Anyone brewed Oscar Blues Gordon clone?

Has anyone attempted to brew the Oskar Blues Gordon clone based on the Can You Brew It episode recently? Just racked mine to secondary on the Amarillo pellets. It went from 1.080 to 1.014 in nine days so all seems to be on track. Tasted the sample and it left me feeling this one has some work left to do. Anyone else brewing this?

One thing to keep in mind is that the Can You Brew It guys use some pretty fancy equipment that gives them more control over their process than most homebrewers have. Their recipes will get you close, but even if they cloned it, that doesn't mean that the same recipe will result in a clone with your system.

Another thing to keep in mind is that they may not be using the same grains and hops you are using - there are slight differences between growing regions and maltsters that, although the name of the grain is the same, will result in a slightly different taste.

I've never done it but it would be great if you could report back when it's done how it turned out. I bet we could get Jamil or someone from the Brewing Network to comment on whether they are using "fancy" equipment or not...

Lots of variables to be sure. And my system is by no means fancy...except for my new badass boilermaker kettle.

I did my due diligence on the ingredients, hit my mash temps, OG was very close and pitched a 1.8L starter. Fermentation temp control seems to be my biggest issue right now. I can cool it off, but the temp swings a bit. It never got above 69F anyway. I will report back on the results.

As a side note, I tried to whirlpool in the new kettle and did not do so well. I ended up sending everything to the carboy. After 9 days, the sediment was still 3" deep!

Heh, even if you don't have any fancy equipment, it'll still probably get you closer than most recipes. I'm sure if you asked them, they'd give you all the info you need, malters and where they sourced hops from. I kind of wish they'd ask the brewers which maltsters/hop sources they're using on the show though. They sometimes do, or the brewer might mention one maltster, but that doesn't necessarily he's using that one for all the malt.

On the issue of fancy equipment, I wouldn't say any of the three people are really doing anything too extravagant you can't replicate from what I've seen of their setups... The guy who did the Gordon clone uses a turkey fryer setup I believe with a plate chiller. He's got a fancy temp controlled B3 conical, sure, but temp controlled carboy with a fridge or other methods will be plenty fine.

Regardless of fancy or not, no two brewers generally have the exact same equipment, and even if they did, and the ingredients were the same, they're still going to make a slightly different beer.

So I bottled it yesterday. FG was 1.013 - right were I expected it. Big beer. Was able to keep most of the hops out of the bottling bucket. Tasted like something special, although it certainly is no clone yet. It had serious hop bite and some hot alcohol. Rye IPA was the same way. I think it will smooth out considerably over the next few weeks. More later.

It isn't really anything special equipment-wise. I think any all-grain setup can do it. Make sure you have:
-the ability to boil the full wort volume
-some method of rapid wort chilling
-good ferementation temperature control
-sanitation
-pitching rates
-fresh ingredients

I'm planning on doing this one sometime in the coming year. I'm looking forward to your results.

Wow, was that the real Jamil Z? I just listened to 4 hours of archived Brew Strong episodes. Entertaining and informative; particularly that part about the sheep.

Wish there was more to say right now about this batch but the bottles are just sitting there in a closet. I don't know how I am going to wait until October 4. I will post my results and the exact measures, as there were a few small variations from recipe.

Please do, this is one recipe I am very interested in brewing. I just have trouble justifying dropping in 4 oz of such a high alpha hop in the end of the boil... I will probably end up doing it anyway though!

Notes section indicates where I strayed from the recipe on CYBI. This yielded 5 full gallons of finished beer. Note that I made my starter from a propagator pack rather than the larger activator pack. That is what was available locally; I would have gone with the activator and stir plate starter if I could have. All malts were from Rebelbrewer.com in TN. Great service there. Hops are actual AA %, not the defaults in Beersmith. Tasting notes is a couple of weeks.

Recipe: Gordon
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.04 gal
Estimated OG: 1.082 SG
Actual OG: 1.080
Actual FG: 1.013 (8.77% ABV)
Estimated Color: 14.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 81.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

14 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.4 lbs Crystal 40L (40.0 SRM)
1.0 lbs Carastan (Simpsons Caramalt) (38.0 SRM)
1.0 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
0.2 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [10.50 %] (80 min) 25.9 IBU
1 Whirlfloc table (15 min)
4.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.2 %] (10 min) 55.3 IBU
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.6 %] (Dry Hop for 5 days)

Single Infusion, 152F for 60 min, no mash out
Mash In: 21.76qt at 163.7F

Wyeast 1056 propagator pack into 1800ml starter (24 hours on stir plate)
Ferment at 65F for 9 days then rack to secondary on dry hop pellets for 5 days
Bottle with 4.25oz dextrose

Notes:
------
Crystal 40L used in place of Crystal 45
1.0 lbs each Carastan and Munich insetad of 1.05 lbs each
Added 1/4 tsp gypsum to mash to increase Ca
Preheated tun with 1 gallon boiling water
Added water to tun first. No doughballs. Add 3 degrees to strike water next time?
Strike temp came in at 148.7 of 152
Added 32 oz boiling water to get to 151 (148.7,151,149,148.5)
Kettle filled up to 7.4gal - boiled about 15 min to 7.1 (corrected for temp) then started 90 min timer
Great cold break, but could not keep it in kettle
Cooled to 60 and whirlpooled
Pitched at about 65 and temp dropped to 60. Activity picked up when temp got back to 65. 65F for 7 days then 69F for 2 days then racked to secondary.

OK, so I already drank half of this batch. Research takes effort.

So it has been bottled 4 weeks, and I am tasting a one that has been in the fridge for a week. I don't have a Gordon for side by side comparison, but it is pretty close. Hop aroma is strong but not huge. Bitterness is very balanced. Carbonation is perfect at 2.0 volumes. Color is transparent (no filtering) reddish brown and matches the Beer Smith 14.2 SRM perfectly. There are no harsh alcohol flavors, but I am getting some fruitiness in the finish that I was hoping would not persist. I guess that has to do with less than accurate temp control?

In short, I say run with this recipe. This is a big ass beer that I would pay $10 for a four pack and be very happy with. It is not exactly cloned, though.

Changes? I want it to be cleaner. I am going to do it again in a temp controlled freezer so it stays at 65F or below. I am also going with a bigger pitch of yeast. Mine was 1.8L with a Wyeast propagator and I pitched the whole volume. Using the larger Activator would yield a significantly larger pitch and I might refrigerate and decant off the excess beer prior to ptiching.

I might also increase the pale chocolate malt slightly and lengthen/increase the dry hops. This is my prefernce , of course, and not driving towards the clone anymore.

Awesome. Thanks for the write up and suggestions.

i've been reading a few threads and started putting this together in BS. my abv is low and i couldn't find some grains so i moved what i thought might be correct around. any suggestions? Type: Extract Date: 5/20/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal Brewer: Ryan Olsen
Boil Size: 5.23 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 80 min Equipment: Ryan Equipment
End of Boil Volume 3.90 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.50 gal Chicago, IL Water 1 -
14.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.6 %
11.2 oz Caramel Malt - 35L 6-Row (Briess) (35.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.9 %
11.2 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.9 %
0.1 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5 0.0 %
9 lbs 8.3 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 6 80.5 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 80.0 min Hop 7 17.2 IBUs
4.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 51.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
2.15 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.064 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.4 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 68.9 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 13.2 SRM