Oski05
Oski05 aka Kaoski's Man Cave & Homebrewing
I would like to brew a Founders Sleeper Cell Clone. I am unable to find a recipe. Can anyone help?
Need Founders Sleeper Cell Recipe
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Northern_Brewer
British - apparently some US company stole my name
It's customary with these kind of requests to at least provide what details you can. To be fair, that's not much in this case - Founders only talk about "West Coast-style double IPA...five hop varieties. The aggressive hop presence lingers on the palate finishing sharp, dry...ABV:10.8%...IBUs:85".
But at least that's a start, with these rare specials you will be lucky to find people who have drunk them (just 54 on Ratebeer) let alone perfected a homebrew recipe. I'm not one of them. So you want to start with a proven recipe for something like Pliny the Elder and then tweak it. You'd expect a West Coast IPA to have lots of C-hops like Centennial, and the reviews talk a lot about orange with some peach and lemon suggests you should replace the Simcoe of Pliny with Amarillo, maybe have some El Dorado or something in there too.
Also, since your first batch won't be perfect, I'd not go crazy on the ABV front, you have enough challenges without the difficulties that come with trying to ferment over 1.100 SG. So I'd keep it at Pliny kind of strength for the first one, and take note of the hints in this presentation.
But at least that's a start, with these rare specials you will be lucky to find people who have drunk them (just 54 on Ratebeer) let alone perfected a homebrew recipe. I'm not one of them. So you want to start with a proven recipe for something like Pliny the Elder and then tweak it. You'd expect a West Coast IPA to have lots of C-hops like Centennial, and the reviews talk a lot about orange with some peach and lemon suggests you should replace the Simcoe of Pliny with Amarillo, maybe have some El Dorado or something in there too.
Also, since your first batch won't be perfect, I'd not go crazy on the ABV front, you have enough challenges without the difficulties that come with trying to ferment over 1.100 SG. So I'd keep it at Pliny kind of strength for the first one, and take note of the hints in this presentation.
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
From the Founders website, it has 10.8 ABV, 85 IBU and uses 5 hop varieties.
Here's a brew that has 7.8 ABV, 90 IBU and uses 5 hop varieties.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/green-flash-west-coast-ipa/
I'd boost the ABV in the above recipe by adding some sugar, back off on the bittering hops by 5 IBU and see how close you get to the original.
There's no way to tell what their malt bill is or what hops they are using, but you have to start somewhere and the above recipe will reportedly make a decent brew.
You'll probably have to do a few re-brews to get it where you want, but you might end up liking your version better than Founder's.
Note if you are brewing an IPA with lots of hops you should be doing everything you can to limit oxygen exposure. One way to do that is cut a few inches off a corny keg dip tube, ferment in the keg and then do a closed transfer to your serving keg. Add your dry hop to primary near the end of fermentation but before fermentation has stopped (add sugar at same time?).
Here's a brew that has 7.8 ABV, 90 IBU and uses 5 hop varieties.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/green-flash-west-coast-ipa/
I'd boost the ABV in the above recipe by adding some sugar, back off on the bittering hops by 5 IBU and see how close you get to the original.
There's no way to tell what their malt bill is or what hops they are using, but you have to start somewhere and the above recipe will reportedly make a decent brew.
You'll probably have to do a few re-brews to get it where you want, but you might end up liking your version better than Founder's.
Note if you are brewing an IPA with lots of hops you should be doing everything you can to limit oxygen exposure. One way to do that is cut a few inches off a corny keg dip tube, ferment in the keg and then do a closed transfer to your serving keg. Add your dry hop to primary near the end of fermentation but before fermentation has stopped (add sugar at same time?).
