Arrogant Bastard Clone

I haven't been brewing as much as I would have liked recently due to my large landscaping project.  I've been out of hoppy homebrew for months now.  I've ended up buying a couple cases of commercial beer to tide me over but they're gone now as well.  Time to brew up my own.

Last fall I purchased several pounds of various hops from "Hops Direct".  The price per oz is a small fraction of what you'd pay at a homebrew store if you're willing to brew based on what you guessed you might need.  One of the hops I picked out was Chinook which is one of the more famous and popular American Hop varieties.  I'd used them once before (in an Amber Ale) and found them pleasing.

One of the most popular beers thought to prominently use Chinook is the famous Stone Arrogant Bastard (although they do not acknowledge it) which I had early in my days of drinking craft beer and found I was not worthy (or, more accurately stated, not able to handle the intense bitterness).  After many years I feel I am worthy now so I'm going to attempt to brew a clone.  I found a promising recipe on HomeBrewTalk which I'll try out - these folks have put in a lot of effort into the project.

Arrogant Bastard is listed in beers styles as an American Strong Ale which is sort of a catch all bucket for beers that seem to split the gap between Double IPA and American Barleywine.  I would describe Arrogant Bastard as a Brown Ale hopped like an IPA.  It's a strong and very bitter beer that also has a nice malt component to balance things a bit.  Like I said before they are very guarded about the details behind the recipe.

I'm following the clone recipe fairly closely.  I decided to trust the hopping levels which are agressive (I have slightly lower IBU hops so I am chickening out a bit) as well as the suggested use of ~13% CaraAroma.  The one significant difference will be that I'm using WLP 013 (London Ale) rather than WLP 007 (Dry English Ale) which is thought to be Stone's House Yeast.  I had a vile of this around and figured it should be fairly close and get me in the neighborhood of the desired attenuation (81%)

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 15 lb Pale Ale Malt
• 2.25 lb CaraAroma Malt
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 3 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 20 min
• 1 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 5 min
• 1 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 0 min
• Yeast:
• WLP 013 London Ale
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 150 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.070 (Target 1.071)
• Efficiency:
• 66.5% (Target 67.46%)
• FG:
• 1.020 (Target 1.013)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 70% (Target 81%)
• ABV:
• 6.56% (Target 7.61%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/6/20 - Built a 1 litre starter using DME and set it up on a stir plate over night.

• 6/7/20 - Brewday - 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM Including Setup and Cleanup:
• Heated 6 gal of strike water (5 gal spring and 1 gal tap) to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  Added 1 tsp of Gypsum and 1 tsp of CaCl to the grain
• Transferred all the water to the mash tun and then cycled through the RIMS.  Settled out at 162 F
• Stopped the RIMS cycling and stirred in the grain.  Stirred well to eliminate dough balls
• Let the mash settle for 10 min - it ended up at 151 F
• Cycled the RIMS at 150 F for 50 min
• Heated 10 gal of sparge water to 180 F (50/50 spring and tap)
• Added 1 tsp of gypsum to the boil kettle
• Sparged.  Modified fly sparge was used by pouring water on top of the grain bed as it became exposed.  Collected 8 gal of wort
• Started heating the boil kettle after collecting 3 gal.  Had it to a boil shortly after the end of the sparge
• Boiled for 60 min
• Added hops at 60 min, 20 min, 5 min, and at flameout.  I put them in hop sacks to allow for easier drain off as these are leaf hops

• Added Irish Moss at 15 min
• Put the wort chiller in to sanitize with 5 min left
• Chilled a little slower than normal to give the hops a bit more time in hot wort.  Chilled to about 80 F which was as low as it would go in a reasonable time
• Collected about 6 gal of wort.  Let it fall into the bucket fermentor to aerate.  Pitched the yeast at this point
• Measured gravity as 1.070
• Moved the beer to my chest freezer fermentation set to 64 F
• 6/8/20 - The airlock was bubbling the next morning
• 6/9/20 - Beer has overflowed the fermenter and out onto the lid due to the bucket being so full and fermentation reaching it's peak - no further thankfully

• 6/26/20 - Cold crashed down to the high 30s to drop the yeast
• 6/27/20 - Added gelatin to further encourage yeast to drop
• 6/28/20 - Bottled today.  Used 4 oz of priming sugar.  Got 58 bottles of beer.  Measured the gravity as 1.020 (a bit higher than target).  The beer is pretty nicely flavored with a bitter kick.  I'll give it a few days before trying the first one.
• 7/24/20 - Tasting Notes - A very tasty beer.  The hops are star of the show here and it is aggressively bitter (although I suspect not as agressive as the real thing).  Chinook is a nicely flavor hop to my palate - this batch is a like very intensely flavored Fuggle which is nice.  The malt character is interesting enough to cut through the bitterness and provide some semblance of balance.  The hopping really calls on you to take another sip.
• Compared to a real Arrogant Bastard I found the hopping to be significantly higher and the flavors to not be consistent with what I'm getting out of Chinook.

Lesson Learned:

1. I let the mash settle for 10 min after doughing in before starting the RIMS cycle.  I found things were flowing very well for me the entire mash and it was easy to adjust the flow rate and pump speed at a balance that kept an even level in the grant.  I didn't have to touch the RIMS for the remaining 50 min of cycle time.  I will have to take that 10 min settle time approach again next time.