Heady topper recipe?

wscottcross · Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:10 am Post subject: Heady topper recipe?

Is there a recipe for Heady Topper on here? I used one from a different site and now managed to harvest some Conan yeast from a few cans of Heady Topper, I'm getting ready to brew again and wanted to see what others ore using. The Conan smells fantastic in the starter so I'm hoping that really comes through in the full batch. I also managed to pick up some of the HBC 438 experimental hops so I'm interested to see what those will do as well.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:14 pm Post subject:

Funny that you should ask... (look at the "Working on: ..." to the left, under my avatar). Wink

I'm about to keg mine - recipe due up hopefully in a couple of weeks!

Kal

wscottcross · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:09 am Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:28 am Post subject:

The (supposedly) official stuff - Vermont Ale by Yeast Bay ... all will be revealed soon enough! Wink

Kal

Roadie · Joined: 13 Oct 2013 Posts: 127 Location: Charleston, SC

We've done a Heady clone which came out great and my brew club loved it - except for the one guy who didn't like the clarity. Never had the real thing to drink next to it and compare though. We used VT Ale as well which is supposedly Conan.

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:09 am Post subject:

The real beer is not overly clear - the fact that they recommend drinking it from the can helps hide that. Wink

(Beer clarity is somewhat meaningless but some people really focus on it - lots of over the top ABV or IBU beers tend to not be clear)

Kal

wscottcross · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 12:51 pm Post subject:

I'm close enough to VT that I was able to go up and grab a case of Heady Topper. I harvested yeast from 3 cans after sanitizing the tops and pouring most of the beer into glasses. The yeast gives a definite peach/mango aroma to the beer. I can't wait to try mine and do a side by side comparison with the real Heady Topper in about 2 weeks.

Roadie · Joined: 13 Oct 2013 Posts: 127 Location: Charleston, SC

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 5:04 pm Post subject:

wscottcross · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:12 pm Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:13 pm Post subject:

Sorry guys - been overly busy with other things. The write-up's been in the works for a couple of months now but time has been short to work on it. It turned out great. The two kegs are already gone!

Kal

mark2215 · Joined: 17 Feb 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Mass

How about an update/recipe for this? I've been meaning to brew this beer for a while now.

**kal** · Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 1:24 am Post subject:

Sorry guys - I don't feel the recipe's 100% there yet after some more thinking/research. Great beer, but I need to put this one on the back burner for now and to test another batch first to try out some things...

Kal

wscottcross · Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 1:13 pm Post subject:

I've also tried several different recipes with about 6 or 7 batches over the past year. While I like the resulting product, it's not really very close to the real HT. Using the right yeast helps, whether you harvest it from the actual HT cans and make a starter from that or purchase the Vermont Ale yeast from http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/vermont-ale

There is a very long thread over on HomeBrewTalk and they have the current best clone recipe at http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=390082 if you want to start with that.

**kal** · Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 1:27 pm Post subject:

Yeah, that's the thread I started with and read the thousands of posts. I spent a TON of time researching brewing Heady Topper before I brewed... more than any other beer actually. I did like the beer I made but I wouldn't call it a 100% clone. I'd say it was 'inspired by'. Some of my notes (for now):

Resources / further reading:

Alchemist FAQs Answered By John Kimmich: Alchemist owner and brewer John Kimmich talks about why Heady is canned / why it should be drunk from the can.
Chop & Brew - Episode 22: John Kimmich from The Alchemist: John talks a bit about the process that goes into making Heady. Lots of good little nuggets of information here, including:
- The hops do change. They're constantly tweaking.
- Quality of hops matter (Simcoe grown in one location will not taste like another).
- The special "Conan" strain of yeast is actually VPB-1188, a strain that Greg Noonan (John's first boss) bought back from England to use at Vermont Pub and Brewery. When John Kimmich started the Alchemist, he got permission from Greg to use the yeast.
- Aim for a mash ph of 5.1 to 5.3 (presumably at mash temp). He mentions that any beer over the proper mash ph will be a "muddled piece of sh*t," and it's best to err on the low side. (True, lower is better if you can't hit 5.2 exactly).
- They dry-hop for 4 to 5 days, never more. Kimmich alludes to "proprietary techniques" for dry-hopping.
- Whirlpooling lasts for about an hour. They use only pellets, never whole hops.They do not add any hops during the boil, only CO2 hop extract (and all the hops after flameout).
Heady Topper- Can you clone it?: A massive 300+ page thread over at HomeBrewTalk.com on trying to clone Heady. My recipe is mostly based on the bobbrews post #2967.
Heady Topper Clone: Great summary by schekap on his process, much of which I adopted.
Heady Topper Results From Ward Labs: HomeBrewTalk.com thread where Heady was analyzed for mineral composition. This helps us figure out how to treat the starting water, though there are a lot of caveats and some confusion around the 750ppm hardness (which turns out was a bit of a red herring - see next bullet).
Seacoast Beverage Lab: Episode 54 - The Alchemist: John Kimmich of The Alchemist joins the show to talk about his brewery and the famous Heady Topper.
Mashing in 1000 (aka Feeding the Sarlacc): Video posted by The Alchemist on their making of the 1000th batch of Heady. This video leads many into thinking that all their brewing water needed to be at 750 ppm total hardness because you could read it off their brew sheet. May not be correct as The Alchemist later dilutes this very hard water to bring down the combined level. We do get to see that Thomas Fawcett Pearl malt is used however. (Cool to see that John's a big Star Wars fans too). More talk about the 750 hardness here.
John Kimmich | Alchemist Brewery | Vermont Craft Beer: Creators of Heady Topper talk about their experience re-opening the brewery after Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Hop Stands: BYO article on Hop Stands from their March-April 2013 issue.
A presentation by Kristen England on the subject of hop stands (and other topics). It was determined that an 80 minute hop stand plus dry hopping results in maximum flavour and aroma. Most Heady recipes call for 30 mins however. Worked well for me. This same hop stand information is also mentioned on page 201 of the book For the love of Hops.

Kal

mark2215 · Joined: 17 Feb 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Mass

Thank you for all the references. It'll keep me plenty busy trying to read all those links.

BigMike · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 11:41 pm Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 2:17 pm Post subject: