Lagunitas IPA (AG)

So a friend of mine really digs this beer and so I told him that if he bought the supplies, then I would supply him some beer. So ten gallons are about to be brewed up.

1.065 / 9 SRM / 46 IBU

75% 21lbs Pale Malt (called for two row, I am going to use Pilsner)
6% 1.75lbs Wheat
6% 1.75lbs Munich
4% 1lbs C60
9% 2.5lbs C10

1oz Northern Brewer 60min
.25oz Summit 60min
2oz Willamette 30min
1oz Centennial 30min
.25oz Summit 30min
2.5oz Cascade 1min

2oz Cascade and Centennial Dry Hop

1968 Wyeast at 66*f for a week

I don't have faith in my ability to mash at the elusive 160, so I am going to aim for 158. I want to keep the beer relatively sweet, but at the same time I don't have the extreme temp control so I can't go from 65 to 67 to 68 and finish at 70. I can keep a constant 65 and then get it up to about 75 for a Diacetyl ridding rest. So in order for me to make sure I don't end up with 1.025 beer, I am going to be mashing at 158.

I made the mistake though of not getting the right Crystal and instead grabbed 115, so I will have to figure that one out. Maybe brew on Teusday instead of Monday.

I used the Jamil recipe as a base and followed it mostly to the line. I changed up the summit at 30min and the mash temp and the base malt (I already have a sack of pale malt and don't want to spend $40 for more just because).

EDIT 9/19/09: I am going to post my final final recipe so that people can see how I did it differently.

OG 1.061 / FG 1.016 / IBU 46 / SRM 9 / ABV 6.0%

75% 21lbs Weyerman German Pilsner
6% 1.75lbs Red Wheat
6% 1.75lbs Munich 6.5L
4% 1lbs C60
4.5% 1.25lbs C20
4.5% 1.25lbs CaraPilz

.25oz Summit FWH
1oz Northern Brewer 60min
.25oz Summit 60min
2oz Willamette 30min
1oz Centennial 30min
.25oz Summit 30min
2.5oz Cascade 1min

2oz Cascade and Centennial Dry Hop

1968 Wyeast at 68*f for a week and then upping the temp to 75* for a week, racking to secondary and dry hopping for a week. Then bottling half and kegging half. The bottles hit their prime about week 4 and the keg was kicked by week 3.5 so that worked out just fine

I brewed this beer three weeks ago, and kegged it yesterday. I used the same grain bill, but my hops were Columbus and Magnum for the first bittering, Williamette and Centennial at 30 minutes, and Cascade at flame out. Cascade and Centennial for dry hops. My hop substitutions were based on what I had available to me at the time as opposed to any particular desire to stray from the original recipe. I did mash at 160, and used WLP002 English Ale yeast.

It started at 1.062 and finished at 1.016, which I thought was pretty good for that high a mash temp. I didn't think the hydro sample tasted sweet at all, though I have a hard time assessing the body of a beer from a warm flat sample. I'm just not that good.

I have mashed other things at 160, but I have to say, it was a mild and didn't have this percentage of crystal. I could do it, but I am also about to change my process with a sparging cooler and starting to use a pump between my mash kettle and boil kettle. I don't want to do too many crazy things at one time.

By the way, I also didn't have the ability to step up the fermentation temp as Jamil did. Mine was a constant 66 for the entire time and it still got down to 1.016.

I slightly adjusted the recipe, but stayed to it for the most part. It smelled excellent going into the fermenter. I am looking forward to it in three weeks. I am amazed, we hit the color spot on and the smell isgreat...now to control fermenting temperature. The OG is 1.061 and the fermenter was 79 when I left it last night.

Ps...I measured a bottle of this from the store at 1.016, so you finished right

PPS...I just checked it the next morning and it is sitting cleanly at 63*F with an ambient of 60*.

.

Matt Up North said:

I slightly adjusted the recipe, but stayed to it for the most part. It smelled excellent going into the fermenter. I am looking forward to it in three weeks. I am amazed, we hit the color spot on and the smell isgreat...now to control fermenting temperature. The OG is 1.061 and the fermenter was 79 when I left it last night.

Ps...I measured a bottle of this from the store at 1.016, so you finished right

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BTW, mine started at 1.062, so I'll be curious what you finish at. I tasted a sample from the keg, though it's not fully carbed yet. I'm not sure what I expected an IPA mashed at 160 to taste like, but I'd never have guessed that this beer was mashed crazy-high. Definitely not sweet or cloying or anything like that.

