Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA clone

Woz said:

Two weeks of fermentation on my batch. When I checked gravity last weekend, it had dropped from 1.100 to 1.031. Yesterday I had only come down to 1.028. Still high, not sure what I can do about that.

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1.028 isn't too high for this beer. I doubt it'll go much lower after 2 weeks. What temp did you keep it at and what yeast did you use?

mrgstiffler said:

1.028 isn't too high for this beer. I doubt it'll go much lower after 2 weeks. What temp did you keep it at and what yeast did you use?

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Agree. Did an Imp Stout that started at at 1.091 and finished at 1.028, body was just fine for a beer this high in gravity.

It was at ambient SoCal temp, which has been low the last two weeks for the most part: 60-65. I used a California yeast pulled from a local brewer, not sure what strain.

I really think I want to brew this next batch. Is the info in OP currently the most up to date recipe for cloning it?

It's a shame I don't have the original to compare it to. Hopefully since they won that beer bracket thing they'll release it at least as a seasonal

phoenixs4r said:

I really think I want to brew this next batch. Is the info in OP currently the most up to date recipe for cloning it?

It's a shame I don't have the original to compare it to. Hopefully since they won that beer bracket thing they'll release it at least as a seasonal

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Yes, i havent done it again yet, but the OP is great and really close. Not sure what I would change other than mashing around 148-149 to help dry it out or Maybe up the candy sugar some.

I'm drawing a blank on what Stone brews I can purchase and harvest yeast from. The only place to get pacman isn't 'local' really and last time I purchased it from them it was expired, and they told me tough luck, so **** them.

/rant.

I've had good experience with harvesting from my own homebrew bottles so I'd like to give it a shot.

Here is a list that has some of the beers you can harvest from: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/commercial-beer-yeast-harvest-list-262713/

I think I have heard of people harvesting from Stone IPA also, but could be mistaken.

Thanks!

Anyone have an email address for Mitch Steele at Stone?

In case anyone is interested in a partial mash recipe, my latest batch is about as close to the 15th as I remember (we can't get any more here in AZ so I'm relying on my not-so-good memory). But it's REAL good. Very malty and hoppy and VERY black. Here is what I used the last time:

Ingredients:

2 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US Grain
8.0 oz Carafa II Grain
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L Grain
6 lbs 12.0 oz Dark Dry Extract Dry Extract
2.00 oz Chinook - Boil 90.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold - Boil 90.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Simcoe - Boil 5.0 min Hop
2.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold - Dry Hop 7 Day
0.50 oz Simcoe - Dry Hop 7 Days

And the end product (IMHO) is amazing. Maybe not as good as an all-grain but since I don't have the equipment for doing all grain this is pretty darn good. Thanks to BeerSmith software for helping in the conversion process and the "tweaking" process. If you have any suggestions for further tweaking let me know.

Keiskamma1 said:

Anyone have an email address for Mitch Steele at Stone?

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He posts here. Just send him a PM maybe?

http://iam.homebrewtalk.com/MitchAtStone

/stalker

So I'm going to brew this(or something similar) tomorrow. I have my yeast starter going, but I needed some input on some hop substitutions. I don't have the citra or the nelson saulvin. I can go get the citra easily enough, but i would rather use what I have on hand. The nelson saulvin, I know there is not a substitution for it, but if anyone has had any luck using something that I have, or I could just order some from somewhere and hope that it gets here in time to dry hop. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks and cheers!!
Hops on hand:
Brewers Gold 3/4#
Centennial 3/4#
Cascade 3/4#
Galena 3/4#
Columbus 3/4#
Nugget 3/4#
Simcoe 1oz
Williamette 1#
Pacific Jade 2oz (already used in recipe)
Like I said, I'm open to suggestions on substitutions on any/all of it.

The only thing I have found that is close to Citra is galaxy. If you opt to not go get the Citra, i would probably use the Centennial, or a blend of it and columbus. It will be a bit different, but should result in a great beer.

For the Nelson, it is a one of a kind hop. They new harvest should be showing up really soon.

