I know some people here have brewed the Pliny clone recipe that was published in BYO a couple years ago, and liked it. I thought I might give it a try, but part of it doesn't make sense: if you follow this recipe (patched in below), the bittering hop addition alone will give you something like 186 IBU, and supposedly we're shooting for something like 90 IBU total. With the other copious hop additions, it calculates at about 250 IBUs overall. I know there's a difference between calculated and actual IBUs, but this just seems weird. So, I'd just like to confirm: 3.5 oz of 13.9% AA CTZ, for 90 minutes? Then another .75 of CTZ at 45 minutes, and an ounce of Simcoe at 30? Really? HOMEBREWING PLINY THE ELDER 8 Gallon Gross Kettle Volume / 5 Net Gallons Post Fermentation O.G. - 1.070 T.G. - 1.011 BU's - 90-95 (actual/not calculated) ABV - 8-8.5% Mash Rest - 151-152 Boil Time - 90 min. SRM - 7ish MALT BILL 87% 2-Row Malt 4% Crystal 45 Malt 4% Carapils (Dextrin) Malt 5% Dextrose Sugar --- HOP BILL 3.50 oz CTZ 13.90% A.A. 90 min. .75 oz CTZ 13.90% A.A. 45 min. 1.00 oz Simcoe 12.30% A.A. 30 min. 1.00 oz Centennial 8.00% A.A. 0 min. 2.50 oz Simcoe 12.30% A.A. 0 min. 1.00 oz CTZ 13.90% A.A. Dry Hop (12 to 14 Days Total) 1.00 oz Centennial 9.10% A.A. Dry Hop (12 to 14 Days Total) 1.00 oz Simcoe 12.30% A.A. Dry Hop (12 to 14 Days Total) .25 oz CTZ 13.90% A.A. Dry Hop (5 days to go in dry hop) .25 oz Centennial 9.10% A.A. Dry Hop (5 days to go in dry hop) .25 oz Simcoe 12.30% A.A. Dry Hop (5 days to go in dry hop) (adjust your hop addition quantities accordingly with your exact alpha acid‛s) California Ale Yeast
It's a jump-ball just how well 'Teh Recipe' clones the Real Thing®. Brew it up as written. You won't be disappointed in the least...unless you don't really care for tasty IIPAs.
I've brewed that recipe and it came out beautiful...but knowing what i know now, I would probably cut at 90 min addition to like an oz. You're already at saturation point...no need to waste more bittering hops. Was looking for the Zymurgy version of Pliny, but can't find it. Am interested to see what they have for the 90 min addition. Edit: yup 3.5oz in the Zym recipe. Still feel 1oz will achieve the same results.
Just for kicks, I entered this into BrewCipher. It calculated to 235 Standard Tinseth IBUs (with the default boil-off rate, etc.), but only 86 IBUs using BrewCipher's modified Tinseth formula. I'm pretty pleased that the 86 IBUs calculated is not too far from Vinnie's ~90 IBUs measured.
I presently have this brew "blowing-off" in my fermentor. When I first brewed this clone the massive early hops spooked me too. Upon advice from this board (ACJr?) I just did it. I did substitute a little magnum for some of the early columbus just to be practical. Also, pretty sure this recipe is from the 90s, if you search the internet you can find interviews where Vinnie described substituting some Amarillo late. Here is some useful info from Vinnie explaining his dry-hop schedule.
That's what made me want to double check this: it seemed like overkill on the bittering addition, and I couldn't imagine RR or any commercial brewing co being so wasteful. But, given that so many people have brewed this with good results, I'll probably do the recipe as is ... the first time, anyway. Thanks, all.
Pretty cool. Can you enlighten us as to the difference between the standard and modified Tinseth method that you're employing?
The part of the BrewCipher modified Tinseth formula that applies to the beer at hand is this... - Splices new utilization curve to Tinseth utilization curve above 65 IBUs, to more closely agree with actual vs theoretical IBUs measured IOW, I had a few data points for whopping big theoretical IBU beers that also had lab measurements, and fit (with some finagling, I admit) a curve to them, which I incorporated into the BrewCipher calcs.
He gave that recipe out in 2009 at the NHC. A year or two later he said he had added a little Amarillo late.
Yes, the article I linked to was Zymurgy July/09. On the RR website it says Pliny was first brewed in 2000 and that it now includes Amarillo. Somewhere along the way he tinkered with the hops . . . in my recipe I added Amarillo where I thought it would do the most good.
My version came out great and used 3oz of hops at 60. I did not use the same hops schedule, and my 60 min addition was 1.5 oz cascade and 1.5 oz millennium. The cascade was not particularly high AA (around 8% if I recall) but the millennium was high (13.9% I think). If hops were really expensive I might reduce the 60 min addition by perhaps an ounce and use only the millennium, but they ain't. I'd say brew it like you have it posted and don't look back.
This recipe is pretty forgiving. I made JZ's Hop Hammer and it came out great. I could see this being a very easy drinking beer with much less or more hops.
