Beerzilla’s Hopsicle

With all this talk I hear about the limited release of Pliny the Elder in bottles and Sam Adams not being able to produce Mike McDole’s Longshot 6 pack winning beer(modeled after Pliny), I decided the only way to taste one of these brews was to make it myself.

These beers are intense with over a pound of hops for a 5 gallon batch. I’ve done a bunch of reading on the style and made some of my own modifications to the recipes. I changed some of the grain bill to fit my tastes and the hop bill was modified due to availability of hops in this shortage. Take extra special attention to sanitation and plan everything out. This will be a costly brew, you don’t want it to suck.

This is the recipe I designed and it is a whopper.

Fermentables

Mashed (single infusion at 151 degrees, batch sparge efficiency set at 75%)

- US 2-Row Malt         14lbs      80.6 %
- US Carapils Malt      8.00 oz    2.9 %
- US Flaked Oats        8.00 oz    2.9 %
- US White Wheat Malt   4.00 oz    1.4 %
- US Caramel 40L Malt   4.00 oz    1.4 %
- US Caramel 20L Malt   4.00 oz    1.4 %
- US Black Malt         2.00 oz    0.7 %

In The Boil (near the end)

- Corn Sugar/Dextrose   1lb 8oz    8.6 %

Hops

Variety           AA        Weight     IBU     When
US Chinook        10.5 %    1.00 oz    36.9    Mash Hopped
US Warrior        17.5 %    2.00 oz    111.9   90 Min
US Magnum         13.0 %    1.00 oz    45.7    90 Min
US Chinook        10.5 %    0.50 oz    18.5    90 Min
US Simcoe         13.0 %    1.00 oz    39.2    45 Min
US Columbus       12.6 %    0.50 oz    14.5    30 Min
US Chinook        10.5 %    0.50 oz    6.3     10 Min
US Simcoe         13.2 %    2.00 oz    0.0     At turn off
US Summit         18.1 %    1.00 oz    0.0     At turn off
US Palisade        7.4 %    1.00 oz    0.0     At turn off
Czech Saaz         5.8 %    0.50 oz    0.0     At turn off
US Simcoe         13.2 %    2.00 oz    0.0     Dry-Hopped
US Amarillo        5.0 %    2.00 oz    0.0     Dry-Hopped
US Summit         18.0 %    1.00 oz    0.0     Dry-Hopped
US Centennial      8.5 %    1.00 oz    0.0     Dry-Hopped
US Columbus       12.6 %    1.00 oz    0.0     Dry-Hopped
US Palisade        7.4 %    1.00 oz    0.0     Dry-Hopped

Yeast

WLP001 - California Ale

Comments

Used a mixture of whole hops and pellet hops. Didn’t use hop bags, but probably should have. The brew pot was tough to drain with all the hops. Hops suck up a lot of wort. I started with 8.5 gallons and ended up with 5.5 gallons.

Dry hopping begins at day 7 ( or when fermentation is around 90%). I broke the dry hops into 2 even groups. One group is for days 7-14. This will be in a hop bag. After day 14, remove hop bag 1 and insert hop bag 2 for another week. This is done at fermentation temperatures in a bright tank keg. After day 21, remove hop bag 2 and drop the temperature and wait a week or 2. Transfer out of bright tank into a serving keg and carbonate. In another week, you will have some of the best beer on earth if you are a hop head like me.