[nolinenowait]

I'm attempting to clone one of my favorite IPA's right now.  Warning there's a ton of hops in this! What are your thoughts?  Would you make any changes? 

Focal Banger Clone - 5 Gallons

Grains
6.75lb  - Pearl
5.1lbs - Pilsner
.65 - Carapils
.26 - Turbinado  (Add last 10 minutes of boil)

Mash 154° at 60 minutes

Boil
90 Minutes

1oz Citra - FWH
1oz Mosaic -FWH
1oz Citra - 15 Min
1oz Mosaic - 15 Min
1oz Citra - 5 min
1oz Mosaic - 5 min
2oz Citra - 3 min
2oz Mosaic- 3 min
2oz Citra - Hopstand - 175°// 25 min
2oz Mosaic - Hopstand - 175°// 25 min
2oz Citra - Dry hop - 5 days
2oz Mosaic- Dry hop 5 days

Yeast
Conan

[dmtaylor]

Wow, the first 10 oz of hops are almost a complete waste.  Or maybe I should say, 8-9 oz.  Put some in the boil for a few IBUs.  But other than that, all you need is the whirlpool and the dry hops, and you'll be good to go.  Citra and Mosaic are the strongest hops on earth.  A little goes a very long way.  So, save a few bucks.  Eliminate all the crazy FWH and 15 and 5 and 3 minute additions.  Just do a simple bittering addition.

[HoosierBrew]

  Put some in the boil for a few IBUs.  But other than that, all you need is the whirlpool and the dry hops, and you'll be good to go.

Yep

[nolinenowait]

How's this:

1oz of each of FWH
.5 oz of each @ 60min
1.25 of each @ 5 min
1.5 oz of each whirlpool
1.75 oz of each dry hop

How does the grain bill look?

[hopfenundmalz]

Where did the recipe come from? It might be the way that beer is brewed.

[nolinenowait]

It's based on my research/tasting of the product.  I actually haven't found a good clone.  The Alchemist beers are tough ones to find a good recipe for. 

[hopfenundmalz]

It's based on my research/tasting of the product.  I actually haven't found a good clone.  The Alchemist beers are tough ones to find a good recipe for.

I think that might work. Never had focal banger, but brew it and let us know how it turned out, and what you would change.

[dmtaylor]

First let me confess that I've never tasted Fecal Banger, so I'm providing technical input as an IPA only, not as a clone.

That's still too dang much bittering hops.  You're going to hit >90 IBUs by a mile, beyond which threshold you can't taste them anymore anyway.  You can get by with just the FWH or the 60-minute additions, don't need both.  3/4 oz to 1 oz of each will be adequate to hit 60-90 IBUs.

And again, the 5-minute addition is a waste.  You'll get all the hoppiness you need from whirlpool and dry.  Those amounts look right.

Grain bill looks good for an IPA.  Kind of light, could use some more character malts perhaps.  But optional.

[nolinenowait]

I ran this through beersmith and gave it a full update. 

8lb 2.8oz Pearl
6lb 3.2oz Pilsner
1.1oz Carapils
.5oz Turbinado

1 ml hop shot @60
.75oz Citra@ 20min
.75oz Mosaic@20
.75oz Citra@15
.75oz Mosaic@ 15
1.25oz Citra @10
1.25oz Mosaic@10
1.5oz Citra @Whirlpool
1.5oz Mosaic@Whirlpool
1.5 oz of each dry hop

[erockrph]

First let me confess that I've never tasted Fecal Banger

Neither have I. No judgement... just not my thing. 

Back to the beer - I know nothing about it, but I agree wholeheartedly that if you want to get the most out of your hops, just skip all the boil additions except an initial 60-minute addition for your IBU's. The rest will give you the most bang for your buck in the whirlpool.

I'd go 70 IBU's from your hop shot at 60 minutes, 4-6 ounces of each hop in the whirlpool and 2-3 oz of each in dry hops.

[Stevie]

First let me confess that I've never tasted Fecal Banger

Neither have I. No judgement... just not my thing. 

Yep, I'd also recommend not googling fecal banger.

I thought alchemist was pretty open about recipes. Have you tried emailing them?

[dmtaylor]

Oh good, you guys saw what I did there

This recipe seems to be another case where old Papazianisms die hard.

[nolinenowait]

I'm thinking I'll use 40IBU's from the Hopshot@60, 3oz of each to whirlpool for 20minutes and 2oz of each to dry hop.  How's that sound?

[blatz]

i agree that this particular recipe bittering load may be overboard , but have you ever seen, and brewed, the Heady Topper or Pliny clones?  calculated IBUs are north of 200 on both.  IIRC I used about 5-7oz of apollo/12gall at 90 min.  I personally noticed a more similar bitterness and hop flavor to the real deal(s) - i think the speculation is that there is more contribution than just Alpha Acid. 

[reverseapachemaster]

It is possible that the beer is brewed with no 60 addition and only starts at 20. That's common for the hopbursting technique.

Given how tough it is to find that beer in the first place it will probably be even more difficult to find somebody who has real insight into how it is brewed or has an accurate clone recipe. You'll have to pick a direction and give it a go. There are so many mosaic/citra IPAs on the market brewed with virtually any hop schedule you can concoct that you could get in the neighborhood of focal banger with any one of them and dial in with small tweaks.

It will probably be just as important to dial in the water profile as it is the hop schedule.