Balter XPA clone assistance.

[Bob_Loblaw]

I just tried the following on the weekend:

21L Batch
3kg BB Ale
1kg BB Wheat Malt
0.2kg Carahell

10g Centennial FWH
25g Centennial 5 min
25g Amarillo 5 min
25g Citra 5 min

OG - 1.046

Will dry hop with the following at the end of primary fermentation:

65g Centennial
75g Amarillo
75g Citra

I was going to no-chill this beer but instead I tried something I've wanted to do for a while. Instead of putting the 5 min hops in the cube, I added them as per the recipe and then at flameout I waited a few minutes before dumping the ~90deg wort into the cube, sealing it up and placing it on the first step of my pool - effectively chilling it. It got down to "warm" quite quickly so I'm actually impressed with the method as it chilled the wort but used no water. Might try it again.

I have a Simcoe Pale Ale that has just started fermenting tying up my fridge so this will have to wait a week or two before going down. Initial thoughts are that the colour is a little light against the original, but will save all judgement for a proper side by side once on tap.

 

[Coldspace]

I just tried the following on the weekend:

21L Batch
3kg BB Ale
1kg BB Wheat Malt
0.2kg Carahell

10g Centennial FWH
25g Centennial 5 min
25g Amarillo 5 min
25g Citra 5 min

OG - 1.046

Will dry hop with the following at the end of primary fermentation:

65g Centennial
75g Amarillo
75g Citra

I was going to no-chill this beer but instead I tried something I've wanted to do for a while. Instead of putting the 5 min hops in the cube, I added them as per the recipe and then at flameout I waited a few minutes before dumping the ~90deg wort into the cube, sealing it up and placing it on the first step of my pool - effectively chilling it. It got down to "warm" quite quickly so I'm actually impressed with the method as it chilled the wort but used no water. Might try it again.

I have a Simcoe Pale Ale that has just started fermenting tying up my fridge so this will have to wait a week or two before going down. Initial thoughts are that the colour is a little light against the original, but will save all judgement for a proper side by side once on tap.

Keen to here your feed back

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Keen to here your feed back

Just pitched the yeast on it yesterday so will have some feedback very soon.

 

[Coldspace]

Just pitched the yeast on it yesterday so will have some feedback very soon.

Awesome mate... Good luck, hope you get close it's one tasty beer.

 

[hopnotic]

How did this turn out? I love this beer so I'm keen to have a go.

 

[sluggerdog]

@Bob_Loblaw I'd be keen to hear how this went also, from a hop perspective at least.

For the malt bill, I've been working with 10% wheat, 45% ale and 45% Vienna. It may be a little light, I haven't compared the two though.

I'll probably try something like this in the near future


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 8.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 29.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.7 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
2115 g Gladfield Ale Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 7 45.0 %
2115 g Gladfield Vienna Malt (6.8 EBC) Grain 8 45.0 %
470 g Gladfield Wheat Malt (4.2 EBC) Grain 9 10.0 %

15 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 10 13.1 IBUs
25 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Whirlpool 10 min Hop 12 4.7 IBUs
25 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Whirlpool 10 min Hop 13 5.1 IBUs
25 g Citra [12.70 %] - Whirlpool10 min Hop 14 6.5 IBUs

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 15 -

75 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
75 g Citra [12.70 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
60 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

@Bob_Loblaw I'd be keen to hear how this went also, from a hop perspective at least.

For the malt bill, I've been working with 10% wheat, 45% ale and 45% Vienna. It may be a little light, I haven't compared the two though.

I'll probably try something like this in the near future


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 8.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 29.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.7 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
2115 g Gladfield Ale Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 7 45.0 %
2115 g Gladfield Vienna Malt (6.8 EBC) Grain 8 45.0 %
470 g Gladfield Wheat Malt (4.2 EBC) Grain 9 10.0 %

15 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 10 13.1 IBUs
25 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Whirlpool 10 min Hop 12 4.7 IBUs
25 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Whirlpool 10 min Hop 13 5.1 IBUs
25 g Citra [12.70 %] - Whirlpool10 min Hop 14 6.5 IBUs

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 15 -

75 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
75 g Citra [12.70 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
60 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

Unfortunately something went wrong in my dry-hopping stage and NONE of the flavour came through. My fault as I used hop balls that were just too small for the amount of hops going in. When I pulled them out to keg the beer there was a lot of dry, powdery hop matter in the middle. I terms grain bill I thnk I did pretty well to the original. I did salvage the beer by keg-hopping with a bunch of Fortnight and Nelson hops, but obviously no Balter XPA.

 

[bassmfb]

How big was your batch size for this brew? See in the original post the batch was 1 Gal, thats roughly 3.8L! should it be 10Gal?

cheers

Good point, this batch was a 19L / 5gal.

 

[Coodgee]

I had a schooner of this yesterday at the local, it's like they have out-pacific aled Stone and Wood. I had a Stone & Wood PA straight after and it just tasted thin, watery and had much less hop flavour than the Balter XPA. The XPA is more like what many are calling a NEIPA these days.

