Projects and Thoughts

Plan C, batch number three of the Daisy cutter clone.

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The third batch of the Daisy cutter came hot on the heels of batch #2, brewed just one week later. One might think it’s boring brewing the same beer over again, but I’ve found it’s the opposite. The challenge of trying to get repeatability and predictability and improvement from my brewing system is thrilling. Brewing batch two showed me more things that I needed to work on with my process. These are the nuances that I’d otherwise not pick up by brewing a new recipe each time. I’m seeing parts of my process that have been close enough, but that doesn’t cut it when you are trying to hit the same numbers again. One that caught my attention in the second batch was volume measurements of strike, sparge, runoff, and pre and post boil. I’ve jumped around between different brewing vessels so much, that it’s hard to remember which measurement is what volume in a specific pot. Before brewing batch 3 I took some measurements so I knew how much volume my total run off should be, and what my post boil volume should also be. With these measurement and my gravity notes, I’ll be able to tell and tune my efficiency going forward. I feel like I’m slowly working out small process issues, as well as incrementally improve the recipe.

One thing that I forgot to mention in my earlier posts, is that I’ve been exchanging ideas and notes about brewing this beer on Homebrew talk for well over three years. I’m not a very active contributor, I visit that forum frequently to research ideas, and seek out clone recipes and details. While I was there, skawars1 pointed out an interview with the Gabriel Magliaro of Half Acre brewing on the brewing network. In the interview Gabriel shares quite a bit of detail about brewing daisy cutter, and other half acre beers. These are my notes from the interview:

Notes from the podcast:

Two row – They mention Rahr for their basemalt in most of their beers when talking about Space. However they don’t mention which rahr two row, it’s my understanding there are a few varieties.
Victory
Special Roast
Castle Aromatic AKA Castle Abbey Malt

Bitter with Warrior
Mid/Late additions-Simcoe, Amarillo, 7Cs
Dry hop-Simcoe, Amarillo, Columbus, 7Cs

Ferment at 65. Using BSI – chico yeast.
Which I think is this:

A-56 Chico Ale

Dry hop for 6 days, at nearly terminal gravity.
Terminal gravity is less than 2* plato

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The the grain bill matches the version I got back in 2011. I did pickup is that they use Rahr as their base malt. I’ve tried to see if there is a significant difference between Canadian Superior Pale Ale I used and Rahr. What I can tell is they are considered to be similar. I think the hop changes vs what I recieved as the recipe are due to hop shortages, and not meant as improvements. Centenial has been really hard to source the past few years. I won’t be switching to falconers flight, it seems like a down grade in my opinion. The

Batch 1: http://thebottlefarm.com/ProjetsThoughts2/brewing-daisy-cutter-clone/
Batch 1 tasting notes: http://thebottlefarm.com/ProjetsThoughts2/daisy-cutter-clone-review/

Batch 2: http://thebottlefarm.com/ProjetsThoughts2/taking-second-chop-daisy-cutter/
Batch 2 Recipe: http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/445767/sb-daisy-cutter-clone-all-grain

Recipe Changes for Batch 3

Remove marris otter for 100% Superior Pale Ale as the base malt. Increase calcium, sulfates, and chlorides to 100ppm. Increase the 10m centennial addition, and remove the whirlpool centennial addition. 

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Process changes for Batch 3

Calibrate volumes from my kettle to the tun, from the tun to the boil kettle, from the kettle to the fermenter. Start using my brew day box

I’m planning two more batches, I haven’t determined the hopping changes for these batches, and what my water additions will be but the plan is to do malt bills similar to 2 and 3 and using us05 instead of 1968. 

Batch 3 is now in the keg and ready for taste testing, but I need to clean my lines before this gets sampled. I’m planning on doing a four way taste test with batches 1-3 and the original thanks to my buddy JD. Should be interesting to see how they all compare.

5 thoughts on “Plan C, batch number three of the Daisy cutter clone.”

  1. Cam Navy says:

    Really enjoy the blog! I found it looking for this Daisy Cutter clone… I was lucky enough to have this delicious beverage when I was in Chicago several months ago… I’ll certainly utilize your brew log to take a few swings at it. Cheers!

  2. Brett says:

    Hey I am looking for a successful Daisy Cutter clone and there seem to be dozens of “recipes” online. You seem to have put the most work into perfecting one, but I’m not seeing a follow up on this 3rd batch! How did it come out in comparison?

    1. I sat down with a friend with batch 1, 2, and 3, as well as passed batch 1, 2, 3 off to a friend for independent review. We all agreed that 2 was closer, but not spot on. It was both darker, and not dry enough. If I were to correct for that, I’d use s-05, and go with all 2 row. My third batch wasn’t as good as the second was.
      HTH,
      Aaron

      FWIW, the recipe I quoted in the first version is straight from the head brewer, so thats as close to source as you’ll get.

    2. Brett says:

      So what did your final hop schedule end up being for batch number two? Specifically if you were doing a 5 gallon. This is my first attempt at making a clone. Usually I would just put together what you said and not worry about variations, but I’d like to get as close to your try as possible, then work from there.

    3. Here’s the recipe for the 3g version 2 batch. http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/445767/sb-daisy-cutter-clone-all-grain

      I’d just double it for a 5g batch, with the expectation you’ll have a fair amount of kettle losses due to the hop volume.
      I’m responding in much more detail to your reddit post.
      (small world)

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