Cloning HopHands by Tired Hands Brewing Company

[Coff]

I mentioned in my original post that I threw half of batch #1 into a keg and added Brett Custersianus, that batch is down to 1.010 (down from 1.016) and tasking mighty fine so I am going to dry hop and carb it up and hopefully drink this weekend.

I have some tasting notes on my Vermont Ale batch to post tomorrow as well.

Oh and I posted the recipe in the recipe forums. Feel free to post there to, I also updated to the most recent recipe there.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/tired-hands-hophands-clone-479325/#post6195197

 

[cuda6pak]

Just bought the ingredients to do this brew this coming weekend. Went with 15% oats. Yeast will be either S-04 or S-05, not sure yet.

 

[Gus_13]

I plan on doing this clone very soon. I was at TH last week and this beer blew me away along with Fourth Level and the single hop series. They are doing some great things at TH. Also bought a GrimReefer shirt. Those things were bad ass!

 

[Coff]

Here are some notes from batch #2 with 12.5% Oats and The Yeast Bay's Vermont Ale. Batch #3 is already in the fermentor, still Vermont Ale.

http://riverwards.blogspot.com/2014/07/hopwards-batch-2-tasting-notes-and.html

Tasting notes coming up on a version that I aged with Brett Custersianus next.

 

[thomascirca]

I can't wait to brew this. Any chance you're going to trying clone any of their other beers?

 

[wobrien]

I can't wait to brew this. Any chance you're going to trying clone any of their other beers?

I brewed a first shot at cloning MoMoCoe. It's ok, but I'm going to use a similar grain bill to this hop hands clone for version two. It'll be my next brew day (prob in a couple months)

 

[Coff]

I can't wait to brew this. Any chance you're going to trying clone any of their other beers?

Just 10 days ago I took a stab at FarmHands (SaisonHands now but that name sucks). Really just a simple Saison with Cascade, kind of guessed on the hopping rates. A portion of the batch was fermented with a culture that a friend built up from one of their barrel aged saisons, tons of funky stuff, which I will age on Chardonnay soaked out to mimic HandFarm (which is SaisonHands aged in Chardonnay barrels).

Pretty excited for that one.

 

[wobrien]

Just 10 days ago I took a stab at FarmHands (SaisonHands now but that name sucks). Really just a simple Saison with Cascade, kind of guessed on the hopping rates. A portion of the batch was fermented with a culture that a friend built up from one of their barrel aged saisons, tons of funky stuff, which I will age on Chardonnay soaked out to mimic HandFarm (which is SaisonHands aged in Chardonnay barrels).



Pretty excited for that one.

I just brewed a saison and we were talking about the Chardonnay/oak aging. Do you think that a soak in wine is enough to "sanitize" oak chips?

 

[Jersey_Jim]

The batch I ended up doing with Vermont Ale yeast and 15% oats turned out fantastic. With the help of some friends, the keg lasted only 1 week in my house. I decided to brew another batch last weekend using rehydrated S-04. Looking forward to seeing the differences. Great recipe Coff. I'm going to be brewing this alot in the future.

 

[Coff]

I just brewed a saison and we were talking about the Chardonnay/oak aging. Do you think that a soak in wine is enough to "sanitize" oak chips?

It probably is, but I like to boil the cubes before I soak them in the wine anyway. In a beer like this Im not afraid of wild yeast, but Im not necessarily looking for whats living inside of that plastic baggy. Plus I like to strip a little bit of the oak character out, I want subtle oak not something overpowering.

The batch I ended up doing with Vermont Ale yeast and 15% oats turned out fantastic. With the help of some friends, the keg lasted only 1 week in my house. I decided to brew another batch last weekend using rehydrated S-04. Looking forward to seeing the differences. Great recipe Coff. I'm going to be brewing this alot in the future.

Cheers! Glad you guys are diggin it.

I am going to a pool party at a friends house this weekend and he has a batch of this on tap for the occasion, Im excited to see how his turned out. He used s04 and 15% Oats as well.

 

[Coff]

I am going to a pool party at a friends house this weekend and he has a batch of this on tap for the occasion, Im excited to see how his turned out. He used s04 and 15% Oats as well.

My buddy's version of the beer was fantastic, exactly how I picture it to be when I brew it myself. There were some non-craft beer folk who were really impressed by it.

 

[Staghead556]

To the OP you are the MAN! Brewed this twice. First time my effeciancy was awful and the brew came out to be 3%. Second time around i got er dialed in. Its deadnuts on. Thank you!!!! Its my new all the time brew to have on tap


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[cherbhy]

Coff, thanks for doing the work to clone this beer. I cannot wait to brew it.

