Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA clone

[htownbrew12]

Just bottled this afternoon. FG came down to 1.017 so I am pretty happy with that. Sample was awesome. Of my 3 brews this is the first one I though tasted good at bottling. Only complaint was that I expected slightly more hop aroma. I will report back in a few weeks.

@sivdrinks: Sorry for the delay on the BIAB recipe; I haven't checked this thread in awhile. I don't think that I am the best example of the BIAB technique (I used 2 pots on the stove top and had to wing it due to lack of equipment/experience), but I will show you what I did.

Stone 15th Anniversary Imperial Black IPA
Type: AG BIAB
Batch Size: 2.75
Boil Size: 4.0 gal
Boil Time: 75 min
Planned Efficiency - 70%
Expected OG = 1.102 Actual OG = 1.095
Expected FG = 1.023 Actual FG = 1.017


Ingredients:
10lb 2-row
1.0 lb Caramel 80L
0.5lb Carafa III
0.5 lb Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb Dark Candi Sugar - added 15 min left in boil

Hops
1.0 oz Columbus - 60min
1.2 Oz Citira - 15 min
1.8 oz Citra -1 min
1.0 oz pacific Gem - 1 min
1.4 oz Nelson Sauvin - dry hop 7 days

Pitched 1.5L starter of WLP001.

I knew my "5 gallon" (read 4.25) kettles wouldn't hold all the grain so I split the mash. Mashed in each pot 1.1qt/lb - 60 min @ 153
Dunk sparge each pot 1.0qt/lb - 25 min
I didn't squeeze the bag because I knew I already had too much wort.
poured the wort from each kettle back and forth to insure they were equally mixed.
Added as much wort as possible to my boil kettle (still had a few quarts left over)
Preboil OG + calculations told me I needed to boil for ~ 75 minutes.

 

[Wernerherzog]

I'm worried about doing this beer because of wanting to age it in primary but won't I lose a lot of the last addition hop aroma from that? Curious to hear what people have to say. I've done plenty of big beers and plenty of hoppy beers but never a really big beer that aimed at so much aroma.,

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I'm worried about doing this beer because of wanting to age it in primary but won't I lose a lot of the last addition hop aroma from that? Curious to hear what people have to say. I've done plenty of big beers and plenty of hoppy beers but never a really big beer that aimed at so much aroma.,

Although it is a big beer it doesn't need to age a long time since it is an IPA (how long are you talking). There is plenty of aroma that will last a long time. To help, don't dry hop until just before bottling.

 

[Brewitt]

Sipping one of these right now (well, my simcoe amarillo variant) about 5 weeks after brewing and two weeks in the bottle. Fine carbonation, tan head, almost black but good clarity. Beautiful chocolate and coffee undertones to a rich sweet malt backbone. Dryhop nose is apparent but, as I've found with my hoppy stout with a similar malt bill, the bitterness of the hop and the roasted malt get confused in my tastebuds so it is hard to say what is what. That said, Great flavor profile, much richer than you typical black IPA, almost a stout.

Winner!

 

[drawdy10]

Brewed this today! at 65% efficiency i had to use 3 extra pounds of 2-row.
I finished with 6 gallons at 1.095 since i didn't have my boil off rates down on this new pot but extra beer is fine with me!
Those 5 ounces at flameout with whole leaf hops is quite ridiculous but it tasted great from the hydro sample. Pitched a 2 Liter/ 2 vial starter of WLP001 and split the batch between 2-6 gallon carboys. Also, i used Amarillo instead of Pacific Jade since I bought my hops from freshhops.com and they don't have Jade. Also, I am planning on dry hopping with Citra and Amarillo instead of Nelson since I have no idea where to get those. Do you think that Nelson is crucial for this or will a citra/amarillo blend be fine?

Final cost to brew this beast: $60! Most expensive, biggest brew i have ever done.

