Heady Topper- Can you clone it?

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Here is what I finally went with:

Boil Size: 12.68 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: *My Kegs
End of Boil Volume 11.18 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 10.00 gal
Est Mash Efficiency 76.8 %

Ingredients:

5.40 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins)
2.70 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 0.0 mins)
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)
23 lbs Pale Malt, Optic (Thomas Fawcett) (3.0 SRM)
3 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1 lbs Carared (Weyermann) (24.0 SRM)
0.68 oz HopShot [61.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min
3.00 oz Simcoe [13.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 min
1.50 oz Citra [14.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 min
1.50 oz Mosaic (HBC 369) [12.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 min
1.00 oz Chinook [14.30 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 min
1.00 oz Summit [16.70 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 min
1.0 pkg Vermont IPA (GigaYeast #GY054)
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM)
3.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
1.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
1.00 oz Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [15.50 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days
1.00 oz Comet [9.50 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days


Beer Profile:

Est Original Gravity: 1.075 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.072 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.4 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 8.2 %
Bitterness: 130.1 IBUs Calories: 242.2 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 6.8 SRM

Mash Profile:

Mash Name: *Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 28 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 6.49 gal Grain Temperature: 59.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 170.0 F Tun Temperature: 65.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.30
Mash In Add 41.25 qt of water at 161.7 F. Mash temp settled at 148 F for 75 min.

Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, 6.49gal) of 170.0 F water

Carbonation and Storage:

Carbonation Type: Keg Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage Storage Temperature: 65.0 F

Notes:

Steep/Whirlpool hops added at flame-out. Covered beer and let steep for 40 min.

Will be doing the first 4 day dry hop with half of the dry hops, on Tuesday.
 
Braufessor said:
I have had a couple batches come out not great..... biggest thing in those batches is that the yeast pooped out on me at 1.016-1.018 range...... Once I got a better routine down for this yeast, I have had good success since then with it getting to 1.010-12.

But, those sweet batches were not good.
Click to expand...

i got completely crucified here when i said a batch finishing at 1.020 would be a drain pour for me....
 
It depends on what you are shooting for. My DFH 90 minute finished right around 1.018-1.020. I like the malts in that beer so it's a good thing. I think they would conflict with this beer, but I wouldn't dump it, I'd do some sort of blend first with a super ferment able wort. Now 1.030+ is a drain pour as I've never managed to fix one like that :(

I do remember you getting rocked a while back. Happy to see you are still here.
 
aslander said:
Really? Bad overall? Or just bad as in not close to the real thing? I feel like it would be hard for anything close to this to come out bad. I changed around some of the hops and quantity and it still came out fantastic.
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It was bad overall. I used safeale5, but think it got too oxygenated. I've only had 2 HT, both in a beer swap and I tossed them. Think they were ultra-old. Nothing what people say about the flavor. So, no, i have no idea what HT taste like, but it couldn't be what I made. I'm not set up for liquid yeast either so may not attempt again until I am setup.
 
What do you mean you're not set up for liquid yeast? It would be easy to pitch one pack of GY054 for a 5g batch and call it a day (4g potentially for viability in the longhand).
 
PianoMan said:
I've only had 2 HT, both in a beer swap and I tossed them. Think they were ultra-old. Nothing what people say about the flavor. So, no, i have no idea what HT taste like.
Click to expand...

Not saying that what you made was on target, but I'm thinking maybe HT just isn't your taste. John Kimmich says HT gets even better after 10 weeks and I agree 100% as the best beer I ever had was a HT I had sitting in the fridge for 5 months.
 
ianmatth said:
Not saying that what you made was on target, but I'm thinking maybe HT just isn't your taste. John Kimmich says HT gets even better after 10 weeks and I agree 100% as the best beer I ever had was a HT I had sitting in the fridge for 5 months.
Click to expand...


