American IPA Hopslam Clone

[FooFan]

I brewed this a few months ago and it turned out awesome. Everyone that has one go nuts over it (including me).

10 out of 10

Great job

 

[MMJfan]

Ok. So I brewed up another batch of this today but I made a bit of a mistake. I forgot to add the honey at 10 minutes. Is it something I could still add now that the beer has cooled or would I be ok just going on without it? I still hit 1.085 on my OG so I'm not looking at gaining any more points to my OG.

 

[d2xx]

I don't think you will be disappointed.

I entered this into the Kentucky state fair obviously category 14, and came away with Honorable Mention out of 50 entries.

Thanks again.

 

[spennd]

Is this recipe for a 5 gallon?? Sorry new to this whole home brew thing and I'm hell bent on trying this out.

 

[d2xx]

Got the bjcp score sheet from the KY state fair and it scored a 41.5.

 

[gotbags-10]

Just got my hands on this years hopslam. First time having it. Love this beer! Thinking its time for a brew day. So I have a bunch of the actual hopslam bottles. Would it be worth harvesting the yeast from? I know people do it with the two hearted.

 

[Hanso]

Two hearted is a good idea, or just a nice big starter of Wyeast American Ale 2. Pac man would do well too... basically any highly attenuating clean fermenting American yeast.

 

[IronBall]

I've brewed this a couple times and it's an outstanding beer, unique. A buddy hooked me up with a couple bottles of the real thing and the malt taste is very similar. I think mine has a little more bitterness and the color is darker. The original is just so deliciously smooth. I'm not really hung up on the color but next time I think I'll back off on the early hop addition and substitute crystal 10 to see how that turns out.

 

[nayr14]

I'm thinking of brewing this, but leaving out the FWH columbus and the 60 minute simcoe addition in order to lower the IBU's closer to what Bell's advocates. That brings it down to about 70 IBU's. Any thoughts?

 

[k1ngl1ves]

I just tried the original from Bell's yesterday. It's phenomenal! Usually, Simcoe doesn't agree with my taste buds...

At $17 a six pack... I'm very interested in brewing this myself.

 

[ultravista]

Subscribing.

 

[xBOBxSAGETx]

Okay I've brewed a different clone that was on beersmithrecipes that has the same grain bill. I think the people who are having color issues are the people who are using dextrose instead of honey.

Here are my major issues with this recipe. First, why is Simcoe being used as a bittering hop? Bittering hop has one job, so you should stick to one hop for bittering. Simcoe is expensive and hard to find during the winter. Second, I would remove the 45M and move the 30M addition to 15M. This is hop forward beer. You're going to get all the aroma and flavor you need with the late additions and whirlpool. Third issue with this recipe is that you do not state how long you whirlpool your hops. Whirlpool hops do add bitterness. You more than likely have your whirlpool hops set at 0M on Beersmith which is not giving you the correct amount of IBU's. I Whirlpool for 15M. Bump this up to a 90M boil and you're golden. I'll place my updated recipe as well

 

[Hanso]

I agree with just about everything you said especially about the hops.

The one thing I am skeptical of is the honey being required. I believe Bells recommend a "dollop" of it for home brew scale but can't imagine them establishing a separate supply chain so they can procure hundreds (thousands?) of pounds of honey once a year in order to make this, especially when a nearly identical effect in the finished product is achieved using a bit more honey malt and plain table sugar, both from established supply chains. Especially because honey is not the featured element of the beer, I'm not sure it's actually needed at all.
I made a recipe a couple years ago without honey (instead using base 2 row, 0.5 lb crystal 10, 1 lb honey malt and 2 lbs sugar) and people with decent palates kept asking what kind of honey I used.

 

[xBOBxSAGETx]

I agree with just about everything you said especially about the hops.

The one thing I am skeptical of is the honey being required. I believe Bells recommend a "dollop" of it for home brew scale but can't imagine them establishing a separate supply chain so they can procure hundreds (thousands?) of pounds of honey once a year in order to make this, especially when a nearly identical effect in the finished product is achieved using a bit more honey malt and plain table sugar, both from established supply chains. Especially because honey is not the featured element of the beer, I'm not sure it's actually needed at all.
I made a recipe a couple years ago without honey (instead using base 2 row, 0.5 lb crystal 10, 1 lb honey malt and 2 lbs sugar) and people with decent palates kept asking what kind of honey I used.

I did about 5 minutes of research and couldn't find any clues on anything about the beer besides it being dry hopped with Simcoe. The honey taste goes away after about 6 weeks in the bottle.

