Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA clone

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Just brewed this yesterday. OG was 1.103, just barely got 5 gallons into fermentor...really need to tweak my pot setup for these very hoppy beers.

This is my personal favorite beer, really hoping this comes out close.
 
So I held off on brewing this until I got my all grain system going and I think I am going to brew this in the next couple weeks. I have all the hops, just need to buy the grains.

Question is, is the Carafa III husked or dehusked? It looks like I can get both. If it is dehusked then it sounds like I can put it in a coffee grinder?

Would I then mash that for the full 60 mins if ground?

Thanks
 
Your real dad, that is a funny/creepy username, haha... Anyways I would go with dehusked carafe for less astiringency. You shouldn't need to grind it any finer than your other malts, treat it like all your other grain with a normal crush. As for the mash length I would consider adding the dark grains either as a steeping grain in the boil kettle or in only the last 15 minutes of the mash. I say this because when I brewed this beer I mashed everything together and when I got the notes back from competition they noted excessive grain astringency. There is some good literature out there from Gordon Strong that suggests grains astringency comes from extended mash times for dark grains.(think about coffee that would steep for an hour, it would be terrible).

Good luck with the brew it has been the best beer I have brewed, fantastic recipe.
 
Brewing it again today. I might throw it on some oak this time. Has anyone oaked this bad boy?
 
I brewed this on Sunday, and my batch sparge process still needs some work. My OG was low (1.090), but it still looks great. I can't believe how violently it's fermenting. I've got it blowing off, and I've had to change the sanitizer and mop up the blowoff four times already! I used a stepped-up starter that should have been over 400 billion cells. Can't wait to try this! I think I'll let it stay in the primary for two full weeks before dry hopping.

:mug:
 
RandyBoBandy said:
How much priming sugar would you recommend for bottling a five gallon batch of this recipe?

This will answer all your priming questions:

Northernbrewer.com/priming
 
So I brewed this last night and I probably messed up at every step. OG was about 1.090 and in the end I only put about 4 gallons into the carboy. Anyone have any tips on how to get more wort? I feel like if I keep sparging to get more wort then my SG will be low and I will still have to boil off to get the right OG. Or how to not have my wort absorbed by all the hops. Hoping this comes out all right since now the yeast and hops, etc are off.

I started with a little over 8G preboil and boiled for about 105 minutes. I use a paint strainer bag when filling my carboy and I had to empty it three times.
 
My efficiency for this batch according to brewersfriend.com was around 71% which is right about where I want it. Sorry this is only my third all-grain the other two however were almost spot on with everything i.e. mash temp, volume and gravity. It just seems like this beer and the hops swallowed up 1.5G and I had to boil off a little more to try to reach the target OG.

You guys and gals are not pouring in all of the trub in this one are you?
 
Awesome. I remember drinking one of these after a good day hike at the Grand Canyon. Enjoyed it so much, I went out and bought a few more when I got home the next day.

Not sure my setup can handle this brew quite yet, but I'll stash the recipe in my future brew list for when I expand my brewing gear. :ban:
 
skeezerpleezer said:
What's the gravity of the 4g? What was the preboil volume?

Haha. That was my other whoops of the day. By the time I finished brewing I was so aggregated and more than a little intoxicated that I forgot to check gravity. I'm assuming it was pretty high though because I took a sample yesterday and it was at 1.026 and tasted veeerrrryyyy boozy. Just based off of taste I'd say 10-12% which would be about right I think. I'm thinking about brewing this again but using the halved recipe that's on this thread with my 10 gal. mash tun to see if I can get my numbers closer to what they should be and getting my technique down before trying a full batch again.
 
Not sure what happened. Only ended up with 4 gal or so in the fermenter. Drunk

Reminds me of texts I used to get from my ex gf.

This is an awesome thread. My comment is, we tried to clone this when we were still doing extract. Did a ten gallon batch, and it turned out terrible. I still have bombers of this even around though we made it in 2010. Funny though that the thread started out to be about Mitch steel, and now the recipe is in his IPA book. Turns out we obsessed WAY too much about the black malts and should have concentrated on brewing a good IPA and adding 3% Carafa II to it. LOL
 
954surfer said:
Reminds me of texts I used to get from my ex gf.

