Wicked Weed Freak of Nature Double IPA

[mbbransc]

OK, I'm trying to piece together a clone attempt at this recipe. I'll update this original post in order to keep the best clone easily accessible.

Luke & Walt really talk through a lot of it on the Sunday Session at 2:00:00 - 2:29:00. I tried to capture all the tidbits they dropped but could have missed something.

8.5% ABV
3.5# per barrel (2 separate addition) dry hops at 65*, 4-days each
- dry hop consists of centennial, amarillo, simcoe, columbus
- el dorado and centennial in whirlpool
- chinook in the bittering
- and we bitter with warrior
- dry hop first addition at end of d-rest (at 70*)
- first dry hop is at 70* for 4-days. Drop temp to 65*
- drop yeast before 2nd dry hop
- for hombrewer: 1st dry hop in primary, drop temp, and then rack to 2nd-ary for 2nd dry hop
- use dextrose
- cal ale
- ferm at 66-67*, d-rest at 70*, dry hop at 1.010. Finish at 1.008
- first dry hop with blow-off. Second after dropping temp and yeast. Cap tank and put a little pressure to drop yeast
- same number of hops per dry hop addition


- build water - AVL has 7ppm sulfate and 30ppm chloride
- target 200ppm sulfate, 50ppm chloride and 100ppm calcium (calcium for yeast health and flocc) - use biofine to clear (colin's advice)
- dose in mash tun, cacl not in kettle, no acids; aciduated malt in very pale beers (1% = 0.2ph reduction) always shoot for 5.2-5.4
do have a bit of calcium carbonate

- cal ale
- using hop extract
- 150g for 15-barrels; 35 IBUs (from Hop Union - probably mostly columbus)
- chinook and warrior afterwards; 130 IBUs calculated (80-ish measured)
- 30m addition = chinook and columbus combo
- 10m firing - hard with columbus
- 5m - huge load of centennial & el dorado
- whirlpool - huge centennial, el dorado and simcoe


Here is the description from their website:

The Freak of Nature is our San Francisco inspired hoppy monster. At 8% abv and who knows how many ibu’s, this beer is our shrine to the Hop. Absurd amounts of the big West Coast hops gives this beer its citrusy, weedy nose and big, dank flavor. We dry hop with 48lbs per batch, which is over 3lbs of hops per barrel. In keeping with the classic style of the West Coast double, sugar plays a large part in creating this dry and minimally bitter double IPA. The Freak is particularly pintable for the style, so if you dare to enter, we welcome you to the Freak Show.


ETA: First stab at it

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Freak of Nature
Brewer: Wicked Weed
Asst Brewer:
Style: Imperial IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.22 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.073 SG
Estimated Color: 7.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 134.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13 lbs Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 87.4 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 3.4 %
6.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.5 %
1 lbs Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4 6.7 %
1.00 oz HopShot [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 30.1 IBUs
0.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 9.8 IBUs
0.25 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 11.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 15.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [15.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 17.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [15.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 8.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 3.0 IBUs
0.50 oz El Dorado [15.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 4.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop 13 9.1 IBUs
1.00 oz El Dorado [15.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 2 Hop 14 13.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0 Hop 15 11.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 16 -
2.00 oz Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [15.50 %] - Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 14.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 17.34 qt of water at 159.1 F 148.0 F 75 min
Mash Out Add 11.10 qt of water at 203.8 F 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 0.77 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------
Start fermentation at 66*F and increase to 70*F. When gravity hits 1.010, dose first dry hop addition (1oz of ea type). After 4-days, rack to purged keg for 2nd dry hop addition. Keep it under a little pressure at 65*F to drop remaining yeast.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[The_Nid_Hog]

Freak of Nature is an excellent IPA and I was delighted to discover it at Wicked Weed last year. It's like finding a little bit of the Russian River flowing through Cackalacky. Too bad they aren't bottling it. I get it on tap every now and then in the Triangle--more often, the gluten-free version (which still tastes great).

I'll have to give this Sunday Session a listen. To me, Freak of Nature tastes a lot like Pliny the Elder, and the choice of hops and dextrose addition would be in line with that. Are there any surprises on the podcast? I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[mbbransc]

You'll be excited to know they plan on bottling Freak by Fall 2015. Great podcast, give it a listen.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[The_Nid_Hog]

That's great news!

 

[Fleur-di-lis]

Production brewery to open by fall of 2015 as mbbransc mentioned. You will most likely see it in cans along with hop burglar and a few other standards. Distribution should increase quickly

 

[mbbransc]

Added a first attempt at the recipe. Thoughts?

 

[madams]

Any success with this recipe? I was just out in Asheville last week and could live between Wicked Weed and the Funkatorium and be happy for the rest of my life haha

 

[mbbransc]

I brewed it up and tasted it prior to dry hopping. It didn't taste like Freak to me. Tasted like a solid, pine resiny west coast IPA though. I broke the dry hop additions into 3 steps. I cold crashed the beer and racked into a keg on dry hop #1. A week later (this past Saturday) I pulled that dry hop and added drop hop #2. I plan on pulling that this weekend and adding dry hop #3 and begin drinking it. It's been sitting on CO2 since this past Saturday. I'm anxious to give it a proper tasting and see what I have.

 

[madams]

Is there anything you think you would change?

 

[madams]

Any updates? Would love to give this a try. Dont think I can wait another year for it to be distro'd!

 

[mbbransc]

Sorry, holidays have gotten me busy.

I would say the recipe is reminiscent of Freak but not there. Two things I'll change next time are using extract to bitter (I'm offended by chinook bittering for some reason) and start fermentation warmer. Without my notes, I believe this finished at 1.012 but with all Citra it tastes really sweet. This beer really needs to finish at 1.008.

Good luck!

 

[madams]

Sorry, holidays have gotten me busy.

I would say the recipe is reminiscent of Freak but not there. Two things I'll change next time are using extract to bitter (I'm offended by chinook bittering for some reason) and start fermentation warmer. Without my notes, I believe this finished at 1.012 but with all Citra it tastes really sweet. This beer really needs to finish at 1.008.

Good luck!

Thanks! Happy Holidays bro!

 

[mbbransc]

Not sure what I was referring to with the Citra comment above. I believe I confused this with a HDnR recipe I was also working on.

Just resurrecting this thread since Freak is now being bottled. I may have to come back to it.

 

[slym2none]

I hope they distro this out to the Triangle area!

 

[mbbransc]

Ridgewood and Beer Study got it on Monday. May be gone by now, but more will be coming.

 

[Dplonk87]

The recipe calls for 1oz of Hopshot, looking at the homebrew websites that would 29ml of Hopshot which would be a few of the syringes. Unless I am seeing this wrong can you break that down into ml?

 

[Dire_Wolf]

I got a 100g can of hop extract for like $20 from Yakima Valley Hops back in January or Feb.