Jolly Rancher IPA

[m00ps]

I'm not too keen on asking for input on recipes before I try them out for myself, but I've had this idea in my head ever since I saw the "watermelon jolly rancher candy" descriptor for El Dorado hops. So, I want to try to make an IPA with mainly El Dorado for flavor, and then toss a few handfuls of my favorite candies into the primary. Or possibly make a vodka tincture to dissolve them beforehand

Here's what I came up with. I like using wheat in my IPAs for this juicy character that plays well with the hops. I figured it would work especially well here.

6 lb 2 row
3 lb wheat
0.5 lb honey malt
1 lb cane sugar

mash at 150 for 60min

@60min: 1 oz whatever bittering hop I have open and on hand
@15min: 1 oz El Dorado / 1 oz Summer
@0min: 2 oz El Dorado / 1 oz Summer / 1 oz Citra
*hopstand for 1 hour before chilling*
@30min into hopstand: 2 oz El Dorado / 1 oz Citra
@dry: 1 oz El Dorado / 1 oz Citra
@keg: 1 oz Citra whole leaf (cant find El Dorado in whole leaf)

@primary: ~20 pieces of Jolly Rancher candies (maybe watermelon and grape?)

Conan yeast

Im mostly interested on hwo people think the concept would work and what flavors to choose from. I have nearly every variety on hand, even like the fruit punch and lemon flavors. I definitely am thinking about using watermelon, not too sure on the other flavor or whether I'd want another flavor. Im not going to bother accounting for the added sugars from the candy

 

[m00ps]

well im brewing it next weekend. Already made my Jolly Rancher candi syrup. My favorite flavor is actually fruit punch so I mixed it 50/50 with watermelon, and dissolved them in boiling water. Did about 50 pieces. smells great. I may add another dose of 20 or so once I take the first sample

 

[A2HB]

I'm sorry but this sounds absolutely disgusting.

I hope it turns out well for you though, prove me wrong and make something tasty!

 

[m00ps]

Well I kegged it and I love it. Its not carbed yet but I tried the gravity sample.

The sweetness from the candies fermented out and just leaves that juicy flavor. Nose is all candy with a bit of hops coming through. Flavor starts out pretty hoppy and assertive then leaves you feeling like you just swalloed one of the candies.

Didnt get as much color as I thought I would from ~50 candies though...

 

[jammin]

You need to send some to a competition! would love to hear the feedback from the judges - probably mess w/their heads a little

 

[Ike]

Why did I suddenly flash back to my *****ebaggy late teens, hanging around behind the bike shop where I worked (that wasn't *****ebaggy, I actually loved that part of my younger life), trying to impress the girls we were hanging around with, while drinking a ZIMA with a Jolly Rancher in the bottom?

If the "me" of now could talk to the "me" of then...

BACK ON TOPIC: definitely going to keep an eye on this one to see how it turns out... I am NOT a fan of watermelon but the green apple and cherry? Watch out...

 

[CTS]

Need a picture!!!

 

[Delirious187]

I've done this with one measured/weighed pound of watermelon jolly rancher candies. Boiled down with a small amount of water to make a syrup and added at flame out along with one 5lbs baby watermelon diced/cubed. Fermented with Ringwood Ale yeast, all Fuggles and dumped all contents, no whirlpool or filtering into primary and turned out Amaze-balls!!!

 

[Cyclman]

I believe I recall a mead done with fireball candy years ago that won medals. Let us know how it comes out.

 

[Ruckusz28]

Interesting. I'd like to see pics of a pour. Earlier in the year I got a little silly with some leftovers and made a "farmhouse" ale fermented with some Bavarian wheat yeast. I ran the hot wort over 3 boxes of captain crunch berries cereal. The wort was purple, but fermentation washed it clean.

 

[m00ps]

I can post a pic as soon as I keg room for it in my kegerator. From my memory, the finished beer looked only slightly pink tinged like a sour fermented on some berries.

I should have room in the kegerator sometime this week after I beergun bottle the remainder of my +20oz Sunny D-IPA

 

[m00ps]

OK, tapped it last night and mother. of. god.

I thought my OJ double IPA was my best IPA to date but this thing is incredible.

