Heady Topper- Can you clone it?

[kaz4121]

Hey guys I've been reading this post off and on and there's a lot of good stuff on here. I just wanted to point out a few things that I heard on a couple podcasts from John Kimmich himself. He states that Heady Topper is 75 ibus on the Under My Host podcast. Then on The Tap Handle show podcast he says that his wife can't drink beers with wheat so there isn't any wheat in Heady and I believe all his hoppy stuff. I'm not sure if this has been covered in this thread so I apologize if so. Cheers!

Vegan confirmed the 75 IBUs (lab tested), but the wheat comment is new, IIRC. Nice work!

 

[powermd]

I would say bobbrews post #2967 (should be page 297) is the best at this point.

I'll try this one with my next HT go around. I have done the Vegan clone twice and it's excellent, but not quite HT.

The thing is... which HT are we comparing these recipes to? The actual HT changed quite a bit from the first can I ever had (winter 2012-3) to the last (about a year later). It might taste very different now.

 

[Helly]

I will be brewing this tomorrow. At least the NB all grain kit version. Very excited to have it on tap again soon.

 

[chisena]

You can try to clone it.

 

[Braufessor]

My latest attempt is at about day #7 in the fermenter...... I took the easy way out on the hops. Did the hop shot at 60, and then I took the following hops, put them all in a gallon ziplock, mixed them up thoroughly and basically turned them into a blend, and then added 4 oz. at flame out, 5 oz. in a sub 180 hopstand/steep for 45 minutes. The last 5 ounces I am going to use in a 2 stage dry hop - About 60% went in at day #7 of primary. I will add the last 40% will go in around day #12 or so.
4 oz. simcoe
2 oz. columbus
2 oz. Galaxy
1.5 oz. Amarillo
1.5 oz. Centennial
1 oz. Ahtanum
1 oz. Apollo
1 oz. Comet

Not sure what I will get..... but that is what I tried. Will give it a taste in 3-4 days out of the fermenter.

Well, transferred this to a secondary keg today. Spent about 12 days or so in primary. I threw in 2-3 ounces of the dry hop at about Day 7. I am trying this strategy for a secondary, and second stage of dry hop - http://www.bear-flavored.com/2014/09/how-i-dry-hop-my-ipas-with-no-oxygen.html

It tasted great out of the fermenter. Hoping the second dry hop will make it even better. I will probably give it a day at room temperature and then throw it in my chest freezer and drop it to 33-35 for 2-3 days before transferring it, under pressure to another keg for carbing.

It is not heady topper..... Color is pretty well there. Grain bill is great..... Hops are awesome as well - but it just is not the same hopping as heady. More Centennial I think for sure. Maybe more columbus??

It is a dank, tropical bomb though. Seemed to work well to just turn all the hops into a blend.

 

[Helly]

You can try to clone it.

I'm trying to clone the farmhouse kit version using the NB kit version. I'm pretty confident.

 

[copper2hopper]

Can someone help me out with the water profile on this one? I'm trying to really elevate the sulfate level on this one obviuosly so I know I wanna add plenty of Gypsum (20 grams currently plugged in) but with the water profile I have and will be brewing with (Yorkville Illinois water cut with distilled water), it gets my Calcium level really maxed out on the EZ calculator in the 140's and the RA to -179 (should I really be concerned about the RA on this on any recipe really for that matter?). In addition to this, when I plug in an additional 8 oz of acidulated malt it only calculates out to my room temp ph to be 5.48. Do people here have an issue with EZ water calculator to be "off" by .2-.3ish?

 

[mtnagel]

Here are the mineral additions I did on my 2nd attempt. That one won 3rd place out of 37 IPAs. I just brewed it again a couple months ago and I went with 350 ppm sulfate for some reason.

 

[smithmd4]

I use Bru'n Water and find it to be pretty much spot on. I think it helps that the water profile doesn't fluctuate a lot locally (from what I understand).

Also, I'm only focusing on the pH I want at the moment. My water is fairly hard and has a lot of Bicarbonates. Once I get the pH where I want I might start messing with a few additions for flavor or mouthfeel on rebrews, but I'm keeping it simple at the moment. From what I've read in this and the Hill Farmstead thread, pH is the most important and then the rest is salt and pepper to get where you want. Personal thoughts there though.

Good luck!

