Step 2 of Conan is roaring away, 3rd and final step on Saturday and a Heady Topper clone brewday Sunday night. Just going to do a 3 gallon test batch, dont want to bust out my 11 gallon system just yet. I'll post my recipe when I have it finished.

Also, I sent Al Buck from East Coast Yeast and email and asked if he wanted me to send him a culture. He said he had a 4 pack of Heady and was going to build it up as well and take a look at the strain. Hopefully he follows up with what he sees.

Brewed my Psuedo Heady clone last night, did a 4 gallon test batch on my stovetop lost about 1/2 gallon to the massive hops in this beer and will probably lose another 1/2 to the drop hop. Anyway, I was measuring and mixing up my "proprietary hop blend" for my 5 min and steep additions and goofed and ended up with 2.5 oz of Amarillo instead of 1.25 which I originally wanted and since there was a handful of other hops in that bowl already there was no turning back, so my attempt might be a little more Amarillo forward which doesnt bother me none.

I didnt have Pearl malt so I did a little blend of 2-row and Marris Otter, IBUs are exact but again Im not too worried. Most of this for me is seeing how Conan works in a big DIPA and just seeing if this blend of hops will get me in the ballpark. I pitched at midnight last night after hitting the wort with 45 seconds of pure O2, woke up this morning and the airlock was bubbling and had a thin white film on top. I fully expect to come home to a vigorous fermentation.

Measured OG was 1.072, my efficiency is a bit crappy with my small system dont know why but I only use it a few times a year so I dont fight it.




Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 4.26 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 4.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 3.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.077 SG
Estimated Color: 5.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 105.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 56.5 %
3 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 30.4 %
1 lbs Vienna Malt (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 3 8.7 %
8.0 oz Dextrose (Briess) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4 4.3 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 57.8 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) Other 7 -
1.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 16.0 IBUs
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 5.2 IBUs
0.75 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 6.2 IBUs
0.75 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 11 8.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 5.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 13 6.2 IBUs
2.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30. Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 18 0.0 IBUs
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Aroma St Hop 19 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Conan (The Alchemist #) Yeast 20 -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Day Hop 21 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Day Hop 22 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 23 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 24 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 25 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 26 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 14.75 qt of water at 159.5 F 149.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.26gal, 2.63gal) of 170.0 F water
Notes:
------
2 seperate dry hops, 3 oz each for 5 days.

Sweet baby jesus.

There are alot of hops in this beer...Conan is hard at work with a thick 2 inch krausen, the airlock smells wonderful. My fingers are crossed, I should be drinking this ~4 weeks from brewday.

gonna start brewing soon as I will finally have enough space, etc. Got a starter kit but eventually want to go all grain once I feel comfortable

Hopslam on tap starting Tuesday and I couldn't be happier

Brewed up a Founders Breakfast stout clone the other day. Chocolate in the boil, coffee in the secondary and cold brewed coffee at bottling. I also primed my bottles with grade B maple syrup instead of dextrose to try to get that maple-y flavor.

I also have berliner weisse which is souring right now, I'm planning on fermenting it with some dregs from Sierra Nevada/Russian River's BRUX beer that I grew up and have been storing. I think it's mostly sacch, but there's some brett in there and I'm interested to see what it does.

Lastly, I have a pale on tap with columbus/motueka hops. I had a Cigar City beer with motueka and it was like a citrus (not grapefruit) bomb, so I wanted to see what these hops could do.

Oh and got these shipped to me the other day. Only 4 are for me but I'm excited.

@Pliny I remember hearing somewhere that Brux uses 10% Brett and 90% Sacch in the bottle. I thought it was a tasty beer, much softer on the palate that a lot of Brett beers I've had in the past.

Yeah me too, I'm not expecting huge Brett characteristics, but a little would be nice.

Coff, I'm thinking if fermenting my pale ale with Brett. Would you suggest trois to get those big fruity characteristics? Anything different I need to do with Brett?

Brux needs more time in the bottle for it to be an interesting beer, I had it a few months ago and it was good but kind of one dimensional. I have 2 in my cellar that I will open around Thanksgiving of 2013.