 

[goatchop41]

I had a schooner of this yesterday at the local, it's like they have out-pacific aled Stone and Wood. I had a Stone & Wood PA straight after and it just tasted thin, watery and had much less hop flavour than the Balter XPA. The XPA is more like what many are calling a NEIPA these days.

You must not have had any good NEIPAs...
Balter XPA is a fantastic beer, but it is not even close to being an NEIPA style-wise

 

[scotthbutler]

I had a schooner of this yesterday at the local, it's like they have out-pacific aled Stone and Wood. I had a Stone & Wood PA straight after and it just tasted thin, watery and had much less hop flavour than the Balter XPA. The XPA is more like what many are calling a NEIPA these days.

I think it was developed by the same brewer, he moved from stone and wood to balter

 

[Schikitar]

I was going to no-chill this beer but instead I tried something I've wanted to do for a while. Instead of putting the 5 min hops in the cube, I added them as per the recipe and then at flameout I waited a few minutes before dumping the ~90deg wort into the cube, sealing it up and placing it on the first step of my pool

I've been thinking about doing the exact same thing and I know others here have also done so. I have some remote temp probes so I'm going to chart the pool water temp and against the cube wort temp and see how long it takes to cool, especially getting from ~90 degrees down to below 79 degrees - I don't have steps as mine is walled, just got to get the seating height right so it doesn't submerge the lid..

Also, thanks for the recipe ideas, my brother is a massive Balter XPA fan so I might take stab at this once I've done my SIPA..

 

[Coodgee]

slightly off topic but still relevant... how are people doing these big dry hops? Are you adding them straight into primary? In a hop bag or loose? at ale fermentation temps? I find sometimes that a big hop addition straight into primary can form a bit of a hop "crust" on top of the beer, where the top of the crust is not really in the beer, it's sitting on top of other hops that are floating in the beer. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Schikitar]

how are people doing these big dry hops?

I've been using weighted bags but I've noticed that I haven't been getting as much aroma in doing so even when using large amounts. Have been thinking about adding a french press hop tea to the bottling bucket either instead of or in addition to dry hopping. I also wonder if dry hopping really needs more than a couple days.. anyway, I'm also getting off topic, soz!

 

[Dan Pratt]

so I'm going to chart the pool water temp and against the cube wort temp and see how long it takes to cool, especially getting from ~90 degrees down to below 79 degrees

This I would like to see data for!!

When I use my CFC its always on beers with alot of hops after the boil. Usually I do a 20min whirlpool, then a 10min settling phase followed by a 40mins transfer to the FV using the CFC to get temps below 30c ( the fridge does the rest / ground water ~ 25c )

That being said I have the wort at 95c +/- 3c for a total of 70mins post boil and my beers achieve the desired flavour, hop character and bitterness.

Ive tried the same recipe's with same hops into no chill cube and fkn bitterness was about triple due to the LONG coll down phase.

Ive even tried to use the Immersion Chiller to drop temps to 75c then transfer to No Chill cube, still got much more bitterness than planned and wasn't as hoppy, it was again more bitter as the cube still felt warm 12hrs later.

Getting an idea of the temp from 90c ish into the cube and how long that takes to get below 40c or to equalise with the pool water would be great.

I dont have a pool, but a 44Gal drum with water is going to be similar with heat transfer.

 

[Leyther]

slightly off topic but still relevant... how are people doing these big dry hops? Are you adding them straight into primary? In a hop bag or loose? at ale fermentation temps? I find sometimes that a big hop addition straight into primary can form a bit of a hop "crust" on top of the beer, where the top of the crust is not really in the beer, it's sitting on top of other hops that are floating in the beer. Anyone else have this problem?

Yes, I have the same issue, couple of days ago I added some additional dry hops to a previously dry hopped brew and there was already a blanket of hops sat on top of the wort, it did also make me wonder if I'm going to get the full benefits from it due to this, however I don't like the idea of using a hop bag for the same reason.

I am cold crashing at the moment so I guess they will fall out then and time will tell but from early sampling its not as hoppy as I wanted.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Yes, I have the same issue, couple of days ago I added some additional dry hops to a previously dry hopped brew and there was already a blanket of hops sat on top of the wort, it did also make me wonder if I'm going to get the full benefits from it due to this, however I don't like the idea of using a hop bag for the same reason.

I am cold crashing at the moment so I guess they will fall out then and time will tell but from early sampling its not as hoppy as I wanted.

why dont you just bang the side of the FV with your hand?? it creates a vibration and the hops start to fall through the beer. I used to do this every morning and afternoon on workdays and every couple of hours on weekends to get the hops into solution.

Now i just rack to a separate keg for dry hopping and after 6hrs flip the keg over and do so every 12hrs for 3days which keeps the hops in suspension and creates heaps more contact time with the beer results in much better aroma and flavour contributions to the beer

 

[Gloveski]

I’ve had the Balter XPA in Tassie before but it seems to taste so much nicer here on the Gold Coast while on holidays