Bale Breaker Brewing Company’s Top Cutter IPA: Replicator
Dear Replicator, I recently visited Seattle. one beer especially caught me as soon as I opened the can with a wonderful hop aroma that kept my attention until the last drop. Can you provide a clone recipe for Bale Breaker Brewery’s Top Cutter IPA?
Isaac Belcher
Danville, Indiana
Every year one the largest hop brokers in the country, YCHops, holds a two-day seminar called Hop and Brew School with a session for pro brewers and one for homebrewers. This seminar coincides with hop harvest season and includes a trip to a local Yakima Valley hop farm. Most years that farm is Loftus Ranches, owned by third generation hop grower Mike Smith and his family. This is one of the largest hop farms in the U.S. and is responsible for some of those proprietary hops we all love — Simcoe®, Citra®, and MosaicTM. Mike’s children, Patrick, Meghann, and Kevin, now represent the fourth generation. Patrick is heavily involved on the farming side and Kevin always wanted to be the one to put the hops to use.
Kevin’s dream became a reality with the grand opening of Bale Breaker Brewing Co. in April 2013. To showcase their new operation they hosted the 2013 Hop and Brew School students at the new brewery. To say we were all amazed would be an understatement. The 11,000 square foot facility houses a state-of-the-art 30-barrel brewhouse with fermenters that are over twice as big. Most impressive was the gigantic, 12-barrel hop back. When your brewery is surrounded by hop fields it is easy to fill!
Kevin’s sister, Meghann Quinn, is in charge of administration and marketing. She homebrewed alongside her brother and attended brewing courses at Siebel Institute and UC-Davis. As did her husband, Kevin Quinn, who handles sales and distribution and is the Assistant Brewer.
After six years of making very small batches, Kevin decided it was time to step up to larger volumes. In 2011 a Sabco half-barrel system was purchased. This is the system with which they actually obtained their licensing. He took his 5-gallon (19-L) recipes, scaled them up and perfected the styles that he preferred — hoppy pale ales and IPAs. Over 100 experimental batches were brewed onthe system, including the first Top Cutter IPA and the recipe remains the same today.
The Top Cutter IPA is a classic example of a West Coast style American IPA. A clean, white head tops this almost clear, light amber ale. Strong grapefruit and subdued orange are exhibited in the nose but caramel scents are still present. The flavor is hop-forward but a nice grain profile is not completely overpowered. The finish is clean and leaves a somewhat resinous pine flavor lingering.
Bale Breaker Brewing Company’s Top Cutter IPA clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.058 FG = 1.008 IBU = 70 SRM = 7.2 ABV = 6.8%
Ingredients
3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg ) Briess light, unhopped, liquid malt extract
2 lbs. (0.9 kg) light, dried malt extract
1.75 lbs. (0.79 kg) two-row pale malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Munich malt (8 °L)
4 oz. (0.11 kg) Vienna malt
4 oz. (0.11 kg) Carapils® (dextrin) malt
4 oz. (0.11 kg) caramel malt (40 °L)
4.6 AAU Simcoe® hop pellets (first wort)
(0.35 oz./10 g at 13.2% alpha acids)
12 AAU Warrior® hop pellets (60 min.)
(0.75 oz./21 g at 16% alpha acids)
6.6 AAU Simcoe® hop pellets (15 min.)
(0.5 oz./14 g at 13.2% alpha acids)
0.75 oz. (21 g) Simcoe® hop pellets (0 min.)
0.75 oz. (21 g) Citra® hop pellets (0 min.)
0.75 oz. (21 g) MosiacTM hop pellets (0 min.)
1 oz. (28 g) Citra® hop pellets (dry hop)
1 oz. (28 g) AhtanumTM hop pellets (dry hop)
½ tsp. Irish moss (30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (15 min.)
White Labs WLP001 (American Ale), Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or Safale US-05 (American Ale) yeast
Priming sugar (if bottling)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed grain in 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water at 149 ºF (65 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (1.8 L) of hot water. Boil 60 minutes, adding ingredients as per the schedule. When done, add the wort to 2 gallons (7.6 L) of cold water in the sanitized fermenter and top off with cold water up to 5 gallons (19 L). Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC) and pitch your yeast. Hold at 68 ºF (20 ºC) until fermentation is complete. Transfer to a carboy, add the dry hops and allow the beer to condition for 1 week and then bottle or keg.
All-grain option:
This is a single step infusion mash using an additional 9 lbs. (4.1 kg) two-row pale malt in place of the malt extracts. Mix all of the crushed grains with 4 gallons (15 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water to stabilize at 149 ºF (65 ºC) for 60 minutes. Sparge slowly with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect 6 gallons (23 L) of wort runoff to boil 60 minutes. Reduce the 60-minute Warrior® hop addition to 9.6 AAU (0.6 oz./17 g) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. The remainder of this recipe is the same as the extract with grains recipe.
