American IPA Ithaca Flower Power Clone

sivdrinks said:

Love Flower Power and Hopslam. I used 12oz honey malt (5% grist) on my FP attempt and didn't like the results, too dark also. If I tried again I'd cut it in half to 6oz.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see what you're saying...this might not be an accurate clone recipe. I'm just recalling my experience of it from early January - and maybe I'm overblowing the effect of the honey malt. Hopefully soon I'll get to "refresh" my memory of the real FP.

You're lucky to be able to do side-by-side tastings.

DoctorDuvel said:

Ah, I see what you're saying...this might not be an accurate clone recipe. I'm just recalling my experience of it from early January - and maybe I'm overblowing the effect of the honey malt. Hopefully soon I'll get to "refresh" my memory of the real FP.

You're lucky to be able to do side-by-side tastings.

Click to expand...

The OP does this recipe pretty often with good results, just doesn't work for me that's all. I've used 4oz in a Two Hearted recipe and it was noticeable and enjoyable. There's a interview somewhere from the brewmaster stating the honey malt is 3% of the grist.

DoctorDuvel said:

Yeah, Ithaca Brewery only serves the Northeast states, unfortunately.

But at least you have Yuengling in Florida (I'm originally from PA as well) - I know they get mixed reviews on this forum but I like their beer.

Click to expand...

yes we have Yuengling and that is something that is actually recent from what i have heard. i just moved here about 3 years ago. When i lived out in Cali i sure did miss it. its a good BBQ beer. better than most of the other mainstream crap out there and it doesnt break the bank like the real good beer would.

I do prefer it with slightly less honey malt--, but the key to the color for me is the increase in sparge water. Also, I see on the Ithaca website they are using Citra in their hop schedule. That's a change from before. You can definitely play around with the hop schedule as I have many times with quite similar results. But I do agree, Flower Power has a very light color which is somewhat hard to match when using too much honey malt. I have even reduced the crystal or used crystal 10L instead. I've tinkered with this recipe many times, but found my best results were to reduce my mash water and increase my sparge water. Good luck brewing!! The fact is with Flower Power is their proprietary yeast. Can't duplicate that for sure. I'm sure that is what separates it from everything else. Wyeast 1099 worked well for me too(with a starter). I'm thinking about combining Wyeast 1099 and Safale US-05 and see what I can come up with.

Dumpsterboy said:

I've tinkered with this recipe many times, but found my best results were to reduce my mash water and increase my sparge water.

Click to expand...

Hey Dumpster, what effect does this have on the final product and why? Thanks.

For me, it reduces the color and overall maltiness by increasing sparge water. My wort collected after sparging is much lighter in color than my wort from my mash water, and therefore I tend to taste more of the hop flavors than the maltiness of the honey malt used. It reduces my abv slightly, but I think it is worth it. Just personal preference thats all.

Dumpsterboy said:

For me, it reduces the color and overall maltiness by increasing sparge water. My wort collected after sparging is much lighter in color than my wort from my mash water, and therefore I tend to taste more of the hop flavors than the maltiness of the honey malt used. It reduces my abv slightly, but I think it is worth it. Just personal preference thats all.

Click to expand...

Hey, how would you describe the malt flavor of the honey malt? Both times I've used it on the heavy side it came across like diacetyl to me.

Dumpsterboy said:

For me, it reduces the color and overall maltiness by increasing sparge water. My wort collected after sparging is much lighter in color than my wort from my mash water, and therefore I tend to taste more of the hop flavors than the maltiness of the honey malt used. It reduces my abv slightly, but I think it is worth it. Just personal preference thats all.

Click to expand...

