American IPA Melvin 2x4 DIPA Clone Recipe?

[dschiller]

Does anyone have an all-grain clone recipe for this? I’ve seen a Melvin IPA recipe (with way too high of an IBU) but nothing out there for their 2x4. Thanks in advance.

 

[couchsending]

I would assume it’s
2-Row
Maybe some C-15
Dextrose

Hops are Columbus, Centennial, Citra Simcoe

I’d assume Columbus @ 90 and a blend of them in WP and DH. No clue on ratios.

They use 001 fermented at 70 for one week then after VDK test drop to 60 for one day before pulling yeast and adding dry hops. They dry hop twice, 24 hours apart.

You’ll have to use a metric sh*t tons of hops. At that high a gravity you get horrible extraction. Their dry hopping loads are high, wouldn’t surprise me if 2x4 was more than 4lbs/bbl.

I don’t think they add sugar during fermentation but they might to get to 10%.

You might need to ferment cooler to prevent higher alcohol notes.

 

[dschiller]

Thanks for the recommendation. For a 5 gal batch, is the conversion from hops lb/bbl 4 lb/bbl = 4 oz/(5 gal batch)? Perhaps for a 5 gal batch the 2 rounds of dry hops should be separated by 4 days instead of 1. How about this for an all-grain 5 gallon recipe? Note 90 minute boil but bittering hops added at 60 minutes.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.40 gal
Boil Size: 7.48 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
End of Boil Vol: 6.13 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.00 gal
Efficiency: 73.00 %

Ingredients:

Amt Name %/IBU
Grain:
15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 84.5 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 5.6 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 5.6 %

Hops and Dextrose:
1.00 oz Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 40.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - Boil 20.0 min 15.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min 19.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] - Boil 20.0 min 21.0 IBUs
12.0 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) [Boil for 5 min](0.0 SRM)
Whirlpool or flameout the following (not sure which to do):
1.00 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs

Misc: 0.5 tablet Whirfloc, 0.5 tsp yeast nutrient (5 minutes)

2.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast (1.5 liter StirStarter, decanted; bubble O2 40 seconds)

Dry Hop #1:
2.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs

Dry Hop #2:
2.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.90 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.089 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.9 %
Bitterness: 96.5 IBUs
Est Color: 5.7 SRM

Single infusion mash at 152F. Water chemistry amber balanced per Bru'n Water.

 

[couchsending]

4lbs/bbl is roughly a 12oz dry hop

I don’t think waiting 4 days is any more beneficial than 1 day for the dry hopping.

Can you get that level of attenuation out of 001 with a 152 mash? I never make beers over 8%, and never use Cal Ale. I’d think you would need more like 149?

They’re at higher elevation so they boil at lower temps so if you do whirlpool lower it to at least 200.

This beer won most of its awards while being brewed on a tiny 3.5bbl system in what is essentially a closet in the back of a Thai restaurant. They brew 240bbls of it at a time now and they did a damn good job scaling it up.

They don’t do much on the way of water tweaking. Brewer told me they use phosphoric to hit their mash and sparge water goals and that’s about it.

I’ll see if I can get you any more info.

 

[dschiller]

Thanks for the suggestion to mash at a lower temperature. I'll do that. What yeast would you recommend instead of WLP001? Perhaps WLP090? Wyeast 1056? US-05?

For 2 dry hops for X number of days (X=1, 4, 5, or 7), would you remove the first dry hop bag before adding the second, or would you just keep dry hop bag #1 in their twice as long as dry hop bag #2.

I've always dry hopped at the same 66-68F temperature as I've used for my primary. Is this a mistake? Sounds like I should dry hop colder as you suggest (60F) after I make sure I've driven off the VDK?? What is the advantage of dry hopping at this lower temperature? Does this have anything to do with preventing dry hop creep or does it do a better job at extracting the hops flavor?

I've heard that the tap water in Colorado is pretty good as is for brewing [ooops...Wyoming]. My water report in Southern California suggests I should use about 80% RO water and then add gypsum, calcium chloride, epsom salts, and lactic acid.

I would rather not whirlpool unless it would make a big difference; I've never seen a gadget that would do this for me in my 7 gallon brew kettle...I just stand there and stir for 15-20 minutes (not fun).

I'll try to stop asking tangential questions that should be posed to the general homebrew discussion forum.

 

[couchsending]

Thanks for the suggestion to mash at a lower temperature. I'll do that. What yeast would you recommend instead of WLP001? Perhaps WLP090? Wyeast 1056? US-05?

For 2 dry hops for X number of days (X=1, 4, 5, or 7), would you remove the first dry hop bag before adding the second, or would you just keep dry hop bag #1 in their twice as long as dry hop bag #2.

I've always dry hopped at the same 66-68F temperature as I've used for my primary. Is this a mistake? Sounds like I should dry hop colder as you suggest (60F) after I make sure I've driven off the VDK?? What is the advantage of dry hopping at this lower temperature? Does this have anything to do with preventing dry hop creep or does it do a better job at extracting the hops flavor?

I've heard that the tap water in Colorado is pretty good as is for brewing. My water report in Southern California suggests I should use about 80% RO water and then add gypsum, calcium chloride, epsom salts, and lactic acid.

I would rather not whirlpool unless it would make a big difference; I've never seen a gadget that would do this for me in my 7 gallon brew kettle...I just stand there and stir for 15-20 minutes (not fun).

I'll try to stop asking tangential questions that should be posed to the general homebrew discussion forum.

001 is fine. They use some version of that yeast. It’s fine yeast, I just don’t use it so I don’t know if you can hit that level of attenuation with it easily???

The key to maximum hop aroma is dry hopping with less yeast in suspension. Dropping the beer to 60 after fermentation for a day is to “soft crash” the yeast and at least get a bunch of it to flocc. If you’re using a conical ideally a good time to dump as much yeast as possible.

As homebrewers we can go lower and then warm back up quicker than the big guys who are trying to get much larger tanks to change temps. 60 seems to be a pretty popular temp for a lot of professionals to dry hop at. There’s probably a few reasons for it.

I never bag hops personally. I think you add more O2 when you bag the hops and the extraction isn’t as good. Definitely don’t pull the first bag. Leave them all in there for 4 days or so.

You don’t need to actually whirlpool the whole time. Just hit your ideal temp, throw the hops in, give it a good stir and let it sit for 20 minutes.

They brew in Wyoming. The water is fairly alkaline. I tried to find a water report for the area but I couldn’t.

 

[dschiller]

Thanks very much again! I’ll lower to 60F at dry hop (and yes I do dump my trub then with my conical fermentor) and change how I whirlpool (nice tip!). Cheers.