A Tribute to Hunahpu

Hows the clone coming along? And how much did this batch set you back?

I haven't been following this closely enough! That looks fantastic, VS. Did you sneak a sample of the wort?

I brewed an ESB with Thames Valley about a week ago, and I'm gonna pick up the grain for this on Saturday. I plan to bottle the ESB while I brew the H and then pitch the wort onto the fresh yeast cake.

skibb said:

Nice!!! I can't wait to hear the results - and good idea on the sub...20% victory could easily overwhelm some of the other malts you have going on. From your pictures, I'm thinking I'm going to have to ferment my 5 gallon batch in my 1/2 bbl keg just cuz the krausen is going to easily gush out of my 6 gallon acid carboy

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@Skibb, you think victory would be overwhelming? I picked it for the biscuit notes, thinking it might add some very minor complexity to the malt bill. I definitely don't want it to muddle things up or overpower some of the other grains in there. I'm kind of in uncharted territory though, so any advice is welcome.

Victory can be quite a rich malt like any other specialty malt, especially in such a high percentage. Going around 20% of any one thing should be in the realm of base malts IMHO. 20% wouldn't be a minor addition unless it is something like Vienna or maybe light Munich, which meld better with the overall flavors since their flavor impact isn't as pronounced as a specialty malt like biscuit or victory.

With 7 malts the malt complexity will already be there, and with MO as a base, you will definitely have a bready/biscuity character to the beer.

Checked it after 3 weeks. I will let it sit another week then move it to the secondary. Only had a sip so far it's awesome. The rest is chilling in the fridge. Think this cost me around $50. I wash my yeast so it will save a little for later batches. A 750ml of Marshal is $13 so if the stout winds up nearly as good, no problem. So far well worth it, give it a shot.

Be aware, that kind of OG will make the resulting yeast too weak to due any good in future brews.

Great thread, I may have to give this recipe a shot but that blow off pic looks scary lol

I was going to mention that CCB stopped using Thames Valley but looks like Wayne beat me to it. Anyone in the Tampa area can stop by the brewery on brew day and they are happy to give you a bucket of yeast by the way, but you won't know what yeast you will be getting...they do a few lagers and belgians nowadays so it will be a bit of a crapshoot but more fun. Although if you did use Thames Valley you could just say you were cloning the 2010-2011 vintage Hunahpu. Ironically I started using Thames Valley as my house yeast before I found out that CCB was doing the same, I recently tired of it and switched to 1968, strange.

Also as far as "aging on cedar" goes I just want to remind all that this refers to spanish cedar, like from a cigar box, not cedar like from a cabinet, very different types of wood. But Hunahpu does not need any wood aging to be sublime

VS, are you planning to age in/on oak? Barrel/cubes/spirals/chips?

I bought my grain yesterday, harvested my yeast (I went with Thames valley) from an ESB, and I'm ready to brew tonight. I don't think I fully comprehended A) how much grain this was going to be, or B) how dark the grain bill is. Seriously, 3# each of chocolate and roasted makes your entire grain bag look black.

@Tamarlane. Good call on the Spanish cedar (actually, a type of mahogany, if I'm not mistaken). Wayne talks about that in his Brewing Network interview.

I am leaning towards adding oak cubes soaked in bourbon to the secondary. Next time over in Tampa I will see if I can procure some yeast. Good to know.

I would advise if you are brewing a beer this large, to split your carboys.

I recently brewed a beer pretty close to MZ, and split it in two 6.5 g glass carboys to avoid any loss from blow off. Ended up around 1.125 or so OG.

It's worth a shot and then you can combine them both in secondary to age on the spices.

Good tip FATC1TY. Unfortunately, it's too late for me. I'm fully expecting a blow off.

It smells as good as it looks! No more peeking until I rack.

Nice!

looks like the color of the foam will be correct!

@whizard hat...are you fermenting at 60F? Seems like a beer with this OG is going to create some heat. Are you using a fermentation chamber? Also, there are a few different recipe versions floating around in this thread. Which did you use, if you don't mind saying.
The beer looks really good by the way. I can't wait to try brewing it as well.

Not alot to contribute but I believe the Cacao Nibs are Peruvian, the vanilla beans are from madagascar, spanish cedar is a type of mahogany and is of south american origin. The chiles used are dried. Thats about all I got.

kadijk said:

@whizard hat...are you fermenting at 60F? Seems like a beer with this OG is going to create some heat. Are you using a fermentation chamber? Also, there are a few different recipe versions floating around in this thread. Which did you use, if you don't mind saying.
The beer looks really good by the way. I can't wait to try brewing it as well.

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My basement is always about 60F. According to my stick-on bucket thermometer, we're hovering around 64. I think that'll give me a pretty clean fermentation profile.

