The fourth iteration of my clone of Grains of Wrath’s Built for Speed IPA. Below are links to all 4 recipes and the previous 3 side by side comparison posts.
- Built For Me V1 Recipe
- Built For Me V2 Recipe
- Built For Me V3 Recipe
- Built For Me V4 Recipe [Recipe for this post’s comparison]
- Built For Speed Clone Side By Side Comparison V1
- Built For Speed Clone Side By Side Comparison V2
- Built For Speed Clone Side By Side Comparison V3
For this batch, the head brewer/owner, Mike Hunsaker, reached out to me over email and graciously provided notes on the actual recipe. I adapted the recipe to work with my system and scaled it as needed. Some stand out differences from the actual recipe versus my previous attempts were:
- 90 minute boil with dextrose added.
- While predominantly pilsner, there is a small amount of Vienna malt (~15%).
- Way fewer hops in the boil and a much larger dry hop charge.
The current beer description from Grains of Wrath:
Light, dry bodied west coast IPA with flavors and aromas of bright tropical fruit, pine and loads of dank grapefruit. 6.7% ABV
Differences from V3
Since Mike Hunsaker provided me with notes on the recipe, I didn’t make incremental changes. Instead I scaled down the official recipe to work on my brewing system. Rather than list all the differences, I’ll point you to the recipe here.
Stats
This batch went perfectly. I nailed all of my numbers and the beer came out to exactly 6.7% ABV, which matches the commercial version.
Appearance
The clone version is extremely clear, but has a slight chill haze. The commercial version is crystal clear. They are identical in color. The head retention is slightly better on the commercial version. They both produce a white head with some lacing, but the homebrew version fades a little quicker.
Aroma
The aroma on these 2 beers seemed to be reversed. The homebrew version has more dank / diesel aromas with some mild citrus. The commercial version on the other hand is more citrus forward with the dank / diesel notes in the background. The commercial version is also noticablly brighter in aroma.
Taste/Mouthfeel
Both beers are light-medium in carbonation. I noticed the homebrew version is also a touch drier than the commercial version. The homebrew version’s taste is a mix of diesel and citrus with some mild pine. The commercial version’s taste is brighter, like the aroma, with citrus up front and background notes of pine and diesel. Both finish with a moderate bitterness.
Changes for next time
It was fun to scale down the recipe provided by Mike. He had some additional notes in there that I wasn’t able to try when I brewed this batch. So for next time I’d like to measure and adjust the pH now that I have the tools to do so.
I may also adjust how I do the dry hop. For this batch I split the dry hops. The first round went in near the end of fermentation for 2-3 days. Then the 2nd round went directly into the keg when I did a closed transfer from the unitank to the keg.
Next time I might try to do 2 rounds in the unitank, dropping the hops each time. Or I may just add them all at once in one single dose then drop them out when cold crashing.
Tags: American IPA