Pliny the Elder Clone

Netflyer said:

Shouldn't a 1.073+OG take at least 4 days to finish?

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I don't know about everyone else, but my Pliny baby has been working over time! It's been 16 days and its still going pretty damn strong :rockin: I've been wanting to give it a sample test, but was waiting for it to slow down a lot. I might have to open her up anyways, because I just have no idea where she's at!

Anybody else have a fermentation like this?

I started at 1.075 and I'm 10 days in and I'm still getting a bubble every minute or so but since I'm going to wait a while in the primary I'm not really worried about it. 1056 will do a nice job, I'm sure.

I brewed Sunday, Jan 31st. By Wednesday night (February 3rd) I had a SG of 1.009. I let it sit in primary until Saturday February 6th, and then racked to secondary. My FG on Saturday had a change of maybe one SG point, to 1.008. I am beginning to believe that (since I do use a secondary) as long as I have reached my FG target, I can rack off the yeast at that point. Then secondary is just waiting for it to clear (or in this case dry-hop). No sense in letting the beer sit on the yeast if it got to where I want it.

harpo said:

I brewed Sunday, Jan 31st. By Wednesday night (February 3rd) I had a SG of 1.009. I let it sit in primary until Saturday February 6th, and then racked to secondary. My FG on Saturday had a change of maybe one SG point, to 1.008. I am beginning to believe that (since I do use a secondary) as long as I have reached my FG target, I can rack off the yeast at that point. Then secondary is just waiting for it to clear (or in this case dry-hop). No sense in letting the beer sit on the yeast if it got to where I want it.

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Dude, you attenuated that far, what was your OG? I would be happy w/1.017 on this one... haven't taken a gravity but I can't imagine I'll get that kind of attenuation...

I brewed on 1/23. Used washed 1056 in a 2L starter. Had 1.067 OG. I dry hopped mine on 2/8 and had 1.008. I'll keg it on the 13th.

Netflyer said:

Dude, you attenuated that far, what was your OG? I would be happy w/1.017 on this one... haven't taken a gravity but I can't imagine I'll get that kind of attenuation...

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The OG when I went to flame out was about 1.092, right where I wanted to be.

I pitched slurry from my most recent pale ale recipe. I probably had about 500mL of good concentrated yeast in the slurry. I also add pure oxygen with a home-made inline stone. My fermentation room (basement) usually hovers between 64°F and 66°F . My lag time is measured in hours, like less than 12. This is going to be one potent beer!!

Here is a pic of my stone. I use pure oxygen. I have nailed this down pretty well over the course of about 10 brews.

Steelers77 said:

This same hype was out there when Dogfish 90 min became popular, and Hop Slam. Probably the west coast equivalent to big ol' beers like that. Im not saying it's not good but just the same hype. Also, the wow factor of having 17 ounces of hops I'm sure has something to do with it.

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Pliny The Elder didn't just become popular, it predates Hop Slam and 90 minute which are in fact non West Coast versions of it.

harpo said:

The OG when I went to flame out was about 1.092, right where I wanted to be.
I have nailed this down pretty well over the course of about 10 brews.

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Wow, way higher than my 1.075... that setup looks nice man, very nice!

I brewed it on Saturday and I hit 1.08 but I added 3lb of base malt because my preboil is 8.5 gallons for a 90 min boil, I leave a gallon left behind in the kettle. It is fermenting strongly with the Pacman yeast. What a wonder smell from all those boil additions, I cannot wait for the dry hop.

remilard said:

Pliny The Elder didn't just become popular, it predates Hop Slam and 90 minute which are in fact non West Coast versions of it.

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I'd like evidence of that. Dogfish opened in 1995 and Russian River opened in 1997. I'm assuming that 90 min was brewed before Pliny due to this fact. Not arguing just wondering.

Just checked mine today and I got 1.026 after 17 days. Still bubbling, still going.

Go Pliny, Go Go!

what a pain in the ass... I just racked mine to the keg. there is alot of hops in there....got plugged up three times before I finally got the hang of it. next time I will use a hop sack.

I drank 2 of mine last night and they were epic just 10 days after bottling. The last IIPA I made came out at 1.006 and was dry as the desert. This one went to 1.008, so I knew to add some MD at bottling. I added enough to bump up to 1.010 and it made a world of difference. It was an all grain I hit like 52% efficiency on too because I really jacked up my mash, but it's a delicious beer.

Suicided you dry hopped >6oz w/o hop bags? Man, you crazy!!!

Crazy?...Nah. ******* yes...I wasn't even thinking about racking when I dumped them in. Lesson learned.

petep1980 said:

I drank 2 of mine last night and they were epic just 10 days after bottling. The last IIPA I made came out at 1.006 and was dry as the desert. This one went to 1.008, so I knew to add some MD at bottling. I added enough to bump up to 1.010 and it made a world of difference. It was an all grain I hit like 52% efficiency on too because I really jacked up my mash, but it's a delicious beer.

Suicided you dry hopped >6oz w/o hop bags? Man, you crazy!!!

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How much MD did you add and to how much beer? This is new to me.

I just transferred my 10 gal to kegs (2x) last night. the last 1.5 gallons or so was murder. I had to pressurize my fermenter to almost 12PSI to get the hops through the tubing and filter just to get everything. I also don't bag my dry hop additions with this one, but it is a PITA to transfer and filter. It pretty much makes the filter unusable afterward there is so much hop material in it.

Too bad I missed out on this sale...

I just dry hopped 3 weeks in... my gravity now, it's my FG but I still have another week to go on the dry hop is 1.012 ... Wyeast 1056 got me from 1.075 to 1.012 ... 8.24% ABV, not bad It tastes very interesting at this point. My taste buds are still trying to figure it all out... I tell ya this, as it goes down I get a nice alcohol warming feeling... not bad at all...

so how long after kegging should I expect this beer to be conditioned? or drinkable should i say...