 

[Hanso]

I might have gotten wires crossed here. The "dollop of honey" is how they imply they make the beer:
http://www.bellsbeer.com/brands/19-Hopslam%20Ale

And FWIW these are two of the most insightful posts on the subject I could find when I did my research... I'm no expert in Hopslam cloning so.. grain of salt.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hopslam-clone-137117/index8.html#post2611038
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hopslam-clone-137117/index2.html#post1923124
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hopslam-clone-137117/index11.html#post3601734

 

[lilbova3]

I popped open my Hopslam clone about a week ago and got a little bit of a honey bomb. I scaled down the recipe to a 3 gallon batch, due to lack of creating 5+ gallons of brew, and added in close to 1 lb of honey. I added it in with 10 minutes left in the boil. The flavor and aroma is a little overwhelming. Don't get me wrong I'm still going to drink all of it, but I would consider bumping down the amount of honey put in this brew or add it in with 30 minutes left in the boil. This way you can keep the sugar but get rid of most of the honey flavor.

Reading through this thread and what the brewer said from Bell's, Bell's doesn't want Hopslam to taste like honey, when I drink it, I don't get any honey at all, they want it to be more hop flavor forward and showcase the hops.

Don't make the mistake I made, unless you want a honey bomb, mead-like beer. Add the honey earlier in the boil or use less and add some corn sugar to bump up the ABV and help dry it out.

 

[xBOBxSAGETx]

I popped open my Hopslam clone about a week ago and got a little bit of a honey bomb. I scaled down the recipe to a 3 gallon batch, due to lack of creating 5+ gallons of brew, and added in close to 1 lb of honey. I added it in with 10 minutes left in the boil. The flavor and aroma is a little overwhelming. Don't get me wrong I'm still going to drink all of it, but I would consider bumping down the amount of honey put in this brew or add it in with 30 minutes left in the boil. This way you can keep the sugar but get rid of most of the honey flavor.

Reading through this thread and what the brewer said from Bell's, Bell's doesn't want Hopslam to taste like honey, when I drink it, I don't get any honey at all, they want it to be more hop flavor forward and showcase the hops.

Don't make the mistake I made, unless you want a honey bomb, mead-like beer. Add the honey earlier in the boil or use less and add some corn sugar to bump up the ABV and help dry it out.

That's exactly how mine was. 6 weeks after bottling it was prime and the honey calmed down big time

 

[lilbova3]

That's exactly how mine was. 6 weeks after bottling it was prime and the honey calmed down big time

I'm glad to hear that happened to someone else too. I hope mine mellows like yours did!

 

[xBOBxSAGETx]

I'm glad to hear that happened to someone else too. I hope mine mellows like yours did!

Higher ABV beers just take more time to get there. Be patient, it'll be worth it

 

[pshieronymus]

Thanks for the recipe! Brewed it last night in my Keggle/BIAB setup. Nailed mash at 150 and sampled 1.098 on the button before pitching. Stone oxygenated the wort for 2 minutes and then dropped ~10oz of S-05 Slurry from a light APA made 10 days ago. It was a slight over pitch, but the size of the beer made me a little nervous. Better on the heavy hand then the light. In my ferm fridge now at 65. Will bump to 68 after it has nearly finished for another week. Looks like this may be 3 or 4 day CC to try to compress that monster cake at the bottom. Fingers crossed. Will post some taste notes, and images in 3-4 when it is ready. Cheers.

 

[--Dom--]

Allright.... so I just recently brewed a pretty big ipa with a lot of hops and used pellets. I ended up with a huge amount of sludge/break material. Do people just put the whole brew into the fermenter, sludge and all and hope it drops out? I got way better hop flavor and aroma with pellets versus whole. I just need to know how to deal with all the sludge and absorption issues. Especially with dry hopping 2 or 3 oz. Help?

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Allright.... so I just recently brewed a pretty big ipa with a lot of hops and used pellets. I ended up with a huge amount of sludge/break material. Do people just put the whole brew into the fermenter, sludge and all and hope it drops out? I got way better hop flavor and aroma with pellets versus whole. I just need to know how to deal with all the sludge and absorption issues. Especially with dry hopping 2 or 3 oz. Help?

I dump most in, somewhat because of my equipment limitations, and because I'm lazy.

Read this too:

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

 

[Shawn0522]

Newbie question as I have not brewed a beer this big before.

I have a 13 gal rectangular cooler MLT and I have scaled up the grain bill for 62% efficiency as I am expecting a big drop off with this much grain and I normally figure everything on 6 gal batches as I leave a lot of the trub behind. Long story short my total grain is 25lbs and I want 7 gal to start my boil. Backing into my water i will need 7 gal boil + 3.13 gal absorption + .5 gal MLT dead space = total water of 10.63 gal. What should my initial mash volume be? If I do my normal 1.25qts/lb it only leaves about 2.5 gal to sparge with. Should I just put it all in during the initial mash? What is the norm for this much grain? What will get me the best efficiency?

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Bumped for later.

 

[Hanso]

Newbie question as I have not brewed a beer this big before.

