Heady Topper- Can you clone it?

[stickyfinger]

Here's a question: Why would you want to clone Heady Topper?
I mean, it's a fine beer, but unless you think that Heady is the greatest thing ever and want a beer exactly like it, why not just learn how to make a good NEIPA of your own and customize it to your taste?

My favorite NEIPA is Treehouse's Julius, and I used that as the basis for building my NEIPA recipe, but once I got "close enough", I started tweaking to my own taste to make something I actually like better.

stirring the pot i see. i absolutely love Heady Topper and Focal Banger. They beat most of the NEIPAs I've tasted. I haven't tasted any Trillium or Treehouse ones yet though. I have tasted several Hill Farmstead beers and prefer HT and FB most of the time.

My goal in cloning it is so that I can have it whenever I want, as it is nearly impossible to get outside of VT.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

stirring the pot i see. i absolutely love Heady Topper and Focal Banger. They beat most of the NEIPAs I've tasted. I haven't tasted any Trillium or Treehouse ones yet though. I have tasted several Hill Farmstead beers and prefer HT and FB most of the time.

My goal in cloning it is so that I can have it whenever I want, as it is nearly impossible to get outside of VT.

Fair enough.
Ask a simple question, get a simple answer!
Thanks for taking the question at face value and treating it for what it was - a question.

 

[day_trippr]

The current favorite here is the Julius clone - I've done 20 gallons since September and it doesn't last long.

But I started doing neipas by rattling through every Alchemist clone I could lay hands on, because they were the most mature recipes "Back Then" and I appreciated the leg up.
I acknowledge once the neipa process variations from "traditional" ipa brewing are comprehended it's true one could easily go off on their own and come up with a comparable non-cloned product...

Cheers!

 

[stickyfinger]

The current favorite here is the Julius clone - I've done 20 gallons since September and it doesn't last long.

But I started doing neipas by rattling through every Alchemist clone I could lay hands on, because they were the most mature recipes "Back Then" and I appreciated the leg up.
I acknowledge once the neipa process variations from "traditional" ipa brewing are comprehended it's true one could easily go off on their own and come up with a comparable non-cloned product...

Cheers!

what is your best julius recipe?

 

[Tricerahops220]

what is your best julius recipe?

I am interested to know as well

 

[day_trippr]

There's a whole raft of recipes using entirely different hops but I went with the BYO recipe with slight changes (Columbus instead of the hop shot, water adjustments to suit my RO water, etc).
fwiw, the last batch I split five gallons using 1318 and the other five using Conan (Imperial A04) and everyone that tried both preferred the 1318...

Cheers!

 

[rideincircles]

Just confirming that my recent version of this mentioned above is totally amazing. After 6 years of brewing its probably my favorite IPA
I've done. I entered it in bluebonnet this year and will find out in a month or so how it fared. I think it can hang with any double IPA you can throw it up against. Not overly bitter but solid, resiny, dank, insanely citrus and fruity and easy enough to drink for people who aren't even IPA fans. I think I nailed what I have been trying to achieve. Mine used apollo for bittering and simcoe, el dorado, mosaic and amarillo. Just ordered another $100 in hops from farmhouse so should be good to go for a while to change it up slightly like I always do for my next batch.

 

[divrack]

Heady topper thread. Symbol of the promise and failings of participatory democracy.
I just want a strong dictatorial figure to tell me how it is. Where is the putin of dank hoppy beer recipes when you need him?

 

[pmaster]

Anyone tried this recipe? http://blog.eckraus.com/heady-topper-double-ipa-clone-recipe
I bought the hops to do it, was planning on next weekend, but then I started reading about Summit and bad onion taste and i'm not sure anymore...that recipe relies on 4.5oz of Summit which is a lot.
I guess I could use it only for bittering, and substitute the rest for something like Simcoe or Amarillo?. Any advice?

 

[stickyfinger]

Anyone tried this recipe? http://blog.eckraus.com/heady-topper-double-ipa-clone-recipe
I bought the hops to do it, was planning on next weekend, but then I started reading about Summit and bad onion taste and i'm not sure anymore...that recipe relies on 4.5oz of Summit which is a lot.
I guess I could use it only for bittering, and substitute the rest for something like Simcoe or Amarillo?. Any advice?

i thought that looked like a good recipe, even if very not by the book

 

[pmaster]

Well, im gonna substitute 2 oz of it with Simcoe if they have it when I pick up my grain on Saturday, otherwise ill proceed with it

 

[pmaster]

Went ahead and brewed the same recipe from the website I mentioned earlier, except I substituted 2 oz of summit for 2 oz of simcoe (kept the summit at 2.5oz/60min for bittering)
I somehow forgot to include the 1lbs of wheat though!!
I tasted a small sample and it was extremely bitter, I guess I'll see how it turns out after fermentation and dry-hop.

 

[pmaster]

Just an update: Beer is awesome definitely not a HT clone, but tasty as hell. I will probably try it again, without forgetting the wheat!

 

[OzarkPA]

Hey all - I was thinking about doing a gallon micro-batch in my gallon ukeg. It's been a few years since my last batch of this and checking to see if anyone had any suggestions for sizing it for a gallon final product.

