Help me tune my Caldera IPA Clone

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djfriesen

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Here's what I've put together in BeerCalculus:


Caldera IPA Clone
Batch Size: 1 gal
60% 1lb 8oz American Two-row Pale
20% 0 8oz Munich Malt - 10L
20% 0 8oz Crystal 20L

(60 mins) 0.4 oz Centennial pellet
(10 mins) 0.25 oz Simcoe pellet
(1 min) 0.25 oz Amarillo pellet
(1 min) 0.25 oz Simcoe pellet

Safale US-05

This gives me:
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.018
Projected ABV: 6.4%
SRM: 10
IBU: 99.6

Calder's website calls for:
SRM:10.1
IBU: 94
ABV: 6.1%

So I'm on for color, and a little over on IBUs. Is there an easy way to fix this? I kept the hop additions in mangeable quantities, as this is my first attempt at my own recipe. I have no idea if my grainbill is to proper proportion. I guess on such a small scale, I could afford to wing it, but it never hurts to ask. I assume there is a set framework for different beer styles, as far as proportions of grains go. Is there a place to find this? Or is it just kind of a trial and error thing?

Also, I plan to mash at around 152 °F for 60 mins (maybe up to 156 °F for another 30 mins to try to leave some maltiness to offset the high IBUs?). Will these numbers be ok? Maybe I'm overthinking this stuff. Meh, I don't know.

Any and all input will be welcome. Amarillo and Simcoe are new to me, so I'm not sure I'm using them properly to obtain the strong citrus notes of this beer's inspiration. BeerCalculus doesn't seem to have an ability to select dry-hopping, so that is also an option. Maybe I should scale back some of the late hop additions and put them back in dry hopped? What are your thoughts?

Thanks,
Dan
 
The only thing I would change is the gallons:D!! Really?? ONE gallon of IPA? PLEASE tell me you live in a campground and you have to boil on a camp stove. Other than that I think you have a solid recipe!
 
We're in the process of upgrading. This was the starter kit I got, and money is kinda tight. I buy things as I can afford them. Have my 40 qt aluminum pot, and my brother is buying a burner tomorrow. Once we get our fermentation bucket, we'll be golden.

Until then, I want to brew as much as I can, learn as much as I can, and continue to try to nail down my process and knowledge of recipes.

I'm a victim of circumstance!!
 
My main suggestion would be to lighten up on the Crystal, because 20% is really high, especially for an IPA. Even the IPA recipes that are heavy on crystal usually aren't more than about 10% max and most aim lower than that.

Also, If you want fewer IBUs, just lighten up the 60 minute Centennial addition a bit until it gets you the IBUs that you want.
 
Thanks. This is the kind of info I was looking for. So should I drop the crystal to 3-4 oz and make the difference up in 2-row? Maybe just play with it until I get the color close? How does the hop schedule look? I'm assuming Centennial is the best bittering hop of the three, and hopefully it will be flavor-forward enough with the late additions of Simcoe and Amarillo.

New Grainbill:
68% 1lb 11oz American Two-row Pale
25% 0 10oz Munich Malt - 15L
8% 0 3oz Crystal 20L

(55 mins) 0.4 oz Centennial pellet
(10 mins) 0.25 oz Simcoe pellet
(1 min) 0.25 oz Amarillo pellet
(1 min) 0.25 oz Simcoe pellet

Is it OK to have 25% munich? I also shortened the boil on the bittering hops to get the IBUs a little closer.
 
25% munich is ok, but I'd guess it would be lower. probably something like
75-85% 2-row (2lb)
10-20% munich (6oz)
5-10% crystal (2oz 60L)

I'd add in a 0.5oz or so dry hop as well.
 
I agree that you might want to ease up on the crystal. If you want to maintain color while using less crystal, you could try using crystal 40 or 60
 
Thanks,

That's just what I was looking for. Changed it up per dcp27's suggestions and added a .05 oz dry hop with amarillo. Hopefully it turns out close to the original!
 
I like me some Caldera IPA, but a $10 a six pack .. homebrew sounds like a good choice. Here's what I got out of BeerSmith for a 5.5 gal batch. The grain bill looks fine, but I ain't too adept at hop calculations. Whaddya think?


10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 74.74 %
2 lbs 4.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 16.82 %
1 lbs 2 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) 8.45 %
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min) 45.1 IBU
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (30 min) 34.6 IBU
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (10 min) Hops 14.2 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.066 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.37 %
Bitterness: 93.9 IBU
Est Color: 10.0 SRM
 
Well, I bought my ingredients for my 1 gal test batch today. Unfortunately, I think the lady at the LHBS gave me .2 and .6 pounds of my specialty grains, instead of 2 and 6 ounces. So the color will be a little darker, and the taste will be a little different than what it would have been. Planning on brewing it up with the wife on Tuesday, so hopefully it goes well. I'll pick up a can in a month or so and try a side-by-side.
 
82 IBUs in a 1.066 beer should be plenty. If you want more, just move a it of the 30 min addition to 60 to get to your desired IBU, then move the rest to 15-20.
 
djfriesen said:
Well, I bought my ingredients for my 1 gal test batch today. Unfortunately, I think the lady at the LHBS gave me .2 and .6 pounds of my specialty grains, instead of 2 and 6 ounces. So the color will be a little darker, and the taste will be a little different than what it would have been. Planning on brewing it up with the wife on Tuesday, so hopefully it goes well. I'll pick up a can in a month or so and try a side-by-side.

So she gave you extra? You don't have to use it all.
 
