Page 1 of 2

Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:12 am
by Lisa J
Exile on North and 12 Years to Zion have become my go-to craft IPAs, and I would really like to achieve something similar at home. Has anyone had success in producing one of these? If so, any advice on malts, hops (type and quantities to start with), etc? Obviously lots of late hop additions. I could start experimenting, but if someone has a starting point for me, that would be awesome!

Cheers!!

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:22 pm
by Keith
Step one, order 22lbs of hops. Step 2, run the hops through a juicer.
Step 3, carbonate delicious hop juice.
Step 4, drink.

Nash that pretty much sum it up haha.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:31 pm
by MitchK
I've got a DOA type beer attempt in progress. If it turns out well I'll post some details but that one involves an interesting extra step most home breweries aren't set up for - holding the wort at 180 for 28 hours.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:33 pm
by Lisa J
Keith wrote:Step one, order 22lbs of hops. Step 2, run the hops through a juicer.
Step 3, carbonate delicious hop juice.
Step 4, drink.

Nash that pretty much sum it up haha.
LOL! So, skip the malt and mainline the hops - got it! Nah, the IV concept negates the flavour effect...

What you're really saying is that I should just spend more time/$$ at Unfiltered!! (Pretty sure Nash would be down with that...)

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:35 pm
by Lisa J
MitchK wrote:I've got a DOA type beer attempt in progress. If it turns out well I'll post some details but that one involves an interesting extra step most home breweries aren't set up for - holding the wort at 180 for 28 hours.
Mitch, are you doing that in your Grainfather, or do you have another apparatus for that? Looking at purchasing a Grainfather in the next couple of weeks.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 2:38 pm
by sleepyjamie
Don't forget to say "fuck" every 15 minutes during the brewing and drinking :spilly:

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:00 pm
by MitchK
Did it on the grainfather yeah. Just tucked it in a corner with the "graincoat" insulating jacket on it so the power consumption/heat generated wouldn't be too bad.

Next time I do it I'll peel the saran wrap on the lid off outside rather than in my kitchen afterwards. Holy DMS batman (I did this pre-boil obviously, you'd be cooking your hops bigtime if you did the melanoidin simmer after)... I almost wonder if I could do a full boil before the simmer to bitter and remove DMS and then do a small 15-30 minute boil after the simmer just for flavor/aroma hops.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:12 pm
by Keith
sleepyjamie wrote:Don't forget to say "fuck" every 15 seconds during the brewing and drinking :spilly:
Corrected

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:27 pm
by Lisa J
Mitch, what was your boil-off like after a 28 hour simmer? Did you lose a lot of wort?

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:00 pm
by MitchK
I covered it and saran wrapped the lid so basically zero.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:13 pm
by Jimmy
Lisa J wrote:Mitch, what was your boil-off like after a 28 hour simmer? Did you lose a lot of wort?
It you're going to attempt a simmer, you still want to boil it after that is complete.

Do the simmer, then proceed with the boil and hop additions.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:04 pm
by Lisa J
Thanks for the advice, guys. Bought my Grainfather tonight. I'm going to try a couple of SMaSHes first so that I can get a sense for the malt and hop flavours I like, and experiment with late hop additions, then I might give this a try. If you have any thoughts on grains and hops for this type of project, I'd love to hear those as well.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:09 pm
by Keith
Lisa J wrote:Thanks for the advice, guys. Bought my Grainfather tonight. I'm going to try a couple of SMaSHes first so that I can get a sense for the malt and hop flavours I like, and experiment with late hop additions, then I might give this a try. If you have any thoughts on grains and hops for this type of project, I'd love to hear those as well.
Depends on what you like in a beer. IMO a Good start would be cascade and 2 row.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:51 pm
by Lisa J
Starting out with a 2-Row & Citra, then a 2-Row & Cascade. Will adjust from there.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:27 pm
by MikeMorrison
I'd be curious how this turns out as well. I know DOA is 2-row and Citra. I'm planning to make a SMaSH with those 2 ingredients very soon. It's my favourite DIPA but, living in CB I don't get it as often as I'd like!

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:49 pm
by Lisa J
MikeMorrison wrote:living in CB I don't get it as often as I'd like!
Your liver and bank account will thank you for that! I've been paying all too frequent visits to Unfiltered...