I think I understand. You are fly sparging, right? And it sounds like you are leaving a little more sugars in the mash tun so you get a little lighter wort into the kettle. I had just never heard of reducing the water to grain ratio to get a lighter beer. But, then again, I do not fly sparge. Thanks for the response.

to sivdrinks-- I do think honey malt has a pretty unique flavor. For me it adds a little sweetness without the heavier malt taste that I get in some other IPA's. As far as diacetyl--I only experienced that one time, and I got a little bit of that when I pitched my yeast at too high a temperature( around 78 ), instead of closer to 70 like I usually do. From a few competitions that I entered this IPA in, the judges said they didn't pick up any diacetyl. That's whats great about brewing, everyone has a slightly different preference on flavors--malts and hops. For instance, I don't use much pilsner or munich malts because although my homebrewing friends enjoy them, they always impart some flavor that I don't overly enjoy. It's all good. I was actually thinking about using this recipe with similiar hops but just 2-row and see how that goes. Leave the honey malt completely out and focus the malt on one base flavor.
I just read the Ithaca website and they describe it as a Clover honey hue. I wonder if it is the clover taste that you pick up. Clover isn't for everyone sometimes. I love it, but unique for sure.

Dumpsterboy said:

I've brewed it a number of times, and yes just like the original-- which I love as well. When I batch sparge, i collect until I get about 6.8-7.0 gallons preboil, then boil down to a batch size of 5.3. I'm surre yo will enjoy this beer.View attachment 58110

Click to expand...

you're color is absolutely unbelievable! aside from the sparge water tip you've mentioned, do you always shoot for 9 SRM when brewing this beer? I would imagine that the increased sparge water would lower your intended SRM's a bit wouldn't you say?

Yes increased sparge water lowers my SRM for sure. I shoot for an SRM of 7-8 usually. If u want 9 then just increase your mash water.

Have you tried this with late hopping/hopstand techniques? Just wondering, as this recipe seems different than many folks' recipes, which are only bittering + massive late hopping. I've had FP and it's a killer beer, so I didn't know if you'd tried this method or not.

Thanks.

I've tried FWH as well as some late hopping for aroma. I found that if I dry hop for 2 weeks instead of 1 then my aroma drastically increases.

I'm going to brew today, and am considering this hopping schedule. The goal is to lower the bitterness just a bit and to accentuate hop flavors. Any thoughts? The 30 minute post-boil is a 30 minute hopstand. Thanks for looking.

From Hopville; sorry about any formatting problems.

Usage Time OZ AA » IBU
Icon first wort 60 min 1 Centennial ~ pellet 8.7 » 40.0
Icon boil 10 min 1 Amarillo Gold ~ pellet 8.7 » 14.5
Icon boil 10 min 1 Simcoe ~ pellet 13.0 » 21.7
Icon boil 5 min 1 Centennial ~ pellet 8.7 » 8.0
Icon post-boil 30 min 1 Chinook ~ pellet 11.6 » 0.0
Icon post-boil 30 min 1 Citra ~ pellet 10.0 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 1 ½ Amarillo ~ pellet 8.3 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 1 ½ Centennial ~ pellet 8.3 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 2 Simcoe ~ pellet 12.8 » 0.0

Bitterness
84.1 IBU
ƒ: Tinseth
9 HBU

BU:GU
1.27

Looks good to me!!

FP is one of my all time favorite beers bar none. Love it.

Fella's please humor me a little here.... I'm new. I did a couple of all grain brews back in the 90's when HB'ing was very much a new thing and not much internet.

I'm getting back into this right now and while eventually I'm sure I'll go back to AG for now I want to try a couple of extract brews. BUT.....I really want to try this recipe.

Would anyone please hazard a guess as to the extracts I would use to brew this?

I know I'm a newb and this probably sounds ridiculous but please help if you feel so inclined.

Thanks all and btw, this forum is top notch. Home brewing has come a very very long way from when I did it last.

All the best from NEO

After 7 days with US-05, I'm at 1.012 from 1.066. Looks good.

Only used about 4.5 oz of Honey Malt; I'm getting a honey and tropical hops aroma, but not too much honey flavor. We'll see in 3 or 4 weeks after the dry hop and bottle.

