Odell Brewing Company
Dear Replicator,
At my brew club (Aurora City Brew Club or AC/BC) a member came running in with a can of Odell’s Rupture imploring that we had to try it. Everyone seemed to like it because it was so different. I have tasted it several times now including at the Great American Beer Festival and it is now a favorite of mine. If you could, please write an article about this beer, what they’re doing, and hopefully get a recipe for Rupture.
Russell Willden
Aurora, Colorado
Thanks for the request, Russell! After contacting Odell Brewing, I received a response from Kristen Wood, Odell’s Community Manager. Suffice it to say, they were excited to work with me and highlight just how unique Rupture: Fresh Grind Ale really is.
Odell Brewing was founded in 1989 by husband and wife duo, Doug and Wynne Odell along with Doug’s sister, Corkie. After a number of years on the West Coast working his homebrewing magic, Doug and Wynne took their honeymoon in the United Kingdom. It was there where he discovered high quality, real ale. They decided that creating a sustainable brewery, which focused on said ale, was fiscally reasonable. Their preliminary location was in an old 1915 grain elevator, not too dissimilar to how many of today’s breweries mark their beginnings in warehouses or similar structures. Great ideas have the tendency to last.
From then on, it’s been the philosophy of restrained yet steady progress for expansion. That attitude has proven quite valuable as Odell boasts being the 28th largest brewery in the United States while only distributing to 16 states. In addition, the Odell family founders sold the company back in 2015 to its co-workers during a management buyout and ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). This ultimately allows the extended Odell brewing family to really cater to the region producing high-quality, fresh beers — some of which have a playful twist.
One of these playful beer ideas is where Rupture Fresh Grind originates. One of the brewers thought there had to a better way to harness more from whole hops in particular. It had to be whole hops since pellets lose a bit of their true character to oxidation, albeit minor, during pellet processing. During this experimental process, it was envisioned that the lupulin glands would be torn apart, enhancing surface area and thus increasing the rate of extraction while minimizing any oxidative side reactions. Voila, Rupture was born.
I know what you’re thinking; this method of utilizing hops is a gimmick, something to be written off and thrown in the trash heap alongside mash hopping. But Odell let the customers decide for themselves if the experiment was successful after having to build the mill and related components from scratch. Recent data indicates that Rupture is the #2 best-selling beer in Colorado. Consider the other amazing breweries and associated beers in Colorado and you realize that’s no joke. In sensory panels, tasters can easily pick out the difference between Rupture and other hop-forward ales due to its distinctive, fresh, resinous nose and flavor backed by additional citrus, dank notes. This same type of perception difference is akin to using freshly ground coffee beans versus coffee grounds that may be older than some of the beers in your cellar.
So how does one recreate Rupture in the comfort of your own home-brewery? On scale, Odell uses a hammer mill to reduce the whole hops down to a coarse, dried spice-like material that passes through the pores of a particular-sized grate before being extruded from the machine. They fresh grind just before brewing but due to utilization and batch size this requires 8 hours of manpower. The homebrewer can simulate this experience, without the expenditure of time, using a Ninja® or Magic Bullet type of mixer that preferably has multiple stainless steel cutters to rapidly shred the whole hops without generating a lot of heat. Although depending on where you live and if marijuana is legal there, there are better options available in terms of mills. Let curiosity be your guide.
Now that you’ve created this wonderful hop amalgam of ruptured lupulin, when should you add it to the boil: Beginning, middle, or flameout? You’ve just spent some time and money milling your hops so you shouldn’t let the boil volatize all of those delicate aromas. Aim to treat this mixture as any other whirlpool hop addition but with one exception — since you’ll be using whole hops be prepared to lose quite a bit of wort due to liquid absorption by the vegetative material. On the plus side, it can be used partially as a filter.
Think of Rupture as not only an extremely fresh, highly flavorful, hop-forward ale, but also as a path towards additional experimentation on hop utilization. In the decade-plus that I’ve been brewing, the concepts of first wort hopping