No way. I've had a sixer over several weeks. Would love to see the 10 week source. Maybe from brew day? Never heard this. 5 months is crazy in terms of the fading. Remember, we don't have their equipment and techniques.
 
ianmatth said:
Not saying that what you made was on target, but I'm thinking maybe HT just isn't your taste. John Kimmich says HT gets even better after 10 weeks and I agree 100% as the best beer I ever had was a HT I had sitting in the fridge for 5 months.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure he said 10 Days not 10 weeks...
 
ianmatth said:
Not saying that what you made was on target, but I'm thinking maybe HT just isn't your taste. John Kimmich says HT gets even better after 10 weeks and I agree 100% as the best beer I ever had was a HT I had sitting in the fridge for 5 months.
Click to expand...

Are you trolling here? I agree with others this is crazy. I had a HT case 1 can every few weeks for almost 6 months and it has gone steadily downhill. Also note in the can "best when it is young, fresh and hazy"
 
Calichusetts said:
No way. I've had a sixer over several weeks. Would love to see the 10 week source. Maybe from brew day? Never heard this. 5 months is crazy in terms of the fading. Remember, we don't have their equipment and techniques.
Click to expand...


I remember this video from the early days of this thread. Start watching at 4:20.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=amgfgU5-lhs[/ame]
 
Crazy...I would still say that since we don't have the techniques and equipment available any homebrew version will age much faster. Guess I prefer it more aggressive than John does. I really didn't think it was anything special once the hop really fade, at least I would not put it above the other top notch hoppy beers.
 
are people happy with the yeast profile on the beer or do they think its lacking, i was wondering what a profile like whats used on fullers London pride (heard on CAN YOU BREW IT) would do to this beer obviously they're both English strains so maybe this could be a way to really exude those fruity esters??
 
I got lucky friends from the local vfw saved two can just to do a side by side with my clone deffinitly a unicorn for being down here in PA
 
1fast636 said:
I got lucky friends from the local vfw saved two can just to do a side by side with my clone deffinitly a unicorn for being down here in PA
Click to expand...

I assume you used the recipe on page 1? If so, did you use TF CaraMalt? I ask because Simpons CaraMalt is around 40L and could be a reason why your clone is so dark. TF CaraMalt is around 10L.
 
robopp said:
I assume you used the recipe on page 1? If so, did you use TF CaraMalt? I ask because Simpons CaraMalt is around 40L and could be a reason why your clone is so dark. TF CaraMalt is around 10L.
Click to expand...

Brewing this tomorrow for the 4th or 5th time. My LHBS only has Simpsons Caramalt, but they also have Caramalt Light, so I go with that. Also dry hopping with 10 oz. Turned out amazing last time. Other than that, it's pretty much recipe on page 1.
 
The recipe on page 1 is over 2 years old and not a clone for Heady Topper. Page 1 is fairly accurate, but recent tweaks from veteran brewers have honed in on a more precise and sensical recipe. Read the past 20 pages or so for an idea of how the page 1 recipe should be tweaked for better accuracy.
 
EyePeeA said:
The recipe on page 1 is over 2 years old and not a clone for Heady Topper. Page 1 is fairly accurate, but recent tweaks from veteran brewers have honed in on a more precise and sensical recipe. Read the past 20 pages or so for an idea of how the page 1 recipe should be tweaked for better accuracy.
Click to expand...


Why doest someone take the tweaks and update the recipe?
 
trimixdiver1 said:
Why doest someone take the tweaks and update the recipe?
Click to expand...

It was. The thread owner, theveganbrewer and user bobbrews basically did most of the work for the clone. However, updating the main page is a no go. The thread owner has retired from homebrewing. Bobbrews latest attempt is the closest to Heady. I can attest to this having brewed per his latest instructions. It's much closer to heady than the recipe on the 1st page.
 
I opened our first attempt last night, it still has some carbing to go. Holy crap, best brew we've made to date.

We ended up at a FG of 18. We transferred from primary to secondary after just 4 days and it's what we attribute the lower FG to. The smell is insane (good), the finish is crisp but potent, the Pearl is the star, though.