EDIT: Well, I may have jumped the gun. I dry hopped, and now I've been seeing a bit of airlock activity every 15-30 seconds. Nothing big, but it appears that the fermentation didn't quite finish. A little frustrating, as I thought it tasted pretty dry at 1.012. If it goes further, I'm wonder if it might get a bit too bitter.

rtb178 said:

I'm going to brew today, and am considering this hopping schedule. The goal is to lower the bitterness just a bit and to accentuate hop flavors. Any thoughts? The 30 minute post-boil is a 30 minute hopstand. Thanks for looking.

From Hopville; sorry about any formatting problems.

Usage Time OZ AA » IBU
Icon first wort 60 min 1 Centennial ~ pellet 8.7 » 40.0
Icon boil 10 min 1 Amarillo Gold ~ pellet 8.7 » 14.5
Icon boil 10 min 1 Simcoe ~ pellet 13.0 » 21.7
Icon boil 5 min 1 Centennial ~ pellet 8.7 » 8.0
Icon post-boil 30 min 1 Chinook ~ pellet 11.6 » 0.0
Icon post-boil 30 min 1 Citra ~ pellet 10.0 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 1 ½ Amarillo ~ pellet 8.3 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 1 ½ Centennial ~ pellet 8.3 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 2 Simcoe ~ pellet 12.8 » 0.0

Bitterness
84.1 IBU
ƒ: Tinseth
9 HBU

BU:GU
1.27

Click to expand...

Let me know how this goes. I'm also looking to make a version with all late hop additions @20 mins or less.

rtb178 said:

After 7 days with US-05, I'm at 1.012 from 1.066. Looks good.

Only used about 4.5 oz of Honey Malt; I'm getting a honey and tropical hops aroma, but not too much honey flavor. We'll see in 3 or 4 weeks after the dry hop and bottle.

EDIT: Well, I may have jumped the gun. I dry hopped, and now I've been seeing a bit of airlock activity every 15-30 seconds. Nothing big, but it appears that the fermentation didn't quite finish. A little frustrating, as I thought it tasted pretty dry at 1.012. If it goes further, I'm wonder if it might get a bit too bitter.

Click to expand...

dont worry about the slight increase in activity. its pretty normal after you've roused the yeast in transfering to a secondary fermenter. the hops (especially pellets) also provide millions of nucleation sites for CO2 bubbles- that could also account for your airlock activity too. your fg will also likely remain at 1.012, so no worries!

I tried this in corning, NY this past weekend and was blown away. Just an extremely great summer IPA. I caught the honey malt and tons of citrus-based late-hopping without a hint of astringent bitterness. I'm definitely going to be brewing this soon.

Ithaca Brewing is now on my list of breweries to visit.

Just tapped my version of this and then did a side by side taste taste! All I can say is WOW!!!

I used:

16 lbs 2 row
1 lbs Honey Malt
.25 C40

1 oz Centennial 60
.50 Amarillo 50
1 oz Citra 40
1 oz Chinook 35
1 oz Simcoe 30
1 oz Cascade 25
1 oz Cascade 20
.50 Amarillo 15
Irish Mosh 10
2 packs of Dry US 05
Dry hop
1 oz Simcoe Pellets, 1 oz centennial pellets and 1 oz Cascade cones

5.50 gallon batch
OG 1.080
FG 1.012
ABV 8.90
IBU 139.2
8.4 SRM

Great beer will brew again thanks for the original recipe and staring this thread

Nice!!! I see your SRM looks like mine. That's the only part that I have been unable to match, but the flavor is almost dead on, so I don't get too concerned about the color difference. I'm getting thirsty for one right now.

WAORGANY said:

Just tapped my version of this and then did a side by side taste taste! All I can say is WOW!!!

I used:

16 lbs 2 row
1 lbs Honey Malt
.25 C40

1 oz Centennial 60
.50 Amarillo 50
1 oz Citra 40
1 oz Chinook 35
1 oz Simcoe 30
1 oz Cascade 25
1 oz Cascade 20
.50 Amarillo 15
Irish Mosh 10
2 packs of Dry US 05
Dry hop
1 oz Simcoe Pellets, 1 oz centennial pellets and 1 oz Cascade cones

5.50 gallon batch
OG 1.080
FG 1.012
ABV 8.90
IBU 139.2
8.4 SRM

Great beer will brew again thanks for the original recipe and staring this thread

Click to expand...

thats a serious hop schedule right there. no flameout?

wondering, you long did you dry hop for?

Which one of those is the real thing, the one on the right, correct? That's a big color difference.

rtb178 said:

I'm going to brew today, and am considering this hopping schedule. The goal is to lower the bitterness just a bit and to accentuate hop flavors. Any thoughts? The 30 minute post-boil is a 30 minute hopstand. Thanks for looking.

From Hopville; sorry about any formatting problems.

Usage Time OZ AA » IBU
Icon first wort 60 min 1 Centennial ~ pellet 8.7 » 40.0
Icon boil 10 min 1 Amarillo Gold ~ pellet 8.7 » 14.5
Icon boil 10 min 1 Simcoe ~ pellet 13.0 » 21.7
Icon boil 5 min 1 Centennial ~ pellet 8.7 » 8.0
Icon post-boil 30 min 1 Chinook ~ pellet 11.6 » 0.0
Icon post-boil 30 min 1 Citra ~ pellet 10.0 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 1 ½ Amarillo ~ pellet 8.3 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 1 ½ Centennial ~ pellet 8.3 » 0.0
Icon dry hop 7 days 2 Simcoe ~ pellet 12.8 » 0.0

Bitterness
84.1 IBU
ƒ: Tinseth
9 HBU

BU:GU
1.27

Click to expand...

I'll be bottling this in the next couple of days after a ~10 day dryhop. Will be reporting back on the late hop FP.

Getting ready to brew this guy using Marris Otter, excited to fire my new blichmann burner up for the first time. Thanks for the recipe.

mkravitz13 said:

thats a serious hop schedule right there. no flameout?

wondering, you long did you dry hop for?

Click to expand...

I dry hopped for 1 week.... Yeah is pretty dang good!

theveganbrewer said:

Which one of those is the real thing, the one on the right, correct? That's a big color difference.

Click to expand...

Yes the one on the right is the Flower Power the left is mine, I think it's the honey malt?

Going to give this one a shot next.

Oh yeah, that's a large bit of honey malt.

It has been a little while since the post asking about how much priming sugar to add to a batch, but here goes anyway. This is a handy priming sugar addition calculator. It lets you account for what type of sugar you are using as well as the carbonation level you desire for your beer style:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

My last brew to reduce the SRM was to use 6oz honey malt--down from 1lb, And 3 oz Crystal 10L instead of 20L. I also used Wyeast 1099 Whitebread Ale. This change resulted in a much lighter color with the same great taste. Safale-Us-05 also works well.

I just brewed this over the weekend.

I did an extract conversion set up through Beersmith and I used the following:

Mini mashed 2 lbs of 2 row, 8oz of honey malt and 8oz of Crystal 40L

I mashed at 150-155 degrees for one hour then sparged with about 1.5 quarts of 170 degree water.

I mashed with 4 quarts of water and used a grain bag for the grist.

I did this on the stove top in a regular pot with a lid checking the temp every 10 minutes. I needed to turn on the burner to high for about 35 seconds every ten minutes to maintain the temp.

After the mash and sparge (btw, I had my 32 quart pot going the whole time with 3.5 gallons getting up to my sparge temp of 170 and used this to sparge the grains) I dumped the wort into my brew kettle and brought up to a boil.

At boil I started my timer (through beersmith <-----great great program btw and well worth the money) and started adding in my hop additions.

With the smaller boil volume I had to adjust a couple of things but not much really. The main thing was instead of the OP's hop schedule I only had to lower the first addition of Centennial from 1.5oz to 1oz for 60 minutes. The rest of the hop schedule went as per the OP's recipe.

I entered in all the AA values as well and some were higher than average for this years crop and some were slightly lower. It all worked out well though and again, the only change was the 60 minute hops from 1.5oz to 1oz.

At 15 minutes in (45 mark) I added 3 lbs of light DME, continued with hop additions and at 45 minutes in (15 mark) I added in 6.6 lbs light Briess LME. Took a while to get back up to boil after the LME addition so I paused the clock for a few minutes.

