Maine Beer Co. Lunch IPA clone?

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SenorHops

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Has anyone attempted to clone this beer? Was wondering what people are picking up in this beer's hop profile. I find it very citrusy. I pick up some distinct lemon. Centennial and Sorachi maybe? Anyone?
 
I just had a chance to try this for the first time a few days ago, and was very impressed. Not overly bitter, but lots of hop taste and aroma, with enough malt to balance it out. I got more of a piney taste as the primary hop flavor and aroma, but there was definitely some of those herbal and citrus notes too. I am guessing Chinook is part of it, and maybe some columbus, Centennial, cascade? I am not sure on the malt bill, but most of the sweetness I think was from the hops, not the malt. It was more orange then many of the IPA's so maybe a bit of a darker crystal, but not a whole lot as I did not get a large crystal component to the taste. Anyway, interesting beer, will be fun to try to piece it together.
 
From their site: http://www.mainebeercompany.com/maine-beer/lunch/

Our “East Coast” version of a West Coast-style IPA. Intense hop flavors and aromas of tropical and citrus fruits and pine dominate. A subtle malt sweetness brings the beer into balance.

Vitals:

Color – Orange

ABV – 7.0%

O.G. – 1.061

Malt – American 2-Row, CaraPils, Caramel 40L, Munich 10L, Red Wheat

Hops – Warrior, Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe
Click to expand...

Great beer! I just got one in a trade as a bonus.

What surprises me is the listed OG of 1.061. If it's 7% abv that means the FG has to be right around 1.008! That's easily the lowest I've ever seen for the style - and by taste, it didn't seem that dry but...
 
The recipe seems to have changed significantly since early batches (not for the better) Folks at one of the local bottle shops think that it was changed due to criticism that the beer was (allegedly) a rip-off of the Pliny recipe. I don't know if that's conspiracy theory stuff, but the beer was a dead ringer for fresh Pliny.

It's cool that they posted the info about the current incarnation of the beer.
 
I have three bottles left of lunch and was thinking of harvesting some yeast. Does anyone have any idea on what type of yeast they use to bottle?
 
I would love to know about the yeast as well. I actually bought a bottle last week that I was going to harvest the yeast from.
 
I doubt that this is Ringwood. To me Ringwood is one of the more distinctive yeasts, try Shipyard or Grittys, and Lunch does not strike me as having much of a yeast presence. I think I read somewhere that Peeper uses a clean american ale strain similar to US-05, so I would imagine this uses this same.

Of course I could be completely wrong.
 
Tdogtt10 said:
Anyone have any more luck with this?
Click to expand...

If given an option of a Lunch or a Heady Topper, I'm picking Lunch. My favorite IPA. Just so delicious for all of the reasons given in this thread. Would love to work on a clone if anyone has any thoughts??
 
Alright, I'm thinking of taking a stab at this. No real insight other than taste testing and details pulled from their site. Let me know what you think of the recipe. It's a little light on the ABV, but based on their site, they most be using a super attenuating yeast as they state OG of 1.059 with a 7% ABV (results in a 1.006 FG -- too dry IMO). So I bumped up the OG and decided to make it a little lighter on ABV. May not be perfect clone, but it'll still be delicious.

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated FG: 1.013 SG
Estimated Color: 8.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 63.0 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 68.8 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 12.5 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 6.2 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) 6.2 %
1 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) 6.2 %
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 40.8 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 12.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 4.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 2.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Day Hop
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop
 
I changed the recipe somewhat before I brewed it to put most of the mid-boil bops into a flameout and then i did a hop-stand for around 20-30 minutes. It came out nicely, but not very much like Lunch.

I know some people have had good luck with flameouts w/ hopstands, but to be honest I always get a slight vegetal taste when I load up on flameout hops like that. I read else where that they bitter with magnum and then do equal amounts of centennial, simcoe, amarillo every 15 minutes.

If I was going to make this again (probably will but not right away), I'd go with the following:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.50 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.37 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 8.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 53.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 58.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
13 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
0.20 oz Warrior [16.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool
1.0 pkg London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028)
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
1.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
 
Drinking this right now and figured I will need to brew this sometime this spring so if you have any updates don't forget about this thread. I have a couple of beers on the docket but if you haven't heard from me feel free to call me out :ban:
 
I haven't had this beer so I can't comment on taste but picked up a Mo the other day and am looking forward to trying it and harvesting the yeast. After seeing the high beeradvocate ratings of Maine Brewing's beers I became interested in their selections. I love that they give their ingredients and OG on their website. The one thing I would add is how they get it to finish so "dry" and have a high attenuation with their yeast is they probably mash at a lower temp so they have more fermentable sugars. Maybe something in the 145*-148* range.

