I wanted to be. My trub was not at all excessive, and I used a new muslin bag for each of the hop additions.

I pitched slurry from my most recent pale ale recipe. I probably had about 500mL of good concentrated yeast in the slurry. I also add pure oxygen with an inline stone. I pitched at 3:00PM yesterday afternoon, and by 04:30 this morning when I was leaving for work, my blowoff tube was going like mad.

My HERMS attempt had me nervous for a little bit. I was nervous to stir the mash at each of my times to raise the temp, but without stirring, the mash temp seemed to not increase. I also ran a recirc at mash out to keep the runnings really clear. It helped to run the MO recirc for about 15 minutes, helped bring it up to 170°. Then I tried to keep to the rule of thumb for sparging (I fly-sparge) of no faster than one gallon of wort into the boil kettle every 12 minutes. Previously I had run faster, and consequently gotten lower SG readings.

I can't wait for this one to be ready!!
 
"Way to much is being made of this beer, it's good, not exceptional. It's simple to make with good results. Brew it as you would any other all grain beer, it just has a few more hops."

Yeah, I brewed a Pliny Clone this past weekend (Hop Hammer from Classic Styles) and I guess that I too am wondering a bit what all of the fuss is about. I say this not having tasted a PTE because we don't get it in these parts.

While I believe that this will be a very good beer (hoppy) it resembles a number of the hop bombs that I have brewed (Columbarillo, Dogfish Head, Hopinator) all of which were/are outstanding. I will say that the addition of cane sugar in the recipe was different than the others and that the fermentation was very strong (still going 4 days later). Montanaandy
 
Shouldn't a 1.073+OG take at least 4 days to finish? I would think so, that's quite a bit of work for those yeasties... I'm blubbin' like crazy here 48 hours later, a blub or so per sec.

As far as this beer not being special, having never brewed this clone I don't know but I will say, the actual beer is an experience I won't forget. Nothing ordinary about the real Pliny the Elder. That is one amazing beer folks. If this clone can touch it I'll be really happy.

;)
 
This same hype was out there when Dogfish 90 min became popular, and Hop Slam. Probably the west coast equivalent to big ol' beers like that. Im not saying it's not good but just the same hype. Also, the wow factor of having 17 ounces of hops I'm sure has something to do with it.
 
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