Monday, September 3, 2012

Batch #3 - Little Sumpin Sumpin Clone

On Saturday 9/2/12 we brewed our 3rd batch.  A clone of Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin.  A beer I've only recently tried, but really enjoyed.  It is an American Wheat Ale with a bit of hops.  While shopping recently at Brew and Grow I mentioned to one of the guys who work there who brew that I wanted to do this recipe, and he turned me onto the Jamil Show on the Brewers Network where this was podcasted:

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/705

This episode is an interview with the brewers at Lagunitas where they share their recipe for Little Sumpin Sumpin.  We needed to reduce the recipe to our size brew, and I figured someone online already did this, so I found the following which matched my quick calculations (found here):


3.68kg US 2-row 50%
2.77kg wheat malt 37.6%
90g home toasted wheat malt 1.2%
830g torrified wheat 11.2%

Boil for 90min

11g Nugget 9%AA at 90min
2g Horizon 12%AA at 90min
2g Summit 17.5%AA at 90min
8g Willamete 5.2%AA at 45min
27g Santiam 5.6%AA at 15min
9g Willamete at 15min

24g Cascade dry hop
24g Centennial dry hop
24g Simcoe dry hop
24g Chinook dry hop
18g Amarillo dry hop
15g Columbus dry hop

WLP002

Mash at 150F

Pitch at 62F, raise to 68 after 36', then raise to 70F after another 36'.


We actually had to do some small variations on this recipe as our hops were not at the same Alpha levels, but using a simple online calculator we could convert to the proper amounts for our needs.  After plugging this into our beer recipe tool it showed that it would be lower in IBU's than the original, but I was ok with that as I wanted more of a hint of hops.  We'll see how this turns out and will increase next time if needed.

Our brew day went ok except for our mash phase.  For some reason we were not getting good flow through our HERMS system between the MLT and HLT, and temps were slow to adjust.  We think the liquids were just struggling too much getting through the grain bed.  This might have been the case because this recipe calls for lots of wheat instead of our usual grans.  What this taught us is going forward I am going to bring up the strike water about 4 degrees above our mash temp before mashing.  This way we start mashing at temp once grains are introduced and we don't have to mess with bringing up the temp, rather just maintaining it.

The rest of the brew day was usual hanging around, drinking home brews, and lots and lots of cleaning!  We did get to transfer our Batch 1 (Dogfish Head 60 Min IPA Clone) to secondary and start dry hopping.  We got to taste it, and wow there is a big difference.  We really have taken our beers up a significant notch here!  We can't wait to try this now.

I did make a mistake in dry hopping the IPA though, I forgot to split the hops between the two carboys, instead I dumps x2 the hops into the first carboy.  So that one will be our Double IPA!  Fortunately I had enough hops on hand in my inventory to do the second carboy properly.  We will be kegging it next weekend.

We also added a new piece of equipment to our gear.  We picked up a reach in freezer which we have controlled by a Johnson Control Thermostat Controller.  We are using this to ferment our beers so we can control temps to within 1 degree.  I have read a lot about how fermentation temperature control is simply crucial, otherwise you are often taking a shot in the dark.  Yeast simply tastes differently at different temps, and no two yeasts are the same.  For example the Little Sumpin Sumpin clone calls for 36 hours as 65 Degrees, 36 hours at 68 degrees, then complete out at 70 degrees.  Try to do that in your basement without temp control!

Here is our upcoming schedule of beer related work:

  • Bottle Case of British Brown Ale on tap for our friends in Indy who helped us brew it
  • 9/8
    • Keg Batch 1
    • Transfer Batch 2 into secondary and dry hop
    • Take a look at Batch 3 to see progress
  • 9/15
    • Batch 1 should be ready to drink!
    • Keg Batch 2
    • Transfer Batch 3 into secondary and dry hop
    • Brew Weekend!  Time to brew Batch 4
  • 9/22
    • Batch 2 should be ready to drink!
    • Keg Batch 3 (will probably need to bottle remaining Batch 1 prior to free up the needed 2 kegs)

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