Feral Brewery Hop Hog Attempt

[HeavyNova]

I did a bit of research a while back on how to create something similar to Feral Brewery's Hop Hog (American IPA). I had a list of about 8 different hops that people thought may be in the beer but with some assistance from some helpful brewers I came up with the following as a starting point;

1.5kg Coopers Amber Liquid Malt Extract
400g Dextrose
22g Apollo
22g Chinook
7.5g Centennial
US-05 yeast (half a packet)

Bring 10L of water and 1.3kg of LME to the boil.
Hop schedule;
7.5g Apollo at 40 minutes
7.5g Apollo & 7.5g Chinook at 20 minutes
7.5g Apollo & 7.5g Chinook at 1 minute
Add final 200g of LME and 400g of dextrose with the last hop addition.
Chill wort and top up fermenter to 12L
Pitch yeast at 20 degrees
Dry hop 7.5g of Chinook and 7.5g of Centennial

Using Ian's famous spreadsheet the beer should turn out something like this;

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.011
IBU: 43.5
EBC: 25.4
BU:GU: 0.85
BV: 1.96
ABV: 5.7% (for bottle)

I measured my OG at 1052 and I'm going to fermenting at 16.7 degrees. I got this down 2 days ago but haven't had a chance to check if it has kicked off yet. Everything went smoothly so it should be fine. At the moment I'm aiming to get the hop schedule to a point I'm happy with then I'll think about turning it into a partial (or depending hopw long it takes me to get it right an all grain).

I won't be able to taste it until Christmas time either so I won't be able to provide a proper report on how it went until then. However, I'm hoping this thread may help anyone else who was thinking of trying something along these lines.

 

[sinkas]

I think its actually citra and galaxy

 

[HeavyNova]

I think its actually citra and galaxy

Yeah, I think you mentioned that when I asked the question a few months ago, however I had so many suggestions and many which contradicted each other as well. I'm quite new to brewing and as such I don't have much hope of identifying anything other than Amarillo at this point in time so I just weighed up everything I read and made a start.

The thing is that I couldn't find a confident or even half confident recipe, just lots of 'could bes' and 'I reckons'. But as I mentioned, the input was still better than what I can currently do so it was appreciated andl taken on board.

It's done now so at least there's a starting point. If it turns out nothing like it at least I'll know not to try that again!

Citra was mentioned a few times so I've got that in the freezer for future attempts.

 

[HeavyNova]

I bottled this batch yesterday and it had an lovely pine aroma which I can only assume came mostly from the Chinook in the dry hop which dropped in on day 10.

Gravity was measured at 1010 and started at 1052 which ends up at a ABV of 6.0% in the bottle (assuming 0.5% added in the bottle carbing process) - pretty close to my target of 5.7% which I'm pleased with.

Bitterness was a bit lower than I was expecting but at least it's not over done I suppose. I was slightly surprised at the malt flavour I was getting out of the Hydrometer sample I took just before bottling but after thinking about it I'm guessing that it was coming through more than expected due to the temperature of the beer being 18 degrees.

Bottom line is that it's not Hop Hog. I'd need another glass of the real Hop Hog to get a better idea of how far away from Hop Hog it is but I think it's heading in the right direction. Keep in mind though I'm saying all this after only tasting the Hydro sample.

Never the less, I think the outcome will be a decent beer and I'm looking forward to having a proper taste once it's been in the bottles for a little longer.

 

[J Grimmer]

sounds nice, what was the volume in the fermeter though?

 

[thanme]

I had one of these the other day, and I definitely reckon there's Chinook in it.

 

[HeavyNova]

sounds nice, what was the volume in the fermeter though?

12 Litres in the fermenter. After leaving some muck behind in the bottling process I got 33 stubbies out of it.

 

[HeavyNova]

So after 5 or 6 weeks in the bottle the end result isn't very close to my (slightly fading) memory of Hop Hog (need to remind myself again tomorrow!). The beer is reasonably bitter but there's no trace of the complex hop layers that seem to be in the real hop hog.

I'm only just starting to get my head around the different flavours and aroms of different hops but if I had to guess I'd say that the Centennial doesn't seem right in there at the moment. The pine smells that I got from the Chinook when the beer was young has dissapeared too - which is a shame. More of this hop in late additions or drink the beer sooner...or both?

But in general the final outcome after some time in the bottles was a bit tame and one dimensional. So I'm going to have to find a way to get a bit more hop omph and complexity in there.

Hopefully I can have another attempt this coming Sunday.

 

[HeavyNova]

Ok, after weekend upon weekend of business, I'm able to put down another brew this coming Saturday.

The final verdict on the first attempt was

too much malt
not enough bitterness or aroma from the hops
a bit dark in colour

But the body was pretty good (at least there's that). And carbonation was ok too, maybe a tiny bit high.

I've got some DLME to lighten the colour up a bit and I'll bump up the first addition to 10 grams for 50 mins (instead of 7.5 grams for 40 mins). All other hops additions will be pushed to 10 grams too as well as the dry hop. I think I'll drop the 1 minute hops in at around 5 mins this time too. I'm also going to try and record the AA% content of the hops as I have forgotten everytime I've brewed so far!

As I intended this thread may be helpful for anyone else looking to try and recreate the Hop Hog at home, I'll post back on the differences these changes make. Which will hopefully provide some more info on what to try and what not to try!

 

[milestron]

keen to hear how this turns out, hophog is prob my fav beer of the moment

 

[nathanR]

I just bottled my larger with citra and galaxy

i used 24/25g of both hops

i think by memory it went a little like this
coopers larger
500g LDM
200g DEX i think
20lt water
400g cara Munich steeped @ 65 deg for 1 hour (I think I am doing this right)
12g galaxy @ 15 min
12g citra @ 10 min
12g galaxy @5 min
12g citra @1min
US05 Yeast

brewed at around 16/18 deg

after taking a sample at the tap whilst bottling I think this will turn out nice a little piney and close enough for me

the two hops seam to work quite well together

 

[HeavyNova]

nathanR,

I've got some Citra to try too and many people have said that the Hop Hog's primary hop is Galaxy (which I don't have at the moment). So they're definately on my 'things to try' list.

With your batch being almost twice the size of mine I don't think you'd be hitting the same level of bitterness as the real Hop Hog as my first go was definately lacking in this area, but there's nothing wrong with a beer inspired by another one!

There are so many hops to try (especially for a brewer only just begining) it's annoying you can't just do it all in a week or two!

Thanks for the input!

milestron,

I'm keen to find out how it goes too !

 

[malt_shovel]

nathanR,

I've got some Citra to try too and many people have said that the Hop Hog's primary hop is Galaxy (which I don't have at the moment). So they're definately on my 'things to try' list.

With your batch being almost twice the size of mine I don't think you'd be hitting the same level of bitterness as the real Hop Hog as my first go was definately lacking in this area, but there's nothing wrong with a beer inspired by another one!

There are so many hops to try (especially for a brewer only just begining) it's annoying you can't just do it all in a week or two!

Thanks for the input!

milestron,

I'm keen to find out how it goes too !

I know this is the extract part of the forum, but I got pretty close to a hop hog without intending to with my last all-grain pale ale. A small tweak with the OG and bittering for an extract version will be pretty darn close.

He is the all-grain recipe.

Holiday Ale (American Pale Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (P): 12.4
Colour (SRM): 6.1 (EBC): 12.0
Bitterness (IBU): 39.6 (Average)

81.63% Pale Ale Malt
12.24% Vienna
6.12% Caramalt

0.6 g/L Galaxy (13.4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Simcoe (12.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Galaxy (13.4% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Simcoe (12.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
0.6 g/L Galaxy (13.4% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop)
0.6 g/L Simcoe (12.2% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop)

0.0 g/L Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66C for 45 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 17C with Safale US-05

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I carbonated with dry malt extract to around 2.5 volumes of CO2. I think the highish carbonation helps with the apparent bittering while keeping the longer/lingering hop bittering under control.

Hope that helps rather than hinders...Hop Hog is an awesome beer!

Cheers

:beer:

 

[HeavyNova]

I know this is the extract part of the forum, but I got pretty close to a hop hog without intending to with my last all-grain pale ale. A small tweak with the OG and bittering for an extract version will be pretty darn close.

-snip-

Fermented at 17C with Safale US-05

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I carbonated with dry malt extract to around 2.5 volumes of CO2. I think the highish carbonation helps with the apparent bittering while keeping the longer/lingering hop bittering under control.

Hope that helps rather than hinders...Hop Hog is an awesome beer!

Cheers

:beer:

Looks good malt_shovel. Thanks for the info. I think 2.5 vols of CO2 for carbonation is about right for this beer.

My last attempt was meant to be in the higher 40's for IBU, but didn't seem to have enough kick so I've bumped the next go up to the high 50's so BU:GU should be around 1.10. (Number for Ian's spreadsheet).

By the way, does anyone know which number I should be paying more attention to in Ian's spreadsheet;

'IBU' or 'Calculated IBU'?

 

[time01]

if anyone comes up with an extract version of this i would love to try it.

 

[olly4891]

if anyone comes up with an extract version of this i would love to try it.

+1

 

[brendanos]

Use the lightest & freshest possible extract you can get - probably dried (does not darken like liquid extract)

No doubt the hop bill has changed a lot over the years but Sinkas is right it is now mostly just Citra & Galaxy. They were using a touch of Simcoe with mostly Galaxy but I don't think that is the case now that they use predominantly Citra.

Most of the IBU's (45ish) are from late hopping with only 20 or so from a start boil addition.

 

[HeavyNova]

Use the lightest & freshest possible extract you can get - probably dried (does not darken like liquid extract)

No doubt the hop bill has changed a lot over the years but Sinkas is right it is now mostly just Citra & Galaxy. They were using a touch of Simcoe with mostly Galaxy but I don't think that is the case now that they use predominantly Citra.

Most of the IBU's (45ish) are from late hopping with only 20 or so from a start boil addition.

Thanks brendanos,

I reckon I'll adjust my recipe based on your info! Greatly appreciated!