Cloning Tree House Eureka w/ whatever

[ryancrook]

I am wildly impressed with everything that comes out of Tree House Brewing, but Eureka stood out for me because of its super low abv (3.9%), full bodied mouth feel and a ton of flavors. It's exceptionally well balanced and makes for a great summer beer. I brewed this with Azacca hops but feel free to switch it out for whatever floats your boat.

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.011
IBUs: 25.8
SRM: 3.3
ABV: 3.9%

Malt Bill:
8lbs golden promise
8oz flaked oats
4oz carapils
4oz C20

Hops
4.12 AAUs added @ 20, 15, 10, 5
16.37 AAUs added at flameout for 5 mins before chilling
3oz dry hop in primary when yeast at 90% attenuation. 4-5 days before crashing

US-05 yeast

Mash temp: 153 for 60 minutes
Mash pH: 5.42
Finished pH of beer: 4.35

Ferment cool, around 62 degrees, and slow rise to 67 as you reach full attenuation.

Finished water profile (in ppm's):
55.8 Calcium
9 Magnesium
23 Sodium
12 Sulfate
88 Chloride

The beer on the right is mine, compared to the Tree House Eureka w/ Citra on the left.

Tasting notes:
the hop schedule did a great job layering the flavors and really highlighting the one hop. the mouth feel is light but a little smooth from the addition of the oats. At 3.9% I could drink this like water. It's borderline blonde/pale ale in my opinion.

Next time I think I would try Wyeast 1318, bumping the finished chloride to 100, and aiming for a finished pH of 4.5 (based on pH tests I've done on Julius and Haze.)

 

[Bramstoker17]

Looks like an awesome recipe! I was able to get a couple of the Eureka with Citra cans and I was a huge fan. I agree it's a cross between a blonde and an APA, but its such a great summer kind of beer.

I agree the 1318 should help provide some of the mouthfeel that beer has. I also wonder if there's a bit of wheat for added body as well?

 

[ryancrook]

I didn't think about adding wheat but that's definitely a great idea. would you sub out carapils for it?

 

[Bramstoker17]

I'd probably sub a pound of white wheat in for a pound of Golden Promise. I'd keep the carapils since its a pretty small amount. That beer had a silky smooth body if I remember correctly, so I think the wheat, carapils, and oats should take care of that. If a pound of white wheat sounds like too much, maybe a half pound or so of flaked wheat?

 

[ryancrook]

I was thinking about flaked wheat too. Another thought I had was subbing oats for flaked barley or wheat, only because it contributes a slickness which could be perceived as diacetyl and I don't remember Eureka being slick. I think 1318 will help add the smoothness a ton.

 

[barhoc11]

Thanks for the recipe, I agree with everything you said about this beer being amazingly easy to drink. I am going to make up something similar to this to mimic some of the other TH stuff I have had. How smooth is the finish with your clone compared to the real thing?

To me, the best thing about TH beer is that there is almost no hop bitterness but it is just full of flavor and aroma with the smoothest finish I have ever had.

I really hope we can work out the kinks with this and also apply the lessons learned to make this apply to a little higher abv version.

 

[barhoc11]

Also, does anyone get a belgian yeast finish in the taste for Eureka? I swear I get a little of that taste when I have this beer.

 

[Bramstoker17]

Also, does anyone get a belgian yeast finish in the taste for Eureka? I swear I get a little of that taste when I have this beer.

I personally did not when I had it. I'm not a fan of the peppery/clove notes that Belgian yeasts tend to produce and I don't recall noticing any of that when I had it. I certainly could be wrong though! I'd say I picked up some subtle fruity esters, maybe from an English yeast.

 

[drez77]

Also, does anyone get a belgian yeast finish in the taste for Eureka? I swear I get a little of that taste when I have this beer.

No, I have not got that in any of the versions I have tried.

 

[barhoc11]

No, I have not got that in any of the versions I have tried.

OK, it is very subtle but something that I noticed since I am not a huge belgian fan. It's obviously a great beer but that was the only downside I saw with it.

 

[ryancrook]

I didn't get any belgian feelings with that beer. I would try Wyeast 1318. I've used it in an IPA and it leaves the beer very soft and has some residual sweetness.

 

[ryancrook]

How smooth is the finish with your clone compared to the real thing?

It's incredibly smooth and the mouth feel is full. I think I would bump the oats down a little and add a touch more crystal, and swap the yeast to 1318. that'll be the next version I try.

