# My Pirate Life Throwback IPA clone



## schtev (1/2/17)

I really love Pirate Life's Throwback IPA (henceforth referred to as TBIPA) and decided to try brewing my own clone. Pirate Life has a lot of details of their beer public. The basic ingredients are printed on the can, and there's some further info on their website - 1.040 OG, 35 IBU, 3.5% ABV. (This works out to an FG of 1.013). Using this info I took a stab at the recipe and then emailed Pirate Life to see if I could get any further hints.


I was stoked when I got a reply from Jared aka Red, one of the founders. He gave me a lot of great pointers. The biggest surprise was that they have changed the recipe quite a bit since printing it on the can. In particular, the grain bill now uses even amounts of Munich and Maris Otter, and they have replaced Crystal hops with Summer. He also suggested I use a massive amount of carapils - up to 15%. 

After taking his feedback on board I came up with the following recipe (.bsmx file attached). I scaled the carapils down for my system, because the last time I used ~15% carapils in a recipe I couldn't get anything but foam from my kegerator. 


*Recipe*
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.58 l
Post Boil Volume: 27.08 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l 
Bottling Volume: 20.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 14.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 36.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 84.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

*Ingredients*
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU 
1.56 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 1 40.0 % 
1.56 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 2 40.0 % 
0.35 kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 9.0 % 
0.23 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 6.0 % 
0.19 kg Caramunich III (Weyermann) (139.9 EBC) Grain 5 5.0 % 

9.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 6 13.0 IBUs 
20.00 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 7 5.0 IBUs 
20.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 8 10.4 IBUs 
20.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 9 4.1 IBUs 
31.01 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 10 0.9 IBUs 
31.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 11 1.9 IBUs 
31.01 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 12 0.8 IBUs 

35.00 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Dry Hop 2 Hop 14 0.0 IBUs 
35.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Dry Hop 2 Hop 15 0.0 IBUs 
35.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 16 0.0 IBUs 

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 13 -

*Target Water Profile*
-------------------------
Ca 110ppm | Mg 18ppm | Na 16ppm | SO4 275ppm | Cl 50ppm | HCO3 0ppm | pH 5.37

*Mash Temp*
---------------
69 C

*Fermentation*
----------------
Started at 18C, ramped up to 20C after ~4 days. My FG was 1.012.


*So how'd it turn out?*
*Looks*
Pretty damn good. I did a side-by-side of my clone vs the real thing...spot the difference. (TBIPA on left, clone on right).







Neither beer forms a lasting head, they both start with a big foamy head that dissipates quite rapidly. The clone has some lacing, TBIPA slightly more so.

*Aroma*
Both beers are surprisingly light on aroma. My latest cans of Pirate Life may have had a hard life, which could explain the lack of aroma. I'm not sure what the excuse is for my beer, other than possible mistreatment by the brewer (ahem...)

*Mouthfeel *
The real Throwback has a very dry finish, and is light to medium bodied. My clone is medium bodied, with a softer mouthfeel and is not as strikingly dry and refreshing. 

*Taste *
Both beers are very light on malt flavour. 
TBIPA has a sharp bitterness, whereas the clone has a comparatively soft bitterness. 
I think I overdid it with the Cascade as the clone had quite a pronounced lemon character at first that wasn't very pleasant. It faded rather quickly though, as did most of the hop smell, which is disappointing.
The clone has a bit of a "fruity" ale flavour to it. I'm not sure of the source. I'm wondering if I introduced too much oxygen to the beer at some point, as it might explain the fruitiness and rapidly fading hop character, but that's a topic for another thread...

*Overall*
Overall the clone is a great beer and very drinkable. It is very close to the real TBIPA. I think I got the grain bill spot on. I will definitely be altering my mineral additions next time to try and achieve the dry character that the real thing has. Red told me that they are a "sulfate heavy brewer"...I thought that 275ppm for sulfate would be heavy enough. Perhaps not? 

I'll also dial back the Cascade, and possibly move more of the IBUs to the 60 min addition to try and get the "sharp" bitterness that I perceive in the real Throwback. This could also be a factor of the bittering hops used.

