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DC Brau On The Wings of Armageddon Clone Take 1

So I absolutely love this beer... On the Wings of Armageddon (OTWOA) is one of my favorite 2x IPA hop bombs. This beer is extremely dank, hop forward and light in mouth feel, it has everything I enjoy in a 2x IPA. I am lucky enough to have DC Brau within 2 miles of my work place in Washington DC. OTWOA is a quarterly brew @ DC Brau and is only avail once a quarter, and this to me is the only downside of this awesome beer... I just always want it more.... I have gone to the brewery a few times to pick up a few cases of this beer, and hoard it until the next release.  I have talked to Jeff, the brew master a few times informally and he has given me a few hints to fill in the gaps. DC Brau in my opinion is one of the best breweries on the east coast, and if you have not had any of there beer, you are missing out for sure. Nonetheless, I have scoured the internet and researched this beer at all sources available. so these are the sources I have found and this is how I am trying to dial in the recipe.

So on there site OTWOA link
OTWOA uses a single hop blend* beer Falconers Flight
"Brewed with just enough Pale malt, Cara-60, CaraPils and Malted wheat to carry the intense hop character onto the pallet."

Link --> Interview on youtube

So a bit of background on DC Brau...

Brew master says they have a standard 90 min boil

Average fermentation 5 days

Condition 7 days

1000 gallon / 2000 Gallon fermenters

30 bbl brew house.

Link --> Interview with WTOP @ Church Key 

A Brew of OTWOA yields 23 bbl out of 30

Dry hop 120lbs of FF per batch, Dry hopped 4lb per bbl... Assuming 30 bbl / 1000 gallon 

Assuming 30 bbl / 1000 gallon fermenter batch… Dry hop 120lbs of FF per batch (or 120lbs per 30 barrels) =  4lb per bbl... = 64oz/1 barrel (31 gallons)… = 2.0645 oz per gallon (Dry Hop)

1 beer barrel = 31 U.S. gallons

30bbl batch = 930 Gallons

using 1000 gallon fermenters

This scales down to a whopping 12.8 oz Dry hop to 6 gallon batch (WOW)

Greg mentions they Condition OTWOA for 40 days

Link --> Panel Discussion

Shot for 120 IBU

Double mashed beer… 1st runnings only 

3500 lb malt for 30 bbl batch

Over pitched yeast

Final IBU around 115

160 - 180 lbs of hops for 30 bbl batch…

tastes mellow, 9.2% beer

40 - 60 lbs per batch (30 bbl) in the kettle, based on statement that they use 160 - 180 lbs per batch (30 bbl) , with 120 lbs per batch (30bbl) in dry hop

40-60 lbs per batch, 30 barrel… = 1.3 lb - 2lb per barrel in the kettle per barrel… = 20.8oz - 32oz per barrel in the kettle… bbl is 31 gallons. = .67oz -  1.03oz per gallon… = 4.02 oz - 6oz in the kettle for 6 gallon batch

Stopped by brewery… and spoke with Jeff

So they are using Dextrose…

And Wheat % they said something between 5.5 and 15%... Vague but I think we can work from here

Also mentioned they use whirlpool hops

So the thing that amazes me about OTWOA is the bitterness is a smack in the face, but it is a slow bitterness, not harsh if that makes sense. Also it is incredibly dry... I degassed a can and measured with my hydro, and I came out to 1.009 FG... Also upon opening the can a huge pop of hop aroma is launched. It is a wicked aroma for sure, and is probably the best smelling beer I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying up until this point. So based off that I think they are using a large whirlpool addition as well... So I think they are likely doing a small charge @ 90 mins to get some base bitterness, possibly a big charge @ 20-30 mins and then finish in the whirlpool.

This is the recipe I have come up with so far... OTWOA Recipe. So based off what they are doing, I am doing a few things different...

• I am doing a safe play on the dry hops... I am not so up on dry hopping with such a massive amount of hops at a homebrew scale (the scaled down conversion would be 12oz for a 6 gal batch), I think generally the surface area in my carboy would not allow so much contact area for that many hops at once, rather than waste that much hops I think we can get a little creative...  So instead of dumping nearly 3/4 lbs of hops into a carboy as a dry hop, I am splitting the dry hop into 2 4oz additions, and moving 4 oz over to a whirlpool addition...  I am a big fan of whirlpool hops with a quick chill to seal the aroma in... I like layering whirlpool and dry hop additions vs just a dry hop. To me the complexity of a whirlpool addition and a dry hop is much more interesting and multi-dimensional than just a single dry hop alone. Furthermore, multiple dry hop additions I think adds a value being that there is more surface area avail as the hops settle. I am shooting a bit low on IBU in the kettle, because I am adding these 4 oz at flame out. 
• So this beer attenuates ultra low... I plan to pitch 3 US-05 packets to hopefully dive down attenuation. I also plan to hit the wort with 90 secs of O2 at pitching time. I am mashing pretty low @ 148 then plan to raise up to help convert every last bit of sugars, my brew rig makes this pretty easy... I am also adding dextrose into the equation to add some simple sugars in there as well.  All this considered, this still does not put me low enough (1.010 according to recipe, vs 1.009 in my degassed sample ). I could add more dextrose but I do not want to add to much simple sugar to the equation and loose some long chain conversion in the end. I Plan to add the simple sugar at around 24 hours in, and hit the beer with oxygen about 12 hours into fermentation...
• I think fermenting this beer really really low will help to minimize ester production, I do not get any sense of yeast esters when I smell this beer, it just smells like dank hops... Now the massive dry hop may be hiding some of the yeasts sensory input, but I think fermenting low and slow is probably the best way to reinforce that. I am thinking a 65 pitch with a slow rise to 70 to help things finish off...

I think with a beer of this magnitude there are a few trade offs we probably need to account for on the homebrew scale, so all things considered I think these capture the key differences and hopefully this will turn out just as good as I hope.

Started working on the evolution of my brewing Here

Blichmann going Electric ???

Now that is pretty interesting... Beer Geek Nation Blichmann at NHC