GF Dogfish Head 60 IPA Clone

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rlbois1

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Below is my attempt at a GF version of the 60 Min IPA clone posted here. 60 Minute IPA is (was) one of my favorites before going GF. In terms of brewing experience, I have brewed exactly 1 batch of homebrew (and it's still in the fermenter...), so any advice would be appreciated. If I were able to brew anything close to a GF 60 Minute IPA, it would greatly improve my quality of life. My substitutions are in red. Thanks in advance.

Rick
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Ingredients
• 9.9 lb. White Sorghum Syrup (sub for: 9.5 lbs Pale Liquid Malt Extract).
• 2.0 lb Bob’s Redmill Oat Flakes, toasted (sub for: 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt 40L).
• 1.25 oz Warrior Hops [15%, 26.7 IBU] - (half at 60 min, remainder continuous to 35 min).
• 1 oz Amarillo Gold Hops [8.5%, 10.0 IBU] mixed with
• 1 oz Simcoe Hops [12.0 %, 13.1 IBU] - (Continuous add 35 min to flame out).
• 1 oz Amarillo Gold Hops [8.5 %] mixed with
• .5 oz Simcoe Hops [12.0 %] (dry hop).
• Yeast: Pacman / Nottingham / WLP001 / American ale yeast (1056) / Safale S-05 / “any clean well attenuating yeast”

Directions
• Toast oats (gluten free from Bob's Red Mill) for 30 minutes on 350, until golden brown.
• Steep toasted oats (sub for: crystal) in grain bag in 5.0 gallons of water at 150-155 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove.
• Bring water to boil. Remove it from heat, and add Sorghum (sub for: LME).
• Bring to boil; add approximately half of Warrior hops.
• Set timer for 60 minutes; continue adding a pellet or two or five, every minute or so, until 35 minutes; Time addition of Warrior pellets to end at 35 minutes.
• Mix Amarillo and Simcoe hops in bowl; At 35 minutes, start adding a few at a time, goal is to end when timer hits 0.
• Chill wort rapidly, add to fermenter, top up to 5 gallons if necessary.
• Check temperature to ensure ~70 degrees; pitch yeast.
• Ferment until completely done, and then allow to rest. Two weeks?
• Rack to 5 gallon carboy and dry hop.
• After about a week, you can rack to a bottling bucket avoiding the hops chunks, and bottle.
• Prime with 3.5- 4 ounces priming sugar.
 
I haven't had the original, but I'd recommend adding some candi syrup (amber, d-45) in place of a couple lbs of that sorghum. I've done that on two IPAs so far, and the one that I bottled recently is absolutely stellar. Also, add half the sorghum at flame-out, not at the start of boil. I've been doing that recently and it seems to create a dramatic improvement. A few oz. of maltodextrin may be helpful if you want a more full-bodied brew.

Beyond that, looks like your process is good; I'd recommend using the dry yeasts (US-05 or Notty) because it's easier to get them going properly than to make a starter from liquid. Use two packets for optimum health.
 
I haven't had the original, but I'd recommend adding some candi syrup (amber, d-45) in place of a couple lbs of that sorghum. I've done that on two IPAs so far, and the one that I bottled recently is absolutely stellar. Also, add half the sorghum at flame-out, not at the start of boil. I've been doing that recently and it seems to create a dramatic improvement. A few oz. of maltodextrin may be helpful if you want a more full-bodied brew.

Beyond that, looks like your process is good; I'd recommend using the dry yeasts (US-05 or Notty) because it's easier to get them going properly than to make a starter from liquid. Use two packets for optimum health.
Igliashon,
Thank you again for your helpful feedback. I see (what I assume are) the two IPAs you've brewed in your signature. Are the recipes posted; love to check them out if your willing.

Rick
<><
 
I've posted them here, but rather than dig through the archives I'll just paste 'em here.

Pacific Gyre IPA (most recent one):

I was going for a dryer IPA with this one, hoping to bring out the piney flavors of Chinook.