 

[Helly]

My batch seems to have stopped at 1.015. It doesn't taste the greatest but I haven't dry hopped yet. And I wasn't crazy about it last time at this point either and I thought it was awesome on draft. 1.015 seemed quite high to me but I'm seeing several folks reporting 1.018 on first generation. I'm planning to brew another IPA batch this coming weekend to see what my second generation experience is. I've read that attenuation gets better, and also that it gets worse. Should be a fun experiment.

 

[joehoppy]

My latest batch, now @ 7 days, went from 1.074 to 1.010 with a slurry of 3rd generation Vermont ale. I never got 1st generation to get past 1.017.

 

[Helly]

My latest batch, now @ 7 days, went from 1.074 to 1.010 with a slurry of 3rd generation Vermont ale. I never got 1st generation to get past 1.017.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna try to run this one through several generations this summer.

 

[Subl]

Sry im to lazy to read the whole thing but can someone tell me why u guys are 2 stage dry hoping for 8 days. I thought u get all u can from hops in just a few day of dry hopping. And what exactly is the process and benefits of 2 stage, do u do first hop when fermenation is almost done and then second a few days beofre kegging?

 

[geoffey]

Sry im to lazy to read the whole thing but can someone tell me why u guys are 2 stage dry hoping for 8 days. I thought u get all u can from hops in just a few day of dry hopping. And what exactly is the process and benefits of 2 stage, do u do first hop when fermenation is almost done and then second a few days beofre kegging?

It's only 3,200 posts to read through, jeez!

 

[Helly]

I sealed mine up and hit it with a blast of co2 the other day. Came back today to start dry hop and it had already developed some carbonation. So I set up half the dry hop in the keg and did a force transfer "jump" and put it in the kegerator. Tastes decent but it's gonna need the dry hops. Doesn't have that hoppy juiciness yet and we'll see if the "keg hop" approach will get me there.

 

[g-star]

Thought some might be interested to see lab results for a clone put together using this thread. The results can be found in post #42 in this thread

Vital specs:

OG - 1.074
FG - 1.014
IBU - 120
Yeast - ECY29
Batch size - 5.25gal

Water treatment:

Carbon filtered, 22g CaSO4 in strike water, sparge water left untreated. My tap water was:

Ca - 22
Mg - 6
K - 2
Na - 20
Cl - 35
SO4 - 13
HCO3 - 68

 

[dstar26t]

Thanks for that.
How much strike water did you use and what is your efficiency into the kettle?

 

[g-star]

Thanks for that.
How much strike water did you use and what is your efficiency into the kettle?

4.77gallons of strike water, efficiency into the kettle was 70%.

My goal was to hit 750ppm (calcium) hardness through gypsum additions alone in the mash, per the screen cap of the HT brew sheet that is floating around. Given minor variations in process, malt crop, and recipe, I would say that my results are pretty close to the real thing, at least in terms of ion profile.

 

[Helly]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1436470218.189819.jpg

Drinking my most recent attempt, a NB kit. It tastes great but it's missing the crazy hops in your face aroma. I rushed the dry hop and did most of it cold to get it ready for today. Next time I'd do the first dry hop at least warm. Last time I had more of the great aroma.

 

[Helly]

View attachment 289180

Drinking my most recent attempt, a NB kit. It tastes great but it's missing the crazy hops in your face aroma. I rushed the dry hop and did most of it cold to get it ready for today. Next time I'd do the first dry hop at least warm. Last time I had more of the great aroma.

We just killed the keg. Had about 8 pints left after the party the other night.

 

[lzrdkng14]

You're already over 1 oz. dryhops per gallon of beer as it is. And when you rack the 5.1 gallons you collected to secondary, some of that will be lost to trub.



HBT Heady Topper clone attempts are continuing to evolve. While the page 1 recipe will create a fine beer, it is not a perfect clone for Heady Topper. It is lacking the appropriate bitterness and/or contains too much caramalt, and the hop profile is not completely nailed. No actual hops are boiled in the real Heady Topper either. Additionally, I'm in favor of a 148-149 F, 90 minute mash and substituting about 4-5% turbinado for base malt to aid dryness. The water profile is also extremely important.