This post made my day. Up until about a week ago you couldn't find Lagunitas in stores around here, but it became one of my favorites after drinking it for the first time on vacation this summer. I've already got Wyeast 1968 but I'm missing the Summit and Northern Brewer, but I figure I'll switch Northern with Chinook and Summit with Cascade...might not be completely spot on but close enough. I never would have imagined that it was mashed at 160 either. That's probably why I like it so much though...it has an increase in body, but isn't sweet, or distracting from the hop characteristics. Stunned, how close is your clone to the real thing?

brokenanchor said:

Stunned, how close is your clone to the real thing?

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I can't answer that. When I sampled it it was only a couple of days under CO2 and it wasn't fully carbonated. It's not yet inside the keezer, it's in my holding fridge. But even so I'm not one to ask since I can't get Laugintas IPA around here, so I've no way to directly compare them. I've had it before, but it's been awhile.

My general feeling on things like this is that no way will anything that I brew approach something like Lagunitas.

Way to be humble...I'm with you though, if I can get this to taste remotely close to how Lagunitas tastes I'll be very happy...and quite possibly drunkel

I just pulled a sample yesterday to check on the progress and worry a little bit more. It is definately Lagunitas IPA. I filtered it and ran the numbers and we are rolling pretty at 5.4plato (1.022), 5.1%abv and 4.6ph. It smells and tastes just like a Lagunitas IPA and really is close. I see this being finished today and I will check it in another week. Here's the kicker, if it stopped right now I would still bottle it up. It is that close to the real thing. Of course, as I mentioned, I added a little bit of something here and there to make the recipe different. It didn't detract though.

If you like the Lagunitas IPA, then this is a winner. Thank Jamil when you get a chance. I just posted my recipe on the first post so that you can see the difference between mine and theirs

Matt Up North said:

If you like the Lagunitas IPA, then this is a winner. Thank Jamil when you get a chance. I just posted my recipe on the first post so that you can see the difference between mine and theirs

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I don't know if you saw this thread, but I started it before I tried brewing the beer. Jamil responded a couple of times if you want to take a look at what he had to say about the high mash temp.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/anyone-mash-ipa-160-a-132891/

Mine's pretty much ready for deployment, but I don't have an open tap just yet. The ESB is running pretty low so I'm thinking a few pints over the weekend will create an opening.

I hadn't read it, but it is what I expected. I was nervous when I did it up too, but it seems to work. Almost like someone has done it before

I also just made up a hoppy Pale Ale and a Black IPA, so I am very hopped up for the next month or two.

And it is done fermenting at 1.020. I was expecting this, but was hoping for 1.016. It might keep going and I will check it again tomorrow, but it was at 1.022 on Friday and today it is to 1.020, so I am thinking we are done. I will up the temp to around 70* for the next three days and then rack it to secondary along with some hops for dry hopping. It is one oz of each Centennial and Cascade right? So I will do up that around Wednesday or Thursday. Tastes nice now, not too shabby if I do say so myself.

We dry hopped this beer three days ago and will let it go another week, so ten days total, then we will keg half and bottle half. It is really tasting nice. I forsee this going really quickly down the old gullet

Anyone have any thoughts about using S-04 for this beer instead of 1968 or 002? What differences could I expect?
Thanks.

I don't see a reason why not. They are the same strain, just in dry form. Cheaper too. I just figured that I would use the Lagunitas Recipe as closely as possible to see if I could do what they did and then I can change it the next time. If you go changing it then you can't tell what you did differently. I keep smelling the airlock and it is smelling just like Lagunitas. Same yeast, same hops and same maltiness and sweetness.

Kegged and Bottled today at 4.5% (1.017) and 6.0%abv. It is great! We will be drinking it in a week at the keg and when we kick the keg we will have some beer to drink in the bottle. I don't honestly think that we could have acheived a more accurate example of the beer than this. A perfect score for now. 1.060 to 1.016 and 6%abv. That is a winner there.

Was finally able to brew a 5-gallon batch of this clone today.

I hit 159F and mashed for 60 minutes. I cleared the wort for about 30 minutes before sparging. I sparged for approximately 70 minutes collecting 6 gallons of wort for the boil.

My OG landed at 1.071 which concerns me. Not sure if I had excessive boiloff or what. Eagerly awaiting the results...

