Foothills Hoppyum IPA Clone

I tried making one of my favorite IPAs from Foothills Brewing in North Carolina. Hoppyum IPA

I created this recipe first off by using the stats on the Foothills Brewing website and from talking with a brewer. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the actual hop schedule and grain ratios directly from Foothills. The website stats for Hoppyum are 6.2% ABV, 70 IBU, and 8 SRM. I also found an older interview online where the head brewer at Foothills mentioned the grains used in the recipe, confirming my conversation. Using Beer Alchemy I was able to play around with the ingredients to get as close as possible to the stats on the website. Here is the final recipe that I wound up brewing. This is for a 5 Gallon batch:

11lb of US 2-Row Malt
1lb of US Caramel 20L Malt
8oz of US Caramel 40L Malt

Mashed at 153 for 60 minutes

1.27oz Simcoe Hops (60 Min)
0.75oz Cascade Hops (30 Min)
1.00oz Centennial Hops (5 Min)
0.73oz US Simcoe Hops (Dry Hop)
0.50oz Centennial Hops (Dry Hop)
0.50oz Cascade Hops (Dry Hop)

White Labs Yeast WLP001-California Ale

After everything was said and done I came extremely close to the site stats for Hoppyum. My recipe finished off at 6.3% ABV, 70 IBU, and 7.9 SRM. The side by side comparison of my beer vs the actual Hoppyum was extremely encouraging to me as this was the first recipe that I formulated completely from scratch. The training wheels were off on this one! The color of the real Hoppyum vs Homebrewing was dead on. The pictures in this post feature my Homebrew on the left and Hoppyum on the right. The Homebrew had a slightly stronger aroma of hops, but that could be due to freshness vs sitting on a shelf in a bottle for some time. Taste was almost identical as well. Homebrew was slightly more ‘flavorful’, but again could be due to freshness. Overall, I am happy with this recipe and I’ll definitely be brewing it again.

I’d love to hear your feedback if you ever give this recipe a chance to sit in your fridge.

I subscribed to this thread just because that recipe looks so delicious. I know you want to replicate that beer but i wonder what using citra instead of cascade would do as far as flavor. Seems like there could be more hoppiness in the boil too besides dry hopping?

golpher! Looks like we're almost neighbors.

Good job!! It looks fantastic! I've had FH Hoppyum several times and it's one of my favorite beers.

You can bet I'll be brewing your recipe. Thanks for posting it!

Fantastic, we're practically neighbors! Lots of Homebrewers here in the Carolinas. We are very fortunate to have a LHBS with three locations!

Definitely post a reply if you give this recipe a try, would love to hear any feedback.

I did a take of this but used citra as well as the other three hops and only used centennial for flameout. Fantastic! Never had hoppyum. Bet it's good. I also changed the grains a bit to make this my own.

Hoppyum is dank! Between that, Old Hickory's Death by Hops, and Mother Earth Brewing Co.'s Sisters of the Moon the carolinas are really getting some nice IPAs. Nice job with the clone, I'll have to brew that up soon.

Thanks for posting the hoppyum clone recipe. Trying it in 2 weeks. Have you tried to replicate Jade IPA from the same brewer ? Thanks

I haven't tried to make a batch of Jade. I've had a pint before and it's a good one. Post up your recipe if you give it a shot.

Also let me know what you think about the Hoppyum recipe when it's done.

just curious as to why you didn't include columbus hops in your recipe? it says on the bottle that they use columbus. i've made the recipe your way once and haven't gotten to drink any yet, but wondering if i should add some columbus for the next time? maybe foothills has changed the recipe too and it might be different now than when you initially came up with that.

I do believe they've changed the recipe a couple of times since I created this originally. When I crafted the recipe there were actually two different versions of bottles floating around. One with 60-something IBU and one with 70 IBU. I went with the 70 IBU bottle to make my recipe.

Aside form that I've also seen the newer bottles with the addition of Columbus listed as one of their hops. I don't think it would change the recipe too much if you substituted some of the Simcoe on the 60 minute addition with a Columbus or other CTZ hop for bittering. You could also sub out some of the Simcoe with Columbus / CTZ on the dry hop.

Leaving the other 30 minute, 5 minute, and dry hops as noted in the recipe should still give you that familiar Hoppyum flavor. I haven't noticed a change in the Hoppyum flavor from their new recipe so speculating the addition of Columbus was only for bittering or as a sub for the Simcoe. Due to shortage/cost possibly?

Good luck, and let me know how you brew turns out. Would love to hear feedback on the recipe.

Update: Just saw a Hoppyum bottle last night. Looks like they have increased to 78IBU now. So definitely some sort of recipe change has happened...again

I made my second attempt at your recipe yesterday and this time used .75oz Simcoe and .5oz of Columbus at the start of boil. My first attempt should be ready to drink next week, and I will keep you posted on how they both turn out.