PtE, a 100% Brett Pale Ale sounds awesome. I have used Trois, claussenii, and Brux in all brett beers and I have enjoyed the Brett C the best (which coincidentally is the ESB we all brewed in this very thread). However, I think that Trois might be best in a hoppy beer since youre probably going for citrus and tropical fruits anyway and Trois is only going to add to that.

One thing I will say is that I have been underwhelmed with Trois in low gravity worts, and I'm not the only one others are reporting the same on HBT. The first beer I used it on was a late hopped Amarillo Saison clocking in 1.045, the clean half of the beer was just much better for some reason the Trois half was one dimensional.

I used some of that cake and brewed a 1.070 IPA with every high alpha citrusy hop I could find and it turned out awesome exactly what i was looking for.

Hmmmm, I was planning on a 1.052 sessionable pale ale. So you're saying I might want to try Brett C?

Well ist up to you, the flavor profile of Trois seems to work better with some of those citrusy hops but I have read that Brett C is really great with those C hops as well.

As documented on Embrace the Funk.

Also, youre going to want to pitch close to lager rates so build up your starter well in advance.

So anybody ever forget to sparge? I was brewing up the pale ale on Thursday and mashed in, hit my numbers, had the sparge water heating on the stove and thennnn threw my grains in the trash. D'oh! I ended up continuing and cutting the final product with some water to hit a 1.053 OG, but its going to be a completely different beer, my hop utilization took a hit, its a bit bitter when it went into the fermenter.

I didn't have time to do a starter and was kind of curious to see what happens when I stress the yeast, so I just pitched a vial of Brett C. into ~2 gallons of wort. I went away for the weekend and when I came back on Sunday fermentation was vigorous. Can't wait to try this.

Lol, I cant say I have ever done that but I have always used the Beersmith check list and now the BeerSmith Iphone timer app so I guess I have a crutch. It happens to the best of us.

What was the production date on the vial, or expiration? I think the Brett vials have a 6 month expiration. Either way, you under pitched but itll be fine obviously. Those vials only come with ~50 billion cells and you needed about 148 billion cells if youre pitching at lager rates which is what Chad Y recommends.

I usually keep a few pounds of light DME on hand for starters and also for making adjustments when I screw something up. In this case you could have topped off with water pre-boil and then added just enough DME to hit your pre-boil gravity target, and then proceeded from there as originally planned. It wouldn't be exactly the same but your hop utilization and targeted bitterness would be correct.

Quick question for the homebrewers out there:

Do you think your homebrew is better then the good commercial examples of the style?

I've got a pilsner on right now I'd put up against any commercial examples. I'd say the same about my mild if I could find any commercial examples. I'd say the ESB I've got on right now is worse than one I could buy. So it depends, but I think I hit good homebrew often enough where it's not rare to think one of mine is better than what's on shelves.

I think one big advantage homebrew has is that you can drink it so fresh. This is especially noticeable in the hop-forward brews.

Thats an interesting question.

I think my beer is better than some commercial examples of the style, not all but I think as a whole I make solid beer. Could it be better? Sure.

Nugget Nectar 👍 ftw

Recently moved to TN, still can't get Nugget Nectar or Heady Topper FTL.

Sent from my MB865 using 2+2 Forums

Well, unless you live in Montpelier VT you cant get Heady...

(Although they are starting to distribute to Boston I think)

Coff, speaking of HT, how did your clone turn out?

went to Winterfest in Indy this past weekend and had a beer that took over the #1 spot for my favorite DIPA. Hopsicle on cask from a local brewpub (Broadripple Brewpub for anyone local). Just overall ****ing fantastic beer. Same flavor profile as Hopslam, which was my fav, but without so much sweetness. It was just the perfect balance of intense hops.

don't even see it listed on their website, so i guess it was a special brew. Was really hoping to swing by this week and get a growler filled.

Tapping it this Sunday, 2 separate 5 day dry hops make this a looooong wait. Tasted amazing going into the keg prior to the firs dry hop. This yeast strain is awesome, super peachy and aromatic. I already repitched the slurry into a Falconers flight DIPA.

Whos got the Hopslam?!?!?!?

Getting it this year, at least near me, has been more difficult then it has ever been. I was able to get 4 bottles but thats it, the last 2 years I was able to go grab a case but its just not happening at this point. One bottle shop limited sales of 1 bottle per customer, another limited to 4.