It smells like a straight up fresh opened bag of jolly ranchers. The taste is softly hoppy and fruity thanks to the El Dorado hops. But the best part is easily the finish. After you swallow, at the very back of your tongue, you get this taste like you had just eaten a Jolly Rancher a minute ago. Its so unexpected. It still confuses me every time

I brought some of these to my local brewery that I always have try stuff and every one of them got that same impression. A session IPA thats not sweet but tastes exactly like candy...that may be worth something

For reference, I find it tastes very similar to FFF Yumyum. Except the smell is fruitier and the finish doesnt even come close to this. But the flavor reminds me of it.

 

[Andyoesq]

I am fascinated by this.
Seriously, love the creativity, and it sounds awesome. Can you send me one lol

 

[geoffey]

So what exactly was your method here for the jolly ranchers? You made them into a syrup beforehand, got that. But did you add this to the boil? Or did you add to primary or secondary?

 

[m00ps]

I melted 40 candies in a flask with a bit of water. It smelled amazing and was bright red. Didnt change the color of the beer though which surprised me

I added this into the fermentor about 3 days in. After tasting the first FG sample, I decided to add another 20 or so.

Looking back, Id say I definitely hit the mark ont he amount to add. The character is there, but its not the entire beer. I may add a few more next time, along with trying different candy flavors, but I couldnt be happier with how this experiment turned out

 

[Neptune]

That's pretty bad ass...

Nicely done. I would have never thought to do that... But it's got my wheels turning.

 

[TxBigHops]

Very cool. Might have to try something like this. I've got a bunch of Mosaic, another hop that is "fruity" to me, plus come Citra. Never brewed with El Dorado. What would you think if i subbed the Mosaic for the El Dorado?

 

[m00ps]

Very cool. Might have to try something like this. I've got a bunch of Mosaic, another hop that is "fruity" to me, plus come Citra. Never brewed with El Dorado. What would you think if i subbed the Mosaic for the El Dorado?

I think itd be great. I only picked El dorado because I saw "jolly rancher watermelon" as a descriptor on multiple sites. I think mosaic has some nice blueberry like flavors somewhere in it. Maybe using grape and blue raspberry would be good? I dunno, I'm gonna start playing around with what candy flavors work best with whatever hops I use. I did get a really nice balance of hop flavor to candy aftertaste in this batch though. Not very much bitterness at all.

Let me know how it goes!

 

[m00ps]

forgot i promised to post a picture of it. sorry the lighting isnt the greatest. I dont claim to be a photographer

But the color surprised me given how ruby red the solution was with ~70 candies dissolved into it

 

[Ruckusz28]

I wonder how bottle conditioning would go when primed with candies..

 

[TravelingLight]

m00ps this sounds phenomenal. I'm still a virgin brewer planning to pop my cherry after I finish my current project (kegerator). But I'm favoriting this thread to come back to when I'm skilled enough to pull something like this off. I want to drink this. I must have it.

 

[m00ps]

m00ps this sounds phenomenal. I'm still a virgin brewer planning to pop my cherry after I finish my current project (kegerator). But I'm favoriting this thread to come back to when I'm skilled enough to pull something like this off. I want to drink this. I must have it.

Im sure you could do it once you get the basic process down. All it really requires is melting a bunch fo candies in water, bringing it to a boil to sanitize, and tossing it into your fermentor once the yeast starts to take off.

My recipe ive got is all-grain, not sure where you are starting off, but I can PM you the recipe

 

[jammin]

Seems like the obvious next step, now that is winter is for you to melt some candies for a stout!

Maybe something like werthers or See's hard candy's?

 

[m00ps]

hmm like a butterscotch stout

 

[slym2none]

I wonder how bottle conditioning would go when primed with candies..

Interesting idea! I'd find the weight of those carb-drops and use an equivalent weight of candy, were I going to try this.

And I might.

 

[TxBigHops]

hmm like a butterscotch stout

Oh man! I like the sound of that!!!

 

[aprichman]

m00ps is the Sam Calagione of HBT!

 

[TravelingLight]

Im sure you could do it once you get the basic process down. All it really requires is melting a bunch fo candies in water, bringing it to a boil to sanitize, and tossing it into your fermentor once the yeast starts to take off.

My recipe ive got is all-grain, not sure where you are starting off, but I can PM you the recipe

That would be fantastic. My first is going to be an IPA extract kit, with a tweak or two. Most likely a dry hop and possibly a secondary. You da man!

