Innis & Gunn Clone- I'm Going for it!

[heliumbro]

It looks like the IG recipe posted on the Northern Brewer forum is the closest one so far. Its been pretty lean for my family, so I haven't been able to do a rebrew, but I would start with that recipe. Innis and Gunn isn't a Scotch ale (wee heavy)... more a loosely-based Scottish shilling ale with higher ABV, I would think. Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

 

[wingnutjr]

Its WAY darker than I thought it would be but here's my fermenting brew from the recipe.

 

[ace54062]

which recipe? there have been several posted. and let us know how it turns out. (Im a firm believe in function over form)

 

[wingnutjr]

Sorry Ace, it was this recipe 13lbs UK 2-row
1.25lbs Caramel 60L
0.25lbs Chocolate Malt
1.50 oz East Kent Golding 5% 60 mins Boil
Wyeast # 1728 Scottish Ale
2 oz of Bourbon Soaked Oak Chips for 10 days in Secondary . I just racked it to a secondary yesterday did a sample for my hydrometer had a little sip, it was quite tasty! the smell was bang on but taste wasn't all the way there yet but still excited as heck to try it in a few weeks.

 

[ace54062]

im getting ready to brew this week ill let ya'll know how its going.
13 lb marris otter
8 oz chocolate malt
1.5 oz fuggles 60 min
.5 oz goldenings 30 min
2 vanilla beans split
2 oz oak in secondary
Wyeast #1728 scottish Ale

 

[wingnutjr]

bottled yesterday the only regret is using the whiskey soaked oak chips, will have to do some experiments with something else, it was WAY too oakey/whiskey smelling, not a bad brew but not exactly what I was looking for. we'll see in a week or two how it feels after carbing.

 

[Bottoms_Up]

I'm new here and just found this great thread. I'm looking forward to trying the Innis & Gunn clone recipe, but was wondering how everyone's results turned out (especially Veinman, ace54062 and wingnutjr and others I might have missed)? Any revisions to the recipe? Was the oak taste too pronounced?

 

[mattpavone]

I'd say start with the latest version, the first recipe is too dark and roasty. I'm not sure about the oak, mine was not vanilla enough.

 

[wingnutjr]

exactly what matt said, not enough vanilla, im going to be adding vanilla beans to mine. I finished a chai beer recipe a few weeks ago with vanilla beans and it gave me a hint of a innis and gunn flavor. So I would really ease off on the oaking maybe 50 grams of chips soaked in bourbon.

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Thanks Matty and wingnutjr. The amount of oak did seem a little high, and I appreciate the advice about the vanilla flavor. I don't think I&G actually add vanilla (unless it's a "secret" ingredient), so their flavor must otherwise be part of the process/ingredients. But if the addition of vanilla works, then I'm for it. It's the final taste that matters.

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Here's what I found at a "Ratebeer" site:

"American oak is seamed with flavour, which Innis & Gunn unlocks using a unique style of maturation that imparts a light vanilla oak character to this fruity Blonde beer."

So it looks like the vanilla flavor actually comes from American oak and the maturation process.

 

[defdans]

Tagging this for later. Any other feedback on the extract recipe?

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Nobody has any updates on their Innis & Gunn results?

 

[ace54062]

Its in the bottles now. Should be good by tomorrow. Only regret is its a little lighter(my effeciency suuuuucked) than I would have liked and the I should have added .5 oz of fuggles at the last 2 minutes of boil for aroma. Ill let you know when its fully carbonated.

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Thanks! Looking forward to the results and any suggestions for improvements.

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Well, what was the result, ace54062? Your bottles must be carbonated by now.

 

[ace54062]

Well, I took out the chocolate malt and it came up very simulair. I would add one vanilla bean in secondary and leave the 2oz medium toast oak on in scondary around 8-9 days and throw .5 oz fuggles in at 2 mins for aroma. But aside from that, pretty much spot on lol

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Thanks for the advice! That is very helpful. They were selling new 500 ml cans of Innis & Gunn Original for the first time near here, but it didn't taste as good as the glass bottles. The homebrew version may be better yet!

 

[Tekn0ph1sh]

Innis and Gunn Original

So I hybridized the recipes I found from HBT, Northernbrewer, Beersmith and Innis and Gunn's website.
EOG: 1.072 It is believed that IG is 1.068.
FG 1.010
ABV 7.1 which is a half a percent higher than IG at 6.6.
AG 5.50 batch size:
BIAB 16gallon Kettle:

Grains
1 oz Roasted Barley
12 lbs Golden Promise
2 lbs Crystal 60L
1 lb Flaked Wheat

Mash at 152 degrees for 75 minutes. I will probably going to shoot for 150 because IG is between Light and Medium body.
Sparge or Mash out for 10 minutes at 168.

Boil Time 60m
Add 7g of Gypsum
Add 7g of Burton Water Salts
55m .5oz of Aurora AKA Super Styrian
20m .5oz of Aurora

3 vials of Eddinburgh Ale Yeast WL WLP028 without a starter or
2 vials with a 1.5 Liter starter
Ferment at 67 for 10-14 days
Secondary over 2.5 oz of American Medium Toast (The IG site says Bourbon barrels so soak the chips in bourbon during the primary fermentation but you could use whatever spirit suits you).
Secondary 30 days @ 67 degrees
(If you go by IG site then this could be extended to 77 days but for the last Couple weeks drop the temp to 65 degrees.)
Bottle or keg and condition at 65 for 30 days.

So why is mine a touch off from the original…because I like round numbers. So if it says 15oz of x grain I tend to round up. Same with hops .9oz of hops becomes 1 oz. Heck if it says .5oz of hops then that may become 1oz as well the extra may just become a flameout edition. The smallest amount I can buy at my LHBS is an oz of something and I don't like having stuff laying around.

