American IPA Hopslam Clone

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I think I'm gonna try this one this weekend. Although I was lucky enough to get a pound of Simcoe last week, I'm going to assume that it will be the only Simcoe I get this year. So, I'm going to try not to use any of them with more than 30 minutes left in the boil. I'm thinking about substituting the 60 min Simcoe addition with something else. Maybe Magnum. Anyone have a reason why I wouldn't want to do this?
 
I just made this, this weekend, substituted magnum for Columbus, don't see why you couldn't for the simcoe too
 
Just checked gravity after a week 1.04 from1.092, should I be concerned about stuck fermentation? Used 1.5 liter starter of California ale
 
RUNningonbrew said:
Just checked gravity after a week 1.04 from1.092, should I be concerned about stuck fermentation? Used 1.5 liter starter of California ale

What temperature were you fermenting? What did you mash at? Did you use yeast from the OP?
 
Fermented at 67, mashed at 154, used California ale yeast, I think it's still going, I have never made a beer this big before
 
RUNningonbrew said:
Fermented at 67, mashed at 154, used California ale yeast, I think it's still going, I have never made a beer this big before

I'd go closer to 150 next time to get your FG down a bit, see where it ends up. You should still end up in the mid to high 20's, not bad at all.
 
So I forgot to get the Columbus for this when I picked up my ingredients. What can I use as a substitute? I got some extra Citra and some Cascade or should I just wait until the LHBS opens?
 
I have talked to a brewer at Bell's, he swears that 60-ish IBUs is correct. He said that because there is so much hop flavor and aroma, people think it's a lot more bitter than it actually is. This beer was designed to have as much hop character as possible without overwhelming bitterness, that is why some people who normally don't like IPAs or IIPAs like hopslam.

That is what I have been told also...:mug: As far as the Hops IBU's are concerned. More Aromatics than Bittering..Just got 2 ,Six Packs today.. Release day was today!!!!:ban:
 
brewed this one today. Hit an OG of 1.10! Dont think I can get closer than that. I used honey in mine and a 3 stage yeast starter with 1056 yeast. Hope I wake up to fermentation tomorrow morning!
 
The 3 stage yeast starter really paid off on this beer. Fermentation is in full swing 5 hours after going from kettle to primary!
 
Held back 1/2lb of the sugar, thought about adding it two days in but I hit 1.086 without it and have 3 packs of Notty rockin. Think I may just leave it the way it is.
 
I know this is an old thread but I was wondering, what IBU calculation did you use? With the IBU's in the Hundreds, I'm assuming Tinseths?
 
I know this is an old thread but I was wondering, what IBU calculation did you use? With the IBU's in the Hundreds, I'm assuming Tinseths?

When I brewed this, I used about 12oz of hops, with Rager, and clocked in 204 IBU.

It was fantastic, and very close with a side-by-side with real Hopslam.
 
Not to say you can't get a clone that tastes really close with IBUs that are very different.... But I believe it's commonly understood that Bells aims for IBU in the upper 60's - not 100+. Hopslam really isn't super bitter considering its OG. However, it's very hoppy in flavor and aroma.
 
Hanso said:
Not to say you can't get a clone that tastes really close with IBUs that are very different.... But I believe it's commonly understood that Bells aims for IBU in the upper 60's - not 100+. Hopslam really isn't super bitter considering its OG. However, it's very hoppy in flavor and aroma.

Whoops I didn't see you said Rager. Not even sure what that comes to in Tinseth....
 
I just wanted to chime in and say thanks for an incredible recipe. I made a few minor changes - used Chinook as an early bittering hop and dry hopped with Simcoe and Mosaic. I also missed my gravity by about 10 points, but that is my error.

The beer came out great, a balanced IIPA. I might reduce the honey malt a tad next go around to reduce the sweetness just a bit, but that is it. My total IBU's came out to around 100.

The flavors do seem very reminiscent of Hopslam, but it has been almost a year since I've had that. Hopefully I can do a side by side this winter - if I can get my hands on some Hopslam AND my keg of this beer lasts that long (doubtful).
 
My gravity is 1.016 after a week in primary, happy. It's pretty grapefruit to me, thinking of adding 8oz of honey to it. Should it just pour it in or boil with some water?
 