Just bought a # of Nelson Sauvin, so I guess ill use the centennial instead of the citra. Will post up on how this turns out, hopefully the nelson shows up in time! :-D

OofC_Zer0 said:

Just bought a # of Nelson Sauvin, so I guess ill use the centennial instead of the citra. Will post up on how this turns out, hopefully the nelson shows up in time! :-D

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I'd be hard-pressed to substitute in this recipe. I was able to do a direct comparison between the recipe listed here and a fresh tapping of Stone, and the recipe is dead on as posted. If you spend a small amount of effort, you can find Nelson and Citra available from the same source.

I can only recommend going the whole nine yards on this one. It might be my favorite brew ever!

I kegged this beast on Monday. I threw an extra ounce of the Nelson Sauvin in on the dry hop. Really wanted it to pop out. FG was 1.020. I might try a sample to see if its ready tonight. Will post up how it turns out.

Skeezer, in your experiences with this recipe, at what age is it best? Mine keeps changing and getting better, although it was amazing fresh too..

I am actually having one right now from the batch I brewed 12/16/11--found some stashed away. It is still pretty damn tasty, lost a lot of the hop flavor/aroma. It is super-balanced now, hop bitterness and a little aroma/flavor is there, the roastiness comes through a lot more now.

Thus varifying that this is one of the best recipes ever, I am entering my aged version in a home brew competition next week I will report back on how it goes, not sure how they are setting up the categories but I will probably put this in with the strong beers, not imperial stout tho, since I am sure that will be a highly contested category which this wouldn't have much chance, tho who knows this stuff is awesome, plenty roasty and sweet I know that, plus the hops are amazing in it. If only I had the pacific jade or Nelson sauvin I could experience the real deal, luckily I scored a bottle of real 15 from Florida so I will get to taste that for the first time soon which I am excited about.

This is on tap for Sunday's brew day. I've been wanting to use pacific jade from the moment I bagged them up in the store, they smelled fantastic! Guess the 90 min clone kit will have to wait.

My version of this recipe which was like 6 months old by now I'd not place in the homebrew competition is was in but it was the only one of my beers to make it to the finals... Only two bombers left the comp ate 3 bombers
Also this aged vs the aged 15 was uncanny how similar they are.... Must brew again!

I can't believe j haven't brewed this yet.

I don't like the Pacific Jade in this recipe. It seems to overpower the rest of the hops. It may just be unique to the crop I got though. The 1oz I put in towards the end of the boil completely over powers the Citra and Nelson Sauvin I used. Next I would dial it back to .5oz (for half batch).

Just to update, what 5 gallon AG recipe should we go with? Any suitable subs for Nelson or Jade?

I didn't use nelson or jade I did chinook Amarillo and citra, the OP is the recipe, adjust for your system of course

We made this recipe (more or less) and it came out absolutely awesome! They've only been allowed to condition 9 days and I'm having a hard time staying out of them already!

We rounded up all the hops to the nearest ounce and were as (ahem) generous with the grains, did the Citra adds at 30 and 15, used Safale US-05. Primary 10 days in a bucket, then racked over and dry-hopped (rounding the Nelson up, too) into a glass carboy with the Candi Sugar for another week, then racked *that* into a light-char Corsair Distillery Triple-Smoked whiskey barrel where it sat for a month.

At first we were set to be sad about the OG. It had parked at ~1.053 *BUT* that 1lb. Candi Sugar add should have brought it up an additional +.030 (from what I've read, correct me if I'm wrong). After adding the sugar, the lock was poppin' by the time I took the bucket outside and walked back (est. < 2min.) :rockin: So, 1.083 corrected and at bottling it was 1.008 (~65-70ºF).

I bottled with 4.7oz. Briess Golden (DME) and am getting about a 1/2 finger of not-very-long-lasting head as of day 9, but the combination of the hop character and the whiskey barrel came out surprisingly good. Thank you for the recipe!!

I just brewed this yesterday. I had WLP099 in a two liter starter but it never got going I decided to throw it in with 2 packs of safale 05. For those who used it should I get to higher ABV or will this limit me in that regard?

