schtev
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 15/6/14
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I really love Pirate Life's Throwback IPA (henceforth referred to as TBIPA) and decided to try brewing my own clone. Pirate Life has a lot of details of their beer public. The basic ingredients are printed on the can, and there's some further info on their website - 1.040 OG, 35 IBU, 3.5% ABV. (This works out to an FG of 1.013). Using this info I took a stab at the recipe and then emailed Pirate Life to see if I could get any further hints.
I was stoked when I got a reply from Jared aka Red, one of the founders. He gave me a lot of great pointers. The biggest surprise was that they have changed the recipe quite a bit since printing it on the can. In particular, the grain bill now uses even amounts of Munich and Maris Otter, and they have replaced Crystal hops with Summer. He also suggested I use a massive amount of carapils - up to 15%.
After taking his feedback on board I came up with the following recipe (.bsmx file attached). I scaled the carapils down for my system, because the last time I used ~15% carapils in a recipe I couldn't get anything but foam from my kegerator.
Recipe
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.58 l
Post Boil Volume: 27.08 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 20.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 14.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 36.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 84.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.56 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 1 40.0 %
1.56 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 2 40.0 %
0.35 kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 9.0 %
0.23 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 6.0 %
0.19 kg Caramunich III (Weyermann) (139.9 EBC) Grain 5 5.0 %
9.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 6 13.0 IBUs
20.00 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 7 5.0 IBUs
20.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 8 10.4 IBUs
20.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 9 4.1 IBUs
31.01 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 10 0.9 IBUs
31.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 11 1.9 IBUs
31.01 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 12 0.8 IBUs
35.00 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Dry Hop 2 Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
35.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Dry Hop 2 Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
35.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 13 -
Target Water Profile
-------------------------
Ca 110ppm | Mg 18ppm | Na 16ppm | SO4 275ppm | Cl 50ppm | HCO3 0ppm | pH 5.37
Mash Temp
---------------
69 C
Fermentation
----------------
Started at 18C, ramped up to 20C after ~4 days. My FG was 1.012.
So how'd it turn out?
Looks
Pretty damn good. I did a side-by-side of my clone vs the real thing...spot the difference. (TBIPA on left, clone on right).
Neither beer forms a lasting head, they both start with a big foamy head that dissipates quite rapidly. The clone has some lacing, TBIPA slightly more so.
Aroma
Both beers are surprisingly light on aroma. My latest cans of Pirate Life may have had a hard life, which could explain the lack of aroma. I'm not sure what the excuse is for my beer, other than possible mistreatment by the brewer (ahem...)
Mouthfeel
The real Throwback has a very dry finish, and is light to medium bodied. My clone is medium bodied, with a softer mouthfeel and is not as strikingly dry and refreshing.
Taste
Both beers are very light on malt flavour.
TBIPA has a sharp bitterness, whereas the clone has a comparatively soft bitterness.
I think I overdid it with the Cascade as the clone had quite a pronounced lemon character at first that wasn't very pleasant. It faded rather quickly though, as did most of the hop smell, which is disappointing.
The clone has a bit of a "fruity" ale flavour to it. I'm not sure of the source. I'm wondering if I introduced too much oxygen to the beer at some point, as it might explain the fruitiness and rapidly fading hop character, but that's a topic for another thread...
Overall
Overall the clone is a great beer and very drinkable. It is very close to the real TBIPA. I think I got the grain bill spot on. I will definitely be altering my mineral additions next time to try and achieve the dry character that the real thing has. Red told me that they are a "sulfate heavy brewer"...I thought that 275ppm for sulfate would be heavy enough. Perhaps not?
I'll also dial back the Cascade, and possibly move more of the IBUs to the 60 min addition to try and get the "sharp" bitterness that I perceive in the real Throwback. This could also be a factor of the bittering hops used.
Finally I'm going to take some extra precautions as far as O2 ingress goes, and maybe bottle some of my next batch to compare to my kegs. Might help me narrow down what's going on.
View attachment throwback_ipa.bsmx
I was stoked when I got a reply from Jared aka Red, one of the founders. He gave me a lot of great pointers. The biggest surprise was that they have changed the recipe quite a bit since printing it on the can. In particular, the grain bill now uses even amounts of Munich and Maris Otter, and they have replaced Crystal hops with Summer. He also suggested I use a massive amount of carapils - up to 15%.
After taking his feedback on board I came up with the following recipe (.bsmx file attached). I scaled the carapils down for my system, because the last time I used ~15% carapils in a recipe I couldn't get anything but foam from my kegerator.
Recipe
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.58 l
Post Boil Volume: 27.08 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 20.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 14.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 36.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 84.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.56 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 1 40.0 %
1.56 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 2 40.0 %
0.35 kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 9.0 %
0.23 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 6.0 %
0.19 kg Caramunich III (Weyermann) (139.9 EBC) Grain 5 5.0 %
9.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 6 13.0 IBUs
20.00 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 7 5.0 IBUs
20.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 8 10.4 IBUs
20.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 9 4.1 IBUs
31.01 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 10 0.9 IBUs
31.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Boil 1.0 Hop 11 1.9 IBUs
31.01 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 12 0.8 IBUs
35.00 g Cascade [6.30 %] - Dry Hop 2 Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
35.00 g Simcoe [13.10 %] - Dry Hop 2 Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
35.00 g Summer (Summer Saaz) [5.20 % Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 13 -
Target Water Profile
-------------------------
Ca 110ppm | Mg 18ppm | Na 16ppm | SO4 275ppm | Cl 50ppm | HCO3 0ppm | pH 5.37
Mash Temp
---------------
69 C
Fermentation
----------------
Started at 18C, ramped up to 20C after ~4 days. My FG was 1.012.
So how'd it turn out?
Looks
Pretty damn good. I did a side-by-side of my clone vs the real thing...spot the difference. (TBIPA on left, clone on right).
Neither beer forms a lasting head, they both start with a big foamy head that dissipates quite rapidly. The clone has some lacing, TBIPA slightly more so.
Aroma
Both beers are surprisingly light on aroma. My latest cans of Pirate Life may have had a hard life, which could explain the lack of aroma. I'm not sure what the excuse is for my beer, other than possible mistreatment by the brewer (ahem...)
Mouthfeel
The real Throwback has a very dry finish, and is light to medium bodied. My clone is medium bodied, with a softer mouthfeel and is not as strikingly dry and refreshing.
Taste
Both beers are very light on malt flavour.
TBIPA has a sharp bitterness, whereas the clone has a comparatively soft bitterness.
I think I overdid it with the Cascade as the clone had quite a pronounced lemon character at first that wasn't very pleasant. It faded rather quickly though, as did most of the hop smell, which is disappointing.
The clone has a bit of a "fruity" ale flavour to it. I'm not sure of the source. I'm wondering if I introduced too much oxygen to the beer at some point, as it might explain the fruitiness and rapidly fading hop character, but that's a topic for another thread...
Overall
Overall the clone is a great beer and very drinkable. It is very close to the real TBIPA. I think I got the grain bill spot on. I will definitely be altering my mineral additions next time to try and achieve the dry character that the real thing has. Red told me that they are a "sulfate heavy brewer"...I thought that 275ppm for sulfate would be heavy enough. Perhaps not?
I'll also dial back the Cascade, and possibly move more of the IBUs to the 60 min addition to try and get the "sharp" bitterness that I perceive in the real Throwback. This could also be a factor of the bittering hops used.
Finally I'm going to take some extra precautions as far as O2 ingress goes, and maybe bottle some of my next batch to compare to my kegs. Might help me narrow down what's going on.
View attachment throwback_ipa.bsmx
