Session IPA recipe (Schafly clone)

[Henry22]

I am a pretty big fan of Schafly's session IPA. At 4.5% its very quaffable and you dont want to take a nap afterwards like most IPAs so I figured I would try and brew a clone. Also will be good since football tailgate season is coming up. They wont give me the recipe but the grains, hops, and yeast are all posted on the website.
http://schlafly.com/beers/styles/sessions-ipa/

It uses pale malt and caramal, Amarillo, Bullion, and Magnum hops, and Amerian ale yeast. Its 30IBUs, 10 SRM, 4.5% and is dry hopped. Using this and beer smith I have come up with this.

I will be using BIAB.

Boil Size: 7.93 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.51 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 10.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Bullion [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Day dry Hop

American Ale 1056 yeast will be used. Beersmith is annoying me, it keeps changing the amount of boil volume but when I have the recipe up it says 39 IBUs and 9.7 SRM, when I save it goes to 48 and 11 respectively. Not sure why.

What do yall think?

 

[BeerBDrew]

I live in St Louis and have had this beer (and I agree it's a good one!) and also have attempted to clone a Schlafly beer before (their winter seasonal "Winter ESB"). I have a friend who works on the bottling line and a guy on his Schlafy employee softball team told me the dry hopping rate for that beer. Anyway, I was armed with as much information as I could get without the actual recipe and failed miserably lol. It was good and seemed close until I did a side by side with the real thing. Been meaning to try that one again with a few tweaks.

All of that to say that I think the SRM numbers on their website are a bit off for some reason. The pictures of their beers on their site are pretty accurate, and the session IPA looks to me to be no higher than a 7 on the SRM scale. Based on this and how the beer tastes to me, IMHO crystal 80 is way too high for this beer. I would go no higher than crystal 40 and reduce that to 8% of the total grain bill. My calculations bring this to 5 SRM (the balance being 2 row malt), with a half oz of black patent malt pulling the color up to 7. As an aside, I would target a mash temp of 156 to coax a higher finishing gravity of about 1.013 (11.7 plato = roughly 1.047 SG, with 4.5% ABV, FG needs to be about 1.013).

As for the hops, I would stay with their estimated 30 IBU for the boil as it is a modest gravity beer and will not carry much more bitterness gracefully. My suggestion is to double the dry hop amount and also add some flameout hops (Amarillo) and allow them to steep in the hot wort for 20 - 30 minutes before chilling. For this addition I would start with 2 oz and adjust in later iterations.

Please keep me informed. I hope it turns out really well.

Cheers and happy brewing!

Drew

 

[Henry22]

Thanks for the help! Ill work on that in beersmith. I am having some trouble finding Bullion hops online though.

 

[BeerBDrew]

Thanks for the help! Ill work on that in beersmith. I am having some trouble finding Bullion hops online though.

No problem - glad to help a fellow Schlafly enthusiast!

http://labelpeelers.com/hops-brewers-gold-hops-c-1_64_67.html

Brewers Gold is said to be similar and sort of replaced Bullion for most commercial usage due to its superior storage ability. This vendor carries Bullion as well but only in 11 & 44 lb packages! Either way the Bullion supposedly earns its living as a bittering hop, so for an IPA (of sorts) you could get away with any clean bittering hop I'd think. I use Warrior a lot and really like it.

 

[rpe290]

OP

I could be wrong, but it has been stated before that Schlafly uses the other California Ale yeast (WLP051 or WY1372 -- Anchor Strain).

Something you may want to check into before blindly using 001...

 

[Henry22]

OP

I could be wrong, but it has been stated before that Schlafly uses the other California Ale yeast (WLP051 or WY1372 -- Anchor Strain).

Something you may want to check into before blindly using 001...

Havent brewed this yet but if I do Ill look into that. Where did you see or hear that?

 

[day_trippr]

"Session IPA" with 30 IBUs and 4.5% ABV?

Sounds like a run of the mill Pale to me. Why aggrandize it?

Cheers!

 

[rpe290]

Havent brewed this yet but if I do Ill look into that. Where did you see or hear that?

A couple different places on St. Louis-area brew boards. (more than one poster, too).

 

[edecambra]

"Session IPA" with 30 IBUs and 4.5% ABV?

Sounds like a run of the mill Pale to me. Why aggrandize it?

Cheers!

Looking at the recipe, I thought the same.

I just tried my hand at a SIPA and this is the recipe I used, and it is damn tasty (one week in the fermenter, no dry hops yet):



Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.28 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.28 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 5.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 54.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 1 -
2.00 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
2.00 ml Lactic Acid (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
5 lbs 6.5 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 40.0 %
5 lbs 6.5 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 5 40.0 %
1 lbs 9.9 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6 12.0 %
8.6 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 7 4.0 %
8.6 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8 4.0 %
20.00 g Magnum [12.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 9 33.3 IBUs
30.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 4.7 IBUs
30.00 g Centennial [9.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 5.9 IBUs
30.00 g Topaz [16.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 10.2 IBUs
20.00 g Motueka [7.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Topaz [17.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [1 Yeast 15 -
15.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
15.00 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
15.00 g Motueka [7.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
15.00 g Topaz [16.40 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 19 0.0 IBUs


You may want to up the late hop additions, which will cut on IBUs (calculated) but give more hop character. Granted my recipe is admittedly a bit high for a session, but the balance is right for an IPA, decidedly bitter but not IIPA bitter and great hop character without over shining the malts too much. Pale ales are much more balanced typically, so you might want to tip the needle towards the hops (late hops!!!)

a caveat, I have never had the beer in question, but I am just going on what "session" IPAs I've had versus pale ales. Cheers