Heady Topper!

[fattox]

Hey guys and girls.

I just have to share this!! It's absolutely phenomenal.

I had been looking at doing a Heady Topper clone for a while, seeing as how hard it is to even get it near the brewery in the US. So after a bit of research, and finding out you can buy direct from Yakima Valley for the more obscure strains, a Heady Topper clone was brewed! My first attempt was slightly different (see brackets in recipe) but it was an absolutely stunning beer. So without further ado, one of the most hop flavoured beers I have ever tried!

Batch Size 23L
6.4kg TF Pearl (I used Maris Otter as Pearl was unavailable at the time)
170g Caramalt (I used Caraamber as my local shop had just run out of Caramalt!)
425g Turbinado/Demerara Sugar (I forgot to get this, and used a mix of 300g raw sugar and 150g dark brown sugar) boiled for last 10 mins

Hop times
21.2g Columbus @ 60
28.8g Simcoe @ 30
Boil finings if used, yeast nutrient whenever (mine is a 10 min boil req as is my brewbrite)
28.8g each Apollo, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Columbus for a 30 minute hop stand (I no-chill so I use a hop bag for this stage)

Mash @ 67ish for an hour, preboil OG about 1.061. Boil for an hour, post boil target approx. 1.071 (I hit slightly higher at 1.072).
Ferment out using US05 or an American Ale Yeast, or if you want the authentic taste, go with Conan Yeast. Barley Man sells is under the Yeast Bay brand "Vermont IPA". If using the US05 keep at normal temps, with Conan start it out around 16ish degrees which is apparently where it will start with super fruity flavours coming through, then around 1.018 ramp up to 18 to finish around 1.010-1.012. 1.010 is ideal.

Once it has hit final gravity, dry hop with 28.8g each of Chinook, Apollo and Simcoe for a week. Rack that bad boy off the trub (I would definitely keep the Conan Yeast from the trub!!), into a secondary and re-dry hop with 28.8g each of Centennial and Simcoe. Keg, get to approx. 9psi/90kpa ish and enjoy.

I have done it in the bracket way previously and needless to say about 17 litres vanished between 3 of us in a night. It is an addictively good beer.

 

[SixStar]

Nice man! I'm fixin to do one myself!

 

[Mardoo]

Mofox and I did a clone recipe of this together. Easily one of the beast - and best - beers I've ever brewed. Fantastic!

 

[pcqypcqy]

But what grub hasn't mentioned is you need to ensure you put a bazooka screen on your dip tube.

Keen for you to rebrew this, maybe a few jars of it will pay me back for the job and the casters

 

[Mardoo]

There is a huge thread on HBT about this clone brew, with many recipes, methodologies, different fermentation schedules, etc. I tried one that included a higher than usual starting temp, with a significant underpitch as was recommended. I'll get the recipe Mofox1 and I used into a presentable format. Suffice to say, the beer went so fast I believe interdimensional space goats were popping into existence in the keg and drinking their fill. At least, that's how it seemed after four pints.

 

[pcqypcqy]

Just confirming this is the hop schedule for this bad boy?

 

[OneEye]

How do you find such a hoppy beer goes with the no chill method?

 

[Mardoo]

We did ours no chill. Came out great! I even left my cube for about five months before fermenting, and the hop presence was the closest I've ever gotten to the commercial DIPA's. I ended up dumping all the hop material in with the wort. I figured since I was going to be racking it off before it was finished, as recommended in the version we chose to follow, it wouldn't matter so much. We chilled to 65C IIRC before we did the hop stand, then added more in the cube.

Getting the recipe and process we used into a useful format has been on the to-do list for ages, so I'll get that on here in the next few days. I have a few days off coming up so can definitely get it finished.

 

[SixStar]

Yeah Mardoo that would be good to see. I've almost gone through all that HBT thread, almost.
Seems to be the water profile and PH that is the most interesting bit for me.
Also after all that reading no one can seem to really hit it spot on but can get close. The conan giga yeast will be here soon from beerco. Exciting

 

[fattox]

But what grub hasn't mentioned is you need to ensure you put a bazooka screen on your dip tube.

Keen for you to rebrew this, maybe a few jars of it will pay me back for the job and the casters

Conveniently enough I have definitely got some Vermont ale on the way, I will give it a run through on a batch of IPA sometime soon and split off some yeast cake for ya [emoji16] on top of the bottles of barrel quad!

 

[fattox]

Just confirming this is the hop schedule for this bad boy?

