American Wheat Beer Gumballhead inspired WPA

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This is still the best recipe that I've come up with. As Boralyl attested, everyone seems to like this beer. I don't know how many people have shelved the BMC they brought to a party at my house to suck on these all night. And his pictures are like porn to me as I've been delving into all-grain and when I get a chance to brew I've been using home-grown hops. So many experiments, so little time.......

To answer some questions:

When plugged into Beersmith I get around 25-30 IBU depending on leaf or pellet hops and the AA%. That's where I try to keep it. The '09 leaf Amarillo that I bought last fall from Hopsdirect was seeded and 9.4% AA. Maybe I'm crazy but the seeds seem to add a catty/nutty mix to the beer. Dunno.

mixmasterob: If you want a more lawnmower style I would go for the advice on trying to actually clone Gumballhead. The side by side pics above actually look more golden than I remember the real thing being. You'll get something good either way and probably win an award with my original recipe:D but it is just a little sweet for the style. You won't lose with either of your recipes I promise! My one experience with Summit was a let-down. Centennial is a favorite and I usually have some around since I grow it. I haven't used Citra but I want too. Would be good to hear how it does with this recipe.

sfinger: VERY interested for a side by side of a recipe following my recommendations. I really think that the extra "sweet bread" taste brought to the table by the caravienne is essential but your feedback will tell the story. It was a long drive there after a day of kayaking here but I think that it should be pretty close.

jarod: Aging actually hurts this beer in my experience. I start drinking them after a week as long as they are carbed and the flavor falls off from there.

In early January I started brewing all-grain. Due to moving and all that that entails my brewing has been limited. I intend to try to nail this with the new process but it'll be a bit because I keep telling SWMBO how great her brown and kolsch will be on tap(finally have enough room for a draft system). Please keep the pictures and feedback coming and sharing this wonderful brew. Looks like I should check this a bit more often;)
 
sfinger: VERY interested for a side by side of a recipe following my recommendations. I really think that the extra "sweet bread" taste brought to the table by the caravienne is essential but your feedback will tell the story. It was a long drive there after a day of kayaking here but I think that it should be pretty close.QUOTE]

Will let you know cuinrearview, a couple more weeks and I'll give it a try (bottled on 6/6)...

Thanks,
Scott
 
I am brewing the altered recipe as I type this. Gonna hop with amarillo, I am pretty exited about this one.
1LB 2-Row
1LB White Wheat
1/4LB CaraVienne
1/4LB CaraPils

I am going to add a 10 minute addition of Amarillo as well, 1/2oz.
 
Also, I am contemplating using Nottingham instead of US05. I had the best attenuation to date using Nottingham in my last batch, I have had problems with US05 in the past. Any suggestions? Either way?

EDIT: For the record, I went with US05.
 
Not sure why these uploaded sideways, but you get the picture. Pitched the yeast @ 7pm yesterday. Woke up to this, looks like it got a nice quick start.

DSCN02711.JPG

DSCN0270.JPG
 
ya know what "c"? i feel the need to brew again and i think i'll try this one. what you doing on sunday morning early afternoon? my swmbo has to cover for a vacay so i'm open.
 
sfinger: VERY interested for a side by side of a recipe following my recommendations. I really think that the extra "sweet bread" taste brought to the table by the caravienne is essential but your feedback will tell the story. It was a long drive there after a day of kayaking here but I think that it should be pretty close.QUOTE]

Will let you know cuinrearview, a couple more weeks and I'll give it a try (bottled on 6/6)...

Thanks,
Scott

I wouldn't hesitate to chill one and try it now Scott. One of the things that I really liked about this beer was that as soon as it carbed it was ready to drink. It really tastes good fresh, and the hops seem to fade quickly, at least to my palate.
 
Not sure why these uploaded sideways, but you get the picture. Pitched the yeast @ 7pm yesterday. Woke up to this, looks like it got a nice quick start.

DSCN02711.JPG

DSCN0270.JPG


I've yet to try Notty with this recipe and don't think I'll mess with a good thing. I like US-05 better in all of my hoppy beers but that's strictly my opinion. If you can get that carboy any cooler mix I'd highly suggest it. I usually primary in the low 60s. It definately slows things down as I never have it start that quick but I like this beer CLEAN. That being said I'm anxious to hear how it comes out. It'll be a nice summer beer for sure!

Erik: Sorry to hear 'bout the downed tree man. Nothing I'd rather do on Father's Day than run a saw in 80 degree weather:drunk:. I would like to brew again with you and I actually thought about it the other day while talking to the guy on my line that I got started. He's planning on doing a couple batches of the WPA over his shutdown and wants to get together. He's still a couple brewdays from cutting the cord;). Initially I thought I'd take a stab at it with all-grain but if I don't make Shannon something soon I fear my days of brewing may be numbered:p. But if he was doing my original recipe and you maybe trying something that we come up with AG it would be interesting. Just throwing it out there.
 