We have not had the real thing, my bro is coming in from Portland, ME (Coast Guard) on Memorial Day and is trying to make a run to VT to get some to bring home. Hopefully we'll be able to compare in a couple weeks.

If you look back a few pages, you'll find the detailed steps we took in the brew process. We used Bob's baseline and upped the HopShot addition to 17mL. The bitterness before the dry hopping was pronounced to say the least, but the dry hop made it happen!
 
EyePeeA said:
The recipe on page 1 is over 2 years old and not a clone for Heady Topper. Page 1 is fairly accurate, but recent tweaks from veteran brewers have honed in on a more precise and sensical recipe. Read the past 20 pages or so for an idea of how the page 1 recipe should be tweaked for better accuracy.
Click to expand...

Not sure if this is aimed at me since I just posted I use the page 1 recipe with a doubled dry hop (and a 50/50 mix of two row and golden promise for base malt), but I'm just brewing a beer that ended up phenomenal for me. Not trying to clone Heady in this case.
 
can somebody link or repost the current 'best' recipe? There are a lot of pages in this thread...
 
Not everyone has the same posts per page view settings, so giving page numbers is meaningless for everyone that doesn't have the same settings as you.

If you look in the upper right corner of each post there is a link for that specific post. Then in the page for the isolated post in the upper right hand corner there is another link you can use that will take you to the post within the thread.

I think it's this one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6791071
 
PianoMan said:
It was bad overall. I used safeale5, but think it got too oxygenated. I've only had 2 HT, both in a beer swap and I tossed them. Think they were ultra-old. Nothing what people say about the flavor. So, no, i have no idea what HT taste like, but it couldn't be what I made. I'm not set up for liquid yeast either so may not attempt again until I am setup.
Click to expand...


I accidentally aged a HT for 18 months. Inverted to resuspend the yeast the day before drinking. It was still better than most of the IIPAs I've had (and I've had a lot). It definitely wasn't the same though and it left me wanting more fresh HT. get a fresh can and check the date stamp on the can (you can ask for this when arranging the trade too).

There was still a lot of simcoe-like hop notes hanginn around as well as the infamous "onion" hoppiness. I ended up drinking half the can and making a maple beer syrup for ice cream with the other half. Crazy thing is after 20-30 minutes of reducing the beer for the sauce it still had hop aromatics and a ton of flavor.
 
I will be trying bobbrews version in the next week or so. I did something "in the ballpark" yesterday - using some of the hop combo of Bobs recipe. It was an experiment based on this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=517721

Used a pale ale recipe I had been using and put in some additional flaked grains:
.25 flaked wheat
.25 flaked oats
.5 flaked barley.

Mashed @154-155

Sulfate 180/ Chloride 75 (lowered sulfate and upped chloride from my normal pale ales (250+sulfate and 30-40 chloride).

Denny's Yeast (wanted hazy and full mouthfeel)

Then used this hop schedule:
60 - 1 ounce warrior
15 - .33 each of Citra/Centennial/Simcoe
5 - 1 ounce each of Citra/Centennial/Simcoe
Hopstand -
2 ounce citra
2 ounce Simcoe
.75 Comet
.75 Centennial
.5 Apollo
** May or may not dry hop.... will taste around day 10-12 and decide at that point. If I do, I will likely use a smaller version of the hopstand additions (2-3 ounces total).

Not trying to make a heady clone with this.... was just trying to make a beer that is sort of a vermont "style" hoppy beer, in the 1.055 range, that is full, fruity, hazy, etc. (liked the other thread was discussing). Also figured I would get a feel for a hop combo that bobbrews suggested. I will make the exact recipe next week sometime.
 
brewski09 said:
Bobbrews - where did you get the comet hops? Or anyone else that's sourced them?
Click to expand...

I got mine through Norcal..... 1lb nitrogen flushed bags of pellets. they are not the easiest hop to find.

I did throw an ounce and a half in a recent pale ale (with Citra/Centennial/Cascade). I could see where it is a hop that could get away from you..... but it definitely added something to the beer, and the keg was empty 18 days after I brewed the beer - it was a great beer.
 

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