Can you Brew It recipe for Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin

[bovinejony]

I'm coming to the realization that the BIAB that I am capable of doing might not work with 16lb's of grain =(. Definitely going to invest in Brewsmith and formulate a recipe that will work on a smaller scale so that I don't kill my poor arms lifting that bag or making my SWMBO go into ape rage over the mess I make by spilling that thing. Thanks for the awesome links Eric, and for the advice sam. I look so forward to brewing this.

 

[clark123456]

I go for this tomorrow. I'll report my outcome once I keg or bottle and age for a bit. Any guidance will be appreciated if you've done this recipe and noticed something that should be adjusted.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I go for this tomorrow. I'll report my outcome once I keg or bottle and age for a bit. Any guidance will be appreciated if you've done this recipe and noticed something that should be adjusted.

If you bottle it, put a strainer bag or something over your autosiphon. Don't let any chunks of WLP002 get into the bottling bucket. Even if a bottle has been in the fridge for a while, the yeast still gets into the glass and being WLP002, it's very flocculent and clumps together.

I usually run my autosiphon over the bottom on wheat beers to pull up some yeast...bad idea here. Now I have yeast chunks riding up and down the glass. I'm starting to hate WLP002 now.

 

[reddskinnfan]

My recommendation is to let this beer age, off the yeast, for at least a week before you dry/keg hop it. But as always, YMMV.

 

[clark123456]

Thanks guys for the feedback. This is my first time with WLP002, so I'll take your words of wisdom to heart and follow the advice.

NEVER MIND THE ORIGINAL QUESTION...I figured it out!

 

[samc]

Thanks guys for the feedback. This is my first time with WLP002, so I'll take your words of wisdom to heart and follow the advice.

I was curious about the hop schedule and possibly going to secondary. I doubt the fermentation will be complete before I'm supposed to do the 3rd day hop addition. I'm wondering if I should go from primary to secondary on the 3rd day (still actively fermenting) and then dry hop immediately OR whether I should leave it in primary and dry hop on the 3rd day and then go to secondary after the fermentation is complete. What should I do?

Sounds like you are confusing things a bit. Not sure where the 3rd day DH comes from? Let the beer primary for 10-14 days, check with hydrometer until you get a steady reading for a few days and then start your dry hopping. I only dry hop when the beer is still winding down the fermentation if I am in some kind of RUSH to get it done, otherwise I wait. Usually I DH for 5-10 days or just bag the leaf hops and do so in the serving keg for as long as it takes to finish the keg.

 

[Jaybird]

I have a BOAT LOAD of people that come into the store and buy this clone recipe. I have tasted (not brewed) it and am blown away at how close this is to the real deal!

We sub the Horizon with Magnum and like others say its so little, in such a big beer who would know.

Thanks for posting it up Eric

Cheers
Jay

 

[clark123456]

Sounds like you are confusing things a bit. Not sure where the 3rd day DH comes from? Let the beer primary for 10-14 days, check with hydrometer until you get a steady reading for a few days and then start your dry hopping. I only dry hop when the beer is still winding down the fermentation if I am in some kind of RUSH to get it done, otherwise I wait. Usually I DH for 5-10 days or just bag the leaf hops and do so in the serving keg for as long as it takes to finish the keg.

Yep, it was a novice brewer issue.

I figured it out this morning while sitting on the crapper and thinking about it. All is well now. I'm going to wait until the fermentation stops, go to secondary, then 3 days before I'm ready to bottle/keg I'll do the DH.

 

[clark123456]

I have a BOAT LOAD of people that come into the store and buy this clone recipe. I have tasted (not brewed) it and am blown away at how close this is to the real deal!

We sub the Horizon with Magnum and like others say its so little, in such a big beer who would know.

Thanks for posting it up Eric

Cheers
Jay

I'm really anxious to taste it! The wort was awesome, so I fully expect the final product to rock.

Due to the cost of hops, this beer isn't one you brew to save a lot of money My direct cost per beer is almost the same as buying it at the store, but it sure will be much better knowing I brewed it and since it was my first AG.

