Stone Ruination IPA clone

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Youretheguy

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Location
Wappingers Falls
I have been brewing beer for a little less than a year now and I'm trying to get the beer I make taste closer to the beer I like. I was wondering if anyone has tried brewing a Stone Ruination IPA clone and, or, had some advice for me.
I tried brewing two different IPAs so far and both have tastes bland or strangely bitter. I seem to have no problem brewing tasty Belgian, stout, or ales
 
Could you post your process and one/both of the recipes? If you can brew a tasty belgian, there is no reason you can't brew an IPA.
 
Could you post your process and one/both of the recipes? If you can brew a tasty belgian, there is no reason you can't brew an IPA.

OK my process is as follows:

- steeped 1 lb of Crystal for 20 min in 1 1/2 gal of water
- added another gal and 1/2 and boiled
- 2 cans of Unhopped Amber Malt extract and 1 oz of Pilgrim Hop pellets
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 20 min go by add 1 oz cascade
- 45 min go by add golden hop
- took off heat and added 1 oz of Kent golding hop and cold break to volume
- steamed 1 1/2 oz of oak chips and tossed em in
- Pitched yeast at 68 degrees
- 1 week in primary
- 4 weeks in bottles primed with dextrose

*everything was sanitized with LD Carlson Easy Clean and rinsed... twice



its 4 months old now and some of the off flavors are gone but it still has an astringent character. There are pretty much no pleasant aromatics (just barley a hint of malt). I like my beer super hoppy and its almost as if its bitter but without all the wonderful subtleties of bitterness that are so eloquently balanced in the high end micro IPAs. Its barely passable for an IPA in my opinion.
 
Well, that really isn't an american IPA recipe, so you aren't going to get a lot of classic IPA flavor.

The generic American IPA recipe is something along the lines of 9ish lbs light lme, 0.5 to 1lb crystal, a big AA bittering hop, lots of flavoring hops, and several ounce of dry hop. IIPA's are similar, but have more LME and sometimes some sugar.

Amber malt is just light malt with some crystal, so you are probably using 5 times more than Stone does. They start with 2.25 oz of 16 AA ho - 3-4 times more bitter than you used. You don't have any dry hopping in your recipe, and that is what provides most of that hoppy aroma. Your finishing hops are also not one of the common american aroma hops. Stone's IPA's are finished and dry hopped with Centennial.

General American IPA rules - you want a highly fermentable wort with at most 1 lb of crystal. Use a "clean" american ale yeast. Pitch enough yeast to make sure they fully dry the beer out. Give it 2 weeks to ferment (or take FG readings) and then dryhop for a week.
 
Well, that really isn't an american IPA recipe, so you aren't going to get a lot of classic IPA flavor.

The generic American IPA recipe is something along the lines of 9ish lbs light lme, 0.5 to 1lb crystal, a big AA bittering hop, lots of flavoring hops, and several ounce of dry hop. IIPA's are similar, but have more LME and sometimes some sugar.

Amber malt is just light malt with some crystal, so you are probably using 5 times more than Stone does. They start with 2.25 oz of 16 AA ho - 3-4 times more bitter than you used. You don't have any dry hopping in your recipe, and that is what provides most of that hoppy aroma. Your finishing hops are also not one of the common american aroma hops. Stone's IPA's are finished and dry hopped with Centennial.

General American IPA rules - you want a highly fermentable wort with at most 1 lb of crystal. Use a "clean" american ale yeast. Pitch enough yeast to make sure they fully dry the beer out. Give it 2 weeks to ferment (or take FG readings) and then dryhop for a week.

Right- your recipe is not going to be a crisp hoppy beer. It's more of an English beer that is an odd recipe. I wouldn't expect much hops flavor at all in that recipe. It's not an IPA recipe like any that I've ever seen, so I'd suggest that the recipe is at fault here.

I'd skip the amber malt and the brown sugar for certain for almost all beer styles, and use only light (or extra light) malt extract.

I'd also suggest using the hops that "fit" a certain style until you get a feel for what you like in various beers. Using English and American hops in a recipe can work at times, but oftentimes just tastes sort of weird. Brown sugar is something that I never use, as I dislike the taste of fermented brown sugar (like non-sweet molasses).

