9.22.2016 – Tree House Green Clone Attempt

It’s been a while since I’ve had a can of Green.  Its one of my favorites!  I’d say, at least 5 months have gone by.  Even then, the can was nearly 2 months old.  Beers like that just don’t get around to Michigan as often as I’d like.  I had dabbled around with Galaxy hops with some of my earlier batches with good results.  Combining that with the knowledge I have now, it was a no-brainer to jump on the 2016 Galaxy hops from Yakima Valley.

The quality on these is second to none.   The package came quickly, was fairly priced, well packed, and vacuum sealed.  Upon opening the hop pouch I was greeted with a smack in the face that screamed Green.  There was only one thing left to do.

 Grains/Fermentables:

Two Row

Flaked Oats

Crystal 10

HOPS:

Columbus

Galaxy

OTHER INGREDIENTS:

Yeast Nutrient

Calcium Chloride

Gypsum

YEAST:

Harvested from Tree House cans Julius and Green

I mashed in a little bit hot, 154 as opposed to my normal of 152.  No harm though.  We’re here to have a good time.  After an hour vourlauf the runnings from my mash tun,  I then batch sparged at 168F for 20 minutes.  A vourlauf and then into my kettle for a 60 minute boil.  My pre boil gravity was a little low.  I have had zero luck with BeerSmith or brewers friend for volume calculations.

Learning from my last batches with reduced bittering additions, I threw caution to the wind and did a 3x bittering addition at 60 minutes of Columbus.  All of my other hops were added into the whirlpool.  Columbus and Galaxy were added at 180F and allowed to steep for 30 minutes before cooling, aerating, pitching a vulgar amount of dry hops, and adding my Tree House yeast.  This yeast is still going strong on its 7^th generation.  It shows no signs of slowing down.    My OG came in at 1.072 (was shooting for 1.080).

The beer fermented for 10 days at ambient room temperature (68F) and then was cold crashed for 48 hours before being transferred to a purged keg.  It finished at 1.016.  This makes about 7.65%abv.  If I had lowered my mash temp, I could probably have hit 1.014 which is where I suspect Green to actually be.  The beer was burst carbonated for 48 hours at 25psi before being set to serving temperature.  No keg hops were added.

This time, I used the Clear Beer Draught System.  I want to take a second and say that the Clear Beer Draught System is awesome!  Essentially this eliminates the dip tube in your keg.  One end has a hose that connects to a steel bar that is suspended by a steel float.  While all your sediment settles to the bottom of the keg, this pulls from the top of the keg.  You get nice, bright beer instead of the fallout on the bottom.

This beer came out excellent.  Like I had stated, I have not had Green in months.  I have not had fresh Green in longer.  I remember Green tasting the way this beer does with a little less residual sweetness.  I don’t mind it though.  I kind of like it!  I wouldn’t call this a clone, but I would say that it’s closer than any of the other clone recipes that I’ve seen or created.

Next time, I would add about another 10% flaked oats, reduce the amount of c10, and slightly increase my Galaxy contribution in the whirlpool.

I have acquired a can of King Julius from a swap and am going to get into it this Saturday and couldn’t be more excited.  I’ve heard great things!  I’ve gotten this clone recipe close enough for my satisfaction at this point in time.  I’ll shift gears and take a few more stabs at Julius.  With Fall around the corner, I intend to do some more Fall/Winter beers.  If there’s something you’d like me to try and put a wild spin on, drop a comment and we’ll see what I can do.

Happy brewing – Cheers!