Arrogant Bastard Show

[twoskis brewskis]

Knowing Stone and Mitch, I don't think it is an all chinook beer, either. Which especially makes since when Jamil and Tasty blended in crystal malt extracts with Stone Iÿ
PA. Their reasoning is that it has the same hop flavor profile? Which I agree with, but when you look at http://www.stonebrew.com/ipa/ they list the hops for Stone IPA as columbus, chinook, and centennial. So, why did they not mention changing the hops in the rebrew show. Just a statement I found confusing. To me the chinooks are too dominant and conflicting, but when I did my version of the clone and subbed out half of the chinook for centennials, and dry hopped I thought it was much closer to the Arrogant Bastard in hop flavor and aroma when I did a side-by-side. I have yet to do the rebrew with only 10% Special B, so maybe that makes a difference. I doubt it. I believe my attempt was a percenatge of C-60L, Special B, and chocolate for color. Much closer to clone than my original attempt with all chinook. Just my opinion.

I did a side by side of the second version last night and would have to say the all chinook is very close to the hop profile of bottle I had. I would have to agree with some of you that it needs a bit more hops in the late boil and a touch more of a deep red color. I used an oak spiral in 5 gallons and that beer is super! Hoser you will have to tell me what you think on saturday at EBF as these are the CYBI beers I'm serving. (The oaked one is for the VIP session but if you throw out an "F JP" I might find some for ya)

[Hoser]

Look forwad to it..I think I can muster up an "F JP" Looking forward to trying someone else's CYBI brews. Sometimes just get house palate when you drink your own brews all the time and don't pick up on the subtle flavors and differences in flavors of your brews that you might in someone elses beer. Plus, I think it is hard for us brewers who are trying to clone a commericial example that is not readily available in our area due to distribution and then compare it to a fresh homebrew clone.

[beerpressure]

Did my rebrew last night. I was only able to get 12.2% and 11.4% Chinook so I increased the hop additions and used gypsum in the boil. Kept the same grain bill but this time i boiled more vigerously and my volume into fermenter was 5.5gallons @ 1.067

[Hoser]

I thought that the hop flavor itself was pretty close to the real thing, just not sharp enough, hence my thought to add some gypsum. However my palate when it comes to particular hop varieties is not quite as honed as I would like so I could be wrong.

Water is a whole other subject Mitch said Stone shoots for 100ppm hardness by blending Rincon, CA water with R/O water. I have been blending 65% R/O water with Lincoln, Muni tap water and blending back salts to get close to the Stone water profile. I don't have my spreadsheet with me at the moment. I will have to take a look at it, but it does make a dramatic difference in the perception of the hop flavors and aroma.

[brewinhard]

Is everybody adjusting for hop bitterness loss (AA%) over time in the hops you are using? Are you also adjusting for color with the Special B lovibond you are using as sometimes the sacks are different levels which would make your final product lighter or darker. These are two places I would start when rebrewing as well as looking at water to get that hop crispness in this beer.

[beerpressure]

Is everybody adjusting for hop bitterness loss (AA%) over time in the hops you are using? Are you also adjusting for color with the Special B lovibond you are using as sometimes the sacks are different levels which would make your final product lighter or darker. These are two places I would start when rebrewing as well as looking at water to get that hop crispness in this beer.

are the guys from the show adjusting for hop age? they're using pellets just like us.

[brewinhard]

Not sure if that was mentioned, but they might have fresher hops than the LHB guy does. Besides, when brewing a hop forward beer, the AA% for hops should always be adjusted and accounted for at least IMO. Not all styles need to be adjusted for, esp if the hops are somewhat fresh and the beer is low in IBU's (think German Hefe, dark mild, etc). You would be surprised how much AA% can be degraded over the course of a year even if kept at optimal temps.

[bpfishback]

I tasted my attempt the other night vs arrogant bastard that was right at the expiration date.The chinook I used had a lower aa% then I was expecting which sucked because I only bought a small amount and had nothing on hand to make up the difference. So of course mine was a lot less bitter, but the hop aroma off of the commercial beer even at the expiration date was way more noticeable than mine. I also noticed as someone else said that the head on the commercial example had a slightly darker tint to it.