Finally I'm going to take some extra precautions as far as O2 ingress goes, and maybe bottle some of my next batch to compare to my kegs. Might help me narrow down what's going on. 

View attachment throwback_ipa.bsmx


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## Coodgee (1/2/17)

You could try getting your mash pH down to 5.2 choir a crisper flavor


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## schtev (1/2/17)

Coodgee said:


> You could try getting your mash pH down to 5.2 choir a crisper flavor


Thanks, I hadn't considered that variable. Will definitely aim for that next time. I'm kind of flying blind as far as water chemistry goes - using Brisbane tap water, with a somewhat recent water report from Urban Utilities, but I have no real testing tools for pH. Maybe I should try building my water up from RO.


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## BKBrews (2/2/17)

Red is a great bloke. I emailed them about the pale ale for some feedback on a recipe and he got back to me with some great advice. 

My pale ale is a similar situation to yours - nailed the Malt bill (can't tell them apart) with just some slight tweaking required in the hop department, largely just more late additions and a bigger dry hop.

If I was you I'd try this recipe again with RO water - that's what they use and will give you a far more consistent product.


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## schtev (2/2/17)

BKBrews said:


> If I was you I'd try this recipe again with RO water - that's what they use and will give you a far more consistent product.


Really! I've never heard of a pro brewery using RO before. I thought it would be too costly / time intensive. I'll definitely give it a go. 

If you've got a promising recipe for their pale ale I'd be really keen to see it. Great beer. Did you get any specifics from them about hop schedule?


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## BKBrews (2/2/17)

schtev said:


> Really! I've never heard of a pro brewery using RO before. I thought it would be too costly / time intensive. I'll definitely give it a go.
> 
> If you've got a promising recipe for their pale ale I'd be really keen to see it. Great beer. Did you get any specifics from them about hop schedule?


This is an excerpt from his email to me: "We RO all water and add salts back so I know exactly what's going in to the beer"

I'll have to dig out my recipe when I get home mate. He helped me out with the hop schedule which I think was very close, I just need to tweak it a little. I still currently have it on tap, so haven't bothered to look at tweaking it yet as I won't brew it again for a while. Next time I would definitely double my dry hop though!


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## damoninja (2/2/17)

schtev said:


> Really! I've never heard of a pro brewery using RO before. I thought it would be too costly / time intensive. I'll definitely give it a go.
> 
> If you've got a promising recipe for their pale ale I'd be really keen to see it. Great beer. Did you get any specifics from them about hop schedule?


Huh? I thought heaps of them RO'd their water. The bigger the brewery the more likely. 

Cooper's for instance pull their water from a basin with a salinity of about 30% :blink: :blink:


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## BKBrews (2/2/17)

damoninja said:


> Huh? I thought heaps of them RO'd their water. The bigger the brewery the more likely.
> 
> Cooper's for instance pull their water from a basin with a salinity of about 30% :blink: :blink:


Yep, I was also of the opinion that most of them do this. Yeast and water are the two most important components of a beer, so it only makes sense that they would spend money in these areas!


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## Lionman (8/2/17)

I've known Red since high school, he is a top bloke. Nice to see someone take a stab at cloning a PL. Definitely one of the best breweries around at the moment.

I would be more interested in a IIPA clone, though. Has anyone attempted this?


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## goatus (8/2/17)

Lionman said:


> I would be more interested in a IIPA clone, though. Has anyone attempted this?


23L Batch:

5.3 kg Pale Ale
2.4 kg Maris Otter
0.3 kg Cane Sugar
0.3 kg Carapils
0.2 kg Wheat Malt

90.0 g Centennial (US) 90 min (First Wort)

50.0 g Mosaic™ (US) 5 min

35.0 g Simcoe (US) 0 min
35.0 g Mosaic™ (US) 0 min
20.0 g Centennial (US) 0 min

Mash at 64 degrees, Ferment with US-05. Dryhop for 7 days, rack, dryhop again for 2 days (for that fresh Simcoe nose).

First Dry Hop (7 days)
------------------------------------------
25.0 g Mosaic
25.0 g Centennial
25.0 g Simcoe

Second Dry Hop (2 days)
------------------------------------------
25.0 g Simcoe

US-05


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## Lionman (8/2/17)

So. much. hops. :icon_drool2:

Might try an extract version of that with maybe 2 tins of Golden light LME and a tin of Maris Otter LME. It won't have the same nuances in the malt profile but it will most of the way there.