Ya, I hadn't seen anything on here as far as clones went, so I figured I'd start trying out my first from-scratch recipe. *fingers crossed*
 
82 IBUs in a 1.066 beer should be plenty. If you want more, just move a it of the 30 min addition to 60 to get to your desired IBU, then move the rest to 15-20.

OK, I moved 0.5 oz to 60 minutes and the remaining 1 oz to 15 and got back to about 89 IBU's. So, is there some formula or ratio for finding a balance between bittering and flavoring hop additions?
 
1:1 is fairly standard for a nice balanced IPA (example 1.066: 66 IBU). It is by no means a rule though, lots of delicious commercial IPAs are not "balanced". I like to look at where the ibus come from more than total ibus. I prefer the hop bursting technique to get maximum flavor/aroma with the desired bitterness.
 
it seems to me that there is at least *some* centennial as a later addition just due to the taste

Maybe not but that is what I would do

this beer is soooooo FANTASTIC on tap at caldera
 
Bottled it last night, and it tastes and smells fantastic. I don't have an actual can to compare it to, but even if it doesn't nail it, it's gonna be a fantastic IPA.
 
Sounds like you've created a very fine beverage for yourself. For curiosity sake you may want to contact the brewer. I cloned a special edition porter of theirs and the brewer was very helpful. Make sure to comment on your appreciation of the brew and I'm sure he will offer some good feedback (i.e. you don't want to sound like you can easily do what they do and you are intending to brew the clone in place of your patronage).
 
Theyr'e website had the grains and hops used, the SRM number, the ABV, and the IBUs they bittered to. They only real freedom I had was deciding which hops to use for what, and what proportions to use for the grains to achieve the color and ABV I wanted. The head brewer would be able to tell me these things, and I will try to use that resource if it becomes necessary, but I'll do a side-by-side first and see how mine works. If it's not very close, I'll contact the brewer to tweak the hop schedule.
 
As an update for anyone who cares:

Popped a 12 ounce bottle a couple nights ago and found that, somehow, I had managed to bottle it with about 3/16 of an inch of head space. Whoops. It was really flat.

That being said, it tasted good. It wasn't a very good clone, but it was an excellent IPA. The color was a few shades darker, as I expected it to be. I'll open another bottle (hopefully one with proper headspace) in another week, and I bought a can from a bottle shop to try to compare them side-by-side. Once I can get good comparisons, I'll post to try to get some suggestions to dial it in.

Despite that, I may keep this recipe as is and come back to it later. Or build an IIPA from that foundation.
 
Well,

I did my side-by-side last night, and I think it was a success. The nose seemed identical to the commercial version; the taste was very very close; the color was a little darker, but I knew it would be going in; and head retention was the same on both (Terrible. Maybe my glasses weren't as clean as they could be). I'm going to run a 5 gallon batch next, with the following bills:

10 lb 2-Row
2.5 lb Munich 10L
1 lb Crystal 60L

Mash for 60 minutes at 154°

2 oz Centennial (10 AA) 60 mins
1.25 oz Simcoe (13 AA) 10 mins
1.25 oz Simcoe (13 AA) 1 min
1.25 oz Amarillo (9.5 AA) 1 min
2.5 oz Amarillo Dry hopped for 7 days

I fermented in primary for 21 days, dry-hopped for 7 days, then cold-crashed and bottled. Hopefully someone will give it a try, and let me know how it turns out for them. Happy Brewing!

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I like a good ipa and have a lot of all the hops. I will put it on my to-brew list. It may be awhile before I get to it though, got a bunch of new hops to try out first.
 
MMMM looks like a tasty beer to me! Actually it IS a tasty beer as I am drinking one right now! You need to put this beer in the IPA recipe section!
 
First off, thanks to djfriesen for getting this thread started. I'm a big fan of Caldera's IPA and it's great being able to start with a recipe that gets me close!

I've brewed a half dozen all-grain batches and I have a little background in chemistry but I'm still a nooB when it comes to brewing. So far I've had some decent beers but I tend to make my IPAs a little too dark and malty. I'm trying to learn from my errors, so I'm electing to dial back the darker malts in this recipe. I tweaked the hops only slightly because I really like me some hoppy beer and I had a little extra on hand anyway.

I'm brewing this weekend and I'd appreciate any feedback about the recipe. Not trying to highjack the thread as my goal is to produce a Caldera clone- according to iBrewmaster this recipe should come in around 10.1 SRM, 6.5% ABV, and about 97 IBUs (according to an earlier post in this thread, the SRM is spot on and the ABV and IBUs are pretty close).

A few specific questions: this is my first time using dry yeast and that's got me nervous as I only bought one pack (expecting to make a starter, not realizing that making a starter with dry yeast isn't always a good idea). Is one pack of yeast enough assuming I rehydrate it?

Second, my grain bill is heavier than djfriesen's original by about a pound. Should I just add another quart of strike water to account for the extra absorption?

Here's the recipe I've come up with:

Caldera Clone 5 gal

Malts:
12.5 lbs 2-Row (US) (86% of total grain bill)
1.3 lbs Munich 10L (9% of total grain bill )
0.73 lbs Caramel/Crystal 60L (5% of total grain bill)

Hops:
2 oz Centennial 10% at 60 min for 68 IBU
1.5oz Simcoe 13% at 10 min for 24 IBU
1.5 oz Simcoe 13% at 1 min for 3 IBU
1.5 oz Amarillo 8.5% at 1 min for 2 IBU
2.5 oz Amarillo 8.5% dry hopped for 7 days, rousing on days 2 and 4

Yeast:
Safale US-05 dry packet

Fermentation:
7 days in primary at 65 F
14 days in secondary at 67 F
7 days cold crash at 44 F
14 days in keg at 73 F
 
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