The version I'm using:

49.5% 2 row [13#]
20% Maris Otter [5#]
10% Chocolate [3#]
10% Roasted [3#]
5% Flaked oats [1#]
3% C60 [1#]
1.7% Flaked Rye [.5#]
.8% Special B [.25#]

Mashed at 155F for 75 minutes, sparged out at 168F for 10 min.
120min boil. Initial volume ~7.3gal
2.2oz Summit @60min

Final volume: 5.2gallons,
OG: 1.114

Pitched a slurry of harvested Thames Valley wyeast from an ESB.

It's thick and syrupy. I spilled a little on my deck and I swear it looks like I spilled motor oil. Anything else you wanna know? Just ask!

Looks awesome.....just getting into brewing, but haven't actually brewed yet.....think I will start with something a little less.....still going to start with all grain (probably BIAB), because I don't really have any interet in extract. Still, I think a beer like this would be a little much for a first brew?

kempshark said:

Looks awesome.....just getting into brewing, but haven't actually brewed yet.....think I will start with something a little less.....still going to start with all grain (probably BIAB), because I don't really have any interet in extract. Still, I think a beer like this would be a little much for a first brew?

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Yes, I would advise you to NOT attempt a big beer as your first.

If you are doing all grain, then start with something simple like a blonde, or a pale.. even a wheat.. Get your process down, keep the OG lower like under 1.050-1.060, and get everything right.

Then bump it up and go bigger... A 1.100+ beer that needs specific things done, and attention to detail isn't gonna be that fun after you get a less than stellar beer. You'll need temp control, oxygen, and plenty of yeast and know how to handle it.

But if you're froggy, go for it! It's just beer in the end.

VSGLS1 said:

Brewed this yesterday with MO instead of Victory. It's going balls out at the moment.

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How did your hunaphu tribute ever come out. I'm thinking of trying and would live any recs.
Thank you

WhizardHat said:

My basement is always about 60F. According to my stick-on bucket thermometer, we're hovering around 64. I think that'll give me a pretty clean fermentation profile.

The version I'm using:

49.5% 2 row [13#]
20% Maris Otter [5#]
10% Chocolate [3#]
10% Roasted [3#]
5% Flaked oats [1#]
3% C60 [1#]
1.7% Flaked Rye [.5#]
.8% Special B [.25#]

Mashed at 155F for 75 minutes, sparged out at 168F for 10 min.
120min boil. Initial volume ~7.3gal
2.2oz Summit @60min

Final volume: 5.2gallons,
OG: 1.114

Pitched a slurry of harvested Thames Valley wyeast from an ESB.

It's thick and syrupy. I spilled a little on my deck and I swear it looks like I spilled motor oil. Anything else you wanna know? Just ask!

Click to expand...

How did your tribute to Hunahpu come out... I'm thinking if trying one and would love any recs
Thank you

DiscDoc said:

How did your tribute to Hunahpu come out... I'm thinking if trying one and would love any recs
Thank you

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Mine's only 12 days into primary. Right now, I'm collecting my secondary additions. So far I have dried ancho and pasilla peppers, cocoa, oak, bourbon, and cinnamon. I still need to get a Madagascar Vanilla bean. I'll probably rack to secondary sometime this week. It smells delicious.

kempshark said:

Looks awesome.....just getting into brewing, but haven't actually brewed yet.....think I will start with something a little less.....still going to start with all grain (probably BIAB), because I don't really have any interet in extract. Still, I think a beer like this would be a little much for a first brew?

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I'll agree with FatCity on this one. Definitely not a beginner beer. I've been going for over a year and feel I'm in a bit over my head on this one. I'd also advise not BIAB-ing this. I did BIAB for a while, but I don't think it would be feasible with this much grain (maybe if you did partial mash). The mash tun pic I posted is from a 10 gallon mash tun, after the wort was drained. That thing was full, all the way, during the mash. There's tons of great smaller beer recipes to help you get your feet wet before doing this, and you'll have a blast doing it. Have fun!

Ya, this needs some time. Plan on trying some in the fall.

My rendition is fermenting. I checked gravity after 9 days it was at 8%. Im trying for 11%. I had to transfer because I dropped a damn chopstick in...dont ask...so I poured some of the yeast sludge in so I hope its enough to bring it up 3 more pts. If not I might have to add another packet of safale 04. (I also used London ale yeast.)

Mine is sitting at 10.5% as of the last time I checked. I'll check again when I secondary.

I'm at 10.2% right now, 65% attenuation, gravity is currently 1.038. I'm thinking I need to pitch more yeast ( starter at high Krausen). or some amalyse enzyme. what do y'all think?

Be warned that you need to be easy on the amalyse enzyme. It can go wild and dry your beer out.

This ain't a beer that needs dried out!

You could try more yeast, or a more attenuative strain that won't toss esters to get in the way...

Past that, accept what it is and try again.

