Clone brews

[Flyin' Lion]

I bottled my second incarnation of a Harpoon IPA clone yesterday, and although I was slightly disappointed that the first batch's taste didn't match up, I tried some actual Harpoon today and am quite impressed that for my third batch it came out pretty close (my third batch was my first attempt at this clone). I'm not a hophead wich is why I like the Harpoon so my second attempt I added the hops later in the boil, my first recipe adjustment (what this is all about right?). I can't wait to see how this turns out and then try and tweak my Murphy's Irish Stout recipe. I've received a lot of help from the members of this forum and would like to give credit where it is due, Thanks.

Cheers all.

Jason

 

[RiversC174]

Three cheers for Harpoon IPA! Three boos for the Boston Red Sox and that bush league no name who slapped a once in a lifetime lucky homerun today to bail them out... Flyin, I'm sorry if youre a Sox fan, but it was my duty as a Yankee fan to point that out, I hope you still share the tips with me, haha.

 

[Dude]

Lion, did you post the recipe?

 

[Tony]

Lion, did you post the recipe?

Yes, please post the recipe! I absolutely love Harpoon and havent found a good recipe yet.

 

[Flyin' Lion]

Hey fellas I got the recipe from my LHBS, the recipe is quite involved so I'll try to condense it down and if there are any more questions I'll be happy to oblige.

Crush and steep in 1 gallon, 150 degree water for 20 minutes:
8 oz. 60*L US crystal malt
4 oz. toasted 2-row pale malt
1 oz. roasted barley
Strain the grain water into the brew pot and sparge with 1/2 gallon water at 150 degrees. Add water to the brew pot to total 1.5 gallons. bring to boil and add:
4lb. Alexander's pale malt syrup
5lb. M&F Light Liquid malt extract
1 3/4 oz. Cluster (bittering hop) @ 6.5% AA
Add water until total volume in the brew pot is 2.5 gallons. Boil for 45 Min. then add:
1/2 oz. Fuggles (flavor hop)
1/2 oz. Cascade (flavor hop)
1 tsp. (5ml) Irish moss
Boil for 14 minutes then add:
1/2 oz. Fuggles (aroma hop)
1/2 oz. Cascade (aroma hop)
Boil for 1 minute, cool and strain into fermenter, add water up to 5 gallons.
Pitch yeast:
1st. choice: Wyeast's 1098 British ale yeast
2nd. choice: Wyeast's 1084 Irish ale yeast

As far as tweaking, the first batch I used British ale yeast and followed the recipe to the letter, the second batch I added the Bittering hops in the last 15 minutes of the 45 minute boil and used the Irish ale yeast.

Just bottled this Saturday so I'll be cracking one open in probably a week.
Let me know if I left out some vital information.

Jason

 

[SkewedBrewing]

This is great, harpoon IPA is one of the few good brews we get at the convenient store around the corner.

 

[Tony]

Awesome! Thanks for posting the recipe. I will have to try it for sure.

Still have a six of Harpoon in my fridge.

 

[RiversC174]

Just double checking because I am definitely using this recipe:

Thats 1 3/4 oz Cluster as in almost two oz right? Not one 3/4 oz packet? I know it is probably the former, just want to be absolutely sure...

And the hops are pellets?

Thanks.

Joe

 

[Flyin' Lion]

Just double checking because I am definitely using this recipe:

Thats 1 3/4 oz Cluster as in almost two oz right? Not one 3/4 oz packet? I know it is probably the former, just want to be absolutely sure...

And the hops are pellets?

Thanks.

Joe

That's correct, one oz and 3/4 of an oz (so yeah almost two oz's). And the hops I used are pellets.

Just to remind everyone, the beer I made is darker than Harpoon and the taste is similar but obviously not an exact match. It's still good but will take some work to make "perfect"

 

[Flyin' Lion]

OK just cracked one open yesterday and here's my critique: Hop flavor didn't change that much considering I added the bittering hops 1/2 hour later than the first time, and it just seems alot sweeter than it should.

Could the sweet flavor come from the lack of hops offsetting it (even though the hop flavor didn't change)? I just may need a second opinion. Just thought I'd let you all know how the "adjustments" went and my suggestion would be to stick to the original recipe.

Jason

 

[Mudd]

OK just cracked one open yesterday and here's my critique: Hop flavor didn't change that much considering I added the bittering hops 1/2 hour later than the first time, and it just seems alot sweeter than it should.

Could the sweet flavor come from the lack of hops offsetting it (even though the hop flavor didn't change)? I just may need a second opinion. Just thought I'd let you all know how the "adjustments" went and my suggestion would be to stick to the original recipe.

Jason

When you say the hop flavor did not change much, are you saying hop flavor as in aroma (flavor) or bitterness (bite)? Just trying to make sure I understand.
IMO; the bitternes would be much lower with 30 min less boil time - 15 min boil vs 45min, and the additional bitterness will offset/compliment the malt sweetness.
What was the OG and FG? If the FG was high, that would also make it sweeter.
To make it lighter, start with abt 1 lb of extract at the begining of the boil and add the remaining extract 20 min before flameout.

 

[Mykel Obvious]

OK just cracked one open yesterday and here's my critique: Hop flavor didn't change that much considering I added the bittering hops 1/2 hour later than the first time, and it just seems alot sweeter than it should.

Could the sweet flavor come from the lack of hops offsetting it (even though the hop flavor didn't change)? I just may need a second opinion. Just thought I'd let you all know how the "adjustments" went and my suggestion would be to stick to the original recipe.

Jason

According to ProMash, the original recipe should give:

OG 1.070
IBUs 78 (the best I can do without knowing the actual AAU of the flavor and aroma hops)

By moving the Clusters to 15 minutes, you dropped the IBUs to 40.8... cutting your bitterness almost in half... that would be my guess on why it tastes a lot sweeter...

Moving all 1 3/4 oz of Clusters to 45 minutes would give you 72.8 IBUs... if you had moved 3/4 oz of the Clusters to 15 minutes (leaving one oz for the full 60 minutes) that would put you at about 62.1 IBUs... not as bitter as the original, but still a nice bitterness level... (IIRC, Ray Daniels stated in "Designing Great Beers" that most people can only detect a change of around 5 IBUs in side by side comparisons, i.e. 70 to 75 etc... so 62 is about 3 "steps" below the original level)

also, if you switched yeast, a different attenuation can lead to more sweetness... FG will give us an idea on that...

hope that helps some,
mikey