HELP PLEASE- Saint Arnold's Endeavour DIPA Clone attempt

[HOPJONES79]

Howdy All,
Seeking some experienced guidance on my (2nd) attempt at a Saint Arnolds Endeavour Clone. I've never posted a recipe on this sight so I could use all the help you have. Basically I'm looking for what I could do better to get higher efficiency and higher ABV. Again this is my 2nd attempt at this recipe. The web has limited info on this beer which I see as a challenge. So here is my build: (Sorry I don't have all the technical numbers and alpha this and that. Give me a break, I'm still pretty new at this)

Equipment:
10 gal round igloo cooler with false bottom.
5 gallon round igloo cooler hot liquor tank.
PVC Sparge arm
7 gal stainless steele boil pot (Turkey fryer) with burner stand and propane tank
Sink for cooling down wort (No wort chiller)
Primary Brew Bucket
Seconday plastic Corboy

-16 Lb. 2 Row
-1 Lb. Crystal 75
-.5 Lb. German Cara Pils.
-London ESB Yeast (Y Yeast)
-.5 Lb of Brown Sugar
-.5 Lb of Turbinado Sugar

*Strike Temp @ 167 degrees @ 5 gallons which left my mash at 151 degrees (Might be a little off because I think my thermometer needs calib.)
*Mashed for 1 hour. Temp might have fluxuated 1-2 degrees but no more.
*Sparge Temp @ 175 with 4 gallons. Took about 40 min.
*Boil Time 1 hour.

Hop Additions:
-2oz Columbus @ 60 min
-1oz Centenial @ 30 min
-1oz Simcoe @ 20 min
-1oz Centenial @ 0 min.
.5 Lb. Brown Sugar and .5 Terbinato (sp) Sugar @ 10 min.
1oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centenial - Dry Hop.

Okay so the boil went fine. Good flame. After the boil was over I put it in the ice bath. I change out the ice every 20 min. It takes about an hour to get the temp down to about 80 degrees.

I check my Original Gravity at this point with cooler wort (about 72 degrees)
OG= 1.085
I add 2 packs of London ESB (Because I am too lazy and green to make a yeast starter)
Add the Y Yeast food (.25 Tbsp)
Give it a good shake
Add my blow off tube
Store in my closet. I do not have controlled fermintation. My house stays at about 70-72 at all times.
Lots of yeast activity. Smells great. No issues with equipment.
After 1 week I transferred it to a Secondary and added my dry hops.
Before adding hops I took a Gravity Reading:
FG= 1.022
Yeah kinda high!

As of right now it is sitting in Secondary. I am planning a kegerator build and it will be my first beer to keg.

I hope this is good enough info to get some guidance from. I feel with the amount of grains I should be seeing much better numbers and much higher ABV. Right now I'm at about 8.25% ABV.

So where do I need to improve? Sparge? Mash? Help please!
Thanks!

Note: My first attempt had only 12 lbs of 2 row. All else pretty much the same. The beer itself turned out pretty good. Color is spot on. Hop flavor was lighter than I was shooting for but I left it the same because I only wanted to change one thing at a time. ABV @ 7.2 (Same FG @ 1.022)

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

1.085 down to 1.022 is 74% apparent attenuation. That is pretty much the max you will see with the 1968 yeast which is rated for 67-71%. You could try the WLP007(not sure the wyeast #). It is a very similar flavor profile, but will ferment drier.

As for the hop flavor, for an IIPA I would triple the amount of the hops that you list there. That would be closer to what an IIPA hop bill would be.

 

[HOPJONES79]

Thanks for the info. I only used the London ESB because I heard it was the closest thing to what they use at the brewery that is available to me. I will give it a shot on attempt #3. The issue I am having is the actual St. Arnold's is at 9.5% abv. What do I need to do to get to that level?

Also I appreciate the numbers breakdown. I am still learning what all they mean, but I get it!

Also with that much hops is there a way to sorta filter some of the junk out of it before I bottle/ keg. Did a different beer with close to that much hops and ended up with a weird texture in my beer that tasted like it had hops in the beer and it was very cloudy.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

The issue I am having is the actual St. Arnold's is at 9.5% abv. What do I need to do to get to that level?

Take a bottle, degas it, and measure the FG with your hydrometer. That will give you their FG and you can back figure their OG from there. I can help you with that.

Did a different beer with close to that much hops and ended up with a weird texture in my beer that tasted like it had hops in the beer and it was very cloudy.

yeah, very hoppy beers will be cloudy unless you take steps to clear them via fining or filtering. I am sure they are filtering as most commercial brewers do. Usually you want to bump up your recipe say from 5 gallons to 6 to account for the lost wort. That is why when you buy IIPA's they are so expensive. You lose a ton of wort to the hops. And that texture is the hop resin, which you want.

 

[daksin]

You underpitched by a fair amount, with two packages of yeast. 1968 also likes a lot of oxygen. Improving those factors of your process may also help your attenuation, even with 1968. Also, it looks like you pitched pretty warm and fermented even hotter: I'm sure you've heard that fermentation generates heat and will get as much as 10F warmer than your ambient. You need to work on chilling better and some simple fermentation control. You probably really freaked out your yeast with that heat (although that usually results in over-attenuation) and I think you'll like your results better. I just wrap mine in a thick wet towel and point a fan at it- that's good enough for my 72-725F apartment. Just keep the towel wet- no money required if you already have a $2 stick-on thermometer.