I wouldn't hesitate to chill one and try it now Scott. One of the things that I really liked about this beer was that as soon as it carbed it was ready to drink. It really tastes good fresh, and the hops seem to fade quickly, at least to my palate.

Thanks for the heads up Cuinrearview, I was going to let it go another week but took your advice and threw a sixer of them in the cooler for a father's day party...they were definitely ready--the carbonation and mouthfeel was very close to the original. Obviously, the clone (brewed extract) came out a bit darker than the original but that was to be expected. Again, pics attached are from a blackberry but you get the idea.

The clone is very close in taste to the original, fresh and with Amarillo coming through strong. The nose is a bigger Amarillo hoppiness on the original than the clone, maybe I needed a bit more Amarillo in the dry hop?

The beer tasted great--everyone wanted more and the recipe is very close to the original. If you want it close go with cuinrearview's suggestions. I am curious if anyone has suggestions on how to get more initial hop aroma as that, besides color, was the only major difference between the OG and the Clone...

I will certainly brew this again and other than trying to bump up the initial hop aroma hit, which is really no huge deal, I don't think I will mess with the recipe as I really like how it came out. I think cuinrearview's recommended changes from his recipe if you want to get close to the original are good ones--everyone agreed it was a good, fresh tasting beer that was not too far off the stuff from Munster...

Gumballhead clone 62010.jpg


GHclone close up 62010.jpg
 
Wow, I let this sit in the keg another week, and am dry hopping in the keg, and it's very very good. It's going to go fast. It's WAY too easy to drink. I haven't had the original (can't get it in TX) but am heading to IL in a couple weeks, so i'll try to pick some up.
 
I won't brew it with all Simcoe because it's a really, really good beer as is but I wouldn't advise against it. It would probably come out very good. The fact is the original recipe was never an attempt to nail Gumballhead, just to make an american style wheat beer hopped up with Amarillo. As far as I know Simcoe doesn't even belong in a true "clone" recipe but I've never minded. As the thread title states this recipe was only inspired by GH. The results were so good that even after having sampled the real deal at Three Floyd's and coming up with ideas for tweaks I still brew my original recipe. That being said I'm sure the grain/ME bill with all Simcoe hops would probably be very good. Brew it and post up your results!
 
I've switched to all-grain myself this year but have yet to give this beer a try due to limited brewing. I have, however, thought about what I will do when I finally get to try it. I always used Briess wheat DME when I made it and it is labeled as 60/40 wheat to barley. I would use a pound of caravienne, that shouldn't change. Add to that enough 2-row and wheat malt in a 60% wheat and 40% 2-row ratio to get a starting gravity around 1.052 depending on the efficiancy of your system. I'm not in front of Beersmith right now to plug in the numbers but off the top of my head I think around 10lbs. of grain total would put you in the ballpark at 75% efficiancy. That grain bill should make a beer that's pretty close. After that it would be just tweaking to taste. As far as the white wheat it could be subbed for a lb. of the wheat malt but I don't think it would be necessary. I hope this helps and I'm sorry I can't give you something exact.
 
Thanks for the information, I'll plug some numbers in BeerSmith and see what I come up with. I'm looking to brew this in another 2 weeks. I'll post my results when I get them calculated.
 
just got around the bottling my batch on saturday. it was on the dry hops for 2 weeks. i just wasn't able to bottle til now. well see how it turns out.
 
I made a variation on this (bought some of the wrong stuff on accident), ended up winning a contest with it - Now I gotta try making it to the recipe, see how it compares
 
The recipe I made was the same as the posted one, except with 2 of the 5lbs wheat DME replaced with light DME. Turned out to be a pretty well balanced, not overly hoppy pale ale. Very light in color for the flavor that it had.
 
Just wanted to post that I made this recipe this past spring. I really enjoyed the flavor and aroma of the hops. Those who tried it all enjoyed it as well, as it's a lot different than store bought pale ales in this area.
 
I'm going to have to SMaSH some amarillo, thanks for posting this!

(This recipe is waaaaay too hoppy for me, but my bro might like it.)
 
I racked my first attempt at this recipe with all-grain to secondary last night. The gravity readings matched and it's looking and tasting good so far. I'll put up my recipe if it's close in three weeks or so.

Justibone: The hops are really well balanced with the breadiness of the wheat. I've yet to have someone, BMC drinker or otherwise, complain that it's too bitter.
 
Kegged Sunday, force carbed and sampled last night. In the future I'm only going to dry hop for a week because I've noticed no noticeable difference. I've never tried it this young. The hops are over-freaking-powering right now with no noticeable wheat. That being said the hoppiness was quite lovely although very IPAish. I took a sample to SWMBO and she thought is was the peach wheat I made for her two years ago:D. Peach, grapefruit, and tangerine all come through strong at this young age. My experience is that those flavors settle quite quickly so hopefully in a week or so I'll have a Wpa and not just a glass of hops.
 
