All Grain Recipe: #12 Pliny the Elder clone

I don't know when it happened, but I'm a hophead now. Just a couple of months ago I didn't care for the overpowering hop flavors and aromas of west coast IPAs, and now I'm suddenly craving hops. I can only imagine it's a combination of drinking more craft beer and doing hop taste tests. Chewing on raw hop pellets can really desensitize you.

So of course, once I realized this I went out and picked up some Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewery. I've had this before, but it was too much for me. Now it is like heaven in a glass. Dry and drinkable, with a very complex hop character that makes it far tastier than typical IPAs that tend to have a one-sided hop flavor. It is bursting in hop flavor and while the bitterness is high, it is a smooth bitterness that doesn't stick in your mouth unpleasantly (see Stone Ruination, Green Flash West Coast IPA for examples of IPAs that taste like you've been sucking on a grapefruit long after you've finished off the bottle).

Thus, next up is a clone of Pliny. Vinnie from Russian River has made no secret of his recipe - it is freely available, and many people clone it. You can get a clone kit from MoreBeer, or you can see this pdf of the recipe. The MoreBeer kit doesn't quite match the original PDF. Also, the recipe has changed over the years and apparently uses hop extract to achieve a higher bitterness than is possible with hop boiling alone.
edit: I tasted this recently and it is definitely extraordinarily bitter. It also didn't come out as dry as the real thing. The hop flavor profile is pretty close, though.

My goal is still to iron out the kinks in my process. However, I might as well make something delicious in the process. Plus, this recipe will teach me about dry hopping. I also plan to increase the batch size to make up for the large amount of trub I'm getting after boil. I'll be transferring the cooled wort to a sanitized bottling bucket, which will let me measure out exactly how much volume I ended up with and allow the trub to settle out before I transfer it via the bucket's spigot.

Here are some other things I'll be doing that are new with this batch:
Rinsing the grain only twice, but with a larger amount of water each time.
Using my new refractometer to get a feel for how well it works. I'll measure the efficiency after first, second and third runnings.
Repitching my WLP001 from batch #8 (my first all grain), and making a starter with it a few days before.
Preheating the oven to 200 F and turning it off in the hopes that it keeps temp better than leaving the oven on.
Using 200 F sparge water so that the grain is about 168-170.
Boiling 90 minutes.

In practice, I messed up a few times. The biggest one is that I calculated the water for a 60 minute boil, but the hops for a 90 minute boil. I had to adjust the amount of bittering hops to compensate for only boiling 60 minutes. Fortunately, there isn't much difference between 60 and 90 minutes when it comes to bitterness extraction, due to diminishing returns.

My 24x24 grain bag from MoreBeer finally gave up the ghost. I saw holes in the bottom and sides after this batch, so I tossed it out with the spent grain.

The second fuckup was underestimating the amount of trub. I made an 11 quart batch (actually ended up with 11.25 due to less evaporation than expected), but only racked about 9 quarts instead of 10.

Pitched from my starter mason jar and got a nice quick fermentation. The taste of this beer was incredible, even before finishing. A week later, I dropped hopped by putting the first dose in a sanitized & boiled hop bag and hanging it from the lid of the fermentor. I did the same thing with the second dose a little over a week later.

The main thing I've noticed about the result is that it is pretty harsh and not as dry as the original. The recipe gives 152 as the mash temp, but newer recipes use 148. I will probably adjust this to use 148 to attenuate more. I'll also give it a few weeks to age (it hasn't actually been 3 weeks bottled yet) before assessing the hops again. If the bitterness remains harsh, I will try a smoother 90 minute bittering hop like Warrior. Note: The morebeer.com Pliny recipe uses Warrior for the 90 minute addition.

Here's the recipe, from the PDF linked at the start of the post:
(edit: I've included the original 5 gallon recipe at the end).

Pliny the Elder Clone (Pliny the Other)

Imperial IPA

 

Type: All Grain	Date: 4/30/2011
Batch Size: 11.25 qt	Boil Size: 15.42 qt
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot, Full Boil All Grain (6 Gallon)
	Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 6.0 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Dry Extract 5.03 % 6 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 87.10 % 4.7 oz Carapils (1.5 SRM) Grain 3.94 % 4.7 oz Crystal/Caramel Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.94 % 55.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) (MoreBeer 2011) [14.40 %] (90 min) Hops 169.5 IBU 4.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) (MoreBeer 2011) [14.40 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 4.00 gm Centennial (MoreBeer 2011) [9.20 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 16.00 gm Simcoe (MoreBeer 2011) [12.20 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops - 16.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) (MoreBeer 2011) [14.40 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops - 16.00 gm Centennial (MoreBeer 2011) [9.20 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops - 4.00 gm Simcoe (MoreBeer 2011) [12.20 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 18.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) (MoreBeer 2011) [14.40 %] (45 min) Hops 47.6 IBU 40.00 gm Simcoe (MoreBeer 2011) [12.20 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops - 16.00 gm Simcoe (MoreBeer 2011) [12.20 %] (30 min) Hops 30.0 IBU 16.00 gm Centennial (MoreBeer 2011) [9.20 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops - 0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 8.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 100 ml] [Cultured] Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original  Gravity: 1.080 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.080 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.82 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 8.64 %
Bitterness: 247.1 IBU	Calories: 364 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.7 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB Double Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 7.09 lb
Sparge Water: 8.34 qt	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
BIAB Double Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp 120 min Mash In Add 10.48 qt of water at 161.9 F 152.0 F
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.6
Pressure/Weight: 74.3 gm	Carbonation Used: 58gm
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 68.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 70.0 F
Notes
Plan is to create an 11 qt batch and only rack 10 quarts to account for trub losses. Try racking to sanitized bucket after cooling, wait for settling of trub, and then rack to keg. I could use a strainer while racking to bucket, but I'm not sure if I want to deal with sanitizing the strainer.

As promised, here is the 5 gallon, 75% efficiency recipe. Make sure to adjust for your boil volume, efficiency and hop alpha acids. Don't adjust the aroma hops or dry hops for alpha acid - those aren't used for bittering, so there's no need to adjust.

Pliny the Elder

Imperial IPA

 

Type: All Grain	Date: 4/17/2011
Batch Size: 20.00 qt	Brewer: Russian River Brewery
Boil Size: 31.93 qt	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 50.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 87.13 % 8.0 oz Carapils (1.5 SRM) Grain 3.96 % 8.0 oz Crystal/Caramel Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.96 % 99.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) [13.90 %] (90 min) Hops 180.8 IBU 28.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) [13.90 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops - 7.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) [13.90 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 28.00 gm Simcoe [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops - 28.00 gm Centennial [9.10 %] (Dry Hop 12 days) Hops - 7.00 gm Centennial [9.10 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 7.00 gm Simcoe [12.30 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 21.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) [13.90 %] (45 min) Hops 32.9 IBU 71.00 gm Simcoe [12.00 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops - 28.00 gm Centennial [8.00 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops - 28.00 gm Simcoe [12.30 %] (30 min) Hops 32.5 IBU 10.0 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 4.95 % 1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.071 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.081 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.19 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 8.25 %
Bitterness: 246.2 IBU	Calories: 371 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.5 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out	Total Grain Weight: 12.00 lb
Sparge Water: 20.69 qt	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out Step Time Name Description Step Temp 60 min Mash In Add 18.00 qt of water at 165.6 F 152.0 F
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.7
Pressure/Weight: 139.7 gm	Carbonation Used: 139g
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 68.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 70.0 F