Bling India Pale Recipe

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The brewer, Ben Kraus, is a pretty good fella. You might have some luck shooting him an email. Who knows, he may tell all! Let us know how you go if you decide to go down that path.
 
That sure is a great beer there Pirate. Personally would love to be able to brew something similar to style.
I'm guessing to get that big caramel/copper backbone that there is a whack of crystal malts. But knowing **** all about putting together a recipe maybe someone can chime in with experience?
 
The brewer, Ben Kraus, is a pretty good fella. You might have some luck shooting him an email. Who knows, he may tell all! Let us know how you go if you decide to go down that path.


Haha I'm not sure i'd like to put him in that situation :p

I'm sure he'd be more than happy to provide some insight but Bridge Road probably wouldn't like him spilling the beans.

Having said that I was surprised how much info came out about Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from the head brewer.


Like Chunkious I know f**k all about devising a recipe from scratch :lol: I hoping someone with some experience brewing similar IPA's might chime in...
 
Re-invigorating this one.

Oddly I don't like their pale ale, but enjoy the Bling IPA. Does anyone know which hops go into it? It has a pleasant, almost sulphatey 'crispness' to it. Deep colour no doubt to a fair whack of crystal and maybe a dark Munich or biscuit. Guessing there might be some wheat or carapils in there because the head on it is as thick and fluffy as any beer I've ever had.

I haven't done an IPA yet but I'd like to use this as a baseline if I can get some accurate advice.
 
Hi wiggman, if you haven't done an IPA yet, for some advice.... I wouldn't start with this clone.

Check out the electric brewery ipa called electric IPa, its very simple and you can get a better base model to work from.

It uses 95% base malt and 5% crystal 40, 1 hop bittering charge to 37ibu and the rest is from a top combo at 5mins.

If you mash it right with the correct ppm for water, get a nice clean ferment with the right amount of viable yeast cells and dry hop with the hops suggested you will turn out a cracking first IPA.

Dan
 
Any reason why not this one? Have done many brews before and some big beers amongst them. Generally speaking I'm not an IPA fan (hence why I haven't brewed one) but like this beer. So I'm not hoping to make an IPA, I'm hoping to make this beer. I believe it's the hop combo in this beer that I'm a fan of.
 
I can only guess it's because this is IPA has more of a malt backbone than most IPAs. (and making a mostly dry, plain old 2-row IPA will make it easier to show off the hops).

IMO it's a little extra kick of munich or crystal malt that is the signature of the Bling IPA. Perhaps it's also mashed a bit higher to keep more unfermentables/malty-sweetness.

Anyway, I'm hoping someone shows us a decent clone recipe for it!
 
TheWiggman said:
Any reason why not this one? Have done many brews before and some big beers amongst them. Generally speaking I'm not an IPA fan (hence why I haven't brewed one) but like this beer. So I'm not hoping to make an IPA, I'm hoping to make this beer. I believe it's the hop combo in this beer that I'm a fan of.
Feel free to try and clone it, its a great IPA no doubt, actually you will like this link attached.....

https://vimeo.com/127811079

If you email the brewery they will likely tell you the hops and the malts, maybe even the %'s of malts they use. What you wont know is the water profile, mash temps, yeast or the fermentation schedule which from what I have learned will lead to dissapointment. You will make good beer but it wont be the bling, that is the reason I advise to make something as suggested.

Ive tried to clone a bunch of IPA's and until I went with something simple 95/5 mashed at 64-65c, bittering to 35ibu, large late hop addition getting 22ibu from 5mins and a solid dry hop, then I realized so many things about making a hoppy IPA, that was my base and I built on that.
 
Thanks Pratty, taken on board. I have enough ingredients and other brews lined up to put this aside for now (and 3 full kegs - gasp). I might try the brewery and see what they have to say, at worst it would be "sorry bro". Interestingly they use 2 vessels at their brewery (no HLT) and state they use predominantly single infusions for their beers.
Shit I laughed in that ad when he was sniffing the beer in the chalice. Their 'shit craft beers fans say' is amusing too which features the same bloke.
 