Thanks for the recipe, having fun with this brew, cheers!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Brewed this today! at 65% efficiency i had to use 3 extra pounds of 2-row.
I finished with 6 gallons at 1.095 since i didn't have my boil off rates down on this new pot but extra beer is fine with me!
Those 5 ounces at flameout with whole leaf hops is quite ridiculous but it tasted great from the hydro sample. Pitched a 2 Liter/ 2 vial starter of WLP001 and split the batch between 2-6 gallon carboys. Also, i used Amarillo instead of Pacific Jade since I bought my hops from freshhops.com and they don't have Jade. Also, I am planning on dry hopping with Citra and Amarillo instead of Nelson since I have no idea where to get those. Do you think that Nelson is crucial for this or will a citra/amarillo blend be fine?

Final cost to brew this beast: $60! Most expensive, biggest brew i have ever done.

Thanks for the recipe, having fun with this brew, cheers!

This is my first recipe using Pacific Jade, so don't know a lot about it. Nelson has a different flavor and from what I have seen there isn't a real alternate, but I love me some citra and Amarillo. I bet it ends up being great.

I haven't calculated my cost to brew this, but can't imagine it was over $35, probably less. I did drop $6 on the Belgian candy sugar, need to make my own next time. Did you pay a premium for hops? Grains? $60 seems pretty high. Still way cheaper than $8 a bomber if it comes out good though.

 

[Keiskamma1]

Nelson Sauvin is unique, there is no substitute.

My brew of this cost $65.11 for a 5 gallon extract batch.

I used the Pacific Jade and Nelson Sauvin hops. No yeast cost though as I cultured from a bottle of the original. Should probably factor that cost in, but then I did get to enjoy 80% of it.
Been drinking my creation for a couple of weeks now and I am totally loving it.

What a great beer this is!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Nelson Sauvin is unique, there is no substitute.

My brew of this cost $65.11 for a 5 gallon extract batch.

I used the Pacific Jade and Nelson Sauvin hops. No yeast cost though as I cultured from a bottle of the original. Should probably factor that cost in, but then I did get to enjoy 80% of it.
Been drinking my creation for a couple of weeks now and I am totally loving it.

What a great beer this is!

Gotta get to AG man, extract kills the cost of a brew. Glad it came out good though. I finally bottled up mine a few days ago, will probably crack one next weekend. The hydrometer sample was good.

 

[Brewitt]

Only complaint was that I expected slightly more hop aroma. I will report back in a few weeks.

I have found that the roastier the brew the more the dry hop disappears into the roastiness. I think your nose and taste buds just confuse the aroma of the hop with that of the roast. If you really focus you can tease them apart. I brewed 5 gal of a russian imperial stout with 100 IBU and several ounces of dry hop and felt the same way. My version of the Escondidian has a similar effect. Without the chocolate malt it might be a little more noticeable, at least the other two Black IPAs I have done were noticeably hoppy with the same IBUs and dry hop.

 

[drawdy10]

This is my first recipe using Pacific Jade, so don't know a lot about it. Nelson has a different flavor and from what I have seen there isn't a real alternate, but I love me some citra and Amarillo. I bet it ends up being great.

I haven't calculated my cost to brew this, but can't imagine it was over $35, probably less. I did drop $6 on the Belgian candy sugar, need to make my own next time. Did you pay a premium for hops? Grains? $60 seems pretty high. Still way cheaper than $8 a bomber if it comes out good though.

$2 worth of Zeus Hops
$5 worth of Amarillo Hops
$8 worth of Citra Hops
all from Freshops.com

Grains and sugar cost ~ $25

2 vials of WLP001 plus dme for starter = $14

Whirlfloc tablet, 5.2 mash stabilizer, yeast nutrient ~ $1

not including water, propane, and heating costs of running in and outside all afternoon leaving the door open alot the total comes to:

$55 for 6.5 gallons of 1.095 wort, we will see how many bottles that turns out to but if i end up getting 5.5 gallons out of it thats 32 - 22 oz bomber bottles and last time I checked you have to give $8.99 a bottle plus tax if you are lucky enough to find it.

Mine is going to be $1.71 per bomber.

I'm sitting next to my fermentors and they smell amazing, if anyone can tell me where to get 2 oz of nelson sauvin and an ounce of pacific jade I will buy those and toss in for dry hop....