I am looking to make an extract version of this. Would substituting 12# of pale extract work for the 2 row? Also would the boil time then change to 60 mins and would I drop the volume of the boil down to say 7-7.5 gallons? Anything else I would need to change, I.e. hop amounts? Thanks

For a 5.5g batch (into the fermenter), you could use 10.5 lbs of light DME. That would give you a OG of ~1.102. You can add a lot of this toward then end of boil to prevent carmelization; it wont really affect color since this is very black anyway. You may consider swapping some of that out for some table sugar to try to help with attenuation, maybe .5lbs or so since there is already some candi sugar in there. Without that, you may have a hard time getting a low FG. Make sure you pitch a lot of yeast, at least 2 packs of S-05. If going the liquid route, MrMalty recommends an 8.5L starter with 1 pack, or about 3.5L with 2 packs. Also make sure you get a lot of oxygen in the wort prior to pitching. And start with a blow-off tube, you will most likely need it anyway.

For the boil time, you should be able to drop to 60 minutes, so just adjust the volume accordingly for your boil off rate. 7-7.5 would be fairly normal. Since you can do a full boil, you shouldn't have to adjust the hop amounts.

Skeezer if I add the extract later in the boil doesn't that effect hop utilization? Does it matter? I usually use LME hence why the 12# oh and could I just use another .5 lbs of candi sugar or is there a better simple sugar to use?

Yourrealdad said:

Skeezer if I add the extract later in the boil doesn't that effect hop utilization? Does it matter? I usually use LME hence why the 12# oh and could I just use another .5 lbs of candi sugar or is there a better simple sugar to use?

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It will make the utilization better, but at 102 ibus, it wont really matter. You cant taste any more than that anyway. That said, if you go that route you could probably scale back the bittering addition.

You could use table sugar.

I think this is the best beer recipe I have ever made. I am now looking forward to using it as a base for oak aging variations. I would also like to take this recipe even bigger up to like 15% or so would be cool. This beer was amazing fresh and amazing aged. I only have one bomber left and I am ready to make more! Thanks again to Skeezer for his amazing clone recipes! Do you have one for Bourbon County Stput by chance?

No BCBS, but i would like to try. The next time i get a new (freshly used) whiskey barrel i may give it a shot.

I do have 3 bottles of Scotch barrel aged Stone 15th left. They sold some at the brewery after their 16th anniversary party this year. Drank one a few weeks ago at Surly Darkness Day. It was very good.

Wow! I am jealous. Darkness and barrel aged 15th! You must be in heaven.
I had the Cognac barrel aged Dark Lord with Aneho Guajillo Chilis yesterday and that was amazing.

Nice! I haven't had that or vanilla. Someone did crack a Cognac and a Bourbon at the hotel after Dark Lord this year. Both were fantastic . (I have had a pretty good year in beer events this year

So I thought I would just weigh in on this recipe again.

From first hand experience, with a fresh tapping from Stone, this recipe is dead-on! To me, this is BEER. Big, Bold, flavorful. I've been brewing for five years, and with all the available options, I've never brewed the same beer twice... except for this recipe. It's that awesome!!

I have also entered this recipe in several competitions and received very good scores and took silver in the Hoppy Halloween 2012 Chalenge!


Many thanks for posting this recipe. It is permanently in my pipeline. Right now I'm down to one case, and it's making me nervous.

jmtwo said:

So I thought I would just weigh in on this recipe again.

From first hand experience, with a fresh tapping from Stone, this recipe is dead-on! To me, this is BEER. Big, Bold, flavorful. I've been brewing for five years, and with all the available options, I've never brewed the same beer twice... except for this recipe. It's that awesome!!

I have also entered this recipe in several competitions and received very good scores and took silver in the Hoppy Halloween 2012 Chalenge!

Many thanks for posting this recipe. It is permanently in my pipeline. Right now I'm down to one case, and it's making me nervous.

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So you stuck with the OP recipe? May use Notty for this instead of S05. Also, can I sub in table sugar for candi sugar? Expensive enough already

The OP is the recipe. The Candi sugar is the dark kind not the clear kind so I think it is quite necessary. I used WLP 090 re pitched from a pale ale batch and it turned out amazing so I highly recommend that.

the Dark Candi sugar does impart some flavors (see a lot of belgian beers). That said, I am sure it would be a good beer without it, just a slightly different flavor.