Wizard the ADF for hunahpu is 64% from the numbers Wayne told us - I would taste the beer - if it's very sweet b/c of unfermentables then perhaps pitching some active yeast will help fully attenuate it. But if it tastes nice and chewy and not overly sweet (hopefully the roast balances it) that may be where the beer's actual terminal gravity is.

I recall on a CYBI episode of the Pullman Brown clone, Jamil overshot his OG and subsequently his FG for the clone, but it attenuated the same amount as the real beer and they couldn't tell the difference b/t the two.

I have brewed up a few batches of a similar type of beer. I talked with Wayne awhile back and got a bit of feed back and took into his suggestion and made it my own. In the past 8 months or so I have made two batches. With the intent to age both.... Didnt work. This stuff was too good to last. I managed to bottle about 24 bottles on the first batch out of the keg with a beergun. I think I have 3 bottles left of that batch and the 2nd batch I made had apple brandy soaked oak cubes added. I just bottled the remainder of that keg with hopes of saving and only got 24 bottles again. That stash is down to 18 bottles now. Both batches I made have gone over very well and I find this style of beer very fun to make. My first batch was 10.4% (1.100 OG) and 2nd was 11%(1.110) with Thames Valley Yeast. Both batches had crap mash efficiency as expected (55%) and maxed out my mash tun with ~30ish lbs of grain. I am curious to see how other's versions will turn out.

I am curious if anyone has down longe boils to get better efficiency out of such large grain bills? I would like to do a similar recipe but have a 10gal mash tun. I believe a two hour boil would allow at least 65% efficiency.

Did you means two hour mash? Once you're at the boil, the sugars have already been converted from the grain so boiling won't effect efficiency. Now,if you are saying mashing for 2 hours instead of 1 hour to give more time to let the water seep into the crushed grain for better conversion, I could see that.

I did a 90 minute mash and a 2 hour boil. my brew house efficiency was 62.1%. this was in a 10 gallon mash tun with 26.75# of grain.

skibb said:

Wizard the ADF for hunahpu is 64% from the numbers Wayne told us - I would taste the beer - if it's very sweet b/c of unfermentables then perhaps pitching some active yeast will help fully attenuate it. But if it tastes nice and chewy and not overly sweet (hopefully the roast balances it) that may be where the beer's actual terminal gravity is.

I recall on a CYBI episode of the Pullman Brown clone, Jamil overshot his OG and subsequently his FG for the clone, but it attenuated the same amount as the real beer and they couldn't tell the difference b/t the two.

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that's good to know, and I've actually heard similar from several people now. I'm gonna trade it when I rack to secondary this weekend, and I'll be sure to report back!

I threw another packet of yeast in but I sure hop it doesnt dry it out. That would suck. A couple of more days Ill check again the gravity.

Loneleigh said:

I threw another packet of yeast in but I sure hop it doesnt dry it out. That would suck.

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If only it was that easy.

Longer boil means you start with higher preboil volume, therefor you can sparge more and increase your sugar collection. I figured that may be able to buy me a few points. What is your normal efficiency to bring you down to 62%?

skibb said:

Wizard the ADF for hunahpu is 64% from the numbers Wayne told us - I would taste the beer - if it's very sweet b/c of unfermentables then perhaps pitching some active yeast will help fully attenuate it. But if it tastes nice and chewy and not overly sweet (hopefully the roast balances it) that may be where the beer's actual terminal gravity is.

I recall on a CYBI episode of the Pullman Brown clone, Jamil overshot his OG and subsequently his FG for the clone, but it attenuated the same amount as the real beer and they couldn't tell the difference b/t the two.

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@Skibb, I transferred to secondary and had a little sample. The retardedly large IBU count does in fact balance out the residual sweetness. In fact, as I tasted it, I said to myself, "what residual sweetness?". Also, my gravity dropped to about 1.036 since I last checked. If it stayed here, I'd be happy with it. I still need to source a vanilla bean before I add my secondary additions, and I think I'm gonna skip the bourbon this time around. Maybe for next year's batch. This thing is ROASTY. It's been a long time since I've had Hunahpu, so I don't really remember it, but I certainly like what I've made.

Oophaga said:

Longer boil means you start with higher preboil volume, therefor you can sparge more and increase your sugar collection. I figured that may be able to buy me a few points. What is your normal efficiency to bring you down to 62%?

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Round abouts 70%. I probably could have sparged more, but I was expecting crappy efficiency, compensated in my grain bill for it, and wanted to keep as close to Wayne's recommendation of using first runnings only as possible.

sfrisby said:

Did you means two hour mash? Once you're at the boil, the sugars have already been converted from the grain so boiling won't effect efficiency. Now,if you are saying mashing for 2 hours instead of 1 hour to give more time to let the water seep into the crushed grain for better conversion, I could see that.

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I thought when you boil, the water evaporates from the wort and thus creates a higher potential alcohol. No?