I am brewing this next weekend 11/30/13. I will let you know how it goes and how close I get.

Cheers

Tekn0

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Innis and Gunn Original

So I hybridized the recipes I found from HBT, Northernbrewer, Beersmith and Innis and Gunn's website.


I am brewing this next weekend 11/30/13. I will let you know how it goes and how close I get.

Tekn0

Looking forward to the results. Let us know!

 

[Tekn0ph1sh]

I had to delay the brew about a month. I brewed it on 12/21. It was a lot bigger than I anticipated. So while the recipe originally started as a clone I can only say it was inspired by my favorite Oaked Age Scotch Ale.
I do BIAB and everyone kept telling me to increase my grain bill by 15 to 20 percent to make up for the boil down of the first runnings. Because I only had a single vessel I decided to make a mini 1.5 gallon beer with 4lbs of grain that I boiled down to about a pint. It looked like a cross between maple syrup and honey in consistency and color. I tasted it and all I can say is that if I had a bowl of ice cream it might not have made it into the final beer. It was mighty tasty malt syrup. I added that to my boil right before adding hops. My ending gravity was 1.097 after a 90 minute boil a wee bit heavier than expectected. I am giving her 30 days in the primary and then another 30 days over bourbon soaked wood chips in the secondary. So I won't get a good taste until the end of February. But honestly I have read that it needs to condition 2 months at 40 degrees so that's sometime in April.

 

[CaribouBrewmasters]

I brew an extract based recipe for my customers at the u-brew I work at. Our die-hards called it "better than the real" thing, maybe it's partially because of the pricepoint but obviously flavour has alot to do with it as well. This is for a 10g batch (48L). I realize that willamette is not the typical hops used, we chose to use willamette cause our goldings wasn't fantastic and our fuggles wasnt that great either at the time, and well....Willamette seemed like the next best choice. And really, hops aren't the main factor in this recipe anyways, merely there for balance. Also, we age ours for half as long as Innis & Gunn, 32 days on 2 oak spirals soaked in 125ml of Bourbon. We had to use adjuncts to help keep the body and maltiness at the appropriate level and keep the price in the range our customers appreciate. But this is the basic idea for what I brew on a consistent basis for this style.

Whiskey Oak aged Ale

IBU: 19.9
OG: 1.056
TG: 1.010-12

4L Pale LME
2L Amber LME
1.5L Dextrose
1L Glucose

Hops:
60 min: 60g Willamette
30 min: 30g Willamette

Steeping grains:
400g Maris Otter
200g Bairds Brown
100g Melanoiden
50g Oatmeal

2x11g sachets of Nottingham + yeast nutrient

Added once TG is reached:
2 oak spirals vacume sealed in 125ml bourbon.

 

[Bottoms_Up]

Thanks for the recipe!

 

[JoelFreeman]

So, I did a modified version of Veinmans recipe.

5.5 gallon batch
13 lbs Marris Otter Malt
1 lb caramunich 80
2 oz of Fuggles 1/3 at 60 mins 1/3 at 30 mins, 1/3 5 minutes
Scottish 1728 Wyeast
OG 1.065

My question is this though: I didn't make a starter because of scheduling. I contemplated making a starter out of my wort and adding cooled boiled water to a quart until i got a starter wort of 1.020....but in the end I didn't want my main wort sitting in the carboy for 2 days unpitched. Instead I just poured the inflated smack pack in. I&G is a little sweet so possibly an under-attenuated beer might be a good thing.

 

[aangel]

Has there been any activity on this since 2013? I&G is, hands-down, my favorite oaked beer, and I'd really like to clone it. I've gotta say I am surprised that roasted barley is in the original recipe. Maybe at 0.2% of the grain bill it really doesn't add any roasted flavors but...I&G tastes like toffee+vanilla+wood+lager to me.

 

[KOamps]

This was my go at a clone https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/innis-and-gunn-knockoff

Came out a little too sweet and I'd leave out the vanilla extract next time, the oak gives plenty of notes. Boiled the oak chips and dumped the water before soaking in booze to get rid of some of the harshness of the wood, worked really well. Had to taste every day after oaking to get the right flavour and not overdo it.

 

[aangel]

What would you attribute the sweetness to? Underattenuate your batch? too high gravity? Too little hops to balance?

 

[KOamps]

I was a tad over efficient so og was higher and probably threw it out of balance a tad.

 

[skylab4]

I had to delay the brew about a month. I brewed it on 12/21. It was a lot bigger than I anticipated. So while the recipe originally started as a clone I can only say it was inspired by my favorite Oaked Age Scotch Ale.
I do BIAB and everyone kept telling me to increase my grain bill by 15 to 20 percent to make up for the boil down of the first runnings. Because I only had a single vessel I decided to make a mini 1.5 gallon beer with 4lbs of grain that I boiled down to about a pint. It looked like a cross between maple syrup and honey in consistency and color. I tasted it and all I can say is that if I had a bowl of ice cream it might not have made it into the final beer. It was mighty tasty malt syrup. I added that to my boil right before adding hops. My ending gravity was 1.097 after a 90 minute boil a wee bit heavier than expectected. I am giving her 30 days in the primary and then another 30 days over bourbon soaked wood chips in the secondary. So I won't get a good taste until the end of February. But honestly I have read that it needs to condition 2 months at 40 degrees so that's sometime in April.

Just ran across this thread
So how did this turn out. Would you change anything.

 

[JoelFreeman]

Maybe a bit less oak. Also I put a splash of vanilla in for kicks.