Clone Wars: Heady Topper Clone

Two weeks ago I brewed a pale ale that used the famed Conan yeast that is the proprietary strain used by The Alchemist to brew Heady Topper. The strain is supposed to produce peach esters and peach flavor. I harvested the yeast a week prior to brewing the pale ale and stepped it up twice. I assumed I would need more yeast then I’m capable of producing on my stir plate so I decided to brew the pale ale. I also wanted to use Galaxy hops. The review for the pale ale will be forthcoming soon. 

I brewed this beer with a friend to teach and explain the brewing process. Everything was going smoothly until I remembered I never put the sugar into the wort during the boil. At that point we were at the hop stand. I grabbed the bag of sugar and dumped it in assuming that at 180^oF any bacteria would be killed and that the sugar would still melt and be incorporated. After cooling the wort and empting my kettle I noticed that some of the sugar formed a melted caramel at the bottle of the kettle. My original gravity came under my target, due to the lack of sugar incorporation as well as my miscalculation for volume and amount of grain needed. I calculated enough grain for 5 gallons, when I should have calculated it for 5.75 gallons instead. I added some DME at the end of the boil but was not enough. Without the correct OG it will not be a true clone but it will hopefully still be a good DIPA. 

This was my first time using Hopshot™ and preforming a hop stand. The hopshot was easy to use and definitely helped reduce the amount of hop crude at the end. The hop stand was simple enough I just needed to borrow an immersion chiller so that I could chill the wort to 180^oF. Then you add the hops and let it sit for 30 minutes covered. The theory is that it will help to preserve the essential oils that are highly volatile and will normally be lost to boiling. 

In order to brew this beer I spent about a week reading through the giant 160 page thread on Homebrewtalk.com. Most of the leg work was done by the veganbrewer and this is where my recipe comes from. I have modified it a little bit based off of his comments.

Stats:

Batch Size: 5 Gallons           

Boil time: 90 minutes
Original gravity: 1.074

Measured: 1.068

Measure Final Gravity: 1.013

IBU: 120

SRM: 6.4^o

Grain Bill:

11lb 4oz - Pearl Malt (84.9%)- SRM 2.4
12 oz - Caramalt (5.7%)- SRM 17
12 oz - White Wheat (5.7%)- SRM 1.7
8 oz - Turbinado Sugar (3.8%)- Added at flameout

Hop Bill:

10.00 ml - Hopshot- Boil 90.0 min- 117.8 IBUs
1.00 oz -  Simcoe[13.00 %]-  Boil 5.0 min-8.3 IBUs
0.50 oz – Apollo - Boil 5.0 min -4.0 IBUs
1.00 oz - Columbus [14.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min – 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz - Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min -0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz - Columbus [14.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min-0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz - Simcoe [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min-0.0 IBUs
1.00oz - Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min-0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz - Centennial [10.50 %]- Aroma Steep 30.0 min- 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz - Apollo [12.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min- 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz - Columbus [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz - Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days -0.0 IBUs
0.5 oz - Amarillo [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs
0.5 oz - Centennial [10.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs
0.25 oz - Apollo [17.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs

1.75 oz - Columbus [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs
0.5 oz - Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days -0.0 IBUs
0.5 oz - Amarillo [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs
0.5 oz - Centennial [10.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs
0.25 oz - Apollo [17.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs

1 oz - Palisade [7.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days-0.0 IBUs

Mash Schedule:

Mash at 152^oF degrees for 60 minutes.  1 tsp gypsum added to mash

Yeast:

Conan yeast cultured from Heady Topper can and pitched onto yeast cake from Lil’Heady

Notes:

10/12/13 – Brewed with Andrew. Came under gravity and over on my volume after the mash. I’ve made adjustments to my calculator for my new system so it should be better. I blended half RO water and half regular water to lower the hardness so that it is hopefully closer to VT water. Added 0.5 lbs of DME to up the gravity. Forgot to add sugar until the aroma steep and it wasn’t all incorporated. I came in under gravity as stated above. Chilled to 68^oF and placed into fermentation chamber at 68^oF.