For an American IPA, I'd do something much different, like the Stone Ruination recipe I posted (linked to above):

1 pound crystal 20 (steeped at 150-160 for 20 minutes)
Bring to a boil. Add:
4 pounds DME
Bring to a boil. When boiling start your timer at 60 minutes, and begin hopping: (Remember that you add the hops at the "time remaining" on the timer, so the 10 minute hops are added with 10 minutes left in the boil, while the one minute hops added one minute before turning off the flame):
1.75 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (30 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (10 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (1 min)
4 pounds DME (added at flame out)

2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

Use a clean well-attenuating ale yeast, like S05, at 65-68 degrees.
 
Right- your recipe is not going to be a crisp hoppy beer. It's more of an English beer that is an odd recipe. I wouldn't expect much hops flavor at all in that recipe. It's not an IPA recipe like any that I've ever seen, so I'd suggest that the recipe is at fault here.

I'd skip the amber malt and the brown sugar for certain for almost all beer styles, and use only light (or extra light) malt extract.

I'd also suggest using the hops that "fit" a certain style until you get a feel for what you like in various beers. Using English and American hops in a recipe can work at times, but oftentimes just tastes sort of weird. Brown sugar is something that I never use, as I dislike the taste of fermented brown sugar (like non-sweet molasses).

For an American IPA, I'd do something much different, like the Stone Ruination recipe I posted (linked to above):

1 pound crystal 20 (steeped at 150-160 for 20 minutes)
Bring to a boil. Add:
4 pounds DME
Bring to a boil. When boiling start your timer at 60 minutes, and begin hopping: (Remember that you add the hops at the "time remaining" on the timer, so the 10 minute hops are added with 10 minutes left in the boil, while the one minute hops added one minute before turning off the flame):
1.75 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (30 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (10 min)
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (1 min)
4 pounds DME (added at flame out)

2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

Use a clean well-attenuating ale yeast, like S05, at 65-68 degrees.

Could it also be that I burned my wort? I made this before I bought my good thermometer. The lady at the home brew store near me told me to bring it to a hard boil so I might have over heated it. I'm using my turkey fryer base which is a beast of a heat source. maybe I scorched all those subtle flavors away or maybe i'm just a beer snob because my brother seemed to like it.

I just decided to crack one of these beers open and I gotta say that without the malt, grain, and sugar flavors this beer would have to be thrown out. There is no taste of oak whatsoever and that's fine by me because all those super oaky drinks taste the same (like ****ing oak). Really I think the problem is with the hops. Also I just noticed the head on the beer is really nice and lasts all the way down to the last sip too bad there are so few aromatics in there.

My next brewing session will be an IPA again. Ill probably try the ruination clone if I feel like spending stupid cash on a new brewing rig or I'll just try again with extract and some of these great suggestions. Thanks so much guys.
:mug:
 
Just FYI - that link above has an extract version. You just have to scroll down past the all grain recipe.

Also FYI - boiling is boiling. Water literally cannot get any hotter than boiling. However, you CAN scorch LME if you don't stir it in well. It can stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. To avoid this, turn off the heat before adding the LME, stir well, and then fire it back up.
 
Just FYI - that link above has an extract version. You just have to scroll down past the all grain recipe.

Also FYI - boiling is boiling. Water literally cannot get any hotter than boiling. However, you CAN scorch LME if you don't stir it in well. It can stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. To avoid this, turn off the heat before adding the LME, stir well, and then fire it back up.

Yeah I was unclear in referencing the recipe that allhopabandon posted which is an all grain.
As for the LME I always do a good job mixing it before it touches the bottom. I feel like an Ignoramus right now because you just brought me back to my forgotten high school physics, thermal dynamics chapter. One too many beers in my day I guess haha.
 
Just FYI - that link above has an extract version. You just have to scroll down past the all grain recipe.

Also FYI - boiling is boiling. Water literally cannot get any hotter than boiling. However, you CAN scorch LME if you don't stir it in well. It can stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. To avoid this, turn off the heat before adding the LME, stir well, and then fire it back up.

Oooh, careful now. Rolling boils are preferred over simmer-y boils to drive off DMS, if I've heard correctly. You're right, of course, that you can't "burn" wort or raise it above boiling temperature, but the strength of the boil can vary and can affect the outcome.

But that's neither here nor there, I think you're right on that the more likely culprit is scorched extract syrup.
 
Back
Top