 

[Coff]

To the OP you are the MAN! Brewed this twice. First time my effeciancy was awful and the brew came out to be 3%. Second time around i got er dialed in. Its deadnuts on. Thank you!!!! Its my new all the time brew to have on tap


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Cheers! Thats awesome to hear, nothing better than a big overhopped session beer under 5%.

Coff, thanks for doing the work to clone this beer. I cannot wait to brew it.

Be sure to let us know how it turns out, good luck.

 

[cuda6pak]

Kegged mine yesterday (15% oats with S-04) and it tasted great. Lately my FG has been getting down LOOOW and this one went to 1.005 so it ended up around 5.9%, not quite sessionable but not bad either! I kegged it on top of the 6oz of dry hops and am letting it sit at room temp for a few days before putting it back in the keezer and putting it on draft. Looking forward to it!

 

[PissyFingers]

This sounds very nice! Never had it as i live in New Zealand but very keen to brew this as a session pale ale for the coming summer. One question for the OP, did you just put the oats in the mash with the base malt raw, or did you cook them then add them in?

cheers!

 

[Coff]

This sounds very nice! Never had it as i live in New Zealand but very keen to brew this as a session pale ale for the coming summer. One question for the OP, did you just put the oats in the mash with the base malt raw, or did you cook them then add them in?

cheers!

I just mash them as you normally would if using rolled oats in a stoat or something. No need to pre-gelatinize them.

 

[priceman75]

This recipe sounds great! I'm a huge fan of Tired Hands, but living in SouthNJ its hard to make the 2-3 hr. commute. Having this as a go to beer would be great.

I'm a new all grain brewer. I've made the switch from extract to BIAB. I have a couple of questions.

1. Should I use a yeast starter for this beer?

2. Did you adjust for mash PH? Any gypsum additions?

3. Are you keeping this beer in a primary or did you rack to secondary for dry hop? As for dry hopping, do you add hops directly to vessel? or add to bag then in vessel? Any cold crash?

I appreciate any helpful information.

 

[Coff]

This recipe sounds great! I'm a huge fan of Tired Hands, but living in SouthNJ its hard to make the 2-3 hr. commute. Having this as a go to beer would be great.

I'm a new all grain brewer. I've made the switch from extract to BIAB. I have a couple of questions.

1. Should I use a yeast starter for this beer?

2. Did you adjust for mash PH? Any gypsum additions?

3. Are you keeping this beer in a primary or did you rack to secondary for dry hop? As for dry hopping, do you add hops directly to vessel? or add to bag then in vessel? Any cold crash?

I appreciate any helpful information.

1. I always make starters, or pitch enough slurry based on http://yeastcalculator.com/ or mrmalty.com but this is a relatively small beer so its not entirely necessarily if youre using S-04 as the dry yeast should have plenty of cells for a healthy fermentation.

2. I do adjust for mash PH, i shoot for Burton on Trent profile and a mash PH 5.3

3. I do a 7-10 primary, then rack to a keg where I dry hop for 4-5 days in a nylon bag suspended in the keg. Once the 4-5 days are up I remove the dry hop bag and throw it in the fridge and connect the co2. If youre bottling I would just suspend the hop bag right in primary for 4-5 then rack to your bottling bucket to bottle. That would put you at ~15 days i primary including the dry hop, which should be perfectly fine. You could rack to secondary and dry hop there and then to your bottling bucket but I am a proponent of as little racking as possible.

 

[tcxryno]

1. I always make starters, or pitch enough slurry based on http://yeastcalculator.com/ or mrmalty.com but this is a relatively small beer so its not entirely necessarily if youre using S-04 as the dry yeast should have plenty of cells for a healthy fermentation.

2. I do adjust for mash PH, i shoot for Burton on Trent profile and a mash PH 5.3

3. I do a 7-10 primary, then rack to a keg where I dry hop for 4-5 days in a nylon bag suspended in the keg. Once the 4-5 days are up I remove the dry hop bag and throw it in the fridge and connect the co2. If youre bottling I would just suspend the hop bag right in primary for 4-5 then rack to your bottling bucket to bottle. That would put you at ~15 days i primary including the dry hop, which should be perfectly fine. You could rack to secondary and dry hop there and then to your bottling bucket but I am a proponent of as little racking as possible.

Whats your reasoning behind racking to a keg and THEN dry-hopping. As apposed to dry-hopping in the primary and then transferring to a keg?

 

[Coff]

Whats your reasoning behind racking to a keg and THEN dry-hopping. As apposed to dry-hopping in the primary and then transferring to a keg?