 

[samc]

Yep, it was a novice brewer issue.

I figured it out this morning while sitting on the crapper and thinking about it. All is well now. I'm going to wait until the fermentation stops, go to secondary, then 3 days before I'm ready to bottle/keg I'll do the DH.

No.... 3 days for DH is not enough for this beer. 7 days is better.

As to your costs, it should be a lot less than store bought. It cost me $49 to brew 11 gallons, which is in the $.40/12 oz bottle range.

 

[clark123456]

No.... 3 days for DH is not enough for this beer. 7 days is better.

As to your costs, it should be a lot less than store bought. It cost me $49 to brew 11 gallons, which is in the $.40/12 oz bottle range.

I'll go for 7 days, but the 3 days came from this discussion: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=23265&start=0

My cost, according to Beersmith at my per oz prices, is $44 for a 5G batch plus tax, so $47. This time I bought bottled drinking water, so add another 8 bucks, but in the future I don't know if I'll do that (I usually use tap water, but I decided to try it this time. For $.16/beer, I'll probably go back to tap water).

Here's my breakdown:
Hops $14.50 ($2.15/oz)
Grain $22.94
Yeast $6.50
Water $8.00
Total $51.94
Total + Tax $55.58
Shipping = free since BrewMaster's Warehouse is local.

Where are my costs off?

 

[skeezerpleezer]

If you buy grain and hops in bulk it would be about half the cost. You could also harvest yeast to make it free (basically) and not buy water (add salts/minerals if you desire). I recently bought 100 lbs of 2row for $60, and usually get hops in bulk for ~$1/oz or less depending on the hop. I am sure others get stuff even cheaper, I just don't have the room to really bulk buy.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Here's my breakdown:
Hops $14.50 ($2.15/oz)
Grain $22.94
Yeast $6.50
Water $8.00
Total $51.94
Total + Tax $55.58
Shipping = free since BrewMaster's Warehouse is local.

Where are my costs off?

My costs were high for this recipe too...not as high as yours, but definitely higher than my normal PAs, IPAs, and Irish Reds.

Hops: Well, this recipe does have a crazy hop bill, so my costs were elevated. For most hops of my regular hops (Warrior, Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, etc.), I buy in bulk and get it under $1/oz.

Water: I would pay for a $16.00 water test from Ward Labs and just use tap water that's either been cut with distilled and/or add salts. There's some calculators in the brewing science forum that will help with that.

Grain: The big way to save is to buy a grain mill and buy bulk grain. For my area group buy, I end up getting 2-row @ about $28 for a 55lb sack ($0.45 a pound plus a few bucks for shipping). I bought a barley crusher and it can pay for itself in about 16 batches @ 10lbs of base per batch (using $1.25 for 2-row at LHBS and $0.50 for bulk 2-row).

Yeast: I paid $6.99 for WLP002 as well since I don't use it that often. For yeasts that I use a lot (WY1084 Irish & WLP001 Cali Ale), I wash the yeast and reuse it for many batches.

 

[berley31]

Brewed this recipe mostly as-is, except used all Nugget as the 90-minute addition, and subbed Tettnang for Santiam, I believe.

Just started drinking it the past couple of days. Pretty tasty beer. I don't have the commercial beer available in my area, but I remember the real thing being much more bitter. I'm still a little confused as to why the recipe calls for low 30s IBU, and the bottle states something like low 70s, doesn't it? I also missed my OG by 8 points (came in at 1.062) somehow, which, you would think, would make the bitterness of the beer more apparent.

Anyway, it's definitely tasty, and has a great aroma from that whack of dry-hops (which I did for 7 days).

 

[reddskinnfan]

Mine came out a little fruity. I don't remember the commercial version having that flavor, but it's been a while since I've had it. Anyone else get a fruity undertone to the beer? My fermentation was 64F for 2 days, then 68F for two days, then 72F for another 4-5 days.

Could it be the 4-5 days at 72F that made it come out with the fruity esters?