10/14/13 – Still no sign of fermentation still and I have to leave for Detroit for 3 days. 

10/16/13 – Fermentation definitely took place since the blow off tube into the growler shows that some of the krausen spilled over the top. Raised to 71^oF to finish out fermentation.

10/20/13 – Chilled to 52^oF.

10/28/13 – Racked to a secondary carboy and dry hopped with first dry hop addition.

11/2/13 - Racked to a keg and final dry hop addition added.

11/6/13 - Racked off of final dry hops into keg and carbonated to 2.5 volumes of CO2. Gravity down to 1.013. Attenuation was 79.6%

11/21/13 - First tasting. A little more bitter then I recall Heady Topper being and possibly too dank. Next time I'm going to change my water additions and source as well as adjust my hopping schedule. Probably more Columbus on the front end of the dry hopping and no Palisade. 

Lil'Heady - Conan Pale Ale

Well it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything new. It’s also been a long time since I’ve been able to brew. Recently it hasn’t necessarily been because of lack of time. It has mostly been due to lack of carboys. I currently have 3 carboys with beer souring in them and one with Brett doing its thing. My only available carboy is a Better Bottle that has been used for Brett fermentation. 

I also recently went on vacation with my wife to New England. While we were in New England we went to Hill Farmstead and to the Alchemist. Since we were able to go to the Alchemist early Monday morning I was able to get some super fresh cans to bring back with me. About a month ago I received some cans in a trade and attempted to culture the yeast. In case you don’t know the Alchemist uses a proprietary yeast strain called Conan. This particular yeast starter began fine. But after I stepped it up I noticed that a pellicle had formed on the top.  My initial reaction was that it was probably because I was maybe not as sanitary as I should have been while pouring my step up. But then I thought about it longer and the infection probably originated from the stir bar. I’ve used this stir bar and flask for a 100% Brett culture. Even though the stir bar is food safe it can still be porous because it’s plastic. In order to avoid an infection this time around I soaked my flask and stir bar in a solution of bleach and water for 48 hours. Then I used a sanitizer twice prior to use. 

I started with a 0.5L starter at 1.040 and used two cans for the yeast. I opened one can and poured 75% of it into a glass then swirled the can and dumped it into the starter wort after flaming the lip of the can. Later after I finished my glass I repeated this procedure. The starter never really showed any signs of fermentation and I was a little worried but I decided to step it up regardless. I chilled the wort and decanted the top off, there was a small layer of sediment on the bottom so I had hopes. I stepped it up with 1.5L of 1.040 wort and placed it on the stir plate. After about 36 hours the first signs of fermentation were starting to show and a small krausen formed. After 48 hours the krausen had risen about half an inch up the side of the flask with no visible signs of infection. Hoping to be able to brew and not infect the actual beer I proceeded with the same steps to sanitize the carboy as I did with the flask. I poured a mixture of bleach and water into the carboy and let it soak for 48 hours then sanitized as usual. Fearing infection again I made sure to give it a sniff test (although unofficial it’s better than nothing) and I noted that the starter smelled of DME and hints of peaches, which is often described as Conan yeast. 

The plan is to eventually brew a Heady Topper clone, but in order to do that I want to make sure I have enough yeast so I’m brewing a pale ale as an experiment first then I’ll use the yeast cake for the Heady Topper clone. I was able to find some Galaxy hops online and since I’ve wanted to try them for a while I bought them and decided to do a single hop pale ale with the Galaxy hops. The recipe and notes are below. 

Stats

Est. OG: 1.052

Actual OG: 1.032

Actual FG:1.008
ABV:  3.2%

IBU: 48

SRM: 9^o

Ingredients

7lbs 2-Row Pale Malt

2lbs White Wheat

1lb Caramalt

Hop Schedule

20min – 1.5oz Galaxy

5min – 0.5oz Galaxy

Flame out – 1oz Galaxy

30min whirlpool – 1oz Galaxy

Dry hop 3-4 days – 2oz Galaxy

Yeast

Alchemist Conan Yeast - Cultured from two cans of Heady Topper

Mash Schedule

Single infusion-No Sparge-60min at 154F

Notes:

(9/28/13) – Brewed by myself.  I added 1tsp of Gypsum to the mash to get the sulfate content up a little. The brew day went smooth until I noticed that the plastic lines in my wort chiller had what appeared to be mold growing inside them. I quickly removed them and used some extra lines I had to replace them and then sanitized the whole system. Chilled the wort to 68F and shook to aerate then pitched my 1.5L starter. Set chest freezer to 62F.