3 gallons
1 lb sweet potatoes, grated and chopped, step-mashed according to the directions at http://www.jbc.org/content/44/1/19.full.pdf and sparged into kettle
2 lbs rice syrup solids at start of boil
1 lb D-45 candi syrup
2 lbs sorghum at flame-out
0.5 lb honey at flame-out (I used sage honey; I stay away from honey with too strong of a flavor now)
2 oz maltodextrin

Hops:
0.5 oz Willamette at 60 min
0.75 oz Chinook at 25 min
0.75 oz Chinook at 5 min
0.5 oz Chinook dry-hopped for the last 5-7 days of secondary

Nottingham yeast

---

Grapefruit IPA, based on Spaced's "Angry Scotsman":

Really wanted to emphasize the grapefruity character of the hops, in a nice full-bodied IPA. This one is the best thing I've ever brewed, probably.

3 gallon batch

1.5 lbs Sorghum at start of boil
1 lb D-45 Candi Syrup
1.5 lbs Sorghum at flame-out
3/4 lb honey at flame-out
4 oz malto-dextrin

0.5 oz Columbus at 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade at 15 min
0.5 oz Centennial at 10 min
0.3 oz Cascade at 5 min
Zest of 1/2 a grapefruit at flameout

1 oz Centennial dry-hop for the last 5 days of secondary

Safale US-05

HTH!
 
Okay, here's "take two" on my next batch... to be brewed this Saturday. I am looking for three things: 1) GF, 2) BIG, 3) HOPPY. I intend to do the continuous hopping (ala: Dogfish 60 min IPA), but I want to bump up the ABV to ~8.0%. Based on that, please critique the below changes to the fermentables (5 gallon batch). I am trying to keep things simple...

- 6.6 lb. White Sorghum Syrup (half at 60min, half at 30min?? or flameout??)
- 3.0 lb. Brown Rice Syrup (at 60min)
- 1.0 lb. Honey (at 60min)
- 1.0 lb. Amber Candi Syrup (at 15min??)
- 2 packs Nottingham Ale Yeast
 
I'd do 2 lbs of candi syrup and 5.6 lbs of sorghum syrup, but otherwise no changes. I use 1 lb of candi syrup in most of my 3-gallon batches, and it's always good, so I'd recommend scaling it up for a 5-gallon batch. If you can steep a few pounds of some wet-toasted millet or quinoa, you won't regret it!

Same hopping schedule?
 
Same hopping schedule?
As always, thank you for your feedback. The hopping schedule is about the same; it'll go something like this:

0.5oz. Warrior @60min
0.5oz. Warrior mixed with 0.5oz. Simcoe @55min continuous to 35min
1.0oz. Simcoe mixed with 1.0oz. Amarillo @30min continuous to 0min
0.5oz. Simcoe mixed with 1.0oz. Amarillo - Dry hop 7 days in secondary

Sounds fun right? I will use all bottled water this time, with a little gypsum and irish moss. Tell me more about "steeping a few pounds of some wet-toasted millet or quinoa". I don't have a LHBS so I have to order everything...
 
Great hopping schedule, definitely gonna pack a wallop!

Do you live near a health food store or any kind of ethnic grocery store? I get most of my steeping grains from whole foods, millet and quinoa aren't too hard to find out here. Look around, you might be surprised!

But yeah, I'd suggest using at least two pounds, probably more like four for a 5-gallon batch. Pour warm water over the grains in a pot or bowl--enough to cover, not much more. Let stand, covered, for a few hours. Strain off any excess water, spread about a pound of grain on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven at 250-300°F until dry, stirring every 10 minutes or so until they dry, then continue toasting until lightly brown and nutty-smelling. Takes a while to do 4 lbs of grain that way unless you've got a lot of cookie sheets, but it adds a good flavor.
 
Asked my wife about Quinoa. First off, she laughed at me and told me it is pronounced "keen-wah", then she walked into the pantry, walked out and handed me a 2lb bag of Bob's Redmill... who knew. However, as this will only be the second batch of homebrew ever for me, I am trying to keep it somewhat simple (I know the hopping schedule doesn't look simple) and not to have leftover ingredients (sorghum, rice syrup, etc.). Below is what I believe to be the final boil schedule. Adding half of the sorghum and the lb of candi syrup at the end does kick up the bitterness from ~80 to ~100 IBU, but based on the feedback I'm getting, the late sorghum will help with the twang, and the late candi will help with flavor. Plus, to me IPA with 8% ABV and 100 IBU just sounds like pizza or sex... inherently good.

