Cloning New England Brewing Company's Gandhi-bot

[Remmy]

Hey nuke, my OG was 1.078. Smells hoppy as ****. I can't wait to drink this stuff.

I pitched the Conan, which was absolutely hammering the DME in my starter. Hope the lid on my primary doesn't pop off.

 

[LoloMT7]

Hey nuke, my OG was 1.078. Smells hoppy as ****. I can't wait to drink this stuff.

I pitched the Conan, which was absolutely hammering the DME in my starter. Hope the lid on my primary doesn't pop off.

Picture or it didn't happen!

 

[Remmy]

Picture or it didn't happen!

Oh, it happened alright. You might get to taste the finished product.

 

[nukebrewer]

Hey nuke, my OG was 1.078. Smells hoppy as ****. I can't wait to drink this stuff.

I pitched the Conan, which was absolutely hammering the DME in my starter. Hope the lid on my primary doesn't pop off.

Nice! I was smelling my airlock the day after I brewed it and it smelled faintly of Gandhi-bot. Can't wait until next week when I get to open it up and get a good whiff while I add the dry hops. Not sure if I should do the dry hops in one addition or two yet.

 

[Remmy]

Mine smells really damn good. The airlock is out of control.

 

[Shred]

Subscribed. I'm interested to see if this actually gets down to 1.009. I just did a somewhat similar brew and wasn't able to get it under 1.016 :/

 

[Remmy]

The Conan is so violent, I had to change my airlock. The thing was full of krausen when I woke up this morning. It smells so damn good.

 

[JohnnyO]

Get a blowoff tube on that thing!

 

[nukebrewer]

As seasoned a brewer as I am, on this one I just couldn't resist. I popped open the fermenter for a quick whiff today and got b!tch slapped with hop aroma. I'll probably be adding the dry hops on Wednesday or so.

 

[Remmy]

Get a blowoff tube on that thing!

I did.

As seasoned a brewer as I am, on this one I just couldn't resist. I popped open the fermenter for a quick whiff today and got b!tch slapped with hop aroma. I'll probably be adding the dry hops on Wednesday or so.

Not going to do that just yet. Mine smelled insane, though. I'm going to give it 10 days more before I transfer to secondary and dry hop.

 

[nukebrewer]

Took a gravity reading today on day eight of fermentation. It's down to 1.011 as predicted by BeerSmith because of the reduction in the corn sugar add. This beer right now smells and tastes pretty close to Gandhi-bot. After a hit of dry hops for four days I am expecting it to be very close once it has some carbonation to carry the aroma. I am really glad I e-mailed the brewer because there is no way I would've got this close on the first try without his help. Never would have guessed Columbus was one of the late hops.

 

[Remmy]

Good stuff. Just took a gravity reading of mine because your post made me! Sitting at 1.030 after 4 days. This beer smells hoppy as hell, smells just like peach and tastes like pineapple. It's very yellow in color almost the color of Heady Topper at the moment.

 

[LoloMT7]

Took a gravity reading today on day eight of fermentation. It's down to 1.011 as predicted by BeerSmith because of the reduction in the corn sugar add. This beer right now smells and tastes pretty close to Gandhi-bot. After a hit of dry hops for four days I am expecting it to be very close once it has some carbonation to carry the aroma. I am really glad I e-mailed the brewer because there is no way I would've got this close on the first try without his help. Never would have guessed Columbus was one of the late hops.

I Love Columbus I think that CTZ is all around a great hop!

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I Love Columbus I think that CTZ is all around a great hop!

One of my favorites! Works well for bittering, flavor, and aroma IMO. I have gone through almost 2lbs of it myself this year

 

[nukebrewer]

Added the dry hops tonight. Probably not going to make much of a difference, but I decided to up the Columbus dry hops to 3 oz instead of 2 oz just so I could say I used a full pound of hops in this batch.

 

[Remmy]

Good ****, nuke.

Can we trade bottles once they're carbed?

 

[nukebrewer]

Absolutely! I would love to see how this recipe is with Conan. I'm working most Saturdays these days so NEBCO is out, but if you wouldn't mind meeting up at Two Roads one Sunday in the near future I would be down for that. Failing that we could just meet at a non-beer place, but that would be pretty lame, haha.

 

[Remmy]

Absolutely! I would love to see how this recipe is with Conan. I'm working most Saturdays these days so NEBCO is out, but if you wouldn't mind meeting up at Two Roads one Sunday in the near future I would be down for that. Failing that we could just meet at a non-beer place, but that would be pretty lame, haha.

That works. I am 15 minutes from both.

My IPA is still going. Still bubbling, although slightly. I will wait another 4-5 days before I transfer to secondary and take a gravity sample. That'll determine whether I dry hop or not.