(9/29/13) – No visible signs of fermentation after 12 hours. Still no visible signs of fermentation after 24 ours. 

(9/30/13) –  36 hours after pitching yeast fermentation has begun. Increased temperature to 65F. 

(10/01/13) – Increased temperature to 68F. Krausen is about 1.5 inches thick and is a tan color with clumps on top, looks like a normal fermentation.

(10/09/13) - Gravity down to 1.008 racked to the keg and set the pressure at 30 psi and shook. Placed into the chest freezer and turned the pressure down to 14 psi and the temperature at 42F. I'm worried that my initial gravity was too low and there won't be enough balance. I left the yeast cake in the carboy for the Heady brew. Lots of peach and passion fruit aromas though. 

(11/5/13) - First tasting. I'm not going to call this a Pale Ale anymore, it's more of a Nano-IPA (yes I just made that up).

First Tasting: Sour Wild Ale

This review has been about 2 years in the making. Two years ago I brewed a Saison, which I split at bottling. Half was bottled as a regular Saison and the other half was racked into a 3 gallon carboy and the dregs from a Russian River Temptation was poured into it. I let the carboy sit for about a year and then bottled it. The beer has been conditioning in the bottles for almost a year. 

Appearance: Cloudy orangish-yellow with a fluffy white head that slowly fades to a thin lacing and clings to the side of the glass. 

Aroma: Peach, tart apricots, some spicy Saison yeast remains, and some wheat notes with a hint or barnyard and acid notes. I’m pretty happy to see the Brett making an appearance; hopefully it will continue to develop over time. The aroma is best described as a Saison blended with Temptation. 

Taste: Sour peach, spicy yeast, a touch of wheat twang, a bit of acetic acid and mustiness. I’m happy it ended up being sour. I was always worried about it never souring. The sourness is less than you would find in a bottle of Temptation but it’s possible that more time could have changed this. The flavor like the aroma is similar to a Saison blended with Temptation. 

Mouthfeel: Very effervescent with a medium thin body and a lingering dry sour finish. I would say that it’s probably over carbonated, but for the style it might not be overall. This is the risk you run when dealing with Brettanomyces though. Nothing a little swirling of the glass can’t fix.  

Overall: I’m very pleased with my first attempt at a sour wild ale. There are a few things I would change for the next time. I might let it sit a few months longer and sour a little bit more. Maybe 6 more months, but it was hard to since I was excited about it; however, now I have 20 gallons souring in 4 different locations so it should be easier this time. I would also probably not add as much priming sugar. I think the Saison was a good base beer, but next time I would also go with yeast that does not add as much special character to the beer, Ardennes would probably be a good choice. Regardless I’m very pleased with it and wish I had more bottles.

First Tasting: Cantillon IPA

This review has been a long time in the making. I kegged the beer a few weeks ago but was not able to open the keg to add the second dry hop addition and remove the old hop bag because it was pressurized. Normally I would just open the pressure release valve and the open the lid but I couldn’t do that because every time I would open the pressure release valve it would foam out. My solution was to place it into the chest freezer and chill it to reduce the pressure. I think it became so pressurized because the yeast continued to ferment even though I thought it was done. I knew that was a risk but I was willing to overlook it because I thought I could just release the pressure. 

Well after a week in the freezer it still was foaming out, so I hooked it up to my faucet and began to pour the foam out a little bit at a time. That didn’t stop for a week and I couldn’t figure out why. I researched that symptom and found that the liquid lines shouldn’t drop below the liquid output that much. As soon as I placed it on top of the other keg the problem was solved and it poured normally. I’m still learning about my kegging system. 

After I was finally able to degas the keg I removed the old hops and added the fresh Citra hops in a bag to the keg. 

