Three Floyd's Gumball Head Extract Clone?

[flyguy0313]

I've made a version of Gumballhead quite a few times and it's always one of my regulars. I'll try to help out although I don't have my recipes in front of me. I've made it a few different ways from extract to all grain and with a few different ingredient choices.

I'm not sure where that first recipe came from. It's only giving you 6 IBUs and that's way off. The others are low also compared to 3F's specs. Paraphrased from their web page, Gumballhead is brewed with red wheat and boatloads of Amarillo hops. It's 5.5% ABV and around 35 IBU.

There's quite a few grain bills out there. One of the ones I started with and used for several batches calls for Caravienne. I've used it as a steep for extract and in all grain batches. It's always turned out great even though Caravienne isn't supposed to be in the real Gumballhead. Brewing with Wheat claims the grain bill is red wheat, 2 row, and aromatic. On my last batch I put the aromatic in instead of Caravienne but I haven't tasted it yet. the gravity sample was great though. As for red vs. white wheat, most literature says there's no taste difference between the two. I've used white in all my batches.

For hopping I use all Amarillo. Additions at 60, 15, 5, and 0 to get to around 35 IBUs. I also use a 2 oz. dry hop. That big dry hop is the key to getting the nose similar to the real thing.

Finally, the yeast. 3F's house yeast is listed out there somewhere. I want to say it's one of the California strains. I've always used US-05 because I prefer using dry yeast, so I can't really comment on the differences the yeast may bring in. US-05 makes a tasty beer so to this point I haven't been tempted to switch it up.

Hope this helps!

This helps out so much. So since I'm a new brewer, and don't just want to "make beer that's drinkable" could you find the recipe that you used? I prefer extract because of my experience level and lack of equipment, but will try anything! This will be my second batch ever. My first was a brewers best Oktoberfest and was decent but definitely missed the target that I was shooting for (wanted similar to the Sam Adams oktoberfest!). Thanks so much for your replay and your help!

Cheers,
Austin

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Here's what I used for my first extract batch:

3 lbs extra light DME
3 lbs wheat DME
1 lb 2 row
1 lb white wheat
1 lb Caravienne

That gets you around 1.056 OG. The grains are for steeping, but the Caravienne is the only traditional steeping grain. I think the 2 row and wheat helped for flavor, but you won't get any conversion of them without a mash.

As I mentioned, I used all Amarillo for hopping. Additions at 60, 15, 5, and 0 to get to 35 IBU. I also use 2 oz. for a dry hop. I typically let my batches ferment for 2-3 weeks and then dry hop for around 5 days.

I'm hesitant to post my exact hopping schedule because it sets you up to make one of the mistakes I made on an early batch I made off of a recipe on here. My hops were lower AA than those used in the recipe, but I didn't catch it until it was too late. It made for a very unsatisfying, unbalanced batch. After 6 months of gutting it out I finally dumped the last 2 gallons of that batch.
I recommend using Beersmith or one of the other programs out there (there are some free ones) to tailor the hop schedule to the AA of the hops you have. Roughly speaking it'll be around 1 oz, 1/2 oz., 1/2 oz, and 1/2 oz. But that can change a lot depending on your Amarillo. I had a batch that was 6.9% AA for the first few times I made this and my most recent Amarillo is 10.1%. Big difference in how to use them and the amounts used to get the right IBUs.

For yeast, like I mentioned before, I use US-05. I don't think you can go too wrong here as long as you're using a clean fermenting strain. If you're so inclined, you can search for what 3F actually uses and I know it's available commercially if you want to be more exact.

 

[wojjow]

I'll be brewing this tomorrow night, and just so I had something to compare stopped by 3F's today..

 

[flyguy0313]

You gonna use spaceman's extract recipe??

 

[dskatz2]

Just out of curiosity--have people tried the recipes in this thread? We just finished bottling a chocolate chipotle porter and are eager to get going on our next brew--a Gumballhead clone! Any direction/suggestions would be awesome.

 

[MoeIPA]

Any locals have an extra darklord day ticket by chance? I have cash and some Pliny the elder for a ticket!

 

[munjerr]

Any locals have an extra darklord day ticket by chance? I have cash and some Pliny the elder for a ticket!

Tickets are non-transferable according to their website, double check before you buy.

 

[LuciferSam]

Just brewed a 5 gallon batch of gumballhead extract clone . It's alttle hazy but not too much like the real but still veery good ! Any thoughts

 

[Frank22088]

I just made something similar and I hope it comes out like a gum ball head. I used all extract and no specialty grains.

6.6lbs of Wheat LME
1lb of Wheat DME
.5 oz warrior 45 minutes
1 oz amarillo 10 minutes
.5 oz warrior 1 minute.
2 oz amarillo dry hop at 2 weeks.

In the primary for 5 days now. We'll see how it comes out.

 

[logan3825]

I just made something similar and I hope it comes out like a gum ball head. I used all extract and no specialty grains.

6.6lbs of Wheat LME
1lb of Wheat DME
.5 oz warrior 45 minutes
1 oz amarillo 10 minutes
.5 oz warrior 1 minute.
2 oz amarillo dry hop at 2 weeks.

In the primary for 5 days now. We'll see how it comes out.

Not sure Warrior fits in there at the end.

 

[bbnbrew]

Just checked an SG after 2 weeks 1.021 OG was dead on my target of 1.057. This is he first batch I've kept down around 55 so around 59-60 internal and it's going slow but smells very citrusy and tastes amazing for sure best batch yet. Is it normal to take this long to get down to FG with the temps that low? I used WLP001 FYI.

 

[cperry8483]

I followed Nail's recipe to the T and ended up with a fantastic beer that's just now reaching it's prime (1 month after bottling). It's a little harsh after two weeks in the bottle but give it a few extra weeks after it carbs and it will really shine. Terrific hop aroma and flavor (love Amarillo!) and head retention is great. I think I actually prefer this to real Gumballhead (but the similarity is REALLY close). I would definitely brew this again, but maybe as a summer beer.

 

[bbnbrew]

Yea it for sure needs to age about a month I've got it on tap now and everyone who has had Gumballhead says this recipe is better


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[bbnbrew]

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