Hop Schedule Guessing

[TxNative]

Want to try and clone Sierra Nevada's Powder Day IPA. They give a decent amount of info to guess the grain bill within reason, but I'm clueless as to how or where to start guessing their hop schedule. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[day_trippr]

Holy cow, eight is a lot of strains in a single brew. SN claims my local packy will have this, will check tomorrow.
In any case, given a mere 45 IBU I doubt they used much in the boil, instead moving maybe a third to FO, another third to WP @ <170°F, and the rest for the "double dry hop" they refer to...

Cheers!

 

[TxNative]

Holy cow, eight is a lot of strains in a single brew. SN claims my local packy will have this, will check tomorrow.
In any case, given a mere 45 IBU I doubt they used much in the boil, instead moving maybe a third to FO, another third to WP @ <170°F, and the rest for the "double dry hop" they refer to...

Cheers!

Definitely haven't used that many myself for sure. It tasted more bitter than 45IBU to me but who knows. If it's near and available I would definitely recommend giving it a try. Enjoyed it enough to want to try and brew it at least.

 

[bracconiere]

do they have to list the ingiedents, like a nutrition facts label? most used first?

 

[day_trippr]

I doubt there's anything to be gleaned there...

 

[dmtaylor]

Whenever Citra or Mosaic are used, I don't know if I can taste ANY other hops in a blend. Use one or both of those, same as everybody else. 2-4 oz at whirlpool, 2-4 oz dry hop, in whatever combination of those two that you want, ignore all the rest, and you're good to go.

 

[day_trippr]

lol! Taking the sledge to it, eh?

I don't disagree that of the eight strains listed Citra closely followed by Mosaic (two of my all time favorite hops) can easily take over the choir
But, one could dial the actual amounts used of each strain to kinda/sorta balance them.
Could take some trials, though, and who has time for that?
Especially as it could be a muddled mess.
I definitely have to find this beer...

Cheers!

 

[TxNative]

lol! Taking the sledge to it, eh?

I don't disagree that of the eight strains listed Citra closely followed by Mosaic (two of my all time favorite hops) can easily take over the choir
But, one could dial the actual amounts used of each strain to kinda/sorta balance them.
Could take some trials, though, and who has time for that?
Especially as it could be a muddled mess.
I definitely have to find this beer...

Cheers!

Once you get it I'd be curious to see what you think about it. Brewing this weekend and probably won't be able to do it this time, but homefully a month from now I'll have a decent place to start.

Thinking maybe use Citra/Mosaic during the boil and dry hop with some of the others?

 

[day_trippr]

Well, here it is. $10.75 a sixer.

Poured at 45°F, very bright with a modest head. Generic, underwhelming IPA aroma - and flavor.
Could not confidently pick out a single one of those eight strains - which were not exactly pounded into the beer.
I won't call it a muddled mess but it really does illustrate diminishing returns when it comes to using numerous hop strains.
I should give points for such a balancing act as most of the strains used could easily dominate.


All that said it's a pleasant brew I would order in a bar but not something I would strive to duplicate.
At my age I need the hop amperage dialed up considerably higher to make an impression

Cheers!

 

[TxNative]

Well, here it is. $10.75 a sixer.

View attachment 757824

Poured at 45°F, very bright with a modest head. Generic, underwhelming IPA aroma - and flavor.
Could not confidently pick out a single one of those eight strains - which were not exactly pounded into the beer.
I won't call it a muddled mess but it really does illustrate diminishing returns when it comes to using numerous hop strains.
I should give points for such a balancing act as most of the strains used could easily dominate.


All that said it's a pleasant brew I would order in a bar but not something I would strive to duplicate.
At my age I need the hop amperage dialed up considerably higher to make an impression

Cheers!

Well damn. Sorry it disappointed. You’ve responded to several of my threads. If you want to PM an address I’ll crank the amps and send a bottle your way once it’s done.

 

[IslandLizard]

Well, here it is. $10.75 a sixer.
[...] Generic, underwhelming IPA aroma - and flavor.

What is the packaging date?
Are those beers always kept chilled since packaging?

 

[day_trippr]

Good questions. Lemme check date....December 7.
I have no idea about transportation but my local packy is high end-ish and not prone to abusing beers on hand.
And I never buy shelved, only fridged

So...I glanced at BA reviews and they're inconsistent but definitely above my appreciation. Maybe what I have incurred significant character attenuation in the ~7 weeks since it was born? I have to say I brew 10 gallon batches, and my second kegs are very close to the first pours from the first keg wrt character expression, so unless my sixer suffered some abuse I'm inclined to believe it's a recipe thing.

In any case, my opinion on using so many hop strains remains unchallenged by this beer...

Cheers!

 

[mashpaddled]

The long list of hops reminds me of Stone's Enjoy By series which had like ten hops used in the IPA. Their reasoning was that hops were getting so difficult to reliably purchase in their needed quantity at the time that using a big blend allowed them to produce a reasonably consistent beer by tweaking the blend to what they could afford to buy. I wonder how much of that was Stone getting caught with its pants down when all the fruitier hops came on the market and were in demand because they may not have been able to contract what they needed consistently. I could see Sierra Nevada have the same problem with their size.

 

[camonick]

There is an Untappd podcast discussing this beer with the innovation brewer from Sierra Nevada. They get into a little detail about the type of hops and processes. He says they dry hop exclusively with LupuLN2 powder, hence the name Powder Day IPA.