This is an awesome thread. My comment is, we tried to clone this when we were still doing extract. Did a ten gallon batch, and it turned out terrible. I still have bombers of this even around though we made it in 2010. Funny though that the thread started out to be about Mitch steel, and now the recipe is in his IPA book. Turns out we obsessed WAY too much about the black malts and should have concentrated on brewing a good IPA and adding 3% Carafa II to it. LOL

Just out of curiosity, how did you try to clone it in 2010? It hadn't even come out yet; their 15th anniversary was in 2011.
 
Didn't you see my post on the beer-powered time machine? My bad. I didn't write the year on them. But I knew it was a while ago...
 
Yea he probably has this mixed up, the 15 clone is not in the book I have it in my hands and its not in there
 
Speaking of the Stone book. The 13th anny recipe is AMAZING! Brewed it 3 times now and always a hit.
 
skeezerpleezer said:
I got this brewed Friday. I came up about .002 short on OG. I am thinking about boiling up a bit of sugar and adding it after primary fermentation, but will wait and see where the final gravity ends up before doing that. Here is what I did, it is basically just a scaled down version of post #1:

Batch Size: 3.25 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Actual Efficiency: 73.4 %

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 79.6 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 8.2 %
0.50 lb Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 4.1 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.1 %
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00%] (60 min) Hops 61.2 IBU
1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (15 min) Hops 33.6 IBU
2.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (1 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
1.00 oz pacific jade [9.00%] (1 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
1.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50%] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.50 lb Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 4.1 %
1 Pkgs California Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) [Starter 2500 ml] Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.102 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.100 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.027 SG (hoping for 1.018 - 1.020)
Estimated Color: 58.0 SRM
Bitterness: 101.2 IBU (60.0-110.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 9.1 AAU
Mashed temperature: 151 F

I will report back in a month or so.

Brewing this exact half batch recipe on Tuesday with San Diego super strain. Any hints or tips? I've got 2 lbs of dark candy sugar available, if I'm low on SG would using extra candy sugar to adjust gravity completely throw off the balance or should I use DME?
 
I wouldn't adjust with the dark sugar, DME if needed would be your best bet but if you are planning on missing the OG then maybe try lowering the efficiency on your recipe and use more grain or sparge more and boil longer to concentrate the wort before starting the hop schedule.
 
drawdy10 said:
I wouldn't adjust with the dark sugar, DME if needed would be your best bet but if you are planning on missing the OG then maybe try lowering the efficiency on your recipe and use more grain or sparge more and boil longer to concentrate the wort before starting the hop schedule.

Still dialing in my efficiency on my new all grain system. The last three brews have had sporadic efficiency at best. Just trying to see what would be my best bet for a correction
 
Brewed the half recipe this afternoon and I guess my efficiency just sucks. I mashed at 152 and ended up with 5 gallons pre boil at 1.067 ish. With about 30 minutes left in the boil I checked gravity with a refractometer and realized I was gonna be way low on gravity so I managed to scrounge up 12 oz of light DME and a pound of dextrose. I know I probably threw the profile all out of whack but oh well. Long story short I ended up with around 4 gallons in the carboy at 1.090. This crappy efficiency is killing me. I've batch sparged with both a braid and a false bottom and can't manage to get out of the low 60's.
 
Okay, looking up our Escondidian clone attempt ("E" caps)... 67 % LDME; 8% crystal 80, check. We used 8% munich, not sure if that factors... 5% chocolate malt, 5% candi sugar, 3% carafa II, 2.6% smoked malt, 1.3 % black patent. Came out waaaay to much dark stuff, to my taste buds. God knows what else, I remember it blew out all over my buddys rented bathroom ceiling. But that was oh eleven, and they still dont taste right. Look my 2 cents is take your best Imperial IPA, add 3% carafa, and call it cloned. Send me one, cuz I freakin lov the stuff. Mitch Steele is really smart but this should be really simple. IMO. Sorry I didn't log the hop schedule, but I guarantee even though it involved simcoe, it was insufficient, but hops was not what made it off.
 
What does everyone think about kegging this beer rather than bottling? I know it's probably to high of a gravity to properly age on tap but I don't have enough bottles right now. What's everyone's opinion on pros and cons?
 
I'm going to brew your recipe next week. I was wondering about the candi sryup into the boil at last 15min.? Or what did everyone else do
Thanks
Rob
 
I blended the full batch and the half batch that I brewed of this yesterday. Kegged 5 gallons with 3 oz of Nelson in the keg for the dry hop and bottled the rest without ever dry hopping just to see how it turns out. I'll post an update once I've had a chance to taste each in 2 weeks or so.
 
Back
Top