Hoping to have a Lunch one day.
 
I'm going to try to rebrew this within the next couple of weeks. Their attenuation is pretty ridiculous, even with a low mash temp, unless you add corn sugar. I'm just going to use a more attenuative yeast (WLP090 Super San Diego) and mash low and just accept a higher FG.

Est OG: 1.061
Est FG: 1.008
ABV: 7%
IBU: 57
SRM: 6

81.5% Pale Malt
7.40% Munich Malt
3.70% Carapils
3.70% Caramel 40L
3.70% White Wheat Malt

1.0oz Magnum @ FWH
2.0oz Amarillo @ Flameout
2.0oz Centennial @ Flameout
2.0oz Simcoe @ Flameout
2.0oz Amarillo @ Dry Hop 4 Days
2.0oz Centennial @ Dry Hop 4 Days
2.0oz Simcoe @ Dry Hop 4 Days

1000ml starter of WLP090

Mash @ 148f for 60 minutes

I'll post my results -- probably be like two months or so.

I've been having great results recently with putting half of my flameout hops in at flameout. Then I start chilling and once the wort drops below 180f, I dump the rest of the flameout hops in and stir pretty vigorously. Then, I do a huge dry hop for a short period. I use a paint strainer bag when transferring to my bottling bucket to strain out all of the hop mass.

After carbing, they're a touch on the "vegetal" side for a few days, but usually by 3 weeks in the bottle that has aged out and you get a huge, "hop flavor" bomb with restrained bitterness.
 
I'd like to add that I just brewed this recipe and currently have it on tap at my place.

http://www.craftedpours.com/homebrew-recipe/maine-beer-lunch-ipa-clone-homebrew-recipe

It's in the same rough ballpark as Lunch. One of the better IPA's I've brewed. My wife has been enjoying it too actually. She commented that this was as good as anything you can buy off the shelf. And she's not usually into the stuff I brew.

I got mine to finish dry at 1.009 by mashing around 149, which goes against the recipe but oh well, I think that's the key. Very balanced beer after chilling out for 5 weeks. All the great hop flavors and aromas you'd expect from this combo.

I bet somebody smarter than me could try this recipe side-by-side with the real thing and easily make the tweaks necessary to nail it 100%. I guess first you'd have to get your hands on one, which for some reason is always a challenge even in my neck of the woods where we have access to pretty much everything else MBC brews.

If you're looking for a Lunch clone to try, I'd say brew this one as-is, with no modifications, and see what you think.

Lemme know if you have any specific Q's about the process.

zc
 
zippyclown said:
I'd like to add that I just brewed this recipe and currently have it on tap at my place.

http://www.craftedpours.com/homebrew-recipe/maine-beer-lunch-ipa-clone-homebrew-recipe

It's in the same rough ballpark as Lunch. One of the better IPA's I've brewed. My wife has been enjoying it too actually. She commented that this was as good as anything you can buy off the shelf. And she's not usually into the stuff I brew.

I got mine to finish dry at 1.009 by mashing around 149, which goes against the recipe but oh well, I think that's the key. Very balanced beer after chilling out for 5 weeks. All the great hop flavors and aromas you'd expect from this combo.

I bet somebody smarter than me could try this recipe side-by-side with the real thing and easily make the tweaks necessary to nail it 100%. I guess first you'd have to get your hands on one, which for some reason is always a challenge even in my neck of the woods where we have access to pretty much everything else MBC brews.

If you're looking for a Lunch clone to try, I'd say brew this one as-is, with no modifications, and see what you think.

Lemme know if you have any specific Q's about the process.

zc
Click to expand...

Looking to brew this same recipe. However, for a five gallon batch, with that much grain, I will get an OG of 1.078 where the target OG for this beer seems to be 1.059 (from website and threads).

So whoever wrote the recipe either gets 55% efficiency or makes more than a 5 gallon batch. Maybe it is for a 6 gallon or something and the 5 is final product?

I guess my question is, what did you get for numbers? Did you scale back on the grain?

I am thinking about scaling the grain back a bit and doing a 6 gallon batch to account for loss of water from the hops (to get 5 gallons in the end).