Dont boil it. If anything mix with a little hot water. Honey i sanitary and doesnt need to be boiled and it will lose some aroma.
 
My OG was measured at 1.10 and after 10 days I am reading 1.010. 11.81% abv.... whoa. Tastes delicious too!
 
nedvalton said:
Dont boil it. If anything mix with a little hot water. Honey i sanitary and doesnt need to be boiled and it will lose some aroma.

Cool thanks. Just trying to get a bit more sweetness out of it, thought the 8oz of honey malt would do it.
 
Boil Size: 7.11
Boil Time: 60 min
Taste Rating(out of 50): 42.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00
Mash Temperature: 150 F
Mash Time: 60 Minutes
Yeast Starter: 1 vial of WLP001, 1000mL stepped to 2000mL, stepped to 4000mL
**Yeast was about 1 month old, starter size may vary***

**Efficency was calculated @ 70% Brewhouse***
Est Original Gravity: 1.098 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.021
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.05 %
Bitterness: 138.2 IBU
Calories: 458 cal/pint
Est Color: 8.8 SRM

14.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 70.73 %
3.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 14.63 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.44 %
0.50 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.44 %

1.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 45.3IBU
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.70 %] (60 min) Hops 27.5 IBU
1.00 oz Chinook [12.40 %] (45 min) Hops 24.7 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [11.50 %] (30 min) Hops 19.1 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [11.00 %] (15 min) Hops 11.8 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [9.40 %] (10 min) Hops 7.4 IBU
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [9.40 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
2.00 oz Simcoe [12.70 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
3.00 oz Simcoe [12.70 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.00 tab Whirlfloc (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.10 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.40 lb Honey (0.0 SRM) Sugar 4.88% *** OR *** 1.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 4.88 % (Boil 10.0 min)
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

I brewed this yesterday, and the smell coming from the mash was amazing! My only concern was with my final gravity. It seemed way off compared to what I was expecting from the amount of grain/honey. It came in at 1.080 (temp was a little high at 84.)

Also the amount in the fermenter is higher than expected. I had a nice rolling boil the entire 60 mins but my 7.2 gallons only boiled down to 6. I had a few triples during the process and didnt notice the amount until I poured it into my fermenter /facepalm.

1st time in about 11 all grain batches Ive ran into these issues. Ill just have to see how it pans out! Here is hoping because everything tasted delicious through the process!
 
I swear I read that priming for bottling was not necessary with this beer, but can't find
It anywhere so maybe I was in another thread. So can you help me out with this. Does they need to be primed. Thanks for your
Help and all the great ideas in this threa
 
I don't get how it would carb if it's fully fermented. The sugar should all be magically transformed into alcohol.
 
It won't carb without extra (priming) sugar. However, since this is a Hopslam clone and contains honey, you could use some extra honey to prime. You would still be adding a "priming" sugar but instead of corn or table sugar, it would use the honey. This would definitely also embolden the honey flavor of the beer. Just a thought.
 
I am brewing this in a couple weeks and was thinking about trying a parti-gyle, since it's such a big beer. My thoughts were to scale the recipe for 6 gallons (I usually do 6 gallons for my IPA's to make up for hop absorption), mash/batch sparge as I typically do. Then sparge again and collect 3-4 gallons for a pale ale. Does this sound feasible? I've never tried this before so anyone with experience doing this I would like to hear your thoughts :drunk:
 
just checked the gravity on it to see how it was going. Took a while for it to start fermenting but it is down to 1.014. Ill probably get it in the 2ndary for a few days to dry hop it up and then off to the keg it goes!

Definitely a Hop SLAM! WhooooWeee its got some serious IBU's going on :)!
 
Ok I was a little nervous because when I brewed this my OG was 1.10, when I went to bottle I was sitting at 1.010 for an abv of 11.8%. Yeah I overshot it just a bit, I assume because of efficiency. Well I bottled this brew and I cracked one open after 2 and a half weeks and I was shocked to see very little carbonation! However after a few home brews I reminded myself that IIPA's sometimes require a lot more time to get a good carb to them. So after 4 and a half weeks I decided it was time to crack another one. I was very happy to see that there was a lot more carbonation to the brew. The beer probably needs a couple more weeks before it reaches it's peak but it definitely had some decent carb. Even at it's current state I had to come to this thread and say how good this recipe is. One of the best malty brews I've done. Even with the high ABV I had, it wasn't overpowering. I used natural honey purchased from a farmers market and the sweet that came through this brew mixed with the malty flavour really came through. Props go out to the OP for posting this one, I will definetly be brewing this again.
 
