Hi All,
I've been following this thread for a while and read through it completely at least once, maybe twice. Thank you all for your contributions, especially those of you who have shared the recipes and results for several repeated batches. Following your journeys has been great. There's been a lot of interesting discussions on brewing processes and theory which have been insightful beyond chasing the white whale of cloning recipes.
About a year ago I made a poor attempt at following the clone recipe on the Trinity Brewer website. I was heavy handed with both wb-06 and t-58 and had zero temperature control. I set my ambient temperature to 72 in fear that it was too cold in my house and wound up with a banana bomb. Since then I've been keeping it simple brewing IPAs with 1318 which seems to forgive my lack of fermentation temp. control. After making some equipment upgrades and pulling off some more simple brews I'm looking to give this another shot.
My fermentation plan for a 5 gallon batch is to pitch 11.5g S04 and 1g T58 together and ferment in the low 60s. This seems to be a successful range used and aligns with northern brewers latest comment. I think the photo of the TH temp control unit showed 66 for most vessels (?) so that would be like low 60s on a commercial scale, right?
After 72 hours I plan on adding ~1-2g WB06. My hypothesis is that WB06 could be used to increase attenuation rather than for aroma/flavor. Based on a presentation by White Labs on yeast blending (linked below), yeast blending can be used for two goals: increase flavors or finish attenuation. S04 and T58 have moderate attenuation. WB06 is higher attenuating with less desirable flavors (i.e. clove).
According to the presentation yeasts added after 72 hours are unlikely to add to the flavor of aroma and beer. I thinking this could be a good way to avoid the clove/hefe flavors. This assumes that the S04/T58 needs help attenuating to clone TH/Julius. Does anyone know the FG of Julius and is that a relevant number? For example, could you guess-timate an approximate attenuation of Julius based on the FG and then use that to decide if S04 at 72-75% attenuation would need help reaching at Julius attenuation?
Interestingly, under the goal increase attenuation/fermentation performance, the presentation used as an example mixing WLP002 (medium attenuation and alcohol tolerance) with WLP007 (high attenuation). S04 is similar to WLP002 correct?
What I'm unsure of is what ratio/amount of WB06 to use as a late addition yeast. Any ideas? To be conservative i was thinking of using a small amount similar to what would be used for natural carbing (1-2g). Worst case scenario it might not do anything.
Ramblings: I'm still a bit uncertain of where the TH bubblegum characteristic comes from. When I taste TH, in particular the core beers like Julius, Alter and Green, the bubble gum flavor shows up after I taste the citrus/fruityness of the hops, but before the bitterness that finishes out the taste. I've noticed the presence of bubble gum is the least consistent characteristic of their beers. I had some Julius in November that was bursting with that flavor. My cans for last week have it but to a lesser degree. I have some apollo right now and I almost think I can detect it when I smell the hops. I'm wondering if the bubble gum is caused by some house hop blend after "bio transformation."
Sorry if this doesn't make any sense. I'm still very much a beginner (<10 batches).
Source:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/presentations/pdf/2014/A Guide To Blending Yeast Strains.pdf