I added Irish Moss at 10 min left and finished up.

Cooled wort, rehydrated my yeast and pitched at 70 degrees.

I ended up with a metric ton of hop sludge and I strained that out through a grain bag and a nice ss strainer made of fine mesh. This got most of the hop sludge out of my fermentor but I did have to leave about .3 of a gallon in the pot, just all sludge and hot/cold break. I know all of this can go into the fermentor but I didn't want it in there.

I think I ended up with about 3.4 gallons in the fermentor initially and then I topped up to 5.3 and took my OG reading. Beersmith estimated 1.077 but I got 1.062, likely because of the wort left in the pot and the .3 additional water in the fermentor (up from 5 gallons in Beersmith).

Color was pretty dark, I don't have a way to measure it but Beersmith estimated it at 12.1 and I would say that's probably pretty close. Not a big deal to me as this is my first run with this recipe and I can make changes down the road. Judging by the smell of it I would guess it's going to taste very very similar to FP.

After a nervous couple of days, NO airlock activity.....BTW, I pitched two packets of rehydrated Safale US-05, I did a smell test and sure enough right by the lid to bucket junction I was getting very strong (and wonderful) hop aromas, so I guess I have some blow by and that's why my airlock isn't doing it's normal thing...... I knew I should have gone with a glass carboy...oh well. Next time.

I'm going to leave it in the primary for a good 10 to 11 days then on to the secondary to dry hop with the OP's recipe for 7 to 10 days, then bottle.

As per the priming calculator shown above I'm going to prime with 3oz of corn sugar when I rack to my bottling bucket.

Hoping for the best. The smell is off the chain and will only get better with the dry hopping!


Taste test in about 3 to 4 weeks.

Love the commercial version so decided to try this. I've changed things a little for my taste. I've made the grain bill simple in an attempt to get the lighter color. I deleted the crystal malt for that reason, and because the Ithaca website says only 2-row and honey malt. Plus, I use Pale Malt (Hugh Baird) because it's what I can get by the sack cheap. The Hugh Baird adds some color so I definitely didn't want to add any cyrstal to my version. I normally make a 11 gallon batches, but decided to make this one 11.5 gallons to try to compensate for the massive amount of hops. I was intrigued by Waorgany's hop schedule, so I used it and hints from the Ithaca's website. Normally, I'm anal about AA% and converting IBU for recipes. But with this amount of hops......who cares? I used the OP's suggestion of using less water in the mash and had a corresponding loss in efficiency. Expected to end up with 1.074 and ended up with 1.071. No biggie and I should have thought to compensate for this....my bad.

Brew 5-4-13

11.5 gallons @ 78% efficiency (Expected anyway...)

29# Pale Malt (2-row)
1.5# Honey Malt

60 Min 2oz Centennial
50 Min 1oz Amarillo
40 Min 2oz Citra
35 Min 2oz Chinook
30 Min 2oz Simcoe
25 Min 2oz Cascade
20 Min 2oz Ahtanum
15 Min 1oz Amarillo

Dry Hop for 7 days. 2oz each of Centennial, Simcoe, and Cascade.

SA-05 for the yeast.

Mash 152 degrees for 60 minutes. I used 1.1qt/# for strike water. I ususally use 1.3qts because I use a RIMS.

OG: 1.071 Slightly less than expected (see above).

The boiling wort smelled awesome and the whirlpool in my pot left a huge pile of spent hop material in the kettle. Still the carboys look like they were filled with pea soup! Fermented in the mid 60s and today (5-8), came home from work and fermentation looks like it is about finished. So, I bumped the temperature to 70 degrees. Will let sit for 2-3 more weeks and then secondary for dry hopping. Then cold crash and keg. I'll report back.

Tasted a bottle of the late hop FP after only about 10 days carbonating. It's got some carbonating to do, but the honey and hops are lovely. I'd recommend this brew to anyone.

I am brewing this tomorrow but I am intimidated by the amount of bitterness and the IBU/SG ratio.

Does the flavor still come through without any late / whirlpool hops?