I have a 13 gal rectangular cooler MLT and I have scaled up the grain bill for 62% efficiency as I am expecting a big drop off with this much grain and I normally figure everything on 6 gal batches as I leave a lot of the trub behind. Long story short my total grain is 25lbs and I want 7 gal to start my boil. Backing into my water i will need 7 gal boil + 3.13 gal absorption + .5 gal MLT dead space = total water of 10.63 gal. What should my initial mash volume be? If I do my normal 1.25qts/lb it only leaves about 2.5 gal to sparge with. Should I just put it all in during the initial mash? What is the norm for this much grain? What will get me the best efficiency?

If you know your boil off rate you can always sparge with more water and plan on a longer boil. You either burn more fuel and add more water or you sacrifice efficiency... an old trade off.

 

[Shawn0522]

If you know your boil off rate you can always sparge with more water and plan on a longer boil. You either burn more fuel and add more water or you sacrifice efficiency... an old trade off.

If i go to a 90 min boil it will only add half a gallon. What if i sparged with more water to allow to me stir it up but only pull off what i need?

 

[Shawn0522]

If you know your boil off rate you can always sparge with more water and plan on a longer boil. You either burn more fuel and add more water or you sacrifice efficiency... an old trade off.

If i go to a 90 min boil it will only add half a gallon. What if i sparged with more water to allow to me stir it up but only pull off what i need?

 

[msa8967]

Here's the hop schedule I used for a 5g extract recipe. It's been bottled for two weeks now and tastes pretty close but still no carb bite... I think if you wanted closer to 70 IBU's you could cut on the Columbus and Simcoe by 0.25 each as the original is not that bitter. Brought it down to 72 IBU with 0.75 Columbus and 0.75 Simcoe when I recalculated. I still have a sixer of Hosplam I'm waiting to compare but I fear the original will have settled out the flavor. We'll see.

Also, IBU's were calculated after extract was mixed so I believe that's the reason for lower scale; at least my numbers were different compared to when I dropped the extract (beginning-lower, end-higher).

My schedule:
1oz Columbus 15% @ 60min (19IBU)
1oz Simcoe 13% @ 60min (16IBU)
1oz Chinook 11% @45min (13IBU)
1oz Centennial 10% @30min (10IBU)
1oz Citra 14% @ 15min (10IBU)
1oz Amarillo 10% @ 10min (5IBU)
2oz Simcoe 13% @ Turn Off (4.5 IBU)
2oz Amarillo 10% @ Turn Off (3IBU)

~80.5 IBU's Via Beer Alchemy Calculation.

Dry Hopped
3 oz Simcoe Secondary

Brewed March 14th
Racked to Secondary April 14
Bottled May 5th

Looking at this 3 years later. Were you happy with how this turned out?

 

[jspain3]

Here's the recipe (very similar) I used for my Hopslam clone:

US 2 Row 14 LB - 8 oz
Vienna Malt 2 LB - 12 oz
20L Caramel (Crystal) 8 oz
40L Caramel (Crystal) 4 oz
2-Row Carapils® Malt 6 oz
Honey Malt 8 oz
Honey 1 LB - 6.4 oz

Columbus (US) Hop Pellets (First Wort) 0.5 oz
Simcoe (US) Hop Pellets (60 MIN) 0.5 oz
Chinook (US) Hop Pellets (45 MIN) 0.5 oz
Centennial (US) Hop Pellets (30 MIN) 0.5 oz
Citra® (US) Hop Pellets (15 MIN) 0.6 oz
Amarillo® (US) Hop Pellets (10 MIN) 1 oz
Amarillo® (US) Hop Pellets (0 MIN) 2 oz
Simcoe (US) Hop Pellets (0 MIN) 2 oz
Simcoe (US) Hop Pellets (Dry Hop 7 DAYS) 3 oz

I'm 9 days into fermentation and decided to take a hydro sample today. It was about 1.020, so it still has a little more to go. BTW, it was very delicious and a great way to start a Thursday morning!

However, I noted that the color was much lighter than most of the photos I've seen here and the Hopslams I've had before. My sample was closer to SRM 4 than SRM 8. I'm not sure why it came out so much lighter, or if it will darken as fermentation finishes and the yeast, et al, drop out. I did add the honey at the very end, but unless the color is supposed to come from caramelization of the honey being boiled longer, I don't think that's the reason.

I'll find out in a couple of weeks if it stays that light, but I guess as long as it tastes good, that's what's most important.

edit: I should've taken a picture but I was trying to keep everything sanitary and didn't want to handle my iphone in the middle of pulling a sample and resealing the fermenter.

 

[jsmay_]

Hey all- looks like a great recipe to use up last years remaining hops crop. I have Nugget & Centennial that I'd like to center the hops around, but realize that this may be a pretty one dimensional recipe. Any suggestions for perhaps ONE other variety at Flavor Addition (30 -15 mins), that might round out the profile?
Thanks - looks delicious!