New Belgium Ranger IPA Clone

8.5# two row
2# table sugar
3 oz c120
1 oz chinook at 60
.75 oz simcoe at 30
.50 oz casc at 10
.50 casc at 0
.75 oz cask dry hop
fat tire yeast
1.060 down to 1.009
mash at 149

This is pretty much the recipe posted in BYO this month. I find this IPA to taste pretty good, but I couldn't believe how light the finishing hop and dry hop are. Ohh...and %20 sugar too.

When I taste it, I can really pick simcoe out. I find that interesting because the effectiveness of a 30 minute addition has be debated back and forth for quite sometime. It appears in this case, that that traditional 30 minute flavor addition really does a great job. This may change the way I hop my IPAs...the ones lighter in malt character anyways.

I brewed this clone a week ago. Same recipe, but used Wyeast 1272 instead of the Fat Tire yeast, which my LBHS didn't carry. Just dry hopped yesterday, and will keg soon.

I'm looking forward to trying the other BYO clones if this one works out well!

Any updates on how this came out.....especially with the 2 lbs of sugar???

I made the BYO clone. I did make one change to the original in that I added an extra half ounce of Cascade to the dry hop amount.

I was very skeptical of the sugar addition, but the beer came out great, without any cidery off-taste.

I accidentally fermented mine too warm. The end result wasn't great, but I would blame myself more than the recipe.

I detailed my process on my beer blog if you'd like to know more.

cool thanks guys. I just brewed my version yesterday but only used about 1 # sugar and just a few small variations on the hops to adjust for %AA. thanks.

I brewed the BYO clone verbatim last night. Man it's light. The c120 didn't seem to to anything for the color. I hit all my numbers, so I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

Just brewed this recipe this morning. 2nd AG batch, so I don't really have my efficiency figured out and ended up hitting an OG of 1.067. Also, adjusted the hopping schedule to:

1 oz Chinook - 14.1% - 60 min
1 oz Simcoe - 14.1% - 10 min
0.5 oz Cascade - 8.6% - 5 min
0.5 oz Cascade - 8.6% - 0 min

Added the 2# of sugar at knockout, and all the hops were leaf hops. According to brewtarget I should be coming out to 64 IBUs, so it's not going to be exactly like Ranger, but we'll see in a few weeks.

Edit: Also, using WLP001. 100mL of washed yeast in a 1L starter, and the airlock was bubbling away and the temp had rocketed from 66* to 72* in about an hour. It's sitting in a swamp cooler now, just crossing my fingers it doesn't ferment too hot.

I'm curious to see how this turns out as it's a great beer. That said, New Belgium claims 3 pounds per barrel of hops...this equates to about 8 ounces per five gallon batch.

Let's see, I fermented at 64* constant for the first week and a half with WLP001, and left it in the fermenter for another 2.5 weeks, with the last week dry hopped. Tried a bottle tonight, and it was straight cider. Literally, nothing like an IPA. By far the worst beer I've brewed so far.

My advice? Save your time and don't follow the malt recipe. BYO completely dropped the ball on this one. Go all malt, bump up the crystal malt, and up the hops.

If I was to do this again, I'd go:

Batch size: 5.00 gal
Yeast: WLP001
Efficiency: 75%

12 lb American 2-row
8 oz Crystal 60*L

Chinook - 1 oz - 60 min
Simcoe - .5 oz - 15 min
Cascade - .5 oz - 15 min
Simcoe - 1 oz - 5 min
Cascade - 1 oz - 5 min
Simcoe - .5 oz - 1 min
Cascade - .5 oz - 1 min
Cascade - 1 oz - Dry hop 1 week

Just adjust the hops to fit around 70 IBU. Might not be exactly like Ranger, but I'd assume this would make a pretty good IPA nonetheless. This is the next brew I'm doing once the weather cools down, and brewing it with a vengeance :rockin:

Ya I don't believe BYO.. they seem to just make stuff up IMO.. Here is my version, I've tweaked it a bit over time but haven't brewed it yet (i just got the required hops will be ordering the 120L).. I think instead of just following someones recipe you should probably formulate something that sounds good to YOU. its more like a brew inspired by ranger than a clone. ill let the brewing community know how it turns out

Hopville . "Ranger Clone (2011-10-20 version)"

d3EP said:

Ya I don't believe BYO.. they seem to just make stuff up IMO.. Here is my version, I've tweaked it a bit over time but haven't brewed it yet (i just got the required hops will be ordering the 120L).. I think instead of just following someones recipe you should probably formulate something that sounds good to YOU. its more like a brew inspired by ranger than a clone. ill let the brewing community know how it turns out

Hopville . "Ranger Clone (2011-10-20 version)"

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Seriously, did they just make this up? IPA is really straight forward. I love Ranger and I did a double take when I saw this. 2 lbs of sugar???