Has anyone brewed this with a bittering charge at 60, and then all the rest in the last 10 - 15 minutes?

I was thinking:

1oz Centennial at 60 min

15 minutes - 1oz simcoe

10min
2oz cascade
1oz amarillo

5 min
1oz citra
1oz chinook
1oz amarillo

around 80 IBUs. Is the 100+ ibus that noticeable when compared to 75 - 80?

InityBrew said:

I am brewing this tomorrow but I am intimidated by the amount of bitterness and the IBU/SG ratio.

Does the flavor still come through without any late / whirlpool hops?

Has anyone brewed this with a bittering charge at 60, and then all the rest in the last 10 - 15 minutes?

I was thinking:

1oz Centennial at 60 min

15 minutes - 1oz simcoe

10min
2oz cascade
1oz amarillo

5 min
1oz citra
1oz chinook
1oz amarillo

around 80 IBUs. Is the 100+ ibus that noticeable when compared to 75 - 80?

Click to expand...

I did something similar, and it turned out really nicely. Only a 60 minute addition, followed by additions at 10, 5, and a post-boil whirlpool (30 mins)

Schedule here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/ithaca-flower-power-clone-319619/index14.html#post5102248

rtb178 said:

Tasted a bottle of the late hop FP after only about 10 days carbonating. It's got some carbonating to do, but the honey and hops are lovely. I'd recommend this brew to anyone.

Click to expand...

Right at about three weeks, and I must say, this is an excellent beer. It's a bit darker than the real flower power, but the aroma is excellent (lots of tropical fruit and flowery citrus) and the taste is very good. There're some tweaks to be made but I think this is a good start for those interested in a late hop example.

Hammy71 said:

Love the commercial version so decided to try this. I've changed things a little for my taste. I've made the grain bill simple in an attempt to get the lighter color. I deleted the crystal malt for that reason, and because the Ithaca website says only 2-row and honey malt. Plus, I use Pale Malt (Hugh Baird) because it's what I can get by the sack cheap. The Hugh Baird adds some color so I definitely didn't want to add any cyrstal to my version. I normally make a 11 gallon batches, but decided to make this one 11.5 gallons to try to compensate for the massive amount of hops. I was intrigued by Waorgany's hop schedule, so I used it and hints from the Ithaca's website. Normally, I'm anal about AA% and converting IBU for recipes. But with this amount of hops......who cares? I used the OP's suggestion of using less water in the mash and had a corresponding loss in efficiency. Expected to end up with 1.074 and ended up with 1.071. No biggie and I should have thought to compensate for this....my bad.

Brew 5-4-13

11.5 gallons @ 78% efficiency (Expected anyway...)

29# Pale Malt (2-row)
1.5# Honey Malt

60 Min 2oz Centennial
50 Min 1oz Amarillo
40 Min 2oz Citra
35 Min 2oz Chinook
30 Min 2oz Simcoe
25 Min 2oz Cascade
20 Min 2oz Ahtanum
15 Min 1oz Amarillo

Dry Hop for 7 days. 2oz each of Centennial, Simcoe, and Cascade.

SA-05 for the yeast.

Mash 152 degrees for 60 minutes. I used 1.1qt/# for strike water. I ususally use 1.3qts because I use a RIMS.

OG: 1.071 Slightly less than expected (see above).

The boiling wort smelled awesome and the whirlpool in my pot left a huge pile of spent hop material in the kettle. Still the carboys look like they were filled with pea soup! Fermented in the mid 60s and today (5-8), came home from work and fermentation looks like it is about finished. So, I bumped the temperature to 70 degrees. Will let sit for 2-3 more weeks and then secondary for dry hopping. Then cold crash and keg. I'll report back.

Click to expand...

Kegged yesterday. Tried a sample pre-dryhop, and was very bitter. Reminded me of the Pliney clones out there. But, after a week of dryhopping, holy crap! No bitternesss, just pure hop heaven. First beer in a while that it'll be hard to wait the three weeks to carb. Woohoo!!

How long did you let it be in the keg?