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I guess I was at $41 or so. As far as Nelson goes, I don't know where to find any now. The Pacific Jade can be found online. brewmasters warehouse is local for me, I know they had them recently.

 

[dfess1]

Made this recipe back on 1/22. Hit 1.090 OG. When I racked/dry hopped on 2/9, I was down to 1.020. Gravity sample was amazing, but plenty roasty. Looking to keg it up this weekend and push on nitro.

 

[Wernerherzog]

My comment about aging had primarily to do with the fact that the beer is spose to be 10 percent. Isn't it going to have an unpleasant alcohol burn? Also, although the roast isn't as big as a stout, won't the small amount it does have need time?

I finally brewed this today with a few substitutions/mess ups. I did 1/4th candy sugar and 3/4 a lb cane sugar since that's what I had around. Also used belgian debittered instead of carafa. I forgot to add the pacific jade at the end as I was thinking it was a dry hop addition. Looks like now it will be a dry hop addition. Also, instead of 05, I used the big 04 old ale cake I had laying around . Shouldn't do too much more than add a few esters and leave it a big maltier and thick.

I mashed in with 8 gallons, retrieved 5, sparged with 4, (was still running with 1.035 or 38 at the end of that 4), then sparged with another 2 (finished running 1.012), to end up with a preboil volume of 11 gallons. I boiled down to 5.25 roughly in about 2 hrs and 15 minutes. That gave me a wort of 1.120. Mashed 90 minutes.

This is going to be a little bigger than I intended...

 

[dfess1]

So my best friend is the Mid Atlantic Stone Rep. He was over the other night and I poured him a sample. He asked me to bottle some for a big meeting he has coming up in a few weeks with his co-workers. he wants to throw it down on the table and ask them "what beer is this? 15th Anniversary? Not really!" He knows his beer, and if he liked it that much, then I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. trust me, he won't give a compliment if he can at all avoid it, especially to me. So thanks to skeezerpleezer for the recipe! It is awesome, and I have it on my nitro line. Quite tasty!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Awesome, I am glad it worked out for you. I finally put my 1st bottle in the fridge earlier, so will be having one later. If it come out good, I will be brewing it again soon. I have plenty of all the ingredients except candy sugar.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Ok, I got anxious so cracked one open. I must admit it is really close. Roastiness is about spot on, bitterness is there, aroma is similar but not as pungent as a fresh Stone 15. That could be partially due to the fact I waited over a month between end of dry hop and bottling (lazy and traveling). For the next go around, I will mash a few degrees lower, maybe up the candy sugar a little to help dry it out, pitch a big starter, and maybe up the dry hops some.

Oh yeah, color is pretty close also:

 

[RallyintheValley]

So my best friend is the Mid Atlantic Stone Rep. He was over the other night and I poured him a sample. He asked me to bottle some for a big meeting he has coming up in a few weeks with his co-workers. he wants to throw it down on the table and ask them "what beer is this? 15th Anniversary? Not really!" He knows his beer, and if he liked it that much, then I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. trust me, he won't give a compliment if he can at all avoid it, especially to me. So thanks to skeezerpleezer for the recipe! It is awesome, and I have it on my nitro line. Quite tasty!

That is a serious endorsement.

Also, I need to choose more awesome friends.

 

[mrgstiffler]

I like this recipe. Stone 15 is a fantastic beer. Can you post another picture showing the head color?

 

[dfess1]

That is a serious endorsement.

Also, I need to choose more awesome friends.

that's the way I took it too! And all you need to do is be the only other blunt guy in a freshman college class full of pretentious pricks. We were like long lost brothers! Funny, same degree, though he has much more fun in his job than I do in mine!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Sorry for sideways pictures, on my phone. Its pretty close on head color though. I am gonna try to do a side by side Friday, so will get a picture then. I needed an excuse to drink a couple bombers of ~10.5% beer anyway.

 

[drawdy10]

Dfess can you share more of the specifics of your process and recipe you used?

I did a 6 gallon batch of this 10 days ago. Split the ferment into 2 carboys. Added dry hops 2 days ago: .25oz of simcoe and 1.5oz Amarillo in one carboy and 2oz Chinook on the other 3 gallons.