I agree, make up your own IPA recipe, its the easiest one to make up.

i'm trying this one out right now. i got corn sugar instead of cane sugar, and i'm using s-05 instead of the liquid yeast.

also thinking about switching the 30 minute simcoe addition to a first wort hop

just cracked open the first bottle of this. didn't do it exactly to the recipe, but very similar.

the aroma is exactly like ranger, the flavor isn't quite the same but similar (i tossed in a bit of willamette hops and a bit extra cascade i think so thats probably why).

definitely a great IPA, and similar to ranger. i did 1.5lb of corn sugar i think, and it seems to be good. ranger doesn't have a ton of malt flavor, so i think it works for this clone

Taking consideration of the BYO recipe and what's listed here http://www.newbelgium.com/beer/detail.aspx?id=c35e8a3e-0a8c-404d-8b74-b03fe3e90c44 - This revised recipe should be pretty close...

http://hopville.com/recipe/1440513/american-ipa-recipes/ranger-ipa

gotta say the brew i made was delicious. if you have a favorite IPA malt recipe. id even put those additions later and increase them to really hop burst it. i know yall are like oh where is the first addition, but those are really not needed in IPAs as you will be adding so much at the end the bitter will be there as long as you have a rapid boil.

bobbrews said:

Taking consideration of the BYO recipe and what's listed here http://www.newbelgium.com/beer/detail.aspx?id=c35e8a3e-0a8c-404d-8b74-b03fe3e90c44 - This revised recipe should be pretty close...

http://hopville.com/recipe/1440513/american-ipa-recipes/ranger-ipa

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Does anyone have the revised recipe for this? Link is dead.

I noticed New Belgium stopped producing the original Ranger IPA awhile back and it's one of the beers that got me interested in craft beer and IPAs. Haven't had one in years so I want to try to brew it and see how my tastes have changed.

As I sit here drinking a VooDoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA thinking just how volatile this beer is with age. It tastes different every time I try it. This one is about 2 weeks from the date on the bottom.

Yeah, I was really bummed out when they changed the original recipe. I didn't really care for IPAs until I tried Ranger. Still remember my first one in Denver on a business trip. I've got a recipe from way back that was very close, and I brew it occasionally. Sorry to say I'm away from home for the next 5 weeks so can't post it. Remind me after 7/17 and I'll dig it up.

Brooo Brother

ChaosB said:

Does anyone have the revised recipe for this? Link is dead.

I noticed New Belgium stopped producing the original Ranger IPA awhile back and it's one of the beers that got me interested in craft beer and IPAs. Haven't had one in years so I want to try to brew it and see how my tastes have changed.

As I sit here drinking a VooDoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA thinking just how volatile this beer is with age. It tastes different every time I try it. This one is about 2 weeks from the date on the bottom.

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I've actually moved on a bit from the original Ranger. At first I didn't much like the new recipe but it's either 'grown' on me or I've evolved. Still trying to get used to the hazy version. The original was terrific the first time I had it, but New Belgium had to move on to keep up with the competition I guess. Still a solid recipe though.

Brooo Brother

Brooothru said:

I've actually moved on a bit from the original Ranger. At first I didn't much like the new recipe but it's either 'grown' on me or I've evolved. Still trying to get used to the hazy version. The original was terrific the first time I had it, but New Belgium had to move on to keep up with the competition I guess. Still a solid recipe though.

Brooo Brother

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The Voodoo Ranger Imperial is good in its own regard but it's not the original Ranger. Definitely interested in that recipe when you're not traveling.

ChaosB,

Finally back from our extended beer and wine safari and I'm able to search my archive of recipes.

I came across "Lone Ranger" from 2016 which is probably what you're looking for since that was before NB rejiggered the recipe to VooDoo Ranger. It wasn't the 'complete' recipe which apparently didn't make it over to my new computer but is a 'partial' recipe which I apparently started to compile from clone recipes off the web and from the NB website before they transitioned to VooDoo Ranger around December of 2016. The hops and malts look like the original anyway, except for 1# of extra light DME which I probably used for a yeast starter and 1½# of cane sugar I must have added just to "dry it out". The sugar is totally not needed since my O.G. was 1.072, but at the time I was playing around with Vinnie's Pliny recipe that he'd floated on the web, so I was most likely experimenting a bit.

So anyway, sub an extra pound of base malt for the DME and delete the cane sugar and here's what you'd get for a 5 gal (net) batch:

10# Maris Otter (3.0L)
1# 60L caramel

mash @ 150F I actually did a step mash 148F for 45 mins, 158F for 15 mins, 169F mash out

60 minute boil

Cascade 1.50 oz. FWH 36.1 IBU
Citra 1.00 oz. 60 mins. 35.3 IBU
Cascade 0.50 oz. 3 mins. 1.3 IBU
Simcoe 1.00 oz. dry hop 5 days

Yeast #1056 American Ale (Chico) @ 68F

Depending on the AA% of your hops it should yield a keg of:

OG 1.056
FG 1.012

ABV 5.8%

IBUs 78ish

Color ~8.8 SRM

That's really close to what NB had on their website prior to the transition to the VooDoo series of beers. I wish I could tell you that it tasted identical to the original, but eight months or more had passed between when I brewed it and when the original Ranger rode into the sunset.

The recipe I have for my "HooDoo VooDoo" shows a nearly identical malt bill (just a shade higher in base malt to match the higher advertised ABV%) and with some different hops (with the addition of Nugget for bittering with Chinook and Amarillo tossed in as well). The IBUs fall from high 70s to 50, but as you probably know the aromas make it seem much higher. The original Ranger didn't have any whirlpool or dry hop additions. VooDoo must put a boat load of additions into the hop stand and dry hops since the difference is more that 25 units lower despite the 'feel' of it being a much more bitter, or at least hoppy, beer.

Anyway, hope this has been of some help. If you brew it, let me know how it comes out. I may just have to dust this one off and give it a go.

Brooo Brother