 

[barhoc11]

I did a similar recipe minus the flaked oats, I can really see how the oats will make the mouthfeel different. I also checked via a ph strip and it looks like my finished ph is lower than I hoped. Anyone have a good suggestion for raising ph in my water profile?

 

[ryancrook]

I also checked via a ph strip and it looks like my finished ph is lower than I hoped. Anyone have a good suggestion for raising ph in my water profile?

Do you know what your water pH is and what kind of salt/acid additions did you do? I never had a good experience with pH strips because the results are subjective to me. Did you see a significant efficiency problem?

 

[bg1414]

how did you get sulfate that low?

 

[ryancrook]

That's the profile of my well water. You could dilute with distilled or RO of it's too high

 

[Brewnation]

This looks good. I'm gonna brew it this weekend with. I'm gonna tweak it a little to get it to 4.5% abv and gonna use omega DIPA ale yeast. Also going to use falconer's flight for hops

 

[ryancrook]

Excellent! Please share the results when it's done

 

[ryancrook]

How did this turn out for anyone who tried the recipe?

 

[Ruckusz28]

I haven't seen anybody but I've got a can of Eureka Citra with my name on it. If it's good, I wouldn't be opposed at taking a shot at this recipe.

 

[MCfresh]

I just went to my LHBS and picked up some ingredients to take a shot at a clone myself. Just found this thread after getting my ingredients, looks like we have the same general idea. I decided to make a 3 gallon batch to test it out before making a larger one. My ABV is going to most likely be a little higher than Eureka, but I wanted to be careful as I'm doing this BIAB and it's only my third BIAB batch.

My recipe:

4.5lb 2 Row
1.2lb white wheat
2.4oz Flaked Oats
2.4oz C20

.2oz Citra 20min
.8oz Citra 5min
.5oz Citra Flameout/Whirlpool
.5oz dryhop

~28 IBUs

I just realized I am going to end up with a 6% beer using Safale US05. I might go get some 04 instead as it will bring my beer down to about 5% and leave some residual sweetness that might work well here.

Hoping it comes out as good as yours looks! I'll be brewing it next weekend.

 

[Ruckusz28]

Keep us posted. My take on these beers is similar but I'm using about 15% flaked oats. I also used us04 this last time. I'll follow up later.

 

[ryancrook]

yes, the recipe looks good! good luck and looking forward to seeing the results

 

[Shawnylocks]

so, I attempted this yesterday and had an awesome brewday.

I used this recipe:

8# golden promise
1# white wheat
.5# oats flaked
.25 carapils
.25 crystal 20

I used citra @ 14.1 AAU

4.12 AAUs added @ 20, 15, 10, 5
16.37 AAUs added at flameout for 5 mins before chilling
3oz dry hop is what ill use in primary

I shot for a mash temp of 153* but I ended up hitting 155*
nailed pre boil gravity of 1.044
hit OG of 1.050
cooled to 68*ish and pitched London ale yeast wyeast 1318

this should be sitting in primary for about a week before I dry hop.

brew day went off without a hitch minus a small issue with my new ssbrewtech kettle. the rubber handle protector for the ball valve melted off. I have a claim in with support now.

I will keep informed about how this turns out

 

[ryancrook]

Sound awesome! Looking forward to hearing the results!

 

[MCfresh]

Just popped my first bottle last night. It's a bit lighter colored in person than this picture.

So my version is more of an inspired by Eureka beer than it is an Eureka clone.
OG 1.060
FG 1.012

About 6% abv, much higher than intended. I wasn't sure what my efficiency was going to be as I had only done a few BIAB before hand. It was much higher than anticipated.

Hops are little more subdued than I had hoped, and there is a little bit of a sweetness from the malt that I didn't expect, but overall it's a really good easy drinking beer. I would probably just use a bittering charge @20 next time and move the rest of the hops to flameout/whirlpool. Bigger dryhop too. Maybe switch out US-05 for S-04, or even try london ale III or conan.

It's also a great beer to use to play around with a single hop and see what they have to offer. Definitely going to make this again.

 

[Shawnylocks]

looks great!

 

[ryancrook]

Awesome feedback! I actually just made this recipe again without oats and it definitely needs it. In case anyone is considering otherwise. I think I'll do the same hop schedule you suggested as well. The sweetness may be from the golden promise but not entirely sure.

 

[Shenanigans]

Looks great.
Might do this with El Dorado with maybe a touch of mosaic.

 

[Catphish]

https://www.pastemagazine.com/artic...-brewing-talks-malt-the-black-market-and.html

I thought this article was interesting. Maybe the malt bill is just simply pale malt and wheat malt or flaked wheat but I'm wondering where the sweetness plays in at the finish...

