Festa West Coast IPA?

[DownstairsBrewing]

Wondering if anyone has ever tried to clone the Festa West Coast IPA? Still probably my favourite batch, but I'd like to get there myself.

 

[IslandLizard]

I've never had it or even heard of it.
I Googled around, but could not find any cloning instructions or an ingredients list for those kits.

But I did find this information:

Festa Brew - West Coast IPA
by Festa Brew

This former limited seasonal release became so popular, that it was added to the year round line up! Back by “hop-ular” demand!

Hopped to the hilt with citrusy Cascade hops, yet not too bitter. Amber in colour, 6.5% alc, and enough rich malt for the perfect balance.

23 Litres of wort | OG: 1.058, FG: 1.014, Yeast: Safale US-05, IBUs: 42, colour: 14 L, Alc/vol: 6.5%

Maybe start with an amber wort, say from a 2-Hearted or Fat Tire clone, then experiment with Cascade hop additions. It's an IPA, so a good bittering charge to say 30-40 IBU, possibly a late boil or flameout addition, followed by one or 2 lower temp (180-170F for 15' and 160-150F for 30') whirlpool additions.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

That is more or less what I was thinking - I don't think the hops are particularly complicated. But the malt balance and mash might be really what defines it. I don't generally have access to Fat Tire or Two-headed, so using them as a comparator only gets me so far.

I might just sit down and go through that BYO 300 clones book to find an IPA that gets as close as possible to those parameters, especially the OG and IBUs, and then sort of Cascade-swap. There might be a little bit of a bittering hop in there too, but not much and it is quite possible that the bittering is all Cascade as well.

 

[IslandLizard]

That is more or less what I was thinking - I don't think the hops are particularly complicated. But the malt balance and mash might be really what defines it. I don't generally have access to Fat Tire or Two-headed, so using them as a comparator only gets me so far.

I might just sit down and go through that BYO 300 clones book to find an IPA that gets as close as possible to those parameters, especially the OG and IBUs, and then sort of Cascade-swap. There might be a little bit of a bittering hop in there too, but not much and it is quite possible that the bittering is all Cascade as well.

There are clone recipes around for those 2 IPAs I mentioned. They're very drinkable, and considered introductory to new craft beer drinkers here in the U.S. Yours may need a little extra color and malt backbone, maybe from Munich, Victory, and/or C60/80 (gives extra sweetness) or so. Play around in your recipe formulator to get something that is close and start there. Good cloning is both science and art.

Two Hearted uses Bell's house yeast based on WY1272 which accentuates citrus from the hops. Two Hearted uses 100% Centennial. Kits like Festa Brew always include dry yeast, and US-05 is typical for West Coast IPAs. I think one can do better by using WY1272 or WLP051.
Centennial is nicknamed Super Cascade, so Cascade can be used in very similar ways, but its AA% is about 3% lower than Centennial and has a bit different, more grapefruit like, flavor/aroma profile.

Fat Tire is even more mellow hops wise, and maltier. I'd probably start from one of these as a base.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

There are clone recipes around for those 2 IPAs I mentioned. They're very drinkable, and considered introductory to new craft beer drinkers here in the U.S. Yours may need a little extra color and malt backbone, maybe from Munich, Victory, and/or C60/80 (gives extra sweetness) or so. Play around in your recipe formulator to get something that is close and start there. Good cloning is both science and art.

Two Hearted uses Bell's house yeast based on WY1272 which accentuates citrus from the hops. Two Hearted uses 100% Centennial. Kits always include dry yeast, and US-05 is typical for West Coast IPAs. I think one can do better by using WY1272 or WLP051.
Centennial is nicknamed Super Cascade, so Cascade can be used in very similar ways, but its AA% is about 3% lower than Centennial and has a bit different, more grapefruit like, flavor/aroma profile.

Fat Tire is even more mellow hops wise, and maltier. I'd probably start from one of these as a base.

The BYO 300 book has a clone for Two Hearted. My only reservation is that I have never tried Two Hearted, so would not be sure of where I am starting from. Probably the first thing I would do is just do the original clone recipe. Discovering a new good IPA is no bad thing.

The BYO version of Two Hearted is a little stronger (OG 1.064, ABV 7%) and seems to be quite a bit lighter (SRM 8 versus 14 L). That sort of suggests some shifts to the grain bill.

The only Fat Tire I could find was an amber ale, very close in colour(14), but quite a bit lighter (1.050, 4.7%) - and not hopped enough to be an IPA. That suggests a possible composition of the malt bill, just need more of it.

Paging through the recipes, the closest looks like it might be Sierra Nevada Celebration. Pretty close on colour, ABV, OG, just quite a bit hoppier(+20 IBUs).

Sadly, while looking through the book, I discovered the problem is now becoming urgent....down to my last gallon of IPA!

