RIWAKASAURUS REX - blue fridge brewery clone

[duffy]

Looking for help with a recipe I am trying to clone.

Original beer (RIWAKASAURUS REX) has the stats on their website. https://www.bluefridgebrewery.co.nz/our-beers/.

This is the extract recipe I am working on, https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/857279/riwakasaurus-rex-extract-clone-

 

I know the % of the grains / extract differ from the website - but I did an approximation to reach OG / FG based on this conversion chart https://www.jaysbrewing.com/2011/11/17/lazy-chart-for-converting-dme-lme-grain/ and rounded the numbers slightly. 

 

The hops - I have no idea. I just put those numbers in to get the IBU but no idea on what ratio to add them (more in the bitterness addition or more in the flavour etc?), but from other recipes I have seen this looks about right to me.

 

Does this look about right? Any ideas / comments?

[Popo the Reprobate]

Maybe drop the brewery an email and see if they can give you some advice?

If it was me, I'd probably try and get more of your IBUs from later additions and go a fair bit bigger than 50 for the dry hop. BUT, I've never tried the beer before, nor heard of it so I'm not really sure how useful that advice is.

[Beer Baron]

I think your effort looks pretty good and I would do something very close except I would double that dry hop. 

Good luck

[Beerlust]

Hi Duffy.

Your recipe looks fine as a clone except for your malt percentages. If you plan to use the Munich LME, you're currently a good 10% over the commercial recipe percentage. The added weight of Munich will create a slightly sweeter, more maltier flavour & combined with the "S-04" yeast, not US-04 as quoted by the brewery (dumb@$$#$!) your recipe will carry that over into the final beer.

I do find a number of things interesting about this commercial beer on paper. I think the Kiwi's & the Yanks have a different idea to the rest of the world about what is classed as "session-able" on the ABV% scale. 5.3% ABV is not what I'd class as session-able. The other point about the commercial brew that I find odd is that it is classed as an IPA. With the two longer boiled hops having low to medium co-humulone levels, I wouldn't be expecting much IPA bite from those.

The recipe looks more like a fairly typical American Pale Ale recipe to me.

That said, it should produce a tasty beer. Best of luck with it.

Lusty.

[Hairy]

I like it when breweries show their recipes; even if it is just enough to get you in the ballpark.

[Beerlust]

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

I like it when breweries show their recipes; even if it is just enough to get you in the ballpark.

I think many of them bullshit a bit just to get you interested & create interest generally. The true recipe is almost always a step or two away IMHO.

Cheers,

Lusty.

[Otto Von Blotto]

It's probably a bit subjective in some ways too, but the clone recipes don't always line up exactly with the original, and sometimes that produces something closer to the original. It sounds weird I know. 

[duffy]

Hey ya, thanks everyone for the feedback! I followed @Popos advice and emailed the brewery and they were very responsive, said that I was pretty close with my recipe but the specs on the website were a little out of date and they have updated that recipe since, they sent me the hop schedule & updated IBU I have pasted below.

Quote

It's actually sitting at around 67 IBU now, 
28 IBU from Waimea
22 IBU from Rakau
7 IBU from Riwaka (5 Minute)
We also have a Hobpack addition of Riwaka Cones adding another 10 IBU (a whirlpool addition might give you similar results if you don't have a hopback)

So @Beerlust is right about the IBU being low for an IPA, I guess the brewers knew that too, so now 67 IBU. And yeah @Beerlust - the session thing is weird in NZ, we are very flexible with the word session because sessions beers here range anywhere between 2% - 5.5(ish). 

I also got advice from someone else to ditch the Munich extract and try a Partial Mash (first time) so am going to give that go. Updated the recipe to match feedback from brewery and convert to partial mash, so updated recipe is here and it definitely looks much closer to the specs I was trying for.  So hopefully that will address the slightly more stuff about the Munich LME being 10% over recipe.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/857991/riwakasaurus-rex-partial-mash-clone-

@Popo & @Beer Baron yep upping the dry hop, but not doubling it because I don't want to buy a third bag of Riwaka (they come in 100g bags the place I get them) so just going to hop as per schedule and dump the rest of the Riwaka in as dry hops (about 57g). I guess I could use some of the left over Rakau as dry hops too? Not sure. 

 

Anyway thanks all for the advice. Will take a shot at this weekend.

[The Captain!!]

@duffy

I would put some of the Rakau in with the dry hop. It’s got a fairly high Myrcene percentage which will give you a bit more citrus. I think you need the aroma to be there with an ipa. However, it’s your beer so do what you want to it and to your tastes. 

Good luck with the brew.