 

[couchsending]

What amounts have people been using or a dry hop in these Eureka clones? Just put mine into the fermentor an hour ago. Stoked on how brew day turned out except I forgot to adjust my PH. (only called for .25ml Lactic so hopefully won't be too bad) Other than that for my second batch I think it went pretty darn well. Recipe was:

6.5# Maris Otter
1# White Wheat
.5# Flaked Oats
.5# C20 (was gonna split between carapils and C20 but ditched the carapils)

60 Minute Mash at 152/153

75 Minute Boil
2.5ml Hop Shot at 60
.75oz Citra @ 10
.75oz Citra Whirlpool @ 170

OG 1.044

Target H20 profile
CA 104
So4 106
CL 135

London Ale III Starter
Aerated with pure O2 for 45s

Pitched at 68
Ferment at 65 for a few days then maybe let it rise slowly?

 

[MCfresh]

What amounts have people been using or a dry hop in these Eureka clones? Just put mine into the fermentor an hour ago. Stoked on how brew day turned out except I forgot to adjust my PH. (only called for .25ml Lactic so hopefully won't be too bad) Other than that for my second batch I think it went pretty darn well. Recipe was:

6.5# Maris Otter
1# White Wheat
.5# Flaked Oats
.5# C20 (was gonna split between carapils and C20 but ditched the carapils)

60 Minute Mash at 152/153

75 Minute Boil
2.5ml Hop Shot at 60
.75oz Citra @ 10
.75oz Citra Whirlpool @ 170

OG 1.044

Target H20 profile
CA 104
So4 106
CL 135

London Ale III Starter
Aerated with pure O2 for 45s

Pitched at 68
Ferment at 65 for a few days then maybe let it rise slowly?

That looks good!

I don't think you are going to to raise the temp of your fermentation. You should be fine at 65.

I think between 3oz of dryhop is probably fine for a 5 gallon Eureka clone. I know that some people may recommend more. A lot of people like to dryhop this style at about 1oz a gallon.

 

[couchsending]

I have an SS 7 gal Chronical with FTSS. Ambient temp in the room is generally 69ish. Just turned of the FTSS last time and it slowly rose to around 70.

 

[Trillium]

The trick to producing a session beer that isn't thin and watery is to crank the mash temp up to 158-160. Add more base malt to compensate for lower attenuation.

 

[ryancrook]

The trick to producing a session beer that isn't thin and watery is to crank the mash temp up to 158-160. Add more base malt to compensate for lower attenuation.

Next time I'm going to try bumping the mash temp up this high and maybe lowering or eliminating the oats. It definitely worked really well but I'm not sure Eureka has it.

 

[Calaeb]

Thinking that i may give this a go for my next brew day. Seems that everyone likes it, any interesting hop combos you've found? I've become kind of bored with the 3 C hops.

 

[ryancrook]

Azacca is really nice in this

 

[Calaeb]

Just checking back in, didnt end up brewing this but think about it for my next bew so i can fill my kegs. Everyone still following the recipe from the 1st post? Also how do i figure out my amounts based on aau?

 

[ryancrook]

I'm going to brew this again this Spring and make the changes I suggested in the first post. To figure out the AAU though you take the AA % of the hops you use and divide by the AAU I put in the recipe to get the # of ounces you need to use. This method is more accurate for calculating bitterness since the AA % changes every year (or even supplier.)

For example
4.12 AAUs are needed at 20-5 minute additions. If you've got citra that's 13.2AA% you divide 4.12/13.2 and get .31 ounces of citra you need to add at each addition.

16.37 AAUs at flameout using the above conversion and you'll need 1.24 ounces of citra

 

[myntz]

I have 6 gallons of my take on this dry-hopping currently.

8lbs 2-row
8oz carapils
8oz vienna
8oz flaked wheat
4oz crystal 20L
153F for 80min

.25 ahtanum @ 30m
.4oz loral @ 20
.4oz loral @ 10
.4oz loral @ 5
.8oz loral @ 0
1oz loral @ 175 (whirlpool for 30 min)
dry hopped with 3oz loral and .75oz ahtanum (50/50 day 4 and day 6 of fermentation)

Yeast- Wyeast 1318 @68 raised to 70*F

I'm getting a crazy pineapple-y, wheat-y, saison-y aroma and it smells fantastic. Aroma is nothing like Eureka though . much more "belgian-y" at the moment and smells a lot like Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat.

Can't wait to crash, keg, carb, and tap this sucker. - I shall report back.