I'm wondering though if I should increase the hop additions if I do this.
 
mclaughlindw4 said:
Looking to brew this same recipe. However, for a five gallon batch, with that much grain, I will get an OG of 1.078 where the target OG for this beer seems to be 1.059 (from website and threads).

So whoever wrote the recipe either gets 55% efficiency or makes more than a 5 gallon batch. Maybe it is for a 6 gallon or something and the 5 is final product?

I guess my question is, what did you get for numbers? Did you scale back on the grain?

I am thinking about scaling the grain back a bit and doing a 6 gallon batch to account for loss of water from the hops (to get 5 gallons in the end).

I'm wondering though if I should increase the hop additions if I do this.
Click to expand...


I'm pulling up my recipe from Beersmith and you're right, I did end up scaling this recipe to 1.059 but maintaining the same percentages from this recipe. You'd be looking more like this:

Pale 2-row 11.67# (81.38%)
Munich 0.97# (6.78%)
Cara-pils 0.49# (3.39%)
Wheat 0.61# (4.24%)
C40 0.60 (4.20%)

Try that for 6 gallons. You should be right at 1.059.

zc
 
What yeast are you guys using for this recipe?

I dig both Lunch and Another One from Maine Beer Co. They look like fairly simple recipes.

I think the biggest thing with trying adapt commercial recipes, especially IPA's, is that most commercial breweries do an extended whirlpool and get a lot of IBU utilization from that. I don't know these guys process, but I'd guess they do a long whirlpool.
 
Schemy said:
What yeast are you guys using for this recipe?

I dig both Lunch and Another One from Maine Beer Co. They look like fairly simple recipes.

I think the biggest thing with trying adapt commercial recipes, especially IPA's, is that most commercial breweries do an extended whirlpool and get a lot of IBU utilization from that. I don't know these guys process, but I'd guess they do a long whirlpool.
Click to expand...


I've had good luck using both Super San Diego and any of the Conan strains out there. Personally, I tend to get a bit of English yeast character from their beers, so I tend to prefer the ones fermented with Conan, but that's just nitpicking.
 
jnacey said:
I've had good luck using both Super San Diego and any of the Conan strains out there. Personally, I tend to get a bit of English yeast character from their beers, so I tend to prefer the ones fermented with Conan, but that's just nitpicking.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the slight English character. I'll probably go that route. I know it's not the same but I dig using a big pitch of WLP007 for IPA's. Really creates a dry beer, and brings forward the hops.
 
I'm just going to use wlp001. I don't have much experience with IPAs so I didn't want to mess with the hop schedule. Although I did whirlpool my only other IPA with good success. I'm only wondering if I do the 6 gallons if I should up the hops a bit.

I'm thinking I'll probably be all set though. It is 6 ounces total, and I'll prob only put about 5.25 gallons into the fermenter, so the dry-hopping will be close to the recipe.
 
Also not too worried about a dry beer. I always actually struggle with over attenuation so getting a dry beer is easy for me[emoji4]
 
I emailed MBC about the yeast, and the reply I got back says they use wyeast 1056.

So take that for what it's worth.
 
jnacey said:
I changed the recipe somewhat before I brewed it to put most of the mid-boil bops into a flameout and then i did a hop-stand for around 20-30 minutes. It came out nicely, but not very much like Lunch.

I know some people have had good luck with flameouts w/ hopstands, but to be honest I always get a slight vegetal taste when I load up on flameout hops like that. I read else where that they bitter with magnum and then do equal amounts of centennial, simcoe, amarillo every 15 minutes.

If I was going to make this again (probably will but not right away), I'd go with the following:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.50 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.37 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 8.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 53.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 58.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
13 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
0.20 oz Warrior [16.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool
1.0 pkg London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028)
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
1.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
Click to expand...


Just throwing in my 2 cents....

I would look to tweak the hopping schedule and yeast. I would use a neutral yeast like 1056 or S05 or whatever then WL is (I think 001).

As far has hopping goes, I have found that lots of late additions makes the bang for your buck and best results. Usually I tend to FWH for almost my entire amount of desired IBU. In this case It would be warrior. Then at about 10 minutes I will do some additions to get my remainder IBUs but more so the flavors. Finally I usually add a huge chunk of hops (however you want to blend the flavors associated with those hops) as the wort is cooling. I shoot for a temp around 140 degrees. No real science here, heard it on a few pod casts and tried it and it worked for me. I don't end up with vegetal tastes and the flavor/aroma seems to last longer. Lastly I only dry hop for a few days.