If I were to clone again, I would advise gaining some IBUs during the whirlpool instead of relying on 100% of the isomerization at boil start. Again, no actual hops should be boiled:

1.073/1.074 OG
1.010/1.011 FG
7.5 gallon boil
5.5 gallon batch, collected in primary

12lbs, 84.2% Thomas Fawcett Pearl Malt
12oz, 5.30% Turbinado Sugar
12oz, 5.30% Thomas Fawcett Wheat
12oz, 5.30% Thomas Fawcett Caramalt

14 ml HopShot @ 90 Minutes
2.50 oz. Simcoe pellets @ 180 F Whirlpool
1.00 oz. Centennial pellets @ 180 F Whirlpool
0.75 oz. Columbus pellets @ 180 F Whirlpool
0.75 oz. Comet pellets @ 180 F Whirlpool
0.75 oz. Apollo pellets @ 180 F Whirlpool
1.50 oz. Simcoe pellets @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
1.50 oz. Centennial pellets @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Columbus pellets @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Comet pellets @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop
0.75 oz. Apollo pellets @ 8 day, Two-Stage Dry Hop

Conan @ 63 F, then after ferm slows down drastically or completes, rack to secondary and ramp up to 68-70 F. Be wary of ambient temperatures. You don't want the wort in the primary going over say 64 F for the first week.



^The majority of these hops are very piney, dank(marijuana), and full of pungent grapefruit. Centennial is really the only somewhat fruity hop. I am open to minor tweaks if you guys attempt this beer and are familiar with what these hops bring to the table.

Going to take a stab at this recipe...

I have ordered all the hops and the hopshot. But, I need to get the grains. Was going to order the following:

Fawcett Pearl

Fawcett Caramalt

I am just having trouble figuring out which Fawcett Wheat is the right one...and also finding all of these in the same store?

Was thinking I may just go with the Rahr White Wheat from the first post of this topic... thoughts?

Also, there are a couple options at Keystone Homebrew:
Torrified Wheat
Crystal Wheat

 

[gotbags-10]

Can anyone direct me to a water profile for this?

 

[mtnagel]

Here are the mineral additions I did on my 2nd attempt. That one won 3rd place out of 37 IPAs. I just brewed it again a couple months ago and I went with 350 ppm sulfate for some reason.

 

[rustedbucket]

Hey fellas!

I'm putting my ingredients together for my next round. I'm doubling the ingredients from my first attempt as I'm making a 10g batch but will be following Bob's latest recipe for the hop additions.

That all being said, now that we know that Heady sits at 75 IBUs, I'm trying to do the math to make sure I add the appropriate amount of HopShot at 90 minutes. Here's where I'm at:

75 IBU / 10 IBU per ml = 7.5ml * 2 (10g) - 10% (90min boil) = 13.5 ml

So, with that math squared away, I'm having a hard time figuring the numbers to make it read correctly in BeerSmith.

Can I get an extra set of eyes, or opinion, on the math to make sure I'm on the right page? And (and I know this isn't the place), if someone could maybe PM me how to set HopShot up in BeerSmith, I'd much appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[mtnagel]

Set it to 61%AA. Enter your amount as "13.5 ml". It will convert it to ounces but just add the 13.5 ml.

 

[lzrdkng14]

Has any one tried this kit based of the pg1 recipe? http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/heady-topper-clone-all-grain/

Nice site, I bought my grains from there. I'd already ordered hops from yakima or I might have tried this kit. But I'm using Bobbys recipe anyway so the hops are different.

 

[brewski09]

I've read in other groups that people have done this kit and it was really good but not a clone (as that recipe wasn't a clone). I was going to tell you to check them out for the Grau s you were ordering but it looks like you found them.

 

[Helly]

Has any one tried this kit based of the pg1 recipe? http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/heady-topper-clone-all-grain/

Nice site, I bought my grains from there. I'd already ordered hops from yakima or I might have tried this kit. But I'm using Bobbys recipe anyway so the hops are different.

I've tried farmhouse and Northern kits. I liked the farmhouse batch better. It was packaged better too, didn't have to sort or measure hops, they were all shrink wrapped and labeled according to the recipe. Neither of my batches could pass for a true HT clone but we sure enjoyed the heck out of them.

 

[lzrdkng14]

I brewed this up last night into this morning. Pitched yeast about 420am... so it's been about 15 hours or so. How's my wort look? No movement on the airlock yet. This pic was taken about 1.5 hrs ago so it is 14 hrs in. This is my first batch in 4 years so I forgot how patient I need to be for krusen to develop. It does seem like a lot of trub though.

View attachment 1437954987994.jpg

 

[Resonator]

Looks like it's starting to ferment based on the water level on the left side of the airlock being pushed up. If that's the level on both sides you may have over filled it a bit though.