You will have beer. Don't worry about it. Just figure it out so that next time you can hit your numbers more to your liking. Sounds like you might be doing either too heavy a boil or maybe you aren't measuring your quantity of wort that you sparged correctly. Either way it is an easy fix with either sparging more and measuring it in a gallon bucket or a large measuring cup.

Just bought a 12 pack of this, Rite Aid has it for 10.99 or 11.99 all the time. I was noticing that there is a lot of yeast floating in the bottles. I am thinking of harvesting some WLP002 from these. Not sure if this is normal or I just got some from a burb in the system or the end of the bottling or something.

It is super clear though, I love how much WLP002 flocculates.

Good News/Bad News

Lagunitas has been cold crashing with dry hops now for about a week. Hydro sample tastes like a little-bit-o-heaven. OG started at 1.058 vs target 1.060 according to Jamil. FG measured out at 1.020 at 70 degrees. Am I done? Jamil says FG is 1.018 - 1.020. I've never bottled a beer with a FG so high. Can I go ahead and cap this batch or should I wait for it to drop some more?

I'm ready to go. Everything is sanitized and sitting on the table.

Gracias!

If the gravity has stayed the same for 3 days or so, bottle it.

My first batch of Amarillo IPA stopped at 1.018 and it was awesome.

Rick:

Thanks. I had a bottle of stone clone IPA blow-up this week two and a half months after I bottled the batch. I know; wierd.
Hydro sample makes me want to just drink it without bottling it, but, ya know, I don't want to get it packaged before it's ready.

Mine quit at 1.016. Not saying your won't go more, but I mashed at 160, used 1968 and got to 1.016. Good luck

Matt:

I went 5 days in primary starting at 68 F, then last 48 hrs at 70 F. Racked it off yeast and dry hopped for four days at 68 F. Finally, cold crashed for a week. FG 1.020.

I'm thinking it's done.

Matt Up North said:

Mine quit at 1.016. Not saying your won't go more, but I mashed at 160, used 1968 and got to 1.016. Good luck

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I went from 1.062 to 1.016 with WLP002. Mashed at 160, fermented at ~66-67.

I think that your thermo might be off if you quit at 1.020 and fermented like the rest of us. You are right there though. If it were me, I would bottle. I finished fermentation in five days and started my ten day dry hop after that. There was no more fermentation going on. Like jeremy the lagunitas brewer mentioned, the ph goes down with fermentation and then up ticks when it's done.

I just cracked a bottle of this open and holy bejesus it was awesome! The kegged version doesn't have enough carbonation I don't think. The bottled version just reaked of hops! Fantastic!

ps...I think the bottled version might have dried out a touch more to around 1.013 or so...it tasted drier.

Alright, the Lagunitas clone is officially bottled. FG was a little high at 1.020. My boil volume was half a gallon too small, so I think I can correct this next go around. I wasn't able to step up the temp so it sat at 68 degrees for the three weeks. The beer was damn good out of secondary, so can't wait to try a carbonated sample.

Bad news everyone. My keg just spat its last drop yesterday and I have no more on tap. Time to start chilling the bottles

Just wanted to update...

I picked up a six of Lagunitas IPA while traveling last weekend, and had a chance to do a side by side with the clone that I made. They were really close. Much closer than I figured. Not identical, but close enough that if you'd switched glasses on me halfway through I might not have noticed. I'd say mine had a little more hop character to it, but not by much. The Lagunitas seemed to have a slightly more caramel note to it. SWMBO picked mine as the Lagunitas, and the actual Lagunitas as the homebrew.

Yours is probably more fresh. Well done on doing the side by side! I tried it too and didn't think that it was as close until I had it out of the bottle. I think our keg could have been except we drank it in two weeks

Oh well.

Still have a week or so before bottles are suitably conditioned. Tried one over the weekend and even after only 18 days in the bottle, the beer was delicious. The maltiness comes through nicely balanced against the hoppiness. Haven't done a side by side yet. Maybe next weekenk.

Matt Up North said:

1.065 / 9 SRM / 46 IBU

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Where is this OG coming from? I punched the recipe into beersmith and get 1.076:

Est Original Gravity: 1.076 SG
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 12.13 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

21.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
2.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.93 %
1.75 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.75 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.57 %

I always make my batches as 11 gallons when calculating and also go with 70% efficiency. Also I sparge anywhere from 12-13 gallons depending on the beer and boil down to the 11 gallons.