Cloning New England Brewing Company's Gandhi-bot

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Oh and the color ? NAILED IT !!! Thanks again Brian for the real thing for the side by side. Saving another for when it's carbed up. I used 1 lb 2 oz of crystal

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LoloMT7 said:
Oh and the color ? NAILED IT !!! Thanks again Brian for the real thing for the side by side. Saving another for when it's carbed up. I used 1 lb 2 oz of crystal
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Remmys always got some gandhi on hand :mug: I will have to try this recipe sometime this spring, hopefully someone will have it nailed down by then. Congrats on the great DIPA Clint!
 
finsfan said:
Remmys always got some gandhi on hand :mug: I will have to try this recipe sometime this spring, hopefully someone will have it nailed down by then. Congrats on the great DIPA Clint!
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Thanks.. already have a great idea of what to change to nail it next time :mug:
 
One thing is for sure. If you follow this recipe or slightly alter it, you will still end up with a fantastic beer.
 
Doing a head to head with the two Gandhi-bot clones I've made so far. I like 1.0 the best between the two, though 2.0 is still very good. Neither are Gandhi, though I believe I hit the nail on the head with color on 2.0. At this point, I think it may just be a matter of finding the right yeast, because they are both close, but not close enough for me. Also, and call me crazy, but I might dial down on the late hops to see what happens next time.


20131216_202600 by aaron.j.lott, on Flickr
 
Stupid cold. I've been sick with a head and chest cold since Saturday. I want to pull a sample of this. It's in the fermenter since the 8th, and (even with a cold) it smells amazing.
 
Based on the latest results from Gandhi-bot 2.0, I'm beginning to think I was going in the wrong direction with the hops. For the next brew, sometime around New Year's, I'll be keeping the grain bill essentially the same, except I'm adding an extra pound of base malt but the hop schedule is going to undergo a major overhaul. First, I think the ratio of Columbus to Simcoe is not right, so instead of 1:1, I'll be shifting to a ratio of 2(Columbus):1(Simcoe) and I'll be dialing way back on the amount of hops. It's going to be 8.5 oz of hops with no steep and 3 oz of dry hops. I don't know why, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that the FG of real GB is a bit higher than I originally thought, so I will be mashing at 152 F instead of 148 F. I welcome any comments on this. Cheers!
 
nukebrewer said:
I don't know why, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that the FG of real GB is a bit higher than I originally thought, so I will be mashing at 152 F instead of 148 F. I welcome any comments on this. Cheers!
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How was the mouthfeel on your clone? Was it too thin, is that why you are changing up the mash? My feeling is that 148-152 is a big jump, maybe try 150? That's where I like to mash my IPAs for the best balance between being dry, but not too thin.
 
wobrien said:
How was the mouthfeel on your clone? Was it too thin, is that why you are changing up the mash? My feeling is that 148-152 is a big jump, maybe try 150? That's where I like to mash my IPAs for the best balance between being dry, but not too thin.
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I have had good luck mashing at 150 for IPAs as well.
 
wobrien said:
How was the mouthfeel on your clone? Was it too thin, is that why you are changing up the mash? My feeling is that 148-152 is a big jump, maybe try 150? That's where I like to mash my IPAs for the best balance between being dry, but not too thin.
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It wasn't watery or anything, but I just felt like there should have been more to it based on what I remember of Gandhi-bot. I'll do a little more research on the mash temp and see what I think, but thanks for your input. :mug:
 
All right. So I am currently doing a side by side with 2.0 and the real thing. First thing you'll note, obviously, is the clone recipe remains a smidge darker than the real deal. I'll have to back off further on the crystal 40 for the next one. One thing I didn't notice until just now is that Gandhi-bot is carbonated a lot more than I typically carbonate my beers and I think that may be a key factor in getting the bright hop character I'm trying to match. I'll probably carbonate to 2.5 volumes next time instead of the 2.0-2.2 I've been doing. I also think my previous comment about the hop bill is probably right. The hop character in 2.0 seems oversaturated to the point of being muddled, so next brew I will be employing a reduced hop bill with modified schedule to try out the "less is more" concept I just read about in For The Love Of Hops. Right now I am thinking either the steep or the dry hops need to go, but I am not sure which one. Thoughts?


20131227_194000 by aaron.j.lott, on Flickr
 
I wouldn't ditch either the dry hop or hop steep. If anything I would get rid of later hop additions, similar to the heady clone where hope are added at only 90 min, 5 min, 0 , and dry


Gandhi has such great aroma I would image it has to have both steep and dry
 
It's also probably one hop added at 0 min and dry hop. My guess is Simcoe only rather than a combination of Simcoe and Columbus.
 
mewithstewpid said:
I wouldn't ditch either the dry hop or hop steep. If anything I would get rid of later hop additions, similar to the heady clone where hope are added at only 90 min, 5 min, 0 , and dry


Gandhi has such great aroma I would image it has to have both steep and dry
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That's a good point. I hadn't considered that. Maybe I'll give that a try before I try taking one or the other out.

