Petekiteworld
Well-Known Member
Also, just pitched conan into a nice hoppy imperial stout. I'll keep you guys posted on the results.
Just had another heady last night and compared it to a columbus smash...
I definitely think we need to put more columbus into the clone.
bobbrews said:Back when I first tried Heady, I honestly wasn't impressed with it. I said to myself, "This is no Pliny." But then I delved deeper and the flavor grew on me. It had more dank flavor than Pliny. But Pliny's dank aroma was more substantial. Since then, I always thought it was perplexing how two beers could have such a focus on dank marijuana character... but one (HT) is more about the flavor whereas the other (PtE) was more about the aroma. They have the same character but one is reflected more in the flavor than the aroma. Heady smells more fruity to me, but tastes more dank. Pliny smells more dank to me, but tastes kind of citrusy.
Midwest Supplies alway has Pearl if you don't mind mail order. It is pretty key to this clone. As is Hop Shot, I don't believe you'll get the resin-y hops character from FWing with any hop.
So do y'all think that marijuana aspect of HT's taste is from Conan?
Counted the Conan yeast and did a viability test today ...
This is excellent. Thanks so much! Having never seen anything like this, are the cells with the dark "centers" the dead cells?
I think it was mentioned that Conan was derived from an English Ale strain. The Ballantine Ale strain, which is available from East Coast Yeast (ECY10 Old Newark Ale) is close.
Isn't it pretty much impossible to get ECY though?
Isn't it pretty much impossible to get ECY though?
anyone know if Hill Farmstead uses conan as well?
I was told that they were also handed down Conan from Greg Noonan
It would also make the Vermont water some pretty good stuff for brewing.
anyone know if Hill Farmstead uses conan as well?
I was told that they were also handed down Conan from Greg Noonan
afr0byte said:I don't know about the water The Alchemist uses, but Hill Farmstead must have to treat there water with a fair bit of acid, as they have an alkalinity of ~140. The water may be low in chloride and sulfate, though, which would be good to start with.
From what I've seen Sean hill attributes a bunch of his quality to the well water from his farmstead. Not that it necessarily is treated but he certainly makes it sound like it wouldn't be.
I know he checks pH (He's told me as much.). With an alkalinity of 140 he'd need to add acid for almost all (if not all) of his beers.
Curious, where did you get the 140 figure for the alkalinity?
He definitely treat his water; he's said as much in interviews. I remember reading some profile / feature story describing him tasting the water before a batch to make sure he had it right. That could very well be exaggerated, but still.
I've also heard from a brewer at a major regional brewery who visited Hill Farmstead and said that he was told Everett (HF's porter) is the only beer that they don't adjust the water profile for. Which would indicate that their well water is fairly hard.
One of the things that has always struck me about Hill's beers, particularly his IPAs, is how "soft" they are. The beer just seems to dissolve gently upon your tongue. He'd definitely need to soften his water considerably for such a mouthfeel to be possible.
Now, I can't say that I get the same sort of mouthfeel from Heady Topper, although given what Conan does for mouthfeel, I'm not sure what to deduce from that.
He told me (in an email) that his alkalinity is 140. As far as the smoothness, perhaps he adds less gypsum than many west coast brewers.
Ahh, cool. You think he would tell you which yeast he uses for IPAs?
Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing about the gypsum. Just enough so the beer doesn't taste flabby, but not quite enough to give the bittering hops that lingering, aggressive bite.
[T]he most marked sensorial increase [in the bottle conditioned beer] was observed for 1-sulfanyl-3-methyl-2-butene (MBT). MBT is...responsible for the famous lightstruck skunky off-flavor of beer exposed to light. [...] In the absence of light, traces of MBT can be produced [from hydrogen sulfide and hop aglycone,] leading to pleasant hoppy flavors.
OK, here's an oddball theory: what if the Alchemist is refermenting Heady before canning? I realize this would be highly unusual behavior for a packaging brewery, but bear with me for a moment. He is the Alchemist, after all.
The latest ASBC Journal arrived in the mail yesterday with this article that quantifies some of the aromatic impacts of bottle conditioning. Here's the money quote:
MBT is described elsewhere in the article as having an aroma of "cannabis", but is usually described as "skunky" or sulphury. Perhaps it comes across more pleasantly in the absence of other light-struck flavors?
So maybe, just maybe, the Alchemist is turning up the dankness by refermenting prior to canning...
I think I'm going to have to try priming a DIPA in the keg.
MBT is described elsewhere in the article as having an aroma of "cannabis", but is usually described as "skunky" or sulphury. Perhaps it comes across more pleasantly in the absence of other light-struck flavors?
So maybe, just maybe, the Alchemist is turning up the dankness by refermenting prior to canning...
It's a pleasant type of skunky, unlike the skunky descriptor used for light struck beers in green bottles.
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