 

[DrGMG]

Here is my clone. Brewed it a while back, very good and pretty close. Not sure which recipe I used though.

 

[OzarkPA]

Beautiful! I'm thinking it might not be worth the work to go through a 1 gallon batch and just do a 5 gallon batch, store the beer uncarbonated in the fridge, and then carbonate a gallon at a time.

 

[aaronm13]

Hi, looking to brew this clone soon so just wondering a few things while I get my ingredients together. I've read back over the last 10 pages or so and can't find answers to my questions or maybe I missed them, is the recipe on the first page still the best and closest option to Heady? Want to make sure I get everything I need.

I can't get hop shots so going to bitter with Columbus. Am I correct using this bittering hop and is around 55-60 IBU's what I need to be aiming for?

I've made a few NEIPA's now and always dry hop at 48-60 hours for biotransformation as I thought this was essential to this style. On the first page it says to split the dry hop at day 14 and 21 which I found strange, is this correct? I'll probably do I big dry hop as I like to dry hop in the keg to minimize oxygen. What would be the correct day schedule for me to dry hop? Thanks in advance for everything. Really looking forward to making this as I doubt I'll ever get to try the real thing.

 

[DrGMG]

I've separated the dry hop like that and also done all at once, I don't think it's worth the trouble.

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

The original recipe is old school thinking. To minimize post fermentation diacetyl, adding all the time frame your talking is important.

 

[couchsending]

From everything I’ve read and heard and from what I’ve smelled and tasted Alchemist beers are not dry hopped during fermentation. Heady is only dry hopped one time (as are all their hoppy beers) and as much yeast is removed before dry hopping as possible. With Conan that can mean crashing to 45 for a while as it doesn’t like to flocc. I believe they recirculate through a Grundy filled with bagged pellets. John has said no more than 5 days on the hops for a dry hop addition and he has recommended what is basically 4.5-5oz per 5 gallons but I don’t think that scales well. You get more utilization with the bigger FVs.

 

[aaronm13]

Ok so I'm almost there with my planing. Hopefully doing the bobsbrew recipe next weekend as below

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 @ 4-5 days
1.50 oz. Centennial pellets @ 4-5 days
1.00 oz. Columbus pellets @ 4-5 days
1.00 oz. Comet pellets @ 4-5 days
0.75 oz. Apollo pellets @ 4-5 days

I can't get hopshots so have to bitter with pellets. From what I read 14ml of hopshots is equal to 140IBUS,10IBU per ml. Is this correct? Should I am to get 140 IBU from my hop addition? Going to bitter with 14%AA of Columbus. This seems like a lot of hops to me but who am I to argue, haha. Just don't want to over do the hops and have it undrinkable.

 

[couchsending]

Per Kimmich, there is no wheat in any of their beers.

 

[aaronm13]

Per Kimmich, there is no wheat in any of their beers.

That's true but just going by the recipe posted on here. I've no other recipe to base this brew off so going with this one. Do you have an updated recipe? If you do could you please post it.

 

[couchsending]

Just ditch the wheat.. everything else looks about right. Not sure they use Sugar but you still might need it.

 

[aaronm13]

Just ditch the wheat.. everything else looks about right. Not sure they use Sugar but you still might need it.

Thanks. Any idea about my hopshot substitute question?

 

[stickyfinger]

Thanks. Any idea about my hopshot substitute question?

imho ditching hopshot should be fine. i’d aim for similar ibus from pellets or a few less. hopshots are only to reduce hop matter. bitter to your taste if u ask me. heady seems pretty bitter. i’d go for calculated tinseth of like 40-50 ibus at 60 min with pellets and then do the character hops

 

[cheesebach]

imho ditching hopshot should be fine. i’d aim for similar ibus from pellets or a few less. hopshots are only to reduce hop matter. bitter to your taste if u ask me. heady seems pretty bitter. i’d go for calculated tinseth of like 40-50 ibus at 60 min with pellets and then do the character hops

Agreed - 120 IBU from pellets is waaaaaaaaay too much. Don’t make the same mistake I did when I brewed this beer with Columbus pellets for bittering.

 

[aaronm13]

Agreed - 120 IBU from pellets is waaaaaaaaay too much. Don’t make the same mistake I did when I brewed this beer with Columbus pellets for bittering.

imho ditching hopshot should be fine. i’d aim for similar ibus from pellets or a few less. hopshots are only to reduce hop matter. bitter to your taste if u ask me. heady seems pretty bitter. i’d go for calculated tinseth of like 40-50 ibus at 60 min with pellets and then do the character hops

Thanks guys for that. I was thinking a charge of 120IBU with pellets would be pretty much undrinkable. So with my adjusted boil addition and whirlpool hops I'm at 99IBU going by Beersmith, does that sound ok?

 

[stickyfinger]

Thanks guys for that. I was thinking a charge of 120IBU with pellets would be pretty much undrinkable. So with my adjusted boil addition and whirlpool hops I'm at 99IBU going by Beersmith, does that sound ok?

what is your 60 min addn?

 

[aaronm13]

what is your 60 min addn?

Adding 51g/1.79oz of Columbus at 60 minutes for a IBU of around 60. I use a hop spider so will be a slight percentage of a loss through that.