I am interested to see if anyone else noticed this on their final product. I am just about to start crash cooling it now, so I will report back in a few days to see if this is just a warm flavor or if it still lingers in the keg.

-Mike

 

[clark123456]

My costs were high for this recipe too...not as high as yours, but definitely higher than my normal PAs, IPAs, and Irish Reds.

Hops: Well, this recipe does have a crazy hop bill, so my costs were elevated. For most hops of my regular hops (Warrior, Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, etc.), I buy in bulk and get it under $1/oz.

Water: I would pay for a $16.00 water test from Ward Labs and just use tap water that's either been cut with distilled and/or add salts. There's some calculators in the brewing science forum that will help with that.

Grain: The big way to save is to buy a grain mill and buy bulk grain. For my area group buy, I end up getting 2-row @ about $28 for a 55lb sack ($0.45 a pound plus a few bucks for shipping). I bought a barley crusher and it can pay for itself in about 16 batches @ 10lbs of base per batch (using $1.25 for 2-row at LHBS and $0.50 for bulk 2-row).

Yeast: I paid $6.99 for WLP002 as well since I don't use it that often. For yeasts that I use a lot (WY1084 Irish & WLP001 Cali Ale), I wash the yeast and reuse it for many batches.

I've pulled the trigger on the grain mill, storage containers, lids, and a scale. While I was spending money I decided to get a refractometer and a digital pocket scale for the hops.

It'll be years before I get my per beer cost down to retail levels; unless I switch to a style that is super expensive to buy at retail

 

[reddskinnfan]

Bump. Anyone, anyone?

 

[clark123456]

Bump. Anyone, anyone?

Bump...

I won't know for a few weeks. My fermentation has been on the warm side (70-72), so we'll know soon if that is the cause. I'm nervous now and working on a way to make my fermentation room cooler.

 

[samc]

With all the hops I'd be hard pressed to tell fruity esters derived from fermentation. However 4 days at 68F or under would leave me to believe that your fermentation would not give you over the top esters. You are also trying to judge a beer that has not even made it to carbing, relax and check it in after a few weeks of carb & conditioning time.

 

[bovinejony]

Just brewed this bad boy up over the weekend. Hit 1.076 OG with around 5.75gallon post-boil volume. I upped the hoppage since I wanted my IBU's closer to around 60+. The wort smelled delicious. The only set-back is having to sit around on like 8 oz's of hops waiting to be dry-hopped, I just want to use these delicious bad-boys for another great beer. Anyway thanks for the recipe. I'll post back results. (fermenting ~65-70F, using notty, ill report back on flavors).

 

[clark123456]

Ok, I was a bit behind on going to secondary due to life, but I did it tonight. The gravity reading was 1.016 at 71F. I went way to far on fermentation versus the plan and I'm sure it's mainly related to my fermentation temp (~71F). This beer will be very high in ABV and likely not hit the target...but only time, time, time will tell.

NOTE: Due to this experience (too hot) and my winter brewing experience (too cold), I broke down and built a fermentation chamber. The obsession continues a few hundred bucks at a time

 

[clark123456]

Last night I opened one of the beers. It was much darker and cloudier than the real beer. It also lacked proper carbonation, which may be related to the long duration and high temperature primary fermentation. Regardless of the cause of low carbonation, it is not very good flat. The hops are ok, but until I compare it side-by-side with the real thing I won't know for sure if they're spot on. I'm not tasting nasty esters, but as another user suggested, this thing is so hopped up it's hard for me to sort through all of the aromas to pick out just one.

 

[bovinejony]

Just bottled this bad boy. I noticed a lot more trub from this batch made its way into the fermenter (haven't used wheat much and suspect it is the cause) than my previous batches, but the fermentation still went smoothly and even ended at a surprising 1.010 (used Notty). I did ferment a little warmer (1st week ~68-70, 2nd week 70, 3rd and forth 70-75), so that probably helped a lot. I can't conclude anything yet but the sampling I had while bottling showed a damn good beer. I will have to pick some sumptin up and do a side-by side, either way, this beer is deliciously hoppy and wheaty. Mucho Gusto.