 

[Remmy]

Going to secondary mine today and add the hops. Still smells unbelievable.

 

[Remmy]

Dry-hopping as we speak. Beer isn't quite down to where I wanted it to be but then again I could've used a lb or more of DME to get it to Gandhi-esque ABV.

 

[nukebrewer]

Dry-hopping as we speak. Beer isn't quite down to where I wanted it to be but then again I could've used a lb or more of DME to get it to Gandhi-esque ABV.

How far down did it get? With an OG 0f 1.078 (right?), it would have to be pretty underattenuated to be less than 8%. I would call over 8% close enough.

Removed the dry hops last night and took a gravity sample. It's a has a bit of a fruitier aspect to it than before the dry hops. Not sure how that's going to effect the final beer as far as how close it is to Gandhi-bot, but my pre-dry hop sample tasted really close, so I fear it may be a detriment. Not saying it won't be good, the sample I just took was very good, just think it wasn't as close to Gandhi as the first one. We'll find out in about two weeks because I will be bottling this bad boy tomorrow afternoon or evening.

 

[Remmy]

It's currently sitting at 1.024. I Secondaried it today and had to put a blowoff tube on. The yeast are still working a bit. There is still some activity.

One of the reasons I added a blowoff is because I added two muslin bags with hops in them and once they began to soak up beer and float to the top (and ultimately expand), it led to an overflow out of the airlock.

The activity/bubbles carried the muslin bags even higher up into the neck of the carboy.


I also harvested the yeast for future use. I have 4 mason jars of Conan now.

 

[nukebrewer]

Bottled up the batch. Two more weeks until the official results are in but so far it's looking good. Got all the numbers pretty much spot on, but I did have an issue with hop absorption. I had just over 5 gallons into the fermenter and only about 4 1/3 gallons come out. I severely underestimated the power of 4 ounces of hops to absorb wort. I even wrung them out when I removed them and they still had absorbed a lot of wort. I ended up getting 44 bottles out of it which was actually more than expected once I saw what was in the bottling bucket. I'll have to compare it a real GB, but I think I got the color pretty damn close. Maybe just a tad darker than GB. Check it out.


Untitled by aaron.j.lott, on Flickr

 

[JohnnyO]

Nice work.

I recognize that glass.

 

[nukebrewer]

Doing a side by side with the clone and a real GB. Gandhi on the left, clone on the right. First thing I noticed was that mine needs some more carbonation which will come with a little more conditioning time. Second thing is that Gandhi is just a shade lighter than the clone, so I will have to back off on the C40 next time. For the star of the show, the hops, I feel like I pretty much nailed this. The aroma, while the clone is not as strong (due to the current undercarbbed state of the beer), it's pretty much the same as far as the content of the aroma. The flavor is right on, or at least so close that my palate cannot discern the difference, though I think the clone might actually be a touch more bitter than GB. Body and finish are also almost spot on. So the tentative result, though I will do another side by side once it's fully carbed, is that with a couple minor adjustments to color and bitterness levels we'll have ourselves a good old fashioned Gandhi-bot clone! This will definitely be brewed again in short order and I will be enjoying the current version while waiting for the next one to ferment and carb.


20131105_164300 by aaron.j.lott, on Flickr

 

[finsfan]

that is a thing of beauty! Nice job nuke, I will be making this once I make all the other brews that are in line

 

[Remmy]

Good stuff, nuke.

My clone smells hoppier than the real Gandhi. I can't wait until this stuff is carbed.

 

[nukebrewer]

that is a thing of beauty! Nice job nuke, I will be making this once I make all the other brews that are in line

Thanks! I'd wait until I or someone else nails the recipe, though, but with all your other brews in line you probably have plenty of time. Instead of the Centennial IPA I had planned next I will be brewing this again with the modifications I mentioned.

Good stuff, nuke.

My clone smells hoppier than the real Gandhi. I can't wait until this stuff is carbed.

Thanks! Excited to try it as well as to have you try mine.

 

[finsfan]

Thanks! I'd wait until I or someone else nails the recipe, though, but with all your other brews in line you probably have plenty of time. Instead of the Centennial IPA I had planned next I will be brewing this again with the modifications I mentioned.

With as close as it sounds like you got, there shouldnt be much to tweak. I really only have 2 recipes that I absolutely need to do, Yoopers hoppy amber ale and this! https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/pumpkin-buffalo-sweat-clone-441026/

I will probably move this up to spot #3

 

[nukebrewer]

With as close as it sounds like you got, there shouldnt be much to tweak. I really only have 2 recipes that I absolutely need to do, Yoopers hoppy amber ale and this! https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/pumpkin-buffalo-sweat-clone-441026/

I will probably move this up to spot #3

True, but at least go with my recommended tweaks, which I will edit the original post to reflect.