Ive done it both ways, but its a massive bitch to try to squeeze a nylon bag with 6oz of spent dry hops out of the neck of a Better Bottle. But really, either method is going to work fine.

However, I do think that dry hopping then racking to the keg you can run the risk of blowing off some aromatics. Even if youre super careful during the transfer, I just like to be as gentle as possible.

 

[priceman75]

Great stuff. Thank you for all the information.
Gonna give it a try Saturday.

 

[priceman75]

Will adjusting water using the Burton-on-Trent profile be enough to lock in mash pH?
I ask because I was thinking of buying the mash 5.2 stabilizer.
Any thoughts?

 

[Coff]

Water chemistry, ugh, probably the weakest part of my brewing repertoire. I have a very good grasp on my current tap water, I say current bc I am moving in 2 months, and how exactly to handle it for both hoppy beers and Saison which is 95% of what I brew.

To answer your question though, may/maybe not. It all depends on your base water report, you shouldnt be adding any salts if you do not know what your water is like. You could at the very least take a mash PH reading and adjust according to Bru'n Waters recommendations.

Dont get me started on 5.2 stabilizer, its **** imo. May work for some people but youre blindly adding some random salts to your mash that may or may not help the PH.

 

[priceman75]

I just got a water report last week. After plugging the numbers in to achieve the Burton-on-Trent profile, I should be adding .68 Epsom salts, .42 calcium chloride and .5 chalk.
I guess these would go directly into the mash.
I'm trying my best but this stuff is hard to understand. I almost feel like I need a phd.

 

[m00se]

I've been experimenting with this recipe this summer and have been extremely pleased with the results. 1st attempt I did a Citra single hop with Conan. The hop freshness lasted well past the 4wk time frame where I usually see a drop off. Although I prefer this recipe with a 3 hop combo.

I just tapped galaxy/mosaic/Centennial version with s04 that is also very promising. Great summer crusher recipe. I also split this batch and the 2nd carboy saw a pitch of Conan/Brett Trois. It's sitting at 1010 after 3wk.

Thanks Ed!

 

[Coff]

I've been experimenting with this recipe this summer and have been extremely pleased with the results. 1st attempt I did a Citra single hop with Conan. The hop freshness lasted well past the 4wk time frame where I usually see a drop off. Although I prefer this recipe with a 3 hop combo.

I just tapped galaxy/mosaic/Centennial version with s04 that is also very promising. Great summer crusher recipe. I also split this batch and the 2nd carboy saw a pitch of Conan/Brett Trois. It's sitting at 1010 after 3wk.

Thanks Ed!

Good to hear youre playing with some different hops with this grain bill. I have been doing the same and am planning another just like it. I have noticed that the hops hang on for a while to, maybe bc its so over hopped that when they fall off it still lands at an acceptable level, but i was shocked at the last pour of a 7 week old keg of this.

This beer works fantastically with fruity Brett strains. I had been meaning to post a review on a few of them, one 100% Brett Trois and the other S04/Brett Custer. Im not a huge fan of the Brett Custer batch but its still interesting, weird artificial candy sweetness. But the Brett Trois batch is nearly better than the clean.

 

[priceman75]

Brew day went great and my beer hit its final gravity reading day 5.
I'm gonna rack to keg for dry hopping tomorrow. Do I need to cold crash prior to transferring to the keg?

This will also be my first dry hop.
After day 4-5 dry hop, won't there be hop residue in the beer? Do I need to do anything to make sure it's a clear beer?

Thanks

 

[ryancrook]

So 2 things. I entered batch 1 into a local competition with 200 entries and it took 2nd in best if show. So even when heavy on the oats people like it as much as I do.

I rebrewed this recipe last week, I toned down the Oats to ~12.5% and used The Yeast Bay Vermont Ale. I have very high hopes for batch 2.

What category did you enter this as?

 

[Coff]

Brew day went great and my beer hit its final gravity reading day 5.
I'm gonna rack to keg for dry hopping tomorrow. Do I need to cold crash prior to transferring to the keg?

This will also be my first dry hop.
After day 4-5 dry hop, won't there be hop residue in the beer? Do I need to do anything to make sure it's a clear beer?

Thanks

I dont cold crash, I like to get this beer dry hopped and drinking asap so it stays fresh. But it seems to stay pretty fresh for 2+ months in a keg, hast lasted on tap longer than that.

I dont care about haze, this is a super hoppy aromatic beer and it would be hard to get it clear with so many dry hops. Just dry hop it and drink it imo.

What category did you enter this as?

10A American Pale ale, really this beer doesnt fit in that style but its too good for a judge to brush off

This beer is probably more of a session IPA if you want to classify it that way, which is really just a pale ale with more dry hops anyway.