I'm really looking forward to the 2-Row/Citra SMaSH. My Saturday project.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 4:02 pm
by weisseguy
Thread of the year.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 8:16 pm
by Lisa J
weisseguy wrote:Thread of the year.
Yes, but note the lack of reported successes! Still holding out hope for Mitch's effort.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 8:27 pm
by Jimmy
You're going to need a lot of hops to produce a DOA clone, likely more than you'd think. I hop my IPA with about 2lbs of hops in a 10 gallon batch and would definitely need to up the volume of hops to brew something similar to DOA. Late hops and dry hops use a boatload of hops.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 10:40 am
by dean2k
This thread reminds me that I REALLY need to make a pilgrimage to North Street. Would love to be able to simmer for 24 hours, but not viable for my set up at the moment. I'll stick to my mediocre homebrew and pay Nash (or Nash via Duckys) good money for good beer.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 11:57 pm
by Lisa J
MitchK wrote:I've got a DOA type beer attempt in progress. If it turns out well I'll post some details but that one involves an interesting extra step most home breweries aren't set up for - holding the wort at 180 for 28 hours.
How did this turn out for you, Mitch?

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 7:56 am
by MitchK
The simmer step worked great - really added malt flavor and I got a deep orange color.

I should've used more kettle hops though, it wasn't bitter enough (I think I did 0.5oz of citra at 60, 3 at 10, and 3 at flameout. If I did it again I'd up the 60 addition to a full ounce, and move all the remaining 6 oz of kettle hops to 15 mins - it got a 3 oz dryhop for aroma later anyway)

I might try the simmer again on a non-ipa recipe like a scotch ale or something.

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 11:42 am
by DocksideBrewing
I'm going to reopen this thread, as Unfiltered beers are the best in the city and some of the best I've tried. I've been trying to do some sort of a replica at home, but never have come anywhere near.

Is it really, for the most part, just the amount of hops that will need to be increased to get similar flavour and bitterness? I've found that my SMaSH recipes have turned out very bland. They've been bitter, but no citrus kick similar to what Unfiltered offers.

Any help here?

Also, not new to this site, just changed my name to my home brewery name, so I had to make a new account. Much love!

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 3:16 pm
by Woody
I keep dumping more and more hops into my IPA's and they are good but nothing like going into Unfiltered for a growler fill and you can smell the hops from the other side of the bar when they pour. So I've found Nash appears around here like Houdini especially if you talk out of your ass. :D So here I go. Kidding. I've heard rumors his DOA is mashed for 24 hours but then I've seen on here he does a simmer for 24 hours with a 2 row base???? It definitely darkens it. I think the man spent a life time dialing shit in from water chemistry to the balance he is looking for to make those beautiful hop creations. Unless he is brewing your beer I don't think you can truly clone it. But why not try. That's the fun part of this hobby. Send him an email and maybe he'd share an older recipe with you. He's helped me out a few times. I also heard Nash recently switched to Cryo Hops so that's gotta increase the yield on a batch. If you are looking to get in the ball park try brewing the Maine Brewing Mo APA Clone. I fell in love with a similar recipe and hop substitutions work so well. for a 12 g batch I end up with slightly less then 2 kegs with all the loss from hops. I found this recipe but it doesn't look like enough hops. for a 12 g batch I'd up flameout hops to 4 oz FF & 4 oz Simcoe and after a 20 min hop stand I'd and 4 more oz FF and 4 oz Simcoe theh chill. Go for one big ass dry hop 7-8 oz per carboy (and we are probably still not adding enough). Scale the batch up as you are going to loose wort with normal hops in these amounts.

This is for 5.5 g batch and 1.057 OG ish...
Grains:
4.54 kg (86.1%) Canadian 2-row
254 g (4.8%) Wheat malt
191 g (3.6%) Carapils
191 g (3.6%) Crystal 40 L
100 g (1.9%) Acid malt

Hops:
Magnum - 11 g (10.8% AA) @ 60 min
Falconer's Flight - 28 g (10% AA) @ 10 min
Simcoe - 28 g (12% AA) @ 10 min
FF, Simcoe - 42 g each @ flameout, 20-minute hop steep
FF, Simcoe - 42 g each when started chiller
FF, Simcoe - 35 g each dry-hop for 4 days
FF, Simcoe - 35 g each dry-hop for 3 more days

Misc.: 1/2 tab Irish moss @ 5 min

Yeast: US-05, 1 package, re-hydrated

Re: Anyone Successfully Cloning Unfiltered?

Posted: Mon May 07, 2018 1:17 pm
by DocksideBrewing
Alright thanks for the advice. I definitely know that I won't be replicating those recipes anytime soon, given that I still used some DME because I don't have the equipment to do a complete all grain recipe. Might attempt to do a half batch all grain sometime to test out the difference.

I do think that water chem will play a significant role in flavours, all I add to water at this point is some gypsum. I'm going to try to add more hops than normal and see how that works out too. Try to get this "hop bomb" effect.

Thanks again.