James Squire Hop Thief 6 - Extract

[Natsta]

Sounding good Paulyman! I will be putting a couple new batches down soon. Got 2 empty FV's atm so will give your last recipe a crack and do another with a few variations I've been thinking of.

My dry hop was after the end of fermentation so it I'll be interested to hear if you still get the strong aroma dry hopping at 1018.

 

[paulyman]

I'm thinking I'll cut the crystal back next time and try and finish this a bit lower to get it a tad drier. But I'll wait and try the finished product before making that decision.

 

[paulyman]

Mine is on the right, the Hop Thief is on the left. (Mine is only 5 days in the bottle so still not fully carbed).

I'll try and detail my findings, although I've never done a side by side before.

Colour - Mine is slightly lighter in colour, there really isn't much in it.

Aroma - Hop thief is more earthy and mine is more citrusy.

Mouthfeel - Mine is much lighter bodied.

Taste - Hop thief tastes more malt driven, while mine is more hop driven. Furthermore: hop thief tastes resiny and piney, while mine tastes citrusy and piney? I'm not sure how better to describe that. Mine also has a slight twang to it, which I'm guessing is the dextrose. (Really shouldnt have bothered with that).

Bitterness - About equal, mine tastes just slightly more bitter.

All up. I'm so much happier with this batch. If I was just brewing an APA I'd be stoked.

As for a Hop Thief clone. As an extract brew I'm not sure I can really play with the malt profile too much, I need to work on the hops. I think the citrus has come from pure late additions? So I might try a 60 and maybe 30 minute addition and see what that brings.

#Edited to fix up the image.

 

[paulyman]

Interesting. I had bottled most in James Squire bottles but bottled 3 in 500ml Rekorderling bottles i had lying around. Opened one today, it tastes bang on, earthy and resinous!

So I guess I leave the smaller bottles for a week to loose their green taste.

 

[Natsta]

Looking good paulyman! I slightly increased my roast barley in a second batch this weekend for the same reason. Had a nice colour but still closer to a golden ale than the full blood red mahogany of the HF6. I was almost tempted to lower the bitters too but by the time I tapped the second keg I liked just the way it was.

The twang may not just be the dextrose but from the kits themselves. Something I'm happy to live with atm as no room or spare cash to set up a HERMS. Maybe down the track I'll work on it.

 

[paulyman]

As an update. Drinking the last 6 pack this week.

Was really really nice. Definitely more citrusy than the real deal, but a real nice APA. Will substitute some earlier hop additions next time to see if that gives it a more pine and earthy taste.

But this will all be on hiatus until I get a ferm fridge. Put in a few bids on evil bay but either been outbid or had the bids pulled. Not cool.

May just bite the bullet and buy a homemaker 115L from Kmart, at least I've seen they fit a fermenter.

Natsta keep us updated on your version.

 

[Natsta]

Yeah dry hopped my second batch on the weekend. Next attempt I think I want to include some galaxy to give a bit of passionfruit/tropical flavour. Have not used it before so it will be an interesting experiment. Hopefully a good one though. Somewhere between HT6 and Hop Hog is the aim.

With the fridge. I picked up a couple perfect fridges through facebook bss sites for free. 1 is only 4 years old. Although you have to keep your eyes peeled it may be worth a try paulman.

 

[paulyman]

I love Galaxy. Never had issues with grassy tastes just yummy passion fruit.

It does however mellow to a banana lolly kind of flavour after 4 or 5 weeks I've found.

 

[paulyman]

Will look at the local facebook pages, that's a good idea.

 

[Gigantorus]

On ya Paulyman.

I'm also a Hop Theif lover - though enjoyed the No5 more than No6. But still love the style of beer.

You might be interested to know that I did a small brew in my old Mr Beer 8.5 Litre keg a few weeks back. Spoke to my local brew shop dude and said I wanted to create a similar batch to Hop Thief and he gave me a can of Coopers Real Ale and said to use that with no sugar and then dry-hop at the end. Well the fermentation (krausen) went crazy but didn't affect the beer and dry-hopped with 100grams of Simcoe pellets (love my hops) and bottled a week or so ago and plan to drink my first one in a week & a half. The brew was in the keg fermenter for a total of 3 weeks - I dry-hopped for the last week. I tried it when I did the bottling and it was amazing - the colour was perfect, the flavours were very similar to Hop Thief. So once the carbonation is up it should be a good brew. I might even try doing a batch in my 30 Litre fermenter - use 2 cans of Coopers Real Ale and 100 grams of Citra or Kohatu hops this time. But anyhoo I'll report back when I drink the first one around the 18th October.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[Gigantorus]

Couldn't help myself. Had to try one before the 3rd week came around. My attempt at an APA was not bad. Could have eased back on the amount of hops used (I used 100grams - should have only used half that). She's a thick brew - so very much a "sipping" brew Not a session beer either. Already formulating the plan/recipe for the next APA.

Pic attached from yesterday.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[Natsta]

I wondered how a can mixed at 8.5L would come out. Probably best to tell your LHBS guy about your experience. Sounds like the heavy malt and bittering would be a real punch in the face!

 

[Natsta]

Mine is due to go in the kegs this week. Can't wait!

 

[Gigantorus]

Hey Natsta,

Yeah it was a solid meaty brew. The krausen was very fierce too and cracked the tap on the little keg (so I found out when bottling) - it also spewed froth out all over the floor (so be warned). So the 8.5L keg is out of action until I can find another tap to fit it (the standard taps for the 15L and 30L fermenters don't fit the keg). Have already mentioned how it went to my LHBS - he wasn't surprised aboutn the big flavour.

I've since bought a 15L and 30L fermenter and will play with those. I might do another similar batch in the 15L fermenter and fill to 10L mark and just use 50grams of Galaxy as a final dry-hop.

I plan to mix up a batch of the Cooper's Scotch Ale or Fruit Salad Ale (can't make my mind up yet) this weekend in the 30L barrel. http://www.coopers.com.au/diy-beer/beer-recipes/ale/detail/scotch-ale/ http://www.coopers.com.au/diy-beer/beer-recipes/ale/detail/fruit-salad-ale/

Also need to find a brew to do for Christmas.

Look forward to hearing how your batch went too?

Cheers,

Pete

 

[brzt6060]

HT6 was great when it first came out but I had it again the other day and I think they are trying to cut costs or somthing... No where near as good...

 

[Natsta]

Yep. Noticed the same thing last week when I grabbed a 6 pack brzt. Put it down to bad storage conditions but you may be right. All the more reason to make a decent clone!

 

[Gigantorus]

Tried one of my IPA's on the weekend, which I was expecting to be a better drink than the APA experiment. Expected it to be better because I followed the recipe to the T

The IPA was very good. Was a bit darker than I expected. But all very nice. It seems all my beers of late are coming our the same dark colour I guess it could be worse and all the beers tasting like crap. Pic of the IPA below. Has a good carbonation too. I could drink lots of this beer easily.

Laid down a 23L batch of the Coopers Scotch Ale on the weekend. Looking forward to that. Am trying to build a stockpile of beers for the Xmas/New year break.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[Gigantorus]

Yep. Noticed the same thing last week when I grabbed a 6 pack brzt. Put it down to bad storage conditions but you may be right. All the more reason to make a decent clone!

Hope that's not the case. That was my fav beer of late. Been a few months since I bought some.

 

[paulyman]

I haven't tried one for a while, also hope it's not true.

 

[Alex.Tas]

I reckon this stuff is boring in the bottle.
Tastes completely different off tap at the pub. Much much much better.

Gigantorus, i made a toucan brew to ~20L with two real ale cans (similar to your half size 1 can brew) and it was the worst beer ive ever made. way too bitter. Got worse with time too, lost a lot of the dry hop flavours and the little extra i put in as a 5-10 min addition. I hope yours was much better!