This thread inspired to contact them, couldn't hurt. Anyway, here's what Ben Kraus responded with:

We use Maris Otter as a base malt and then a combination of Melanoidin, Carared, pale crystal malts.
Hop wise we have change it a multitude of times, we always include east kent goldings for earthy character and a combo of US and Aus hops as the main contributor. We are always moving towards less kettle additions. So try moving to 80percent of your hops after flame out. Perhaps 30% whirlpool and 50% dry hop.
Cheers
ben
 
Great. Thanks for that.

How do people reckon they get it so chewy?
 
FYI I sent them an email a few years ago regarding Bling Bling which is their double IPA. This is the reply I got regarding the hops.

[SIZE=11pt]Glad to hear you liked the Bling Bling. It was a special release made some months ago and we have run out of the bottled stock.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Bling Bling was our Bling[/SIZE] IPA with double the ingredients. The hop combination is a complex mix of cluster and cascade.
 
Top stuff mosto and lukiferj. I might dick around with the malts and see if I can put together a good base to start with. Never used melanoidin or carared.
Sipping on my SNPA clone I'm reminded of the distinct Cascade character. It's definitely still in there. But 50% of the hops dry hopped?! Cop that wallet.
Picked up some new kegs so will have to line this up after my RIS, bright ale and dark lager. Will report back with a grain bill.
 
I had a glass of this over the weekend so am inspired to put together a recipe -

post-31264-14390108222705.jpg


Known vitals -
ABV: 5.8%. FG is under 1.020, the beer was fizzing too much to measure with a hydrometer and I wasn't going to wait until it was flat
IBU: ? - estimating 50
EBC: ? - estimating 20
Malts: MO, melanoidin, carared, 'pale crystal'
Yeast: Suspect Wyeast 1056 yeast (written next to the best before), so US-05 or WLP001 will do.
Hops: EKG, some US and Au hops - I'm thinking Cascade, Cluster and...? They're fans of Ella, Summer and Galaxy so take your pick. I'm thinking Ella.
Deep auburn colour which is slightly hazy.

Due to the crystals all being fairly light (40/40/150 EBC) I think there needs to be a fair bit of them in the bill. As in 15-20%.
I don't think the hop combo is as complicated as it seems. I'm thinking along the lines of -
  • MO 80%, carared 8%, melanioden 7%, light crystal 5%
  • EKG @ 60 mins
  • EKG and Cascade @ 0 mins
  • Cascade and Ella dry hopped (60:40)
  • OG 1.056, FG 1.012
Thoughts?
 
wambesi said:
Should ask them in an email, worked for me and Moo Brews Pale Ale!
You've got a Moo Pale recipe? Did a tour there last year and loved it. Any chance of sharing the recipe?
 
Just wondering if anyone has emailed Ben @ Bridge Road with a proposed recipe for feedback? I love their bling bling so much I have joined their beer club so I get some sent every couple of months. If not, I will have a crack at putting something together and email them but would like to have an already iterated recipe to start with.

As a side note, fat man red suit big sack is their red IPA which on hand pump at the brewery is possibly the best IPA I've ever had, would love a clone of that one too one day.
 
Fat man red suit is a ******* cracker!
I emailed once about the India Saison and Ben let me know the yeast, I did not ask anything more though.
I recall someone from Coopers forum asking about the pale and he was not very enlightening... gave some good hints though
 
Well tonight I'm genuinely excited! First off, Bridge Road is my fav brewery and Ben there is a champ! I sent him my proposed recipe and exchanged a few return emails to nail it down a bit. First sample tonight side by side and apart from an ever so slight colour difference I can't pick them apart! I have done a bit of blind taste testing tonight and had to pour an extra glass of each after the blind testing to confirm which was which. Super excited as I love this beer!

20160910_195022.jpg
 

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