Way, way, way over the top Sam Adams Utopia clone - #2

Williams 728
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This is the recipe I used:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/wa...opia-clone-2-a-136326/index9.html#post1758073

Here is my hop calculation:
utopiashops.jpg


Just trying to make sure no mistakes happen with such an expensive beer for me or you, whichever it is.
 
Step back from the screen for a minute. You have 14oz. of hops there on your screen. I know it's a very large boil it will be going on for a very long time. Also it's important to remember that no matter how many hops are thrown in they probably will never catch up to the malt in this beer. As much as I love hops they're pretty much thrown out the window here but if we didn't add them it would just be wrong.

It's an experiment for sure don't think about it any other way.
 
Also there really is no hop flavor in the real thing. I get completely different numbers from beertools 1.5... Hmmmm
 
I've only had an ounce of the real deal and I know there is not really any hop flavor. However, if you were shooting for 60 IBU's, which I don't think would give much hop flavor either, I wanted to let you know I calculated it as much less in both Beer Smith and the brew365 calculator.
 
Yeah I appreciate the info. I find it odd that beer tools says its 59IBU... I will look into this
 
meh funny when i put your #'s into beersmith i 'm only getting 20 ibu's. oh well i changed the recipe anyway for us to hit closer to 60 since i thought that was where we were shooting for.
 
Yeager... what was the hop bill on the first batch? If what you have here mirrors that, then who cares what the calculated IBUs are? Whatever you used the first time seemed right so why sweat what different tools are spitting out for IBU's.

If people are trying to replicate the batch on a smaller scale, you should be able to simply scale down weight to get close enough rather than trying to fiddle with a piece of software to force IBUs.
 
jppostKW said:
I dont know what program you are using but i think the second line is part of the problem there is not a hop in that row just a ibu qty and time maybe its an issue maybe not
Click to expand...

It's calculating it. That's not the issue.

DrinksWellWithOthers said:
I threw this into Beersmith tonight and got 53.7 IBUs (Rager) using the final recipe posted in post #86.
Click to expand...

Can you copy and paste the actual recipe from Beersmith? I'd like to see where you got 59 and I went wrong.
 
capebrewing.....please desist from using that pic as an avatar as it brings back painful memories.:drunk:





edit: mashed in for this freaking beer. 5.5g batch size with 57 # of grains
 
Bombo80 said:
Wow, did you guys ever get WAY off topic. I just read the whole 20 pages of this thread, since I am planning to brew a Utopia clone myself. I was hoping to gain some insight, but the last few pages are absolutely rediculous, and wasted time I will never get back. Sorry to go off on you guys, but take it elsewhere with the childish, petty bickering.
Click to expand...

Here is a word of advise.

Next time you invite yourself to a party at someone elses place and you find that you don't like the way things are going, just leave. Keep your opinions to yourself, quietly excuse yourself and shut the door behind yourself. No one asked you to waste your time here with us and none of us care that you feel like you wasted any of your time here.

PTN
 
eriktlupus said:
in hr 5 of boil-off right now just put the beer in the pot in front into the carboy
Click to expand...

So you didn't co-join the two brew kettles at the end of the boil? We ended up doing the same thing last year but that was primarily because we had such an anemic boil going on one kettle that it was more important to jsut get the other beer into the fermenter. In the end it shouldn't matter, it's all going into the same fermenter.

PTN
 
nope did the smaller kettle as an independent beer. partigyle baby!
drain and 1st runnings into keggle and 2nd runnings into 10g kettle from 2 different tuns of course.


next yr i think i'll get fsr402 to drive his 1bbl system down here for this bastard.
 
Martin2D said:
Can you copy and paste the actual recipe from Beersmith? I'd like to see where you got 59 and I went wrong.
Click to expand...

I just copied the exact recipe on post 86. I set the final volume to 13 gallons and adjusted the alpha acid numbers for what Chris posted. I had to adjust the efficiency to 58% just to come out with the same OG but that's just because I'm sure we have different ppg values for the grains.
 
One of the things to keep in mind is that we have a finished volume of 14 or 15 gallons (I forget which) but we expect to end up with only 10 or 11 gallons of beer. The yeast cake that we ended up with last year was absurd. It was around 6 inches thick! We didn't even end up with 10 gallons of beer after putting 13 + gallons of wort into the fermenter. I think we got 9 plus a quart and then still had a thick yeast ckae ont he bottom of the secondary carboys. We'll avoid some of that this year as we will tertiary in the casks but it is something to keep in mind.

PTN
 
Cape Brewing said:
Yeager... what was the hop bill on the first batch? If what you have here mirrors that, then who cares what the calculated IBUs are? Whatever you used the first time seemed right so why sweat what different tools are spitting out for IBU's.
Click to expand...