 

[IslandLizard]

The BYO 300 book has a clone for Two Hearted. My only reservation is that I have never tried Two Hearted, so would not be sure of where I am starting from. Probably the first thing I would do is just do the original clone recipe. Discovering a new good IPA is no bad thing.

The BYO version of Two Hearted is a little stronger (OG 1.064, ABV 7%) and seems to be quite a bit lighter (SRM 8 versus 14 L). That sort of suggests some shifts to the grain bill.

The only Fat Tire I could find was an amber ale, very close in colour(14), but quite a bit lighter (1.050, 4.7%) - and not hopped enough to be an IPA. That suggests a possible composition of the malt bill, just need more of it.

Paging through the recipes, the closest looks like it might be Sierra Nevada Celebration. Pretty close on colour, ABV, OG, just quite a bit hoppier(+20 IBUs).

Sadly, while looking through the book, I discovered the problem is now becoming urgent....down to my last gallon of IPA!

Those recipes are good starting points to interpolate/extrapolate from. Fat Tire is an Amber Ale, so maltwise that may be a good starting base. 2-Hearted is an IPA in a similar strength as your Festa, and very popular, won't offend anyone.

Since you have tasted Festa West Coast, you can perhaps guess at what malts they use and roughly how much of each. Or do a more in depth search. Someone must have tried to clone it...

Don't forget:
SRM = (1.35 x °L) - 0.6.
°L = (SRM + 0.6) / 1.35

See more in this Beersmith article on grain and beer color.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

Saturday night colour conversions.....I actually recall looking at the picture of Fat Tire in the book and thinking 'it does not look THAT different'.

I don't have enough brewing/cloning experience to take good guesses at malt composition - broad brush stuff, but not the subtleties of taste. The hops are much easier in that sense, particularly in the hop-forward styles.

I might try a few 1g batches to set a couple of baselines, then start triangulating. From the sounds of it, worst case is getting another good beer.

 

[IslandLizard]

Saturday night colour conversions.....I actually recall looking at the picture of Fat Tire in the book and thinking 'it does not look THAT different'.

I don't have enough brewing/cloning experience to take good guesses at malt composition - broad brush stuff, but not the subtleties of taste. The hops are much easier in that sense, particularly in the hop-forward styles.

I might try a few 1g batches to set a couple of baselines, then start triangulating. From the sounds of it, worst case is getting another good beer.

I'm not familiar with the Festa kits, are they condensed liquid wort you add water to or are they pasteurized wort, and use as is?

Most, if not all of those kits are proprietary, so it's difficult to figure out what malts they use and their ratio. I have the feeling if your wort is similar to 2-Hearted but a little maltier with the color of Fat Tire, it may be close.

Here's 2-Hearted clone from Bell's own website:

10 lbs. Two Row Brewers Malt
3 lbs. Pale Ale Malt
.50 lb. Caramel 40L

Mash 45' at 150°F
Mashout at 170°F for 10 minutes

1.25 oz. Centennial Hops (45 min.)
1.25 oz. Centennial Hops (30 min.)
3.5 oz. Centennial Hops (Dry Hop)

OG 1.065 10 SRM

Fat Tire (New Belgium)
Pale
C-80
Munich
Victory

If they ordered the ingredients list to their usage rate, that would indicate they use more C80 than Munich...

Fat Tire Clone (BYO December 2010)
8.6 lbs 2-row Pale Malt
1 lb Munich Malt
8 oz. Crystal Malt (80L)
6 oz. Victory Malt

Mash at 154F for 45'
OG 1.050 14 SRM

================================================

So along those lines, how about this for a start as your grain bill for your Festa West Coast IPA clone:

9.1 lbs. Pale Malt (3.5L)
1 lb C80 (Crystal Malt, 80L
1 lb Munich Malt (8.7L)
8 oz. Victory Malt (28L)

Mash at 150F for 60'
That yields 1.058 (83% mash efficiency) and 12.5 SRM (BeerSmith).

Possible modifications:

• 1 lb of crystal is quite a bit for an IPA, so it will be somewhat on the sweeter side. If that matches the way your kit tastes or FG measures, then start there.
• You could add more Victory, up to a pound, but more is generally not better in this case, it may leave a weird flavor.
• You could replace some of the Pale with more Munich. Or use a darker Munich (some darker Munich's go all the way up to 20L).
• Use Maris Otter instead of Pale Malt. If your kit has a very rich flavor, I would do that.
• Add 4 oz of Melanoidin Malt if your kit has a very intense malty flavor and aroma.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

The Festa kits are 23L batches of pasteurized wort. Basically, pour and pitch. Great way to do a first batch, the only downside is that it sets a pretty high bar. The concentrate kits are fairly unsatisfying after that start, which led me down the road to partial grain, which led me down the road to BIA, which is leading me down the road to...

That ends up looking not far off the Brooklyn Beer Shop 'Everyday IPA' - another one I don't know, but pretty easy to try.