Remmy said:
It's also probably one hop added at 0 min and dry hop. My guess is Simcoe only rather than a combination of Simcoe and Columbus.
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What makes you say that?
 
The fact that the aroma is Gandhi is very citrusy makes me think more Simcoe are used toward the end of the boil and at dry-hop as opposed to Columbus, which doesn't smell as citrusy to me.

In my clone attempt, I used 1 oz. Columbus to bitter and 13 oz. of hops (Columbus & Simcoe) for flavor/aroma/steep and dry-hop. 7 of the remaining 13 oz. were Simcoe. Maybe that had something to do with my beer tasting more peach/apricot-like than you guys' clones.
 
Well, that and you used Conan, haha.

You could be right on that, but I don't have a good enough nose to make a credible guess as to which one is used more. My personal thought is that Columbus is used more, but that's just from smelling the beer and the raw hops by themselves, so it's not a very accurate measure by any means. My next try (aside from the bittering hops) is going to use a 2:1 ratio of Columbus to Simcoe and we'll see where that gets me. I have enough Columbus and Simcoe to brew this at least twice more before needing to order more, so if more Columbus doesn't work I will try using Simcoe more on the next one.
 
I think you guys are on the right track and it is not an even mix on the hops. I'm going to do more Simcoe than Columbus for the late and dry additions when I brew it again. I'll have to order more hops so it will be awhile. I need to get a few trades sent out right away and then I'll bottle up some of my clone like attempt I am calling Apollo-bot and I'll send you and Remmy some Nuke. It's not a clone but it is an awesome beer :mug:
 
Mine has only been carbing up in the keg for two days (I 'set and forget' at serving pressure), and I pulled a sample last night. Aroma was very close to GB. Flavor profile was certainly more citrus-focused, likely due to using Conan as we had discussed.

That said, it is delicious! I'm really looking forward to having this fully carbed up when these aromas start to pop.

Thanks again for the recipe. My two cents: based upon what I've heard from NEBCo, I think that this should be done with pilsner malt as that is their base malt of choice for all of their beers. Also, I think that they use WLP007 in this. I could be wrong, but I believe that they used to use WLP001 in their beer, then switched over about 3-4 years ago. Again, I could be totally off on the yeast issue.
 
Tasted my 1 week hydro sample last night and its delicious. Still actively fermenting so there was a lot of yeast. Hopefully I'll be adding the dry hops by Sunday if it's done by then.
 
It's dangerous having this on tap. Went to the gym last night after a light supper. Came home and had two snifters of this.

Good morning, headache! Oops.
 
JohnnyO said:
It's dangerous having this on tap. Went to the gym last night after a light supper. Came home and had two snifters of this.

Good morning, headache! Oops.
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You should try killing a six pack of it, plus some other high ABV brews, in one night. I'll never do that when I have to work the next morning again.
 
JohnnyO said:
It's dangerous having this on tap. Went to the gym last night after a light supper. Came home and had two snifters of this.

Good morning, headache! Oops.
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And I thought I had a problem smashing Gandhi growlers in just a few hours. :D
 
Just took a gravity sample on day 10 to see if its ready for dry hops. Delicious. Very fruity! Peach, grapefruit, apricot. I assume this is from the us05 started in the 50s. It's ready! Can't wait.
 
m3n00b said:
Just took a gravity sample on day 10 to see if its ready for dry hops. Delicious. Very fruity! Peach, grapefruit, apricot. I assume this is from the us05 started in the 50s. It's ready! Can't wait.
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Good stuff, brotha. Let us know how it turns out.
 
I have been creeping on this thread, and will be attempting this soon.. Just need to order some more Columbus. Great job with the recipe guys!
 
Damn this stuff is so good. My best DIPA yet. Very fruity. Grapefruit, peach, mango, pineapple. Starting to carb up.

First time I used bottled water
 
Had this a while back. Was visiting family off cape, and on a run to the local liquor store, I passed a shelf of mixed craft brews, and lo and behold there were two cans of Gandhi-bot on the shelf, so I grabbed them. Pretty much impossible to find those where I live. Believe me, I savored every drop. Been debating on tracking more down, or just going for a clone. Probably going to clone it, then find more. :D
 
I know I said I would be brewing this again around new years, but I decided to do some other brews first. I am going to brew this again soon, though, but with more changes. It feels like I am changing the recipe every day to incorporate some new found knowledge or tip, haha. I'm going to switch to using pilsner malt for starters and I'm also going to adjust my water to have a higher sulfate content as my research is showing that higher sulfate water is beneficial for hoppy beer, to get that hop pop that I am looking for. Haven't decided if I am going to stick with the same yeast or try something else. I'll probably use the same yeast just to avoid changing too much at once.
 

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