Cloning HopHands by Tired Hands Brewing Company

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You could back the FWH to .5 and your whirlpool temp down to 170 ish to protect against unwanted ibu. Fwiw my latest attempt to clone this one was my absolute closest and I did three late additions (5,0,170F) and had no bitterness issues. My additions were 1oz each of the three varieties at each of those additions.
 
Also I noticed you use mostly two row without any malted oats or wheat... IMO you're gonna need a nice percentage of one of the two (anywhere between 30-50%... I go half 2row half wheat) to get that protein haze in there to suspend the hop oils. The flaked oats will improve the head and body but I think your aroma and flavor, especially with the conservative hop additions, will really fade quick. Just my opinion though. Good luck!
 
I've truthfully never had the actual beer as I can't get it here in Oregon. I based the recipe off Post#1 and altered the hops per what I have. In my other NE based IPA's I usually have 15% white wheat and 15% flaked Oats and have more than enough head retention. I may add a bit of carapils in as well, I think I've got it on hand. Good call on the whirlpool at 170. 185 listed is an error, I always whirlpool at 170 and for 30 minutes.

If this was an IPA I'd probably be doing 6 ounces of whirlpool and at least that in dry but since its a Pale I want to dial back a bit.
 
The initial hop hands as I knew it was definitely an IPA misnamed as a pale but as of late i think they've surely scaled it to the category. I guess I'm actually trying to brew that original version as I remember it which definitely blurred the line there. I guess the real defining characteristic of the "pale ale" per se was the minimal bitterness and malt character. Hop character however was full blown IPA
 
Last two times I've been to TH the IPAs have been kind of gross. Bad yeasty flavor from 1318 (that I've experience in a few of my own brews with weak pitches). They taste rushed. All the saisons have been on point though and amazing. I don't know if it's the increased production size or what but the quality has definitely dropped.
 
Last two times I've been to TH the IPAs have been kind of gross. Bad yeasty flavor from 1318 (that I've experience in a few of my own brews with weak pitches). They taste rushed. All the saisons have been on point though and amazing. I don't know if it's the increased production size or what but the quality has definitely dropped.

They've been cranking out beer after beer after beer with little to no rebrewing to, IMO, refine anything. I'm not really sure what their system is for going from test batch to brewery sized but sometimes it really just reminds me of putting a paint brush in an elephants trunk and going ok paint! And all of a sudden it's art, or in this case beer. Maybe they miss the all important quality control step.

Also I've been watching a lot of my friends post on untappd after they fill growlers for the week and literally it's always "more of the same but good" when they're trying new IPAs.
 
I just brewed a second batch of this using harvested & washed 1318 from the first batch. For some reason I overshot my FG. Started at 1.055 and ended at 1.003. I was away on vacation and it was in the primary for 23 days. There was still some bubbling from the blowoff. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? Btw I used about a half inch of yeast in a pint mason jar added to a 1L starter on a stir plate.
 
I just brewed a second batch of this using harvested & washed 1318 from the first batch. For some reason I overshot my FG. Started at 1.055 and ended at 1.003. I was away on vacation and it was in the primary for 23 days. There was still some bubbling from the blowoff. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? Btw I used about a half inch of yeast in a pint mason jar added to a 1L starter on a stir plate.


Wow, do you use any saison yeasts like 3711? I'd have to suspect contamination with another yeast/bacteria to get that low. What's it taste like?
 
No I have not done a saison yet. Last batch was 1318 and before that was 1056 and before that was 3068, and then Conan. Must have picked up and infection. It didn't look odd when I opened the fermenter. It tastes fine, but does have a sort of carbonic bite.
 
My last batch finished around an 1.005 but I mashed around 149. I actually preferred it that dry it's closer to the original. Also you're probably just seeing co2 leaking out of the beer that's been dissolved into solution during fermentation, not actually active ferm.
 
Here's my attempt and sadly it looks much better than it tastes. I scaled the recipe to 3 gallons and subbed Mosaic for Simcoe.
With 6 ounces of hops in a 3 gallon batch I was expecting a ton of aroma and taste and ended up with nothing! No aroma at all, bland and a little minerally, overall super disappointing.
I did end up with about .5 gallon more post boil than I was expecting so that's one possible issue. Also suspecting the RO water from the machine outside the grocery store isn't as "RO" as it states. My previous batch of beer used water from the same machine and it tasted almost exactly like this one.
I have been fermenting my 3 gallon batches in a 6.5 gallon bucket fermenter. Is that what is killing all my hop aroma? Contemplating brewing this again with the correct water volume and different water source, just hate to see another 6 ounces of hops go down the drain!

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My last batch finished around an 1.005 but I mashed around 149. I actually preferred it that dry it's closer to the original. Also you're probably just seeing co2 leaking out of the beer that's been dissolved into solution during fermentation, not actually active ferm.


Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and kegged and dry hopped. We will see how it is this weekend. I'll report back. I did do a slurry harvest off this batch as coff demonstrates on his blog. Time will tell if I'll be dumping that harvest.
 
I just remembered that I used the wrong yeast nutrient from NB. It said to use 1 tsp per gallon and that's what I did.
 
Here's my attempt and sadly it looks much better than it tastes. I scaled the recipe to 3 gallons and subbed Mosaic for Simcoe.
With 6 ounces of hops in a 3 gallon batch I was expecting a ton of aroma and taste and ended up with nothing! No aroma at all, bland and a little minerally, overall super disappointing.
I did end up with about .5 gallon more post boil than I was expecting so that's one possible issue. Also suspecting the RO water from the machine outside the grocery store isn't as "RO" as it states. My previous batch of beer used water from the same machine and it tasted almost exactly like this one.
I have been fermenting my 3 gallon batches in a 6.5 gallon bucket fermenter. Is that what is killing all my hop aroma? Contemplating brewing this again with the correct water volume and different water source, just hate to see another 6 ounces of hops go down the drain!

What's your practice for keep O2 outta your beer post ferm? Using primary only or secondary as well? How often are you popping the airlock to check the gravity? How do you transfer from vessel to vessel? Bottle or keg?

Also, I'm not a huge fan of the recipe on the first page for that same reason, if that's the one you scaled down. I do think it's a bit conservative with the hops and it needs either malted oats or wheat in a 30-50% range with the other half 2row
 
I only stick with primary, never messed with secondary. I only popped the lid once and that was to add dry hops. This batch was kegged and I used an auto siphon to get it from bucket to keg. My auto siphon technique usually isn't the best but this batch it was spot on, solid liquid through the line no extra bubbles or failed siphons as I've had other times.
Would cold crashing let in enough oxygen to be a problem? I noticed a little suck back when cold crashing but the airlock wasn't empty.
Maybe putting a 2.5 gallon batch in something like a 3 gallon better bottle would be better for the end product instead of a 3 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon bucket?
 
Try using a blow off tube into like a gallon jug of sanitized water. That way when you cold crash you'll know no O2 is sneaking through the little plastic airlock. I was having a suction issue but learned that if I crash conservatively down to like 58 that worked just as well to crash everything down and not create a vacuum.

Also try filling your keg with star san solution and throw the lid on. Then run out all the star san using gas. Crack the lid only when you're ready to siphon and you'll see the foggy co2 blanket in the keg ready to accept the beer from your fermenter. Don't forget to purge the O2 once you've finished transferring and burp the air lock.

The headspace, in my opinion, won't be an issue UNTIL you crack it to add those dry hops in. That's why I still use a carboy because I can pop the bung, dump in the pellets and recap quickly without a huge surface area exposure like a bucket and lid. Maybe try cutting a small hole in your bucket lid and plug it with a non drilled rubber bung. This can be your little dry hop opening.
 
Yeah, I calculated the gypsum and calcium chloride additions using the RO water profile from Bru'n water and the water calculator from Brewers Friend to get close to the water numbers listed in the OPs blog post. It was about 2 grams of each in the mash and 2 grams of each in the boil. I also used a little acid malt for pH purposes. I don't have a pH meter though so I was pretty much going off what the calculators said. Also I'm not sure how good the RO water is that I'm getting from outside the grocery store.
 
Do they sell it in gallon jugs on the shelf? That's what I go for. Try bumping the sulfates and lowering the chlorides for more of a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio instead of 1:1. What temp are you mashing at and what was your fg?
 
So tired hands just tapped a DIPA, actual factual is the name, which they advertise as being brewed with 100% malted barley 2-row. This beer is freakin hazier as ever too which now, more than ever, has me convinced they're adding flour at some point. Seriously without protein heavy malts such as wheat or oats it baffles me how they can get that appearance. And not only get the appearance like that but keep it consistently looking like that through the life of the keg.

image.jpg
 
So tired hands just tapped a DIPA, actual factual is the name, which they advertise as being brewed with 100% malted barley 2-row. This beer is freakin hazier as ever too which now, more than ever, has me convinced they're adding flour at some point. Seriously without protein heavy malts such as wheat or oats it baffles me how they can get that appearance. And not only get the appearance like that but keep it consistently looking like that through the life of the keg.


Yep. That's got flour in it. I don't think they're adding flour to hop hands though. They don't need to.

Probably just embracing the haze craze
 
I'm skeptical on the flour - only beer it's been confirmed in is the Milkshake, and that's to mimic the look of an actual milk shake.
If anyone cares to send me a can of TH, I can spin it down in a centrifuge and we can see if there is anything in the beer other than yeast.
 