Ok I was a little nervous because when I brewed this my OG was 1.10, when I went to bottle I was sitting at 1.010 for an abv of 11.8%. Yeah I overshot it just a bit, I assume because of efficiency. Well I bottled this brew and I cracked one open after 2 and a half weeks and I was shocked to see very little carbonation! However after a few home brews I reminded myself that IIPA's sometimes require a lot more time to get a good carb to them. So after 4 and a half weeks I decided it was time to crack another one. I was very happy to see that there was a lot more carbonation to the brew. The beer probably needs a couple more weeks before it reaches it's peak but it definitely had some decent carb. Even at it's current state I had to come to this thread and say how good this recipe is. One of the best malty brews I've done. Even with the high ABV I had, it wasn't overpowering. I used natural honey purchased from a farmers market and the sweet that came through this brew mixed with the malty flavour really came through. Props go out to the OP for posting this one, I will definetly be brewing this again.

My OG was the same. It's still fermenting now. Technically it's in barlywine territory but I'm not complaining.
 
I brewed a modified version of this (based on what I had on-hand) 2/17 and think I may have messed up big time! I didn't want to buy more Vienna than I had on hand, so I reduced the Vienna by 8 oz and increased the honey malt to a full 1 lb. To make matters worse, I forgot to add the corn sugar near the end of the boil. My OG was 1.082, which should have tipped me off that something was wrong! Given the potency of honey malt, I'm guessing that leaving the beer as-is will result in an undrinkably sweet beer. Is it too late add corn sugar? I used cultured Bells yeast, which I understand is not very flocculent, thus I'm assuming there should be enough in suspension to ferment the sugar. And ideas on how much corn sugar I should add to up the abv (and possibly dry it out a bit) to balance the increased sweetness? Would 1.5 lbs be too much? If I do this, I'd wait another week before dry-hopping.
 
This will be my first All-Grain brew. Did you mash the entire grain bill or does any of it get steeped? I'm also not going to dry hop, instead I will do a hopback. Anyone else try this?
 
I have had this on gas since last week, drew the first glass a few minutes ago. This is so damn close to the original I don't think I could tell the difference. Great beer. I dry hopped 7 days in a 5 gal paint strainer bag.
 
What's the general consensus on the IBUs? I see from several posts that the original Hopslam is closer to 65-70 IBUs and this recipe has it closer to 130+. That seems like a pretty significant difference. Is it noticeable? Does it matter? How close to the original Hopslam is this? The reason why I ask is that I've seen several clones for this out there and I have about 8 bottles left from Feb. to try and compare. Im trying to decide which recipe to use and thought one with stats closer to what Bell's states would be "better". Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
 
What's the general consensus on the IBUs? I see from several posts that the original Hopslam is closer to 65-70 IBUs and this recipe has it closer to 130+. That seems like a pretty significant difference. Is it noticeable? Does it matter? How close to the original Hopslam is this? The reason why I ask is that I've seen several clones for this out there and I have about 8 bottles left from Feb. to try and compare. Im trying to decide which recipe to use and thought one with stats closer to what Bell's states would be "better". Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

I decided to aim for 100 IBU's when I did mine. I lowered the FWH and 60 minute additions.
 
Kidagora said:
I was thinking about halving all hop additions to get it closer to 70 IbUs.

Bells says upper 60s Tinseth is what you should be aiming for, so that sounds spot on. Maybe the other IBUs are calculated in Rager?....
 
I have to say, cheers for this recipe! I only got a 1.74 OG, but got down to 1.012. My efficiency is way off, but it is also my first AG, so I am learning, as well as learning my set-up. I think it tastes great! My only changes are that I used 2lbs of local honey, and I did 3oz of leaf Simcoe in a Hoprocket hopback (I also ended up dry hopping as well). I will keep brewing it until I get the OG right though!
 
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