Suicided1954 said:

so how long after kegging should I expect this beer to be conditioned? or drinkable should i say...

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Sounds like this one will be ready between 2-3 weeks of conditioning but I'm still dry hopping right now, so I don't know. All of my kegs seem to get better after 3 weeks to a month

I dry hopped mine in the primary and it's been there for 4 days. Was debating on leaving it there for another week or moving to secondary for a couple. If I do that there's no way I'll be able to take the hop bag with it into the carboy.

One more thing - would this beer be a better candidate for kegging than bottling? Some have hinted that the hoppy aroma won't last long and therefore this beer should be consumed quickly and early. I have no problem with that if this is true, but if not I wouldn't mind bottling to be able to store some back for later on down the road when I'm craving some Pliny goodness! What do you guys think????

I used ~8oz for 5 gallons.

I've been drinking mine for a week already. I kegged it almost two weeks ago. 1week in primary, 1week dry hopping in secondary and 5 days force-carbing. Good yummy-ness!

Mines getting brewed today.

Thats an awful lot of hops.:rockin:

Left in primary 4 weeks and dry hopped in the primary. Racked to keg yesterday. OG was 1.080 & FG ended up at 1.014. Used 9.25 oz of hops brewing & 6.75 dry hopping. FG sample tasted fantastic. A week on the gas and then I am ready to taste a sample. Montanaandy

I have a 6 pack and 2 growlers left from the one I brewed ~ a month and a half ago.

I need to ration them or else all I have in the queue is wine.

I bottled my AHS Pliny the Elder clone recipe yesterday. OG was only 1.065 (the kit had a target of 1.074), and the FG was 1.010 (vs. 1.014). This was the partial grain kit. Taste and odor are promising. Any thoughts on why my initial and final numbers are low?

1.065 not terrible at all... could have to do with a lot of things, from your partial mash temp and hold time to your dilution or stop boil. Do you full boil? Or partial and add water?

I tasted my first bottle after 2 weeks and it was really good. The smell was so wonderfully floral and the taste was just what I expected. Very nice clone AHS...

Netflyer said:

1.065 not terrible at all... could have to do with a lot of things, from your partial mash temp and hold time to your dilution or stop boil. Do you full boil? Or partial and add water?

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Netflyer - thanx for your feedback. My partial mash temp hovered around 155, but ranged from 151-155. It was not a full boil - the wort boil was in a 22 Qt container. The kit called for dilution to 5.25 gallons. .I should have measured the OG at 5 gallons before topping off. Live and learn. This was only my fourth batch brewed, and maybe was too ambitious; however, my initial impression of what I bottled is that this could be memorable. P.S. I'm a chemist so I tend to follow directions to a tee.

I don't know what the original tastes like, but I must've done something wrong...mine's been in the keg almost a month and still tastes bad. I can't even get through one glass before dumping it. I'm going to take it out of the rotation and let it sit and think about tasting better. It is still green in my opinion.

I have my batch sitting in the fridge waiting to be brewed. Cant want to get this going. Also have two bottles of PtE from Russian River in the fridge as well. I love this beer.

Suicided1954 said:

I don't know what the original tastes like, but I must've done something wrong...mine's been in the keg almost a month and still tastes bad. I can't even get through one glass before dumping it. I'm going to take it out of the rotation and let it sit and think about tasting better. It is still green in my opinion.

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I don't know what the original tastes like either but I know what a good strong - offcentered - IPA tastes like, eg. Dogfishhead 90 ... This tastes better than DFH90 IMHO, only after 2 weeks in the bottle. My SWMBO, who doesn't typically love strong IPA's really liked this clone. That in itself is highly unusual.. So don't know, I do know that this beer should get better with age, the DFH90 can get better for up to 6 years according to the brewmeister and this has comparable stats. I bet yours will get better with time..

I left mine in the primary for 3 weeks and then dry hopped for about 10 more days. OG 1.075, FG 1.012 ABV 8.24%

Roudy said:

.I should have measured the OG at 5 gallons before topping off. Live and learn. This was only my fourth batch brewed, and maybe was too ambitious; however, my initial impression of what I bottled is that this could be memorable. P.S. I'm a chemist so I tend to follow directions to a tee.

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It will be fine, don't worry! Yeah, measuring the gravity before deciding to dilute or continue to boil down is something you should do. I finally got a Brix meter and I can easily test the gravity this way. I can just take my spoon and dump 1/4 spoonful onto a saucer and let it cool a minute and then scope it with the brix meter. I have a chemistry background also and brewing has taught me to expect the unexpected. I do full boils and judging the evaporation rate or the amount of trub is becoming more a matter of experience/guess and check more than hard science. Yes, if you know these factors you can use formulas but knowing the values like evaporation and amount of trub are more guesswork than precise so that makes the formulas a bit hazy but 'good enough' So there is some art and some science to this brewing thing. The most important thing is to not stress about it and realize that most mistakes are quite drinkable - and that is the essence here no?

I don't know what the original tastes like, but I must've done something wrong...mine's been in the keg almost a month and still tastes bad.

I ran into that problem with a Dead Guy clone that I made. It was not what I was expecting to say the least and the majority of it is sitting in the keg with my storage hops. Too much good beer on tap to worry about this one at the moment.

The Hop Hammer clone of PTE that I brewed is very tasty and very strong - almost too strong. I still want to try the original so I have a point of reference and I see that it is available on tap in Denver. The next time that I am in Denver I will make it a point to try it. Montanaandy

For anyone interested, I just ordered the kit from MoreBeer.com.
They have a special going for around $20 off. Not bad, especially since they do free shipping if you order $60 or more.