Going to try to take a stab at a Jade recipe for my next brew based on the information in some of the other threads about it on here.

Wow sounds great! Although can I get some help with an extract version? Thanks!

I think if you replace the 2-Row with 6lbs 8oz of light dried malt extract and steep the specialty grains it'll get you pretty close.

golphur said:

I think if you replace the 2-Row with 6lbs 8oz of light dried malt extract and steep the specialty grains it'll get you pretty close.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Will be brewing this on Sunday

Thanks for the recipe golphur. I've been traveling back there for several years and always stop in at FH. The Hoppyum is one of my favorites and I brewed this in January and have to tell you, I thought it was spot on. I'll be brewing my third batch of this in a week. Excellent brew.

Hey Brews, that is fantastic! Glad to hear it turned out well. I thought it was spot on last time I made it too.

I think this is going to be my next batch. It's been too long since I've made it.

Golphur, thanks for posting this, it's one of my favorite beers. In fact I'll enjoy a fresh one at tonight's Bulls game - perks of living in Durham.

I've made this recipe two times (with and without columbus for bittering hops) and both came out great. in a blind taste test with the second batch i actually picked the homebrew over the bottle as better.

and seatbelt123: my wife and i are also going to the bulls game tonight. love being able to buy great beer at a great ballpark at fairly reasonable prices. should be a great night for baseball

Just cracked open my first one of these -- VERY TASTY!!

Zookeeps, did you brew it or buy it?

If you brewed it, thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed it! If you bought it, give the recipe a try and let me know what you think.

I brewed it May 23, bottled it June 7, stuck one in the fridge Monday, June 24, and drank it last night, June 27. Yum! I'm a newbie in 2013 and have been brewing one gallon batches to learn the process and to get different tastes. I've about 10 1 gallon batches so far. This is by FAR the best. Really, really good! This will probably be the first recipe I take up to a 3 or 5 gallon batch. Yum! Thanks for posting!

Awesome! Thanks again for the feedback. Always trying to improve my skills and recipes.

Golphur,

I'm subscribed to another thread for a Jade IPA recipe and someone posted that a brewer from Foothills told him that they use Wyeast London ESB (1968) as their house yeast. So I might try using that the next time I make this Hoppyum recipe. The first two I've made were delicious. I will let you know how that comes out when it's time.

Thanks, Jojo. That's great info. Will have to try that on one of my next batches.

How long did you primary, secondary, and dry hop? Thanks!

Def will be trying this one out soon! Thanks for the recipe!

Awesome, HoppingC. Please let me know how it turns out. Feedback is appreciated!

an update on some information i learned recently on this podcast: http://talesfromthecask.libsyn.com/episode-25-ray-goodrich-from-foothills-brewing

the guy on the show from foothills brewing said that they make hoppyum with 100% British malt. i don't know if he just meant the 2-row or everything, but he made a point to say they use British malt in hoppyum and a blend of British and american in their cottonwood endo ipa. pretty cool podcast and good info about foothills

Ohhh man I love some Hoppyum!! I really didn't think there would be a clone recipe out there for this but I searched just in case; I am glad I did! I am making the jump to all-grain very soon and I think this is going to be my first all-grain brew. Thanks for posting!

-Klink

I'll check out that podcast. That's pretty cool. I'll have to try this with British malts one time and see how it turn out. Thanks for sharing.

Col Klink. Good luck! Let me know how it turns out!

This looks great, thanks for posting! Just one question, what was your fermentation schedule? Primary, secondary and how long did you dry hop for? Thanks!

When I first made this I did primary for a little over a week and went to secondary for about two weeks. I've since stopped using secondary for most of my batches. I usually just do a primary for about three weeks (or more, depending on when kegs are available) and dry hop the last 10 days or so of secondary. Turns out great!

Let me know how it turns out when you make it. Always looking for feedback on this recipe.

Finally got a chance to brew this. Sunday i racked to secondary and dry hopped it. The color was spot on! I cant wait until It's finished.

hey golpher. just wanted to drop in and say thanks for this recipe. my brew partner and i have been using the OP as a base for the past year (~150 gallons). we've tooled around with different yeasts/malts/hops in the process, but it's always some variation of your recipe. we love it! in fact i just gave my brother-in-law a 2 gallon BIAB kit of it for christmas. anyway, thanks again.

Wow, dr_q that is awesome! I'm glad you guys enjoy the recipe. Please share any experiences that were successful when changing the yeast, hops, malt. I always love trying out new variations as well.

Hey Golphur,
I'm still thinking of doing this one for my first all-grain batch (got a nice 10gal kettle for xmas) :rockin: . Anyway, did you make a yeast starter for this?

I do make yeast starters when using liquid yeast. But I've also been known to substitute dry US-05 yeast on this recipe with good results. I rehydrate the dry yeast but don't make a starter when I do it that way. US-05 is the same yeast strain as California 001 so it is very similar.

Thanks golphur