Appearance: cloudy, milky pale yellow with orange hues on the edges. It’s topped with a thick creamy head about two fingers thick that slowly fades to a thin lacing over the top of the beer. I’m not sure if it’s this cloudy because I’m pouring from the bottom of the keg still or if the yeast is just a really poor floculator. I’ll probably know in a few weeks. 

Aroma: The aroma has changed over a few weeks. When I initially smelled the beer prior to placing it into the keg it was full of fresh strawberry aroma and citrus. After a week in the keg it became a big woody, cheesy, acidic mess, which of course had me worried. I’m happy to say that now it has balanced itself out. It’s a combination of orange peel, coriander, citrus, melon, a touch of acid, some nice funk, horsey, and a bit of strawberry. 

Flavor: I think most of the flavor is derived from the fact that I aerated the wort prior to pitching my yeast. Normally I would not aerate wort if I’m using Brett as the primary strain since it can produce acid in the presence of oxygen. I basically accidently shook the carboy because I was in auto pilot at that time. Needless to say you can tell that there is acid in the beer. The flavors are citrus and orange with some ethyl acid and a touch of funk. 

Mouthfeel: Medium high carbonation with a medum body and a dry lingering acidic finish. I like the carbonation level but I’m not a fan of the body. I would have preferred it to finish dryer. 

Overall: I can’t say I’m disappointed with the beer because it’s not really bad it’s just  not what I wanted. I’m happy that I didn’t get a bitter/sour mess by brewing an IPA and aerating the Brett. There are aspects that I would do differently next time i.e. aeration, but I would probably also try to dry the beer out more, maybe mash lower or add some sugar, or perhaps less wheat. I’m definitely going to rebrew this beer and do it correctly next time.

Professional Brew Day

I had some time off from work a little while ago and finally got to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. I was able to brew at a professional brewery. I’ve wanted to do that for a while because like most home brewers I dream about opening my own brewery someday. I knew that just because I can home brew does not mean that I have any idea how to handle a professional brewery. 

The day started at 8:00 AM with crushing the grain and mashing. Their operation is a two person operation because their mash tun does not have a stirrer. I was stirring the grain as it reached the mash while the assistant brewer loaded the grain into the hopper. The first 10-15 minutes after I arrived I spent trying to learn how to not be in the way. They have a very tight space in their brew house. Basically enough room for the equipment and two brewers, not much more than that. So I was trying to learn how to stay out of the way and move around the brew house. 

Overall it was not too different from homebrewing. It’s the same basic process just on a larger scale. The nice thing was there was actually probably less manual labor involved in professional brewing then there is in homebrewing. Until I can get a pump I’m stuck having to lift and pour multiple gallons of water. Whereas, a professional brewery is dealing with hundreds or thousands of gallons of water, they have pumps that can move it from place to place. Most of the work involved was cleaning the mash tun after mashing. All other cleaning activities at the end of the brew day were performed by pumps and the kettle. 

One of the things that I would like to improve in my own brewing is monitoring different aspects during brewing. I generally add the grain and water and hope that everything is doing what it should be doing. I monitor time and temperature but I don’t really measure any of my hops since I don’t have a scale. I also don’t measure my mash pH. A professional brewer is constantly taking measurements during brewing to confirm that everything is working according to plan. If something is not how it should be they have time to correct it. For me if something doesn’t work out I’ll probably still make a drinkable beer or at worst I’ve wasted $50, but for a professional brewery they need to make their recent batch taste just like their last batch and they are dealing with a lot more money per batch.

Overall it was a great experience and I’m glad I finally was able to see what profession brewing was like. I now know that it is something I can probably handle and am more interested in learning and improving my own brewing process. The biggest thing that I want to stress about professional brewing is that it is still manufacturing. We as ‘beer nerds’ tend to glorify brewing and brewers. But at the end of the day it is a manufacturing facility. If you are not careful you can be seriously hurt. Throughout the day you are moving hundreds of gallons of hot near or boiling water around and dealing with acids. There are a lot of ways to hurt yourself. If you are ever able to work in a professional brewery make sure to keep that thought in mind.