Brewed a Pliny The Elder clone

[dyetube]

So my roommate and I brewed the official Pliny the Elder kit from morebeer.com tonight. I haven't brewed in over 7 years and there was a LOT of trub in the brew kettle once the wort was cooled to 70° (this kit has a ton of hop additions). So, I goofed and thought I should try and strain this trub out with a sieve when racking to the primary, lol. All that did was spill wort on the floor (more than I wanted to). Had I been thinking, I would've just racked to the primary without any kind of filtering and let the trub naturally settle in the primary. Also, the OG came in at 1.085 which could mean a 9% abv final product depending on FG. The kit's says the OG should be around 1.070-1.075. Doesn't give an estimated FG though so we shall see in 7-10 days.

Also, following the directions, I added all the LME and DME to the boil at 60 minutes out. Because of that, the beer is way darker than I'd like it to be for an IIPA. Almost like a dark ale. I should've followed the advice here and put in 1/3 at beginning of boil and the rest at 15 minutes before flameout. It's only a color thing and that's no biggie, but next time I'll know.

Sooooo... rdwhahb!

PS: My room smells great from the beer! Haha.

 

[Pkrd]

Pliny is a great beer, but yeah, tons of trub, and really boozy.

 

[seatazzz]

Welcome to the obsession of brewing this beautiful DIPA. I've done it twice (both AG) and the second one just isn't there. Probably because I thought it was a great idea to dry hop in the keg...4 weeks from kegging and it's a hop bomb, NTTAWWT, but it's almost too much for me. Next time I'll do all my dry hopping in the fermenter.

 

[dyetube]

Welcome to the obsession of brewing this beautiful DIPA. I've done it twice (both AG) and the second one just isn't there. Probably because I thought it was a great idea to dry hop in the keg...4 weeks from kegging and it's a hop bomb, NTTAWWT, but it's almost too much for me. Next time I'll do all my dry hopping in the fermenter.

Was it too much citrus in the aroma from keg hoping? I bottle and don't keg so wouldn't be an issue. Plus this is the extract, not AG kit. Also, If I can get my FG down to around 1.010, this beer will be a 9 1/2% abv beer instead of 8 (my OG was 1.085) like it's supposed to be. So it'll be closer to Pliny the Younger.

 

[seatazzz]

No, the aroma is just fine, it's just way too hoppy and weird on the flavor. All I taste right now is hops. The first one I did had a nice balance of malt and hops. Don't skimp on dry hopping (in the fermenter), with that high of ABV you'll want to balance it.

 

[dyetube]

Interestingly, my Pliny extract kit came with 2oz of whole leaf Cascade hops that were steeped with the specialty grains for 30 minutes and then removed and then boil started. None of the other clone recipes have Cascade hops in them. According to morebeer.com, "This is THE original Pliny recipe, given to us directly by Vinnie." Shouldn't this be the correct recipe, not the others? Why do you suppose no one else uses cascade hops and what's the purpose of just steeping the hops for 30 minutes at 170°? Will that impart some bitterness?

 

[tdp]

If you wanted to bring down the OG a little you could have added some (bottled/distilled) water to dilute --- a good problem to have - means more beer!

 

[tdp]

I kegged my first attempt at this beer last week.. it's good but not great and I'm wondering if maybe my mash temp was a little low - It's seems a little thin. I mashed at 152 recirculating with a grainfather... also - has anyone thrown some dry hop into the keg ?? (Perhaps will give it a little something)

 

[dyetube]

I kegged my first attempt at this beer last week.. it's good but not great and I'm wondering if maybe my mash temp was a little low - It's seems a little thin. I mashed at 152 recirculating with a grainfather... also - has anyone thrown some dry hop into the keg ?? (Perhaps will give it a little something)

I've heard good things about dry hopping in the keg, but since I bottle, I couldn't tell you about that. I will say that since this extract has SOOOOOO many hops in it, dry hopping in the keg seems like it wouldn't do much to add flavor or aroma to the beer. I didn't whirlpool hop, I only hopped at 90, 60, 30, 15 and flameout. Plus 5 oz in the fermentor. With SO many hops, nothing else seems like it would do much. lol.

 

[hottpeper13]

Interestingly, my Pliny extract kit came with 2oz of whole leaf Cascade hops that were steeped with the specialty grains for 30 minutes and then removed and then boil started. None of the other clone recipes have Cascade hops in them. According to morebeer.com, "This is THE original Pliny recipe, given to us directly by Vinnie." Shouldn't this be the correct recipe, not the others? Why do you suppose no one else uses cascade hops and what's the purpose of just steeping the hops for 30 minutes at 170°? Will that impart some bitterness?

Steeping the hops like that is the way extract brewers do a FWH addition. Doing FWH is a great way to add flavor that seems to stay around longer.