I'm skeptical on the flour - only beer it's been confirmed in is the Milkshake, and that's to mimic the look of an actual milk shake.
If anyone cares to send me a can of TH, I can spin it down in a centrifuge and we can see if there is anything in the beer other than yeast.


I'd send out a beer if I had it
 
So I think I finally zeroed in on this malt bill, mash temps and gravity. This latest batch I made was in the keg on 20 psi on day 9 (brew day is day 1) and in the keezer at 35 degrees. I came home today, day 12, and lowered the co2 to serving pressure. Definitely the quickest turn around from brew day to glass but I would've never known the difference. Now I used a different hop bill because my intentions weren't on brewing this exact recipe but I was trying to hit that same oat IPA/APA tired hands are pumping out. Give it a shot with whatever hops you'd like, it's an amazing blank slate for whatever hop combo, or single hop feature, you can think of.

8# rhar 2-row
4# TF malted oats
OG - 1.049
FG - 1.005

Hops: simcoe moteuka wakatu (obviously not the clone recipe but hop combo I wanted to try)

148F mash for 75 minutes
Batch sparge for 20 min at 168

2L starter of Gigayeast VT IPA. Got fermentation rolling quickly within 12-16 hours and vigorous. Pretty much wrapped up in 3-4 days. Fermented at 63F for 4 days and raised to 66 for remainder until I crashed to 59 on the last day

6 oz of dry hops added between days 4-7 and left in the primary until kegging on day 9

I cold crashed prior to kegging BUT ONLY down to 58-60 degrees for the last day to get 75% of the dry hops to settle but not the protein haze!

Water profile (RO with additions to mash only):

Ca 112
Mg 8
Cl 127
SO4 133
Mash pH 5.2

UPATDE- damn it to hell. I accidentally erased 90% of my post which took my about 30 minutes to put together. I have no energy or patience to type it again so I'll just add the picture and some basics you see above. Sorry for that but feel free to message me for more details. Try it out!

image.jpg
 
Looks yummy! Surprised you only hit 1.049 with 12# of grain. Is that due to the large % of oat malt? How's the mouthfeel with 33% oat malt?
 
Well I asked NB if they had the ability to double crush the oats which they claimed they could not. The oat malt comes in prepackaged, precrushed 1 lb bags from their supplier unlike their other bulk base malts which they crush themselves. I don't have my own mill so I need to compensate a bit with a longer mash. Also I'm hitting close to my desired ABV it's just that my OG and FG are shifted to the dry side with the 148 mash temp. Turned out around 5.8%
 
Looks yummy! Surprised you only hit 1.049 with 12# of grain. Is that due to the large % of oat malt? How's the mouthfeel with 33% oat malt?

The mouthfeel is actually pretty crisp and dry especially with my carbonation levels slightly elevated. I've done some comps with stuff I normally carb and serve around 12 psi and its slightly lower than TH stuff I'm bringing home in growlers. Hophands doesn't really have that chewy pillowy softness though which is why I kept mashing at lower temps to get my FG down low enough.
 
not to hi-jack but anyone else inspired to try to make their Milkshake IPA or Alien Church?
For 5 gallons of milkshake I was thinking:
10 lbs 2-row/pils
1.5 lbs flaked oats
1 lb white wheat
.5 lbs lactose
1 vanilla bean in the secondary along with fruit of choice.
mild bitterness with lots of fruity whirlpool/dry hops.
1:1 sulfate/chloride or favor chloride
thoughts?
 
not to hi-jack but anyone else inspired to try to make their Milkshake IPA or Alien Church?
For 5 gallons of milkshake I was thinking:
10 lbs 2-row/pils
1.5 lbs flaked oats
1 lb white wheat
.5 lbs lactose
1 vanilla bean in the secondary along with fruit of choice.
mild bitterness with lots of fruity whirlpool/dry hops.
1:1 sulfate/chloride or favor chloride
thoughts?

I asked the same thing about milkshakes a few pages back, a few people posted some attempts
 
Just wanted to thank the original poster for this recipe. I've adapted this recipe and it is now our house IPA. The modifications are minimal:

WYeast - London Ale III
9lb. - America 2-row Pale
2lb. - Flaked Oats

0.5oz - Columbus (60min)
1.0oz - Centennial (Flameout)
1.0oz - Amarillo (Flameout)
1.0oz - Simcoe (Flameout)
2.0oz - Centennial (Dry hop)
2.0oz - Amarillo (Dry Hop)
2.0oz - Simcoe (Dry Hop)

1tsp Gypsum
1tsp Calcium Chloride

Juice bomb for sure.

Thanks again
 
Hi, I brewed this beer as close as possible to original recipe and am now drinking it. Hmmmm hmmmm pretty tasty. I saved a gallon back and add some Brown sugar and some oak . I may dry hop again in a week or so to boost it! Very nice recipe thank you
 
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