I take it you are steeping the 3lbs of grain in the begining? How long? Also When are you putting your DME in?
 
I steeped for ~25 min, then DME immediately following the steeping before bringing to a boil - basically following the normal procedure for extract
 
Well I brewed it up yesterday and I was surprised to see that the color was quite a bit darker than described. Also my IBU's were down a bit. I could only get amarillo pellets with AAU's of 7.2 Not worried though. Must just be a crop differance. I sampled after i checked the gravity. Pretty tasty. Was close to the gumballhead, however, I still need to dry hop and wait for fermentation to takeover. I truley enjoy the gumballhead version and there is only one bar in my area that I can get it. If this works out I will probably have some on constant reserve. :rockin:
 
Don't worry Marine, it'll come out great!

So, for those interested the all-grain batch is finished and came off very well. This is the grain bill. I got 81% efficiency and 5.75 gallons into my primary so adjust accordingly for your system.

5lbs. Wheat malt
3.5lbs. 2-row
1lb. Caravienne

Mash at 152

OG 1.051
FG 1.012

The rest of the recipe remains the same since I was doing full wort boils when I originally wrote it. The wheat and hops are such a nice marriage. I finally was able to drink this too early having force carbed and drank four days out of secondary. It's a five week grain to glass beer whether you dry-hop for two or one week and let carbonate.

If anyone can help me get this info on post #1 of this thread I'd appreciate it.
 
Hey folks,

So tonight is the eve of my first ever "non kit" brew, and this Gumballhead clone is what I'm gonna be going with. I've got all of my ingredients and am for the most part ready to go. But I'm having some doubts about the execution, particularly how to go about the grains. I'm still going to steep the 3 lbs of grain in 2-2.5 gal of water (~155 degrees) for around 30 minutes to start it all off, correct? Or generally speaking, can I take the listed ingredients and apply the typical directions for steeping/boiling that are found in a kit recipe? The concept of 2 cases of Gumballhead excites the hell out of me, so I don't wanna screw anything up!
 
Hey folks,

So tonight is the eve of my first ever "non kit" brew, and this Gumballhead clone is what I'm gonna be going with. I've got all of my ingredients and am for the most part ready to go. But I'm having some doubts about the execution, particularly how to go about the grains. I'm still going to steep the 3 lbs of grain in 2-2.5 gal of water (~155 degrees) for around 30 minutes to start it all off, correct? Or generally speaking, can I take the listed ingredients and apply the typical directions for steeping/boiling that are found in a kit recipe? The concept of 2 cases of Gumballhead excites the hell out of me, so I don't wanna screw anything up!


Check out DeathBrewer's picture tutorial on partial mashing...it will really help you out.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/


Good luck :mug:
 
Yes, this is a steep and not a mash, so your plan would work fine.

If you were mashing, you would want less water and (probably) lower temperature, and although I believe using the volume/temps you have there would get you a perfectly fine beer it wouldn't be very close to a gumballhead.
 
Yes, this is a steep and not a mash, so your plan would work fine.

If you were mashing, you would want less water and (probably) lower temperature, and although I believe using the volume/temps you have there would get you a perfectly fine beer it wouldn't be very close to a gumballhead.

Actually it's a kind of in between PM and extract, easily accomplished by all. The grains should be mashed but most households have a pot big enough to accomplish this in. PM me if you need direction.

And as you've noted, not a clone of GBH hence the "inspired" tag. I really never intended it to be but have noted revisions that, IMO, would make something close to the real thing. Should I change the title of the thread? Although this recipe doesn't make a beer that's spot on to the real deal I've tried to offer my opinion for making the real deal and added my AG poke on my original recipe with notes.

I see you're in IN, do you have any insight to cloning this beer? Am I close in my suggestions outside of my original recipe on this thread? I like this beer better than GBH(at least when I had it fresh at 3F's) but I know there's some out there that see this recipe and think it's gonna be close. Maybe I screwed up and should just call it "better than Gumballhead"?
 
Hey folks,

So tonight is the eve of my first ever "non kit" brew, and this Gumballhead clone is what I'm gonna be going with. I've got all of my ingredients and am for the most part ready to go. But I'm having some doubts about the execution, particularly how to go about the grains. I'm still going to steep the 3 lbs of grain in 2-2.5 gal of water (~155 degrees) for around 30 minutes to start it all off, correct? Or generally speaking, can I take the listed ingredients and apply the typical directions for steeping/boiling that are found in a kit recipe? The concept of 2 cases of Gumballhead excites the hell out of me, so I don't wanna screw anything up!

If you held the grains at that temp for 30 I bet it came out fine. What were your gravity readings?
 
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