AG57 Stone IPA-alike

[strange-steve]

This is tomorrow's brew, thanks to everyone who helped out with info on this, much appreciated :hat: As you can see this isn't much like the "real" Stone IPA recipe after all, I've made a few adjustments to both the grain and the hopping to personal taste, but hopefully the hop flavours will be similar, that's all I'm after really.

Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L): 22
Total Grain (kg): 6.38
Total Hops (g): 235
Original Gravity (OG): 1.067
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.9 %
Colour (SRM): 6
Bitterness (IBU): 71
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
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5.0 kg Pale Malt (78%)
500 g Caramalt (8%)
500 g Munich I (8%)
250 g Flaked Oats (4%)
130 g Acidulated Malt (2%)

Hop Bill
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35 g Columbus Pellet (11.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes

20 g Centennial Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes
20 g Chinook Pellet (11.7% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes

15 g Centennial @ 5 Minutes
15 g Chinook @ 5 Minutes

15 g Centennial @ 0 Minutes
15 g Chinook @ 0 Minutes

50 g Centennial For 5 Days (Dry Hop)
50 g Chinook For 5 Days (Dry Hop)

Notes
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Water Treatment - 0.25g/L gypsum, 0.15g/L CaCl2

Mash in at 55° for 15 mins
Raise to 68° for 45 mins
Mash out at 75° for 15 mins

Fermented at 20°C with Conan/644 Hybrid with 1L starter

 

[strange-steve]

Collecting water with my little portable RO unit.

 

[strange-steve]

The starter is looking rather healthy this morning, and the smell of pineapple coming from it is amazing.

 

[strange-steve]

Well I've got this in the FV now and it smells great, very similar hop aroma to the original, however I was way down on efficiency, OG was 7 points lower than expected! I had a quick Google and apparently this isn't that uncommon with the GF and the main culprits seem to be not stirring enough at dough in, and sparging too quickly due to not compacting the grain bed enough. Any other GF users had similar issues?

 

[clarkeuk]

I'm in the market for a.grainfather and have been watching some YouTube stuff .
Check David heath out one his channel he mash's in twice for big beers because of this and he always stress about the importance of a good stir while mashing in and during.
How you likeing th GF Steve?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[strange-steve]

Yeah I think that's the problem, I did rush the mash-in a little cos I had to call out to work for a bit, ah well I'll know for next time.

I really like the GF, makes for a much easier brew day even though I'm still just getting used to it, and the ability to do simple stepped mashes is a big plus for me.

 

[DoctorMick]

I've had poor efficiency with bigger brews in the past but I'm really lax at doughing in and only take a few minutes. Mind you, I'm having general efficiency issues with all brews again at the minute but I'm not convinced that's down to the grain father.

 

[strange-steve]

I've had poor efficiency with bigger brews in the past but I'm really lax at doughing in and only take a few minutes. Mind you, I'm having general efficiency issues with all brews again at the minute but I'm not convinced that's down to the grain father.

I've tried various forms of brewing over the years, BIAB with and without sparge, 3V fly sparge, 3V batch sparge and now GF and I've always had efficiency problems. Not necessarily low efficiency, but really variable for no obvious reason. For example I brewed a wheat beer once and got really poor BHE of about 65%. A few months later I brewed the exact same recipe using the exact same method and got a BHE of 80%+ :wha:
Low efficiency I could deal with, but the lack of consistency is really frustrating when formulating a recipe.

 

[strange-steve]

Well I bottled this today and I'm rather disappointed with it. The aroma is similar to Stone but mine is too bitter and it's missing the intense piney hop flavour of the original. I've never brewed an IPA which I've been really happy with and I was hoping this would be the one but nope, still not nailed it. It's not bad, but certainly no Stone IPA.

 

[BeerCat]

Collecting water with my little portable RO unit.

Sorry if this sounds dumb but where are you getting your water from? I presume the red is waste and its being fed from outside?
I want to get another one as my kitchen one will only make 5l at a time and i am constantly spilling water everywhere.
I have had consistant efficiency since i started stiring my mash. On my system i find it can compact very easily so i have to stir it a few times. Shame about the beer not coming out like you hoped. Last 2 or 3 IPA's i have brewed have been quite underwhelming.

 

[strange-steve]

Sorry if this sounds dumb but where are you getting your water from? I presume the red is waste and its being fed from outside?
I want to get another one as my kitchen one will only make 5l at a time and i am constantly spilling water everywhere.
I have had consistant efficiency since i started stiring my mash. On my system i find it can compact very easily so i have to stir it a few times. Shame about the beer not coming out like you hoped. Last 2 or 3 IPA's i have brewed have been quite underwhelming.

The white pipe at the back with the valve on it is water in, which is connected to the outside tap via the window, the red is waste water out, just going down the drain and the blue is the RO.

 

[RKi]

Using 10% utilisation for IBU's at flameout? I never used to do this, and found that when combined with a steep would result in overly bitter beers.

I've just brewed a 7% IPA with supposedly only 42 IBU's which was nicely balanced. I did this because of the cloudwater DIPA recipe they published. I used 5% utilisation at 80C like in their recipe.

Anyone who states that no bitterness if pulled from dry hops and hops added at 80C and under is talking rubbish IMO.

Have a read of this : http://scottjanish.com/increasing-bitterness-dry-hopping/

 

[Fore]

Hi Steve. Can you fill us in on your portable RO please? I've been thinking about one, but find information hard to come by. Your water-in looks like it's coming through the window?? What is your unit brand and price? And any idea what the on-cost is likely to be for filter replacements? Thanks.

 

[Ajhutch]

Thanks for reminding me I've got a Stone IPA in the fridge. One of my favourites.

 

[strange-steve]

Hi Steve. Can you fill us in on your portable RO please? I've been thinking about one, but find information hard to come by. Your water-in looks like it's coming through the window?? What is your unit brand and price? And any idea what the on-cost is likely to be for filter replacements? Thanks.

Yeah I connect the water in to the outside tap through the window. If you search for reverse osmosis on ebay you'll find plenty of systems. This isn't exactly the same as mine but it's very similar. As for filter replacements, I'm not sure because I haven't replaced them yet, I only use it a couple of times a month at most so it should last quite a while. I use a cheap little TDS meter to keep an eye on the water and it's coming out about 7ppm at the moment. If that starts to go up, or the flow rate slows considerably then I'll look into filter replacements.

 

[strange-steve]

Well I was a bit hasty condemning this because after just 3 days in the bottle this is actually rather drinkable. It's obviously not as good as Stone but the flavour profile is definitely similar, pine and citrus. I'm going to have another go at this soon with an adjusted hop schedule to get more flavour into it. Very cloudy also as you can see (a combination of the oats and NEIPA yeast), but it's a lovely orange colour.