In this batch we added more hops just to get a little more hop character, so I am not really worried about the IBU's, I think it will be just fine. :)
 
As far as worrying about the IBU's, Chris and I are not. We (in all honesty mostly me) felt like we needed a bit more hop bitterness so we adjusted what we did to give us a bit more. I don't think any calulator you use is going to give you an accurate number based on teh way we brewed it. We boiled away around half of what went into the brew kettle before we put an ounce of hops into the pot, we were dealing with a VERY concentrated wort before hop additions. I doubt that any formula will be able to account for that. That said, I'm going sort of seat of the pants on this. My pallete says it needs more bitterness so that's what we are doing. I don't think I'll ever be able to tell you what the "REAL" bitterness numbers are. In the end it doesn't matter, we're going with how it tastes and I think it will taste better if we kick up with the bitterness. At this end of the spectrum I think that you need to trust you instincts and not worry so much about what a calculator says. And since I've convinced Yeager that I'm right that's what we're going to do.

PTN
 
frack,frack,frack,,,,unfortunately we only hit 1.136 on our gravity tonite. i attribute this to several factors

1. both mash tuns and boil pots were on their second batches ever and as such boil-off,trub loss, etc are still being dialed in.
2. stuck the fluck on my 10g round by disconnecting the siphon tube from inside the valve body( had to lauter in the other tun because of this) caused by having a too small dia. tubing in system.

eh we still had a good time and at 12hrs start to clean not a bad day in all.
 
I CAN say that we had a great time brewing today. It was messy, it was hot, and we made some beer. We learned a great deal and know what to do better next year, much like you guys. ErikT crunched all of the numbers and I'm sure that he'll be posting soon. I learned that I need to learn a bit more about my equipment but I knew that already since it's only the second batch I've made with it. The MLT performed very nicely again despite being filled so full the lid was floating. I need a site glass on the keggle or at least to be able to read where the rings/welds tell me how much I have. When I built the thing the thing that gave me the most pride was never having to worry about a boilover again. I WAS WRONG! Just a little bit but I was still wrong:D

This is an excellent exercise in brewing for anyone with the RDWHAHB attitude. We threw caution and calculation out the window at least six times today. We have two carboys full of very strong beer that is probably beginning to ferment as I type. And the fun has only begun!

How the hell am I supposed to put the mash together for a wit after this day?
 
Can't believe you're cursing after this Erik. There's still maple syrup to come. It'll still be the biggest beer made in that basement or with that equipment.
 
just disappointed that we didn't get closer to our target of 1.170og. it did taste pretty awesome going into the fermentor though didn't it?
 
I think that I drank so much I'll still taste it in the morning. The next time I'm at Hershel's just a look at the carboy and the taste will return.

So, when are we doing it again?
 
Relax boys, it's all good.

OK, so you didn't quite hit your numbers. So? You still have a killer beer to enjoy. The maple syrup will put you upwards of 1.140 and you can count on one hand the number of guys you know who have brewed a beer with that as an OG. My hats off to you.

PTN
 
yeah i know man but i hate it when i have equipment issues. BS puts me closer to 1.156 when the 4# of syrup are added to the 5.5g we put in fermentor tonite..



hey paul i meant to ask last week but how was the winter classic?
 
what did tickets go for? iirc tix to wrigley last yr were ungodly raping (300+iirc)

i'd love to take the wife to one of those sometime.

oh yeah i think this is the best pic from today
herschels_042.JPG
 
It was so ironic. I had the BEST seats in Fenway park, literally the first row behind home plate, three seats to the right of the catcher. Unfortunately the rink was behind second base and the boards kept us from seeing squat. I'd give a kidney to have those seats for one baseball game, for hockey they sucked. Not a problem, I can count on one hand howmany times I've actually sat in the seats I paid for so we did what I always do, I found better seats.

1263100550.jpg
 
Still and all, it was a very cool night. Sitting in Fenway (Probably my favorite place on Earth) while it's snowing, watching a couple of hockey games. They didn't search us going in so they didn't catch our smuggled in supplies of liquid warmth. And best of all, BC lost. Someone really needs to teach those brats to watch their little potty mouths and the meaning of sportsmanship.

PTN
ps,
We didn't go to the B's game, we had tix to last nights UNH/Northeastern womans and the BC/BU mens games.
 
paulthenurse said:
It was so ironic. I had the BEST seats in Fenway park, literally the first row behind home plate, three seats to the right of the catcher. Unfortunately the rink was behind second base and the boards kept us from seeing squat. I'd give a kidney to have those seats for one baseball game, for hockey they sucked. Not a problem, I can count on one hand howmany times I've actually sat in the seats I paid for so we did what I always do, I found better seats.

1263100550.jpg
Click to expand...


Nice pic. I'll meet you for dialysis before a tigers/redsox game in those seats.:rockin:
 

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