Time Additions
60 .5oz Warrior, 3.3lb sorghum, 3lb rice syrup, 1lb honey, 2tsp gypsum
55 .2oz Hop Mix #1*
50 .2oz Hop Mix #1*
45 .2oz Hop Mix #1*
40 .2oz Hop Mix #1*
35 .2oz Hop Mix #1*
30 .3oz Hop Mix #2**
25 .3oz Hop Mix #2**
20 .3oz Hop Mix #2**
15 .3oz Hop Mix #2**, 8oz maltodextrin, 1tsp irish moss
10 .3oz Hop Mix #2**
05 .3oz Hop Mix #2**
00 .3oz Hop Mix #2**, 1lb amber candi, 3.3lb sorghum
*Hop Mix #1: .5oz Warrior + .5oz Simcoe
**Hop Mix #2: 1.0oz Simcoe + 1.0oz Amarillo
 
Looks good man, let us know how it comes out!
Brewed it up this afternoon, just before sampling my delicious GF English Pale Ale. The boil went exactly as per my prevous post; 13 hop editions, not "continuous" (ala Dogfish Head) but close. Corrected OG was right around 1.080. This will be a "big" GF beer... and hoppy. Like Tom says, the waiting is the hardest part...
 
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Checked gravity on this batch this morning; it was at target of 1.016, making it 8.4%ABV! Racked it to the secondary and it was crystal clear (the irish moss I assume). Dry hopped it with .5oz Simcoe and 1.0oz Amarillo. It smells delicious... BrewTarget says bitterness should be ~108 IBU; I realize that's pretty bitter. With that level of bitterness and the fact the sorghum makes up only 57% of the fermentables, I am hoping that the "sorghum twang" will be greatly diminished.
 
any updates on how this turned out?
How it turned out... It's been gone for a while now but let me try to sum it up. This was only my second ever batch of homebrew and the first batch was a kit, so I think I definitely bit off more than I could chew:

1) It did not taste like a Dogfish Head 60 min
2) While it was quite drinkable (particularly for a 8.4% ABV beer), I wish I had let it condition longer, much longer, maybe 3-6 months rather than 2-3 weeks...
3) Believe the hopping was just way over the top, but I'm not smart enough to know what to do differently with it other then simply back off on quantities...
4) The base was pretty good, but could have used something more to offset all those hops, maybe steep some GF grains, or use buckwheat honey vice "regular" honey... Again I don't (yet) know enough to say for sure.

Maybe I'm being overly critical, but I really want to get things right, and not being able to "instantly" brew up GF versions of my (old) favorite non-GF beers has been a little frustrating. I will brew another GF IIPA, and I will use this batch as a starting point but not an ending point.
 
Thanks for the update. I'm in the same boat by jumping into gluten free brewing except it's for my dad not me. Did you think that splitting up the sorghum additions gave it less of that twang or was it hard to tell with all the hops?

Thanks
 
Thanks for the update. I'm in the same boat by jumping into gluten free brewing except it's for my dad not me. Did you think that splitting up the sorghum additions gave it less of that twang or was it hard to tell with all the hops?

Thanks
Hard to say. I will say that in terms of a GF IPA, the 5 Star IPA came out much better, and there were no late sorghum additions. Also, the Black Lodge Ale tastes very good (Guiness-ish), and for that batch I pretty much just dumped in everything at the start of the (45min) boil. I know some swear by a late sorghum addition but I'm not sold. But then again I've only brewed 6 batches of beer in my life...
 
Sounds good i guess ill have to experiment with the varying sorghum addition times at some point. Ill add your 5 star ipa to my gf brew list...im planning a lager thats next up but the ipa will be soon.
 
I'd do 2 lbs of candi syrup and 5.6 lbs of sorghum syrup, but otherwise no changes. I use 1 lb of candi syrup in most of my 3-gallon batches, and it's always good, so I'd recommend scaling it up for a 5-gallon batch. If you can steep a few pounds of some wet-toasted millet or quinoa, you won't regret it!

Same hopping schedule?

Bringing this thread back. Any GF steeping grains the LHBS sells. Trying to find the best recipe for my batch of sorghum beer! Thanks :mug:
 
Hard to say. I will say that in terms of a GF IPA, the 5 Star IPA came out much better, and there were no late sorghum additions. Also, the Black Lodge Ale tastes very good (Guiness-ish), and for that batch I pretty much just dumped in everything at the start of the (45min) boil. I know some swear by a late sorghum addition but I'm not sold. But then again I've only brewed 6 batches of beer in my life...

recipe for the 5 star IPA? :ban:
 
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