Hill Farmstead Susan Clone

[drewmarkwith]

Recipe Type: All Grain (BIAB)
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.7 %
Efficiency: 50%
IBU: 53.6
SRM: 5.5
Yeast: WY1318


Grain Bill

13 lb 2 row - 90.5%
8 oz Carapils - 3.5%
6.7 oz C 40 - 3%
6.7 oz acid malt - 3%

Boil Hops

0.5 oz Apollo (19AA) @ 60 min
1.5 oz Simcoe (11.3AA) @10 min
1 oz Riwaka (5.8 AA) @ 10 min
2 oz Citra (14AA) @ 0 min
1 oz Citra (14AA) @ 170 deg WP
0.5 oz Citra (CryoHops) @ 170 deg WP
1 oz Simcoe (11.3AA) @ 170 deg WP
0.5 oz Simcoe (Cryo) @ 170 deg WP
1 oz Riwaka (5.8AA) @ 170 deg WP

Dry Hops

2 oz Citra (14AA) & 0.5 oz Citra Cryo x 5 days in primary, starting day 5
2 oz Simcoe (11.3AA) & 0.5 oz Simcoe Cryo x 5 days in primary, starting day 5
1 oz Riwaka x 2 days, starting day 8

1.5 oz Citra (14AA) & 1.5 oz Simcoe (11.3AA) & 0.5 oz Riwaka (5.8AA) added to
CO2 purged Keg in muslin bags

Water

Poland Springs plus 150 ppm Sulfate, 100 ppm Chloride
Mash at 154 for 60 min
Boil for 60 min

Fermented with WY1318 at 66 x 3 day then 70-72 for 7 days

First Closed transfer from primary to Keg

Susan is one of my favorite beers, and I have been lucky to have easy access for past 5 years
at Armsby Abbey in Worcester, MA, and The Jeffrey or Pony Bar in NYC. Currently at day 4 into carbonation in my new kegerator and just pulled first sample. Aroma is spot on so far. Taste is close but this is way to early to judge. My beers dont hit peak flavor until 2 weeks in the keg. Appearance is almost murky now; too much of the dry hop made it into the keg during my transfer so I will likely do another transfer to a serving keg in another week. Will post pictures and final taste impression in about 2 weeks. I have another 7 ounces of riwaka so I will get 2 more attempts at this.

Would like to hear opinions on what people would change based on their experiences with other HF pale ales and IPA's.

 

[Scott Hanwell]

Looks like a great plan. Was adding the Apollo hops your own personal twist? I am so jealous... you are sooo close. I LOVE Susan. Would like to brew a batch myself but have yet to find a source for the Riwaka hops. Can you help? Good luck finishing her up! Thanks!

 

[drewmarkwith]

Looks like a great plan. Was adding the Apollo hops your own personal twist? I am so jealous... you are sooo close. I LOVE Susan. Would like to brew a batch myself but have yet to find a source for the Riwaka hops. Can you help? Good luck finishing her up! Thanks!

Thanks! I'm a big fan of Apollo, including as a bittering hop so just personal preference. My priority with this recipe was to come as close as possible to the appearance/aroma/taste as Susan, even if some of my ingredients arent a perfect match. From what I've read I think he uses columbus hopshots for bittering.

I have ordered my Riwaka from brewshop.co.nz both times. They have it available on their website right now, basically $10 NZ ($7 US) for each 100gm bag. The shipping process is a bit of a pain. You will have to email the guys (very helpful and nice) under the Contact tab of the website and ask them to ship to you in the states. You will have to provide a money order or credit card: I didn't want to give my cc number over email so actually called them on my cell and gave it over phone. Two weeks later it arrived in vacuum sealed foil mylar bags. Not a very cost efficient process but luckily a little bit of riwaka goes a long way. One ounce of it in dry hop will stand up to an ounce of citra, and can easily overtake the flavor profile.

 

[Scott Hanwell]

I have reached out to our friends in New Zealand. Hope to hear back soon.

My buddies and I are new brewing and are brewing into 22oz bombers right now and are doing 10 gallon batches. We hope to nail and repeat a couple recipes consistently before taking the next investment step to kegging.

Anxious to hear how your Susan comes out. Keep us posted.

 

[drewmarkwith]

This beer turned out amazing, and I will credit the oxygen free transfer as the main reason. I also used a 10 inch 300 micron dry hop tube over the dip tube (had to drill hole in top of it) and that allowed me to dry hop with pellets a second time in the keg at day 10 of carbonation, without putting in bag. That second round was 1 oz each of citra and simcoe. It changed the flavor profile slightly, but was still great.

Final impressions are limited by lack of side by side comparison but I've had the beer over 50 times so have good sense of what it is supposed to taste like. Appearance- very close but not quite dark orange enough. Aroma- spot on. Taste was 95% there, needed a touch more malt. Mouthfeel was good but too thin compared to the real thing.

For my next batch I will increase the crystal to maybe 3.5%, to hit SRM of 6 instead of 5.5. Carapils seemed to do nothing, so I might go with 5% white wheat instead for some body and softer mouthfeel. Hop schedule wont change, except I will add touch of Riwaka to the second round of keg dry hops, maybe only .25 oz.

Below are the final pictures.

 

[beervoid]

How did you come up with the hopbill is it known which hops are inside?

 

[drewmarkwith]

On the HF website it lists the hops in Susan as Citra, Simcoe, and Riwaka. Not sure what he uses for a bittering addition, whether warrior, hopshots or CTZ.

My decision to use Apollo was based on personal preference only. The key to this beer is using only small doses of Riwaka especially in the dry hop

 

[beervoid]

On the HF website it lists the hops in Susan as Citra, Simcoe, and Riwaka. Not sure what he uses for a bittering addition, whether warrior, hopshots or CTZ.

My decision to use Apollo was based on personal preference only. The key to this beer is using only small doses of Riwaka especially in the dry hop

Thanks, I wondered cause I couldn't find it on their website.
http://hillfarmstead.com/ancestral-series/susan.html