OG was 1.095 and FG 1.021 with a 2 liter starter and 2 vials of WLP001.

 

[dfess1]

I made the recipe on page 1, swapping out the yeast, adding in yeast nutrient (always do that in my brews). Hit 1.090 for an OG though, finished out at 1.019 with just two vials of WLP007. Ran out of propane in the last 20 min of the boil, so it went a little longer than it should have (damn double brew day, and it was my second bottle!). Primaried for 3 weeks, racked and dryhopped for 9 days. Kegged and carbed for a week.

 

[socalhomebrewer]

Had a question for extract brewing. I can only boil about 4 gallons. My concern and from previous IPA's is what I have learned is boil hop utizalation in extract brewing. In extract brewing I know that gravity is much higher during the boil and then water is added in the carboy. But hop untilization with the higher gravity is lower so I wanted to find out what people would recommend. Should I add most of the extract late (80% or so) to get the most out of the hops in the boil, or add more of the extract in the start to carmelize the malt (this beer seems to have a lot of calmalized malt flavor) and up the hops, or more extract at the start and boil another gallon or 2 of water with a portion of the hops with that. Please let me know what everyone thinks.

 

[SLCRebellion]

So I decided to give this beer a go this last week. I had a few problems during my mash, because I was thinking about work and not brewing. Yeah Party Foul. Anyway, ended up with OG of .090, not bad for the meat headed mistake I made. I made a 1 liter starter with the San Diego Super Yeast, and pitched after 24 hours. Holy Shiz that yeast is an animal. In barely over 72 hours, my SG reading was 1.015. Amazing.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Had a question for extract brewing. I can only boil about 4 gallons. My concern and from previous IPA's is what I have learned is boil hop utizalation in extract brewing. In extract brewing I know that gravity is much higher during the boil and then water is added in the carboy. But hop untilization with the higher gravity is lower so I wanted to find out what people would recommend. Should I add most of the extract late (80% or so) to get the most out of the hops in the boil, or add more of the extract in the start to carmelize the malt (this beer seems to have a lot of calmalized malt flavor) and up the hops, or more extract at the start and boil another gallon or 2 of water with a portion of the hops with that. Please let me know what everyone thinks.

I would add the extract late, I don't think you need any extra carmelization. If anything, i would consider dialing back the caramal malt a few %, since the DME has caramel in it. You may also increase the 60 min addition of hops to get more bitterness. I find it unlikely that you will over bitter this beer. The late additions should be fine.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

So I decided to give this beer a go this last week. I had a few problems during my mash, because I was thinking about work and not brewing. Yeah Party Foul. Anyway, ended up with OG of .090, not bad for the meat headed mistake I made. I made a 1 liter starter with the San Diego Super Yeast, and pitched after 24 hours. Holy Shiz that yeast is an animal. In barely over 72 hours, my SG reading was 1.015. Amazing.

Nice, I gotta get some of that yeast. What temp did you ferment at?

 

[SLCRebellion]

Started at 68, and then brought it down to 66 after 24 hours. Glad I went with the blowoff tube

 

[socalhomebrewer]

So I decided to give this beer a go this last week. I had a few problems during my mash, because I was thinking about work and not brewing. Yeah Party Foul. Anyway, ended up with OG of .090, not bad for the meat headed mistake I made. I made a 1 liter starter with the San Diego Super Yeast, and pitched after 24 hours. Holy Shiz that yeast is an animal. In barely over 72 hours, my SG reading was 1.015. Amazing.

What kind of fermenter are you using? I was thinking about using the super yeast with my carboy, but I was scared that with so much ferment sugar and how aggressive this yeast can be that it would have to have a blow off and chance a mess. Are you using a carboy or conical?

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I would probably save time and hook up a blow off from the start even if using a 6.5g carboy. Better safe than sorry, and this one does ferment pretty vigorously even if you don't use the San Diego Super Yeast.

 

[drawdy10]

Yeah I split this batch into two carboys. Which is also cool because I can do tow dry hop versions for fun.