Is cane sugar just sucrose? I thought that was a bad thing to use? Use the above extract it would need about 1KJ of adjuncts to bring the ABV to the high 8's.


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## goatus (9/2/17)

Lionman said:


> Is cane sugar just sucrose? I thought that was a bad thing to use?


Its a simple sugar so will be entirely consumed by the yeast, resulting in a lower finishing gravity reading - the beer will have a drier finish. Pretty common in big IIPAs so you end up with a less malty finish, bringing the hops forward. You could sub with dextrose to get the same effect.


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## schtev (10/6/17)

Today I am having another go at this recipe. For my second attempt I've made the following changes:

Using 100% RO water with a lot more mineral additions.
I now ferment in corny kegs which virtually eliminates O2 exposure
Altered the hop bill slightly to reduce the cascade - it was pretty full on last time.
Since I'm using RO water I can more accurately target my pH. Gonna get it closer to 5.2 or so, to try and emulate the dry finish of TBIPA.

Will post back results once it's in the keg!


My revised recipe looks like:

*Recipe: Throwback IPA Clone v2*
Brewer: schtev
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.96 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 18.00 l 
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 13.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 35.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 95.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU 
1.22 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 1 40.0 % 
1.22 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 2 40.0 % 
0.27 kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 9.0 % 
0.18 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 6.0 % 
0.15 kg Caramunich III (Weyermann) (139.9 EBC) Grain 5 5.0 % 
11.00 g Simcoe Bulk Brewing [13.90 %] - Boil 60. Hop 6 19.2 IBUs 
15.00 g Cascade Bulk Brewing [4.60 %] - Boil 10. Hop 7 3.1 IBUs 
15.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) Craftbrewer [5.20 % Hop 8 3.5 IBUs 
10.00 g Simcoe Bulk Brewing [13.90 %] - Boil 10. Hop 9 6.3 IBUs 
27.00 g Simcoe Bulk Brewing [13.90 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 10 2.0 IBUs 
27.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) Craftbrewer [5.20 % Hop 11 0.8 IBUs 
18.00 g Cascade Bulk Brewing [4.60 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 12 0.4 IBUs 
0.8 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 13 - 
25.00 g Simcoe Bulk Brewing [13.90 %] - Dry Hop Hop 14 0.0 IBUs 
25.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) Craftbrewer [5.20 % Hop 15 0.0 IBUs 
15.00 g Cascade Bulk Brewing [4.60 %] - Dry Hop Hop 16 0.0 IBUs 


Mash Schedule: BIAB 05 Full Body (68.9C, 156F)
Total Grain Weight: 3.05 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time 
Mash In Add 27.82 l of water at 70.8 C 68.9 C 60 min 
Mash Out Add 0.00 l of water and heat to 75.6 C 75.6 C 10 min 

*Target Water Profile*
Ca 110ppm | Mg 18ppm | Na 16ppm | SO4 275ppm | Cl 50ppm | HCO3 0ppm | pH 5.24


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## schtev (10/6/17)

So I goofed up at the first hurdle. Somehow I screwed up my Beersmith equipment profile and as a result undershot my pre-boil gravity by 5 points. Had to adjust with some DME. Hopefully it isn't noticeable...


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## schtev (7/7/17)

My second attempt at this beer is drinking nicely! Appearance is pretty much the same as the photo I posted above. I think fermenting in a keg and doing a closed transfer to the serving keg has made a big difference to this beer, because it has retained much more of the hop aroma than my previous attempt.

It also hasn't developed the dullness and strange sweetness that my last oxidised batch had. Hooray!

The beer is still lacking the "sharpness" that the real Throwback IPA has. This is despite me hitting a 5.2 pH (according to Bru'n'water) with my last batch. I'm wondering if it is just low carbonation. I've got the beer at about ~2.2 volumes of CO2 right now - perhaps it needs to go up a bit.

Anyway, overall this is a cracking good beer recipe if you like session IPAs.


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## schtev (7/1/18)

I'm still continuing to refine this recipe in my thread in the IPA recipe forum. Made it for a third time today.

