Cloning New England Brewing Company's Gandhi-bot

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nukebrewer

nukebrewer

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Gandhi-bot has been growing in popularity for a while now, on this board at least, and since I've been wanting to attempt a clone of this beer for a while now I figured now would be a good time to start a thread dedicated to pooling our collective brewing skills to clone it. I developed a recipe based on some info I got from the brewer, so hopefully this turns out pretty close on the first try. The challenging part is that I didn't get any exact proportions for any of the ingredients, so I am pretty much choosing those blind. For those that have had GB or have any info I may not have, I am open to suggestions for modifications. Well, here's what my first attempt, which will be brewed on Saturday, is going to look like:


Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Volume: 7 gal
Efficiency: 80%
OG: 1.076
FG: 1.009
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: 133.2 (calculated, but as proven by last night's bottling sample, the actual bitterness is much lower)
Color: 7.7 SRM
Mash Temp: 149 F
Mash Time: 90 min

Fermentables:
13 lbs 2-row
1 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lb Corn Sugar (add @ 10 min)

Hops:
1 oz Columbus (13.1%) @ 60 min
1 oz Columbus (13.1%) @ 20 min
1 oz Simcoe (11.7%)@ 20 min
1 oz Columbus (13.1%) @ 10 min
1 oz Simcoe (11.7%)@ 10 min
2.25 oz Columbus (13.1%)@ 5 min
2.25 oz Simcoe (11.7%)@ 5 min
3.25 oz Columbus (13.1%) for 30 min aroma steep
3.25 oz Simcoe (11.7%) for 30 min aroma steep


Yeast:
WLP002 English Ale Yeast (1.5 L starter)

UPDATE 10/26/13: Updated reciped for actual brew day conditions. Higher efficiency and therefore less corn sugar required and fewer IBUs, but not by much. Also added an ounce of Columbus to dry hops just so I could say there was a full pound of hops used in this beer. First time I can claim that.

UPDATE 11/5/13: Edited recipe to reflect changes for next time based on a side by side I did tonight with the clone and a real Gandhi-bot.

UPDATE 12/6/13: Edited recipe to reflect the changes to the changes I made on 11/5/13 and what I actually did on brew day for 2.0
 
hey this is awesome!

On the website, it says three american hops. i know things change with availability, and you said you talked to the brewers, but just thought I would throw that out there.
 
Even if you don't clone Ghandi, that is going to be a delicious beer!! I've only had one Ghandi so I am far from an expert but I think that will get you close. I think there probably is a 3rd hop in there but I couldn't put my finger on it. I really need to get some more Ghandi and then try and brew this too
 
BrewinHooligan said:
Even if you don't clone Ghandi, that is going to be a delicious beer!! I've only had one Ghandi so I am far from an expert but I think that will get you close. I think there probably is a 3rd hop in there but I couldn't put my finger on it. I really need to get some more Ghandi and then try and brew this too
Click to expand...

Trust me when I tell you, there is no third hop.

This is great, nuke. Thanks again. :D
 
Nice recipe. What's with the corn sugar addition though? Also, I'm pretty sure the guys use pilsner malt exclusively as a base malt.
 
I know brewers update recipes for various reasons, but from the NEBCO website:

"Gandhi-Bot is an intensely hopped double India Pale ale with a blend of three varieties of American Hops..."
 
Sounds like a delicious recipe to me. And if that is what is actually in it then,I gots to try that beer someday if I can get my hands on it. Very similar with a certain few other of my favorate commercial beer recipes ive drank andbrewed. Love the two hop choices.
 
mewithstewpid said:
hey this is awesome!

On the website, it says three american hops. i know things change with availability, and you said you talked to the brewers, but just thought I would throw that out there.
Click to expand...

It does, indeed. I'm not going to going to say there's not a third hop, but whatever it is it's for bittering only because the brewer said to go heavy on late additions of Columbus and Simcoe.

Remmy said:
Nuke, I'm brewing Gandhi with Conan. I'd love to see how yours turns out.
Click to expand...

That will be very interesting. As close to Heady as GB already is, that very well could take it a step closer.

JohnnyO said:
Nice recipe. What's with the corn sugar addition though? Also, I'm pretty sure the guys use pilsner malt exclusively as a base malt.
Click to expand...

As was mentioned, dries it out like a champ. Brewer said 2-row or pilsner and 2-row is what I have 2 sacks of, so 2-row it is. :)

mewithstewpid said:
why do you say this? I would have guessed amarillo
Click to expand...

As I said above, if there's a third hop it's for bittering, so it doesn't make much of a difference what it is.
 