 

[clark123456]

I had another one tonight. Still flat, but a damn good beer once I get over the high alcohol content. I'll definitely try this one again with some corrections to my errors! I wouldn't return it due to flavor or aroma, but the lack of carbonation is concerning.

 

[jedheuer]

I brewed this one over this past weekend. Only my 3rd brew attempt but I feel good about it except that I ended up short on volume. I only ended up with 4.5 gallons at the end of boil. Gravity was right on though at 1.070. My question is should i adjust dry hopping for the lesser volume? if so how do i figure it out? I am stuck with the hopping as I followed the recipe through to that point. Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I would do the normal dry hop. I can't imagine how you could over dry-hop it (or any ipa).

 

[SankePankey]

I tried this recipe with WLP 007 dry english ale. It doesn't taste like LSS. LSS has a round sweetness in the mid palate that mine is totally missing. Also, I thought I toasted the hell out of those grains and they didn't impart a toasted flavor, so I'd suggest toasting them a whole lot. I toasted for a half hour and they weren't very dark. If they were nuts or something they would have caught on fire.

Anyways, I've got a bunch of alcoholic wheat IPA with no malt backbone to finish. It's getting better with age, but it sure isn't LSS.

EDIT: I was just tired of underattenuating yeast, sweet beers, but I learned my lesson...

 

[cwheel]

I brewed this up on Friday, and tasted the primary today (wanted to check on progress). I think I might have gotten close by doing the following:

1) Used Tasty's water profile for pale ales, which has a rather high SO4 level (350 ppm). I have very soft well water, and normally add a teaspoon of Gypsum and a Teaspoon of CaCl2 to just the mash. This hasn't been getting me anywhere near his water bill. So I followed his exactly (ended up with something like 1.5 teaspoons of Gypsum in the mash, 2 in the sparge, and small amounts of CaCl2, Epsom salt, and NaCl). This is way more gypsum than I normally use.

2) I took the first Liter of mash runnings, and boiled it down to a thick syrupy deliciousness. Took about 30 mins of boiling to remove all water and caramalize. Added back into the boil with 10 minutes left.

It's still very early, so I'll report back after dry hopping, but I wanted to see what other people are using for their water salts when brewing this clone.

I feel like the water is important in getting that Lagunitas sweetness, and I also feel like all of my previous Lagunitas clones (mainly IPA) missed that toffee / caramel sweetness that Lagunitas beers seem to have. I can't believe this is strictly from their yeast, so I was thinking that maybe they crank up their boil kettle to full blast, and develop hot spots in the process that lend a bit of caramel/toffee to their beers.

I don't know, maybe I'm crazy...

 

[user 57668]

I brewed this up on Friday, and tasted the primary today (wanted to check on progress). I think I might have gotten close by doing the following:

1) Used Tasty's water profile for pale ales, which has a rather high SO4 level (350 ppm). I have very soft well water, and normally add a teaspoon of Gypsum and a Teaspoon of CaCl2 to just the mash. This hasn't been getting me anywhere near his water bill. So I followed his exactly (ended up with something like 1.5 teaspoons of Gypsum in the mash, 2 in the sparge, and small amounts of CaCl2, Epsom salt, and NaCl). This is way more gypsum than I normally use.

2) I took the first Liter of mash runnings, and boiled it down to a thick syrupy deliciousness. Took about 30 mins of boiling to remove all water and caramalize. Added back into the boil with 10 minutes left.

It's still very early, so I'll report back after dry hopping, but I wanted to see what other people are using for their water salts when brewing this clone.

I feel like the water is important in getting that Lagunitas sweetness, and I also feel like all of my previous Lagunitas clones (mainly IPA) missed that toffee / caramel sweetness that Lagunitas beers seem to have. I can't believe this is strictly from their yeast, so I was thinking that maybe they crank up their boil kettle to full blast, and develop hot spots in the process that lend a bit of caramel/toffee to their beers.

I don't know, maybe I'm crazy...

How did this turn out?

 

[ryancrook]

::bump::