Edit: fixed link.


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## droid (7/1/18)

schtev said:


> I'm still continuing to refine this recipe in my thread in the IPA recipe forum. Made it for a third time today.



this popped up for me via that link...
*Aussie Home Brewer - Error*
The controller _XenForo_ControllerPublic_Thread_ does not define an action called _PirateLifeThrowbackCloneSessionIpa_.


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## spog (7/1/18)

Same for me, I’d like to give this one a go.


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## Danscraftbeer (7/1/18)

schtev said:


> My second attempt at this beer is drinking nicely! Appearance is pretty much the same as the photo I posted above. I think fermenting in a keg and doing a closed transfer to the serving keg has made a big difference to this beer, because it has retained much more of the hop aroma than my previous attempt.
> 
> It also hasn't developed the dullness and strange sweetness that my last oxidised batch had. Hooray!
> 
> ...


I like the sound of your first attempt description. As say a home brewed improved version of the TBIPA. My impression of that beer is that its close to IPA character only being at 4% but not quite there because its 4% etc. Lacking that extra body and fullness so the bitterness is a bit too sharp as a result. Thanks for sharing your experiment/recipe etc. I rely on Hop stands for the big dose to eliminate o2 exposure possibilities. Go the Sessionable IPA thing tho. Big flavor beers at 4% better for health, I think?
$0.02


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## Danscraftbeer (7/1/18)

So. Sessionable IPA = SIPA? Is that a thing I guess I'm not up to date....


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## schtev (7/1/18)

droid said:


> this popped up for me via that link...
> *Aussie Home Brewer - Error*
> The controller _XenForo_ControllerPublic_Thread_ does not define an action called _PirateLifeThrowbackCloneSessionIpa_.



Thanks for that. Fixed the link.



Danscraftbeer said:


> I like the sound of your first attempt description. As say a home brewed improved version of the TBIPA. My impression of that beer is that its close to IPA character only being at 4% but not quite there because its 4% etc. Lacking that extra body and fullness so the bitterness is a bit too sharp as a result. Thanks for sharing your experiment/recipe etc. I rely on Hop stands for the big dose to eliminate o2 exposure possibilities. Go the Sessionable IPA thing tho. Big flavor beers at 4% better for health, I think?
> $0.02



Thanks! Yes it's meant to have the balance (i.e. quite bitter) and hoppiness of an IPA, but without the high alcohol content. The attraction for me is I can have a nice hoppy beer or two on a school night without feeling the effects as much. 

I hear you on eliminating O2 exposure - it's something I've been taking a lot of steps to reduce. I wouldn't have thought a hop stand would be able to completely replace dry hopping though - have you made any IPAs this way?

There's quite a few session IPAs about these days. I haven't heard the term "SIPA" before, I think you may have coined it just now


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## fdsaasdf (12/1/18)

For hop-forward beers I add all of my dry hops at the start of primary or during while it is highly active so that any oxygen introduced is minimal and pushed out. Not sure if biotransformation helps but since I've been doing it I've been very happy with my hop aromas.


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## schtev (14/1/18)

fdsaasdf said:


> For hop-forward beers I add all of my dry hops at the start of primary or during while it is highly active so that any oxygen introduced is minimal and pushed out. Not sure if biotransformation helps but since I've been doing it I've been very happy with my hop aromas.



I’ve thought of doing that before, but never tried it. This time around I’m fermenting in a keg, so my plan is to dry hop and then purge the headspace a few times to hopefully remove most of the oxygen.


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## lukasfab (31/5/18)

any more progress on this recipe mate?


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## Ballaratguy (25/1/19)

schtev said:


> Thanks for that. Fixed the link.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Hey can you tell me where you get the weyermann grain
I'm in Victoria & ihave tried the local & the web but can't find all of the grain that you have in your recipe


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## malt and barley blues (25/1/19)

Ballaratguy said:


> Hey can you tell me where you get the weyermann grain
> I'm in Victoria & ihave tried the local & the web but can't find all of the grain that you have in your recipe


You can get some Weyermann from Grain and Grape.


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## Tex083 (26/1/19)

Clever Brewing also have weyermann malts also.


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