I’ve just kegged a Lagunitas IPA clone, as detailed on the 2009 Brewing Network/Jamil show, with the Lagunitas brewer himself. I subbed Magnum for the Horizon bittering and tweaked exact amounts for my efficiency, subbing C15 for 13L caramalt, but otherwise followed all directions pretty close, including temperatures, from mash to keg, yeast, dry hopping schedule (I used pellets) etc. I didn’t truly burtonise the water, more like 180ppm sulphate to 80 chloride, approximately.
I have a nice beer, but it is nothing like the Lagunitas IPA I buy in bottles today. Mine is much more English, with greater presence from the crystal and WLP002 (WY1968 equivalent; 1.2L active,shaken starter in 21L), and far less hop aroma.
Looking at the recipe, it’s hard for me to think this could ever have ended up close to the current offering. Anyone tried this recently, or can offer an insight into changes in the commercial brew, which I love?
My adapted recipe:
Grain Bill
4.565 kg Pale Malt (75.76%)
0.530 kg Caramalt (8.8%)
0.365 kg Wheat Malt (6.06%)
0.338 kg Munich II (5.61%)
0.228 kg Crystal 60 (3.78%)
Hop Bill
6.0 g Magnum Leaf (17.3% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.3 g/L)
5.0 g Summit Pellet (15.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 g/L)
12.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.2% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
20.0 g Willamette Pellet (4.8% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
23.0 g Cascade Pellet (8.3% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)
20.0 g Cascade Pellet (8.3% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (1 g/L)
20.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.2% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (1 g/L)
pH, Water chem, hop quality, pitch rate … etc all go into what they might be doing to what you have. I would guess water to be the #1. Next is maybe pitch rate or pH. I would also assume they have fresh-er hops than our pellets. Although, its a nice beer, I say sip, enjoy, and tweak a little on your next batch to get even closer to your target.
I don’t know if it has changed or not, but I know I like it more these days than I did back then. I liked their other offerings just fine, but always felt their IPA was meh and had a strange flavor to it.
Well Stevie’s response is interesting, though I’m sure the others are right about copying beers, thanks.
If I hadn’t sworn to myself that I was going to trust some recipes more this year, I’d have probably fermented the 002 cooler (around 63) for the first two days, like I have done with 007 and gained clean results. But I was sticking to what Jamil had done… or at least sticking to as much as I could.
So now I plan a hop bomb with just pale and plenty of 13L cara, west coast yeast and a massive dry hop, but will keep the Lagunitas high mash temp: I like the extra body. So much for sticking to recipes!
) can all play a part.