Which reminds me of,exactly. I was looking through a recipe today for a braggot,which adds if you want it hoppy double the hops,so for 2.5 gal it uses all cascades and alot for bittering which is why, I would just get a higher alpha hop to bitter in one oz rather than getting like 3 oz of 4-5% alpha cascades for bittering. Alghough I still think there is a difference in a type of bittering. I also believe 3 oz of hops to one oz will give it a different type of grassy flavor maybe. I dont beleive every hop "bitters" the same and that itdoesnt really matter though. If one doesnt believe: then brew a beer bittered with chinook with the same amount alpha bittered as in another beer with kent goldings and see if its the same.
 
nukebrewer said:
It does, indeed. I'm not going to going to say there's not a third hop, but whatever it is it's for bittering only because the brewer said to go heavy on late additions of Columbus and Simcoe.

As I said above, if there's a third hop it's for bittering, so it doesn't make much of a difference what it is.
Click to expand...

gotcha, this makes sense.
 
I've been thinking about brewing this DIPA for awhile now (Nuke gave me some pointers awhile back). I'm thinking I'll add in either Apollo or Cascade to the Simcoe/CTZ mix to get more dank citrus/grapefruit flavor & aroma maybe even the Dry Hop with some of it also. I've never used Apollo before but am reading some good things on it. I'm thinking I'll try something like this:

g-bot.jpg
 
Subscribing to this thread. Cant wait to see how the final product comes out! Looks like a killer recipe regardless of how close to 'Bot it actually is. I wouldnt mind a bit of Amarillo in there, but to keep it as close to the real thing.
 
Brew day was a huge success. Got 82% efficiency where I calculated for 75% so I had to reduce my corn sugar addition to half a pound instead of a full pound. Fortunately this is didn't really mess with the recipe all the much. Raised my OG by 2 points but also raised my expected FG by 2 points so the ABV is the same as calculated before. At a new expected FG of 1.011 I don't expect this will have a significant effect on the body and if it does it will be in a positive way. GB is dry but it isn't super dry. 1.011 should be just about right.
 
My recipe leaves me with an estimated OG of 1.086 and FG of 1.021 (right around 8.5% ABV).
 
Brewing with DME (8.5 lbs. + 1 lb. dex).

It's actually more like 1.089 taking into consideration the Crystal 40L.

brew.png
 
Oh, ok. Didn't realize that was an issue with brewing with extract. Still, I have trouble buying that it will actually finish that high. Have the numbers from your program from past brews been consistent with your actual brewing experience?
 
This is the first time I am using an OG calculator. The rest of the times, I haven't paid this much attention toward reaching a particular OG.

I will post to this thread when I take a gravity reading. I'll also list the details on what ingredients I am using and how much, as well as the hop schedule.
 
Conan starter is going nuts. I have everything ready to go and have started brewing.
 
Hey nuke, my OG was 1.078. Smells hoppy as ****. I can't wait to drink this stuff.

I pitched the Conan, which was absolutely hammering the DME in my starter. Hope the lid on my primary doesn't pop off.
 
Remmy said:
Hey nuke, my OG was 1.078. Smells hoppy as ****. I can't wait to drink this stuff.

I pitched the Conan, which was absolutely hammering the DME in my starter. Hope the lid on my primary doesn't pop off.
Click to expand...

Picture or it didn't happen! ;)
 
Remmy said:
Hey nuke, my OG was 1.078. Smells hoppy as ****. I can't wait to drink this stuff.

I pitched the Conan, which was absolutely hammering the DME in my starter. Hope the lid on my primary doesn't pop off.
Click to expand...

Nice! I was smelling my airlock the day after I brewed it and it smelled faintly of Gandhi-bot. Can't wait until next week when I get to open it up and get a good whiff while I add the dry hops. Not sure if I should do the dry hops in one addition or two yet.
 
Mine smells really damn good. The airlock is out of control.
 
Subscribed. I'm interested to see if this actually gets down to 1.009. I just did a somewhat similar brew and wasn't able to get it under 1.016 :/
 
The Conan is so violent, I had to change my airlock. The thing was full of krausen when I woke up this morning. It smells so damn good.
 
As seasoned a brewer as I am, on this one I just couldn't resist. I popped open the fermenter for a quick whiff today and got b!tch slapped with hop aroma. I'll probably be adding the dry hops on Wednesday or so.
 
JohnnyO said:
Get a blowoff tube on that thing!
Click to expand...

I did.

nukebrewer said:
As seasoned a brewer as I am, on this one I just couldn't resist. I popped open the fermenter for a quick whiff today and got b!tch slapped with hop aroma. I'll probably be adding the dry hops on Wednesday or so.
Click to expand...

Not going to do that just yet. Mine smelled insane, though. I'm going to give it 10 days more before I transfer to secondary and dry hop.
 

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