I have also found, that a lot of craft breweries who list their ingredients list all teh things used over all the iterations. I don't know if all the hops listed on the web site are needed to get something close.

All in all, brew what tastes good to you whatever your process. Enjoy!!!
 
Schemy said:
I emailed MBC about the yeast, and the reply I got back says they use wyeast 1056.

So take that for what it's worth.
Click to expand...

I wonder if they've adapted it to their brewery over successive generations. The attenuation that they report is much higher than 1056.

Going by the figures on their website, they're getting 91% attenuation, 1056 is a mid-high 70% attenuator. Either their website is incorrect, or their strain is much more voracious than the retail 1056.
 
bferullo said:
Just throwing in my 2 cents....

I would look to tweak the hopping schedule and yeast. I would use a neutral yeast like 1056 or S05 or whatever then WL is (I think 001).

As far has hopping goes, I have found that lots of late additions makes the bang for your buck and best results. Usually I tend to FWH for almost my entire amount of desired IBU. In this case It would be warrior. Then at about 10 minutes I will do some additions to get my remainder IBUs but more so the flavors. Finally I usually add a huge chunk of hops (however you want to blend the flavors associated with those hops) as the wort is cooling. I shoot for a temp around 140 degrees. No real science here, heard it on a few pod casts and tried it and it worked for me. I don't end up with vegetal tastes and the flavor/aroma seems to last longer. Lastly I only dry hop for a few days.

I have also found, that a lot of craft breweries who list their ingredients list all teh things used over all the iterations. I don't know if all the hops listed on the web site are needed to get something close.

All in all, brew what tastes good to you whatever your process. Enjoy!!!
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. I've since switched all my IPAs to half of the IBUs at FWH and the remainder in whirlpool.
 
jnacey said:
I wonder if they've adapted it to their brewery over successive generations. The attenuation that they report is much higher than 1056.



Going by the figures on their website, they're getting 91% attenuation, 1056 is a mid-high 70% attenuator. Either their website is incorrect, or their strain is much more voracious than the retail 1056.
Click to expand...


I've calculated over 90% with 1056 before. I pulled out all the tricks in the book but it happened. Low sac rest, 2nd shot of O2 at 12hrs in fermenter, sugar add at high krausen.
 
I brewed a version of Peeper and Lunch with yeast harvested from 3 MBC bottles and the attenuation they list is definitely attainable with their strain. I also measured the FGs of those 2 brews and the stats they list on their website are accurate, as far as I can tell.

I don't have my notes with me, but IIRC Lunch had a FG around 1.007 and Peeper was 1.005.
 
I'm kind of thinking they use may be using wlp 008 east coast ale. I've had many beers attenuate down to 1.007-8 by using pure O2 and a little sugar.
 
jnacey said:
I'm going to try to rebrew this within the next couple of weeks. Their attenuation is pretty ridiculous, even with a low mash temp, unless you add corn sugar. I'm just going to use a more attenuative yeast (WLP090 Super San Diego) and mash low and just accept a higher FG.

Est OG: 1.061
Est FG: 1.008
ABV: 7%
IBU: 57
SRM: 6

81.5% Pale Malt
7.40% Munich Malt
3.70% Carapils
3.70% Caramel 40L
3.70% White Wheat Malt

1.0oz Magnum @ FWH
2.0oz Amarillo @ Flameout
2.0oz Centennial @ Flameout
2.0oz Simcoe @ Flameout
2.0oz Amarillo @ Dry Hop 4 Days
2.0oz Centennial @ Dry Hop 4 Days
2.0oz Simcoe @ Dry Hop 4 Days

1000ml starter of WLP090

Mash @ 148f for 60 minutes

I'll post my results -- probably be like two months or so.

I've been having great results recently with putting half of my flameout hops in at flameout. Then I start chilling and once the wort drops below 180f, I dump the rest of the flameout hops in and stir pretty vigorously. Then, I do a huge dry hop for a short period. I use a paint strainer bag when transferring to my bottling bucket to strain out all of the hop mass.

After carbing, they're a touch on the "vegetal" side for a few days, but usually by 3 weeks in the bottle that has aged out and you get a huge, "hop flavor" bomb with restrained bitterness.
Click to expand...


How did this turn out with that hop schedule? Taste pretty good?
 
I wonder if they get their dry, yet sweet finish from a high sulfate? Maybe 300+?
 

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