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Recipe: Grimm Cloudbusting
At Grimm Artisanal Ales in Brooklyn, New York, Cloudbusting is always a hazy double IPA made with 100 percent New Zealand hops—however, the hop blend varies from batch to batch. This is a recipe for Cloudbusting #11, but feel free to make your own custom blend.
Photo: Grimm Artisanal Ales
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Grimm is a name increasingly known among beer enthusiasts across the country and especially in its home state. Founded by Joe and Lauren Grimm in 2018, the Brooklyn-based brewery recently took home Brewery of the Year honors from the New York Craft Beer Competition for an unprecedented third time in the past four years. Hazy IPAs have been a particular area of refinement, featuring the use of a house yeast that’s evolved from a London ale strain by constant top-cropping and repitching.
One of their more popular beers—or, more accurately, series—is Cloudbusting. It’s always a hazy double IPA made with 100 percent New Zealand hops, but the hop blend varies from batch to batch. This recipe represents Cloudbusting #11, but feel free to make your own custom blend.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.077 (18.6°P)
FG: 1.020 (5°P)
IBUs: 14+
ABV: 8%
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Grimm is a name increasingly known among beer enthusiasts across the country and especially in its home state. Founded by Joe and Lauren Grimm in 2018, the Brooklyn-based brewery recently took home Brewery of the Year honors from the New York Craft Beer Competition for an unprecedented third time in the past four years. Hazy IPAs have been a particular area of refinement, featuring the use of a house yeast that’s evolved from a London ale strain by constant top-cropping and repitching.
One of their more popular beers—or, more accurately, series—is Cloudbusting. It’s always a hazy double IPA made with 100 percent New Zealand hops, but the hop blend varies from batch to batch. This recipe represents Cloudbusting #11, but feel free to make your own custom blend.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.077 (18.6°P)
FG: 1.020 (5°P)
IBUs: 14+
ABV: 8%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
11.2 lb (5.1 kg) pilsner
1.4 lb (635 g) white wheat malt
11 oz (312 g) chit malt
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
11 oz (312 g) dextrose at 60 minutes
0.5 oz (14 g) Rakau at 60 minutes [14 IBUs]
1.5 oz (43 g) each Nelson Sauvin and Rakau at whirlpool
3 oz (85 g) each Nelson Sauvin and Motueka at dry hop
1.5 oz (43 g) Nectaron at dry hop
1 oz (28 g) Rakau at dry hop
YEAST
Omega OYL-011 British Ale V or analogous London ale strain
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 155°F (68°C) for 45 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Add dextrose and bittering hops, and boil for 60 minutes. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex, cooling the wort to 170°F (77°C) if possible. Add the whirlpool hops and steep for 30 minutes. Chill to about 68°F (20°C), aerate well, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast. Ferment at 72°F (22°C) until complete and the beer has passed a VDK test, then drop to 65°F (18°C) add dry hops. Drop or remove hops after 3 days, then crash and cold-condition for about 5 days. Package and carbonate to about 2.6 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Yeast: We top-crop our yeast for repitching. For this beer, we pitch at a rate of 0.7 million cells per ml per degree Plato. On the homebrew level, making a big, healthy yeast starter may be the way to go.