 

[m00ps]

oops, realized I posted the all grain recipe at the start. For extract, I'd try doing something like this:
4lb light extract
2lb wheat extract
0.5lb honey
1lb cane sugar

steep the honey malt in water at ~160F for 20min or so and add that water to your kettle

you can mix the extracts them if you want, but add like 1/3 at the start of the boil and the rest 5 min from the end or so. (not sure on how this is usually done) Add the cane sugar with the extract

 

[slym2none]

Slightly off-topic, but not really - I have a half-gallon jug of caramel syrup (like used in cawfeh shops) in my fridge, and now I am wondering what kind of beer that flavour would take to...

Hmm...

 

[TravelingLight]

oops, realized I posted the all grain recipe at the start. For extract, I'd try doing something like this:
4lb light extract
2lb wheat extract
0.5lb honey
1lb cane sugar

steep the honey malt in water at ~160F for 20min or so and add that water to your kettle

you can mix the extracts them if you want, but add like 1/3 at the start of the boil and the rest 5 min from the end or so. (not sure on how this is usually done) Add the cane sugar with the extract

This is fantastic. Thanks, m00ps. I may not be doing a kit after all!

 

[m00ps]

I think what I may do next is give a crack at a jolly rancher sour and use the slour flavored candies that come in the green colored bags

 

[jrowland74]

oops, realized I posted the all grain recipe at the start. For extract, I'd try doing something like this:
4lb light extract
2lb wheat extract
0.5lb honey
1lb cane sugar

steep the honey malt in water at ~160F for 20min or so and add that water to your kettle

you can mix the extracts them if you want, but add like 1/3 at the start of the boil and the rest 5 min from the end or so. (not sure on how this is usually done) Add the cane sugar with the extract

Did you convert this to LME or DME?

 

[m00ps]

Did you convert this to LME or DME?

I just did the conversion to DME. And shot for the same OG as my all-grain one

 

[m00ps]

jolly rancher 2.0
this time I used a bit more than a bag of ~60 candies and just did all the "red" ones

 

[TravelingLight]

My man, m00ps...I have to bump this with a question or two. My first beer is still fermenting and I'm already planning my second. And I want to do something similar to this. Some things I am wondering about...

1. You said you make a syrup with the candies then add to the primary about 3 or so days into fermenting. My question is do you boil the syrup to sanitize it then dump it straight into the fermenter? Or do you chill it first? I guess I (being a newbie) am trying to figure out how you get the syrup cooled but keep it sanitary before dumping it into the primary.

2. Have you tried one with the sour green apple candies? This sounds appealing to me. Just didn't know how the tartness would balance with an IPA.

As always, thanks for all of your excellent advice.

 

[m00ps]

I cover the candies with enough water to boil and fully dissolve them. Stick from sanitized foil over the flask, and let them cool before adding to the fermentor. You probably could add it hot, since the volume of the beer is much greater than the syrup, but I always let anything going directly into the fermentor cool

I havent tried green apple yet. I dont see why it wouldnt work though. In the end, the hops are the main flavor and the candy comes through in the aftertaste IME. Id say go for it

 

[TravelingLight]

I cover the candies with enough water to boil and fully dissolve them. Stick from sanitized foil over the flask, and let them cool before adding to the fermentor. You probably could add it hot, since the volume of the beer is much greater than the syrup, but I always let anything going directly into the fermentor cool

I havent tried green apple yet. I dont see why it wouldnt work though. In the end, the hops are the main flavor and the candy comes through in the aftertaste IME. Id say go for it

Awesome! Thanks for the advice. Gonna give this a go in a few weeks for sure. Now that I am actually brewing it makes me wish I had more than one tap on the kegerator...

 

[Ruckusz28]

Did fermentation scrub the color? Curious if you'd get color should you change the bill to low low low SRM

 

[m00ps]

I didnt really get much of any color contribution from any of them. Its weird. I almost expected the first one to be slightly pink. It was a shade darker than most of my IPAs, but still lighter than most commercial ones. Maybe I need to use all grape candies with something like Belma and Pacific Gem

I have found that a slightly lower attenuating yeast works best though, at least in terms of Conan and WY1318. The candy aftertaste wasnt as present when I used my Conan yeast (which is a number of generations old and attenuates 80% or more, not like some 1st gen ones I read about).