Timely, indeed. I brewed up my version of this again on 05/15 and kegged 05/31. I subbed out the 2-row for Golden Promise this time, and lowered the over all ABV target (not shooting for a full HDnR clone). It came in at 1.061 and finished with Conan yeast at 1.014.
I agree with the extra bitterness. I generally use a clean hop like warrior or apollo for bittering. I think NoDa is adding more chinook at their 60' addition. Whenever I've used all chinook, I detect a harsh bitterness that I do not enjoy. I think they are using warrior (or some clean hop) along with more chinook to get their extra 'bite'. May also be adding some gypsum for that as well.
I still agree with the citra/amarillo combo for late hopping and dry hopping. Great combo. I will still tinker a little bit but this beer will stay in rotation on my taps!
Cheers!
I'm currently drinking my 3rd attempt at this. I tweaked the hop additions based on what you guys are saying. I drank mine side-by-side with a real Hop Drop and they are reasonably close. Mine is more home-brewy, and a little too dark in color, but I think the flavor and bitterness are much closer than my first two batches. I nailed the ABV and the IBU, according to calculations.
The real thing has a sort-of smokey bitter flavor that comes in a little late --- not sure what that is --- I taste it in mine, but it's not as strong. I don't really know how to describe it, nor do I know which hop that might be coming from.
My hop additions:
60 min - Warrior
30 min - Chinook
15 min - Amarillo, Centennial, Chinook
1 min - Amarillo, Citra
Dry hop in secondary - Amarillo, Citra
I brewed up a variation on this recipe based on what I had on hand a few months ago so I thought I would chime in. I made it and drank on it for several weeks before finally getting a chance to try the real thing. I think it's real close. The bitterness in the real thing was a little more 'harsh' but I don't mean that in a negative way.
Definitely one of the better IPA's I've made recently despite the final gravity dropping lower than intended. I submitted it to a fairly large regional comp and it finished in third place in the IPA category out of over 40 entries.
OG - 1.067
FG - 1.008
100+ calculated IBU
40% US Pale Malt
40% UK Golden Promise
7% Vienna malt
3% red wheat
3% carapils
3% C40L
3% dextrose
(Yes, that does only add up to 99%.)
Mashed at 152F, yeast was 1056.
20g Apollo FWH
28g Centennial @ 30'
14g Amarillo @ 15'
14g Centennial @ 15'
14g Citra @ 15'
14g Amarillo @ 10'
14g Citra @ 10'
28g Amarillo @ 5'
28g Citra @ 5'
28g Amarillo @ 0'
28g Citra @ 0'
28g Amarillo DH 10 days
28g Citra DH 10 days
40g Amarillo DH 5 days
40g Citra DH 5 days
When brewing this one again, I would either mash higher or dump the dextrose to hopefully finish with a little higher FG. I would also add some Nelson or Galaxy into the dry hopping.
I've had some Hop Drops lately and I'm not very impressed anymore. It comes across harsh to me. I used to love those IBUs and bitter but now I'm more of a hops flavor guy with lower bitterness, ie NE style. It's fun to have every once in awhile but don't really seek it out anymore.
I'm looking for a Hop Drop N Roll clone. I came up with one but would like to get any feedback. I've had the beer a couple of times and I looked up on their website information about their beer. On their website they use 4 malts: 2-Row, English base malt (which I'm assuming is like a Maris Otter?), Vienna and wheat (for mouth feel). Their cans say what hops they use and they are added at 10 different times. Their website says they use hops in the mash, which I'm not going to do, boil and secondary (obviously). I BIAB so my grain count is going to be higher to offset the efficiency.
Batch size 3 gallons
1500 g (3.3 lb) 2-Row
1500 g (3.3 lb) Maris Otter
454 g (1 lb) Vienna
454 g (1 lb) Wheat
150 g (.33 lb) Carapils/Dextrine
150 g (.33 lb) Dextrose
135 g (.3 lb) Caramel 40 L
28 g (1 oz) Warrior 15.4 AA% 90 min boil
28 g (1 oz) Chinook 11.5 AA% 60 min boil
14 g (.5 oz) Centennial 9.2 AA% 30 min boil
21 g (.75 oz) Citra 11 AA% 0 min boil
21 g (.75 oz) Amarillo 8.2 AA% 0 min boil
14 g (.5 oz) Centennial 9.2 AA% Dry hop 12-14 days
14 g (.5 oz) Citra 11 AA% Dry hop 12-14 days
14 g (.5 oz) Amarillo 8.2 AA% Dry hop 12-14 days
8.5 g (.3 oz) Chinook 11.5 AA% Dry hop 5-7 days
8.5 g (.3 oz) Citra 11 AA% Dry hop 5-7 days
8.5 g (.3 oz) Amarillo 8.2 AA% Dry hop 5-7 days
Wyeast 1056 American Ale (probably 1.5-2 packages for this higher gravity beer)
OG 1.070
FG ~1.016ish range
ABV: 7.2
SRM: 7.7
IBU: 81
Mash at 151-152* for 60 mins
90 minute boil
Cool to 68-72*
Pitch yeast
Dry Hop
All I know is Citra and Amarillo are added very late in boil. All other hop additions, amounts and times are just guesses.
This is my first post but I have been using HBT for awhile... Here we go.
So I used libova's post (the first one here) as my base using my 5 gallon all grain setup. Long story short, I missed my target temp of 152 and ended up at 127F. I added a quart of boiling water but that didn't work. So I ended up pulling from the mash tun and heating up 2 quarts at a time to hit my target temp. When I finally hit 150 I let it sit for 15 minutes. At this point I was 75 minutes into the mash so my patience was gone. What I learned that day: For a smaller mash (batch) size I really need to pre-heat the 10 gallon mash tun cooler. After that everything went smoothly. Here is what I used for my first try.
Target Batch size 3 gallons
7 lb 2-Row
0.75 lb Vienna
0.75 lb White Wheat
0.25 lb Caramel 40 L
0.25 lb Carapils/Dextrine
1 oz Warrior (60 min boil)
1 oz Chinook (30 min boil)
0.5 oz Centennial (15 min boil)
0.75 oz Citra (0 min boil)
0.75 oz Amarillo (0 min boil)
0.5 oz Citra (Dry hop 8 days)
0.5 oz Amarillo (Dry hop 8 days)
0.5 oz Citra (Dry hop 5 days)
0.5 oz Amarillo (Dry hop 5 days)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale (no starter)
Mash at 151-152 for 60 mins
90 minute boil
Actual Measurements
OG 1.067
FG 1.020
ABV: ~6.2
Primary was 7 days at 62
Secondary was 14 days at 65
Dry hop at ambient (about 68)
This turned out great! I had a buddy try it and he agreed it was just off color but the taste was almost spot on and very close in aroma. I did a side by side and agreed with him. It was missing something. I decided to try adding Chinook in the dry hop.
My second go did not yield great results. At this point I doubled my recipe for a 6 gallon batch. Bad Idea. It wasn't even close. I enjoyed drinking it and entered it into a competition. I ended up getting a score of 32.5 (room for improvement).
I modified it again to see if I could get back to what I was looking for and . Below is what I ended up with. It is currently going through the dry hop process. (side note: when I made this the first time I was on my 4th all grain batch. I now have close to 20 all grain brews under my belt. I have really learned more about my system/process and what works.)
Target Batch size 6 gallons
13 lb 2-Row
1 lb Vienna
1 lb White Wheat
0.75 lb Caramel 40 L
0.5 lb Carapils/Dextrine
1.75 oz Warrior (60 min boil)
1.75 oz Chinook (30 min boil)
1 oz Centennial (15 min boil)
1 oz Citra (0 min boil)
1 oz Amarillo (0 min boil)
0.5 oz Citra (Dry hop 8 days)
0.5 oz Amarillo (Dry hop 8 days)
0.5 oz Chinook (Dry hop 8 days)
0.5 oz Citra (Dry hop 5 days)
0.5 oz Amarillo (Dry hop 5 days)
0.5 oz Chinook (Dry hop 5 days)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Mash in at 125-130 for 20 minutes
Raise the temp to 154 for 40 minutes
90 minute boil
2L Yeast Starter made 24+ hours
Actual Measurements
OG 1.072
FG 1.014
ABV: ~7.6
- Primary started at 65. 4 days in things started to slow, I raised the temp 1 degree each day.
- On day 9 I moved to secondary and let it rest at 70 for another 9 days.
- I moved to a keg and cold crashed for 24 hours and pulled off about 2 pints. The temp was raise to 68 and I started dry hopping. Since I dry hop for 8 total days, on day 7 I will cold crash again. Then use a siphon with a mesh bag on the end to transfer to a second keg. After that I will start carbonating.
I am excited about what I have tasted before dry hopping. If I was to do it again I might add more vienna and take away the base malt (and drop abv closer to 7%).
I'll see if I can post again when I have more pictures and can do I side by side.
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