James Squire Hop Thief 6 - Extract

[Gigantorus]

Alex,

You are right. Very different on tap.

Though my brew was a real smack in the face. I think the main problem was too much dry-hopping. I used 100grams of Simcoe, which was way too much for the size of the batch. All good learnings. I've been addign a little soda water to thin it out, which makes it better to drink.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[manticle]

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.

Extract brewers can definitely fiddle with malt profile. Use quality extracts like briess or weyermann and spec grains.

 

[menoetes]

Is the above pic the result of your recipe from post 29? I gotta say your colour looks spot on (or so close as to make no difference) and it sounds like it tastes great. I might give it a shot myself as a mini-mash with extract.

 

[paulyman]

Is the above pic the result of your recipe from post 29? I gotta say your colour looks spot on (or so close as to make no difference) and it sounds like it tastes great. I might give it a shot myself as a mini-mash with extract.

Hey Menoetes,

Yeah that was the recipe from 29. When I do it again I'm going to drop the crystal a bit, just a bit too sweet. Also it came out more fruity and less earthy than the real deal, I think that's from the late additions?

That being said I really enjoyed it, the best brew I had made to date.

 

[Gigantorus]

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!

Hold the phones. Tried another of the Real Ale APA batch on Friday and it's dramatically mellowed and has turned into quite a tasty brew. Amazing what time can do to a beer. Had a small tasting session with some work colleagues with my APA (Coopers Real Ale + dry-hop of 100grams of Simcoe) and the IPA (Mr Beer IPA Can + dry-hop of 50gr Citra & 50gr Galaxy) and the APA was the clear winner. In just over 2 weeks the brew has gone from a punch in the face to quite a mellow and complex brew. Makes me want to try doing maybe a 20Litre batch using 2 cans of Coopers Real Ale + dry-hopping in my 30Litre fermenter.

Loving this home brew thing. It keeps throwing up little surprises all the time.

Cheers, Pete

 

[Gigantorus]

Tried a Hop Thief 6 on tap at my local last weekend and have to agree that the recipe has changed. Its now a very watery and boring ale sadly.

Gonna try and replicate the APA I made which killed my small barrel. Gonna use the 15Litre fermenter I have and do a 10litre batch using one Real Ale can and water and nothing else again. Then will dry-hop at end of 2nd week with 100grams of Centennial, then bottle at end of the 3rd week. This brew really benefited from the long conditioning in the bottle. So probably won't touch the first one until new years eve. Just gotta watch that early fermenting activity, which was crazy the last time.

Cheers, Pete

 

[Droopy Brew]

I have tried this beer twice and brewed a clone twice.
First taste was at the Brisbane Casino and I thought it was bloody good.
I went about making a clone (extract) and it was very nice.
Recipe was:
1 tin Morgans PAle, 1 Tin Morgans Caramalt, 500g dry malt, 250g of Crystal 50.
10G each Simcoe and Citra at 45min, 25g of each at 10min and 10g of each at 5min.
22L batch, 5% abv, 35IBU.
Citra instead of Columbus but was very good.

A week after I found myself in Mt ISa and they had it on tap. Was watery and bland- my extract brew **** on it.

Second clone was similar but used Columbus instead of Citra and turned out a fair bit more bitter. Still nice but.

Point is these hoppy beers vary widely with how they are transported and handled so the last one you had may not be representative of all HT6s.

 

[Gigantorus]

Was up at the Grand Central Hotel bar this week and had a schooner ogf Hop Thief 6 and it tasted like the old original version. Hope this continues to be my experience.

 

[Gigantorus]

Tried a Hop Thief 6 on tap at my local last weekend and have to agree that the recipe has changed. Its now a very watery and boring ale sadly.

Gonna try and replicate the APA I made which killed my small barrel. Gonna use the 15Litre fermenter I have and do a 10litre batch using one Real Ale can and water and nothing else again. Then will dry-hop at end of 2nd week with 100grams of Centennial, then bottle at end of the 3rd week. This brew really benefited from the long conditioning in the bottle. So probably won't touch the first one until new years eve. Just gotta watch that early fermenting activity, which was crazy the last time.

Cheers, Pete

Once the current pale ale brew is bottled, I'm going to see if I can replicate the original small batch brew I did with the single can of Coopers Real Ale & water, plus dry-hopping for the final 7 days. Will use the 30Litre fermenter this time and only make a 10Litre brew, which should leave plenty of room for the expected major krausen eruption - though might add an extra hose fitting in the lid and run a length of 3/4 inch hose into a 1/2 filled bucket in case the krausen needs more room. Will dry-hop with galaxy & amarillo this time.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[Mattrox]

I'm messing around with my Hop Burglar on the spreadsheet.
1.5kg LME
1.5kg AME
0.5kg LDM
0.25kg Med Crystal
0.15kg Caramunich

To get 5.0% ABV the brew is 25 L
EBC 22.9



Hop Bill
20g Columbus @30
20g Columbus @ 15
20g Simcoe @ 15
10g Columbus @ 5
15g Simcoe @ 5
15g Simcoe @ flameout

Still tweaking though, while both FVs are full.

With a 6L boil I get 34.9 IBU.

 

[paulyman]

Looks good Mattrox.

 

[Mattrox]

I put the second batch down yesterday. Had to make some changes as craft brewer were out of magnum when I ordered.

Not too different to Natsta's recipe.

Went with:

2.5 kg LDME
450 g medium Crystal
300 g caramunich 2
30 g roasted barley
100 g dextrose (to get to 5% ABV)

10 g Simcoe @ 20
25 g Columbus @ 20
10 g Simcoe @ 5
5 g Columbus @ 5
25 g Simcoe @ 0
15 g Columbus @ 0

Made up to 23 L @ 18 degrees.

US05 pitched and fermenting at 18 degrees.

SG 1048 expecting FG of 1012 and ABV of 5.1%. Ian's spreadsheet predicts an EBC of 29 and IBU of 41.

Will dry hop on day 8 or there abouts depending on how fermentation goes.

I just wanted to check something with you. What attenuation do you have for US05 in your spreadsheet. I had a look at the US05 specs and it says it should attenuate to 81% ...... if I use 81 instead of 75 I get 5.5% ABV bottled.

I noticed early on that the attenuation I am actually getting is generally higher than I originally expected, lower than predicted FG readings. I haven't used US05 yet so I don't know what to expect.

 

[paulyman]

To be honest I just went with the spreadsheet default, never thought to change it. Looking at the spreadsheet it says 75%, my extract brews usually finish only 1 or 2 points either side of the predicted FG so have never thought to change it.

 

[btrots87]

Been reading this thread and it's inspired me to have a go at a hop thief clone myself. Took a lot of inspiration from paulyman after seeing his side by side pictures so here is what I'm planning.

20L batch
10L boil

1.5kg light LME
1kg light DME
0.3kg wheat DME
0.3kg crystal 60
0.3kg caramunich 2
40g roasted barley

10g Columbus 60min
10g Columbus 30min
20g Simcoe 20min
25g Simcoe 5min
Dry hop 10g Simcoe and 10g Columbus 5 days

US05 yeast at 18C
OG 1048
FG 1012
ABV ~5% bottled
IBU 40