Looks the goods

Wrt fermentation I start mine around 18 and ramp to 23-24 over the first week. I've had it finish in 3 days on a healthy pitch, and then it got dry hopped and cold crashed.

It's a shame my new misso likes IPA's, I may have to warrant a brew day of IPA

 

[Mardoo]

A brew day of Warrant with IPA
https://youtu.be/OjyZKfdwlng

 

[technobabble66]

We did ours no chill. Came out great! I even left my cube for about five months before fermenting, and the hop presence was the closest I've ever gotten to the commercial DIPA's. I ended up dumping all the hop material in with the wort. ....

Hey Mr Smooth, what do you think about this link? (i.e.: dumping hops material into the FV and getting best hops presence (which i'm assuming is partly that dank resiny element. Mmmmmm, dank))
Are you suspecting that there's significant benefits derived from dumping the hops into the FV and letting the yeasties go to work on them? i.e.: there's some biotransformagorificational hyperawesomeness happening that magically improves the hops elements on top of the sheer bulk of hops used in the recipe?
I generally try to strain out the hops debris when draining the cube into the FV. But i'm about to pitch a cube of Red NEIPA (probably with MJ New World Strong) and wondering if it's better to just dump the whole lot in this time.
The last couple of batches where i've used homegrown flowers in the cube, i've found the extraction to be good but there's still a fair bit of hoppiness left in the discarded flowers. It has just made me wonder if there's more potential left in them to be accessed somehow. Maybe by a little Biotransformational Black Magic...?
Did you detect any hoppy astringency coming through from dumping the hops into the FV?



Sorry for the slightly OT tangent.
But let's face it, everything else is secondary to obtaining the holy grail of maximising hoppiness B)

PS: hope you're doing well, dude. :icon_cheers:

 

[Mardoo]

There are definitely transformations of hop flavour/oils that happen from yeast activity, which is part of the benefit of dry hopping while the yeast is still a bit active. There's been a lot of proper research done in this area. However, it's all based on professional technique, so cubing isn't part of the research. I can't say really. I know that doing the dry hop under pressure had a lot to do with the hop presence in this case, and the beer not seeing (much, if any) oxygen from the time it was racked off the yeast and into the dry hopping vessel. Next one won't see oxygen from the time it hits the FV to the finished product.

I have two cubes of a similarly hoppy beer to ferment out, so maybe I'll do a little experiment and do one on the hops, one not, and see whether there's any difference. I'm sure there are reasons to NOT include the hops, but then there's so much green, oily goodness left in cube hopping residue, particularly at the level of what we put into the Heady cubes.

Yes, I do get hop astringency coming through in the fermenter in very hoppy beers, but that only takes about a week to fade. Have you ever gotten the numb tongue sensation from a fermenter sample? I had one beer I really wanted it to stay around in, but it just doesn't last long, and it's usually not that pleasant. I also get the hop astringency from keg hopping for too long or too hard, FWIW.

 

[technobabble66]

...I have two cubes of a similarly hoppy beer to ferment out, so maybe I'll do a little experiment and do one on the hops, one not, and see whether there's any difference. I'm sure there are reasons to NOT include the hops, but then there's so much green, oily goodness left in cube hopping residue, particularly at the level of what we put into the Heady cubes...

Damn straight. Keen to see if/what the good/bad difference is between the 2. I'd be keen to see if the difference lies in the O2 exposure or lack thereof, or if it's the biotransformation.

Yes, had the numb tongue from that IPA/DIPA i brought to Wayne's place in Shepp last year. Keg lasted 1-2hours :beerbang: One of my best beers, if i do say so myself.

 

[SixStar]

My HT clone should be bubbling away soon! Holy hell that was a lot of hops that when into it!
I had a great brew day. With the grainfather I hit 91% brewhouse efficiency and my OG is 1.078. Right on target! Exciting!


Mash out


New invention, handing the hose and a quick loop made with an old keg lid o-ring




Look at all those hops! Even the PBW had trouble cutting through all the resin left over.

 

[SixStar]

Unequivocally the best beer I've ever made and one of the best I've tasted.

 

[pirateagenda]

going to give this a go this week.
Don't have all the hops so will be making up the same quantity using simcoe, centennial and cascade.
555g for 40L batch :super:

 

[pcqypcqy]

going to give this a go this week.
Don't have all the hops so will be making up the same quantity using simcoe, centennial and cascade.
555g for 40L batch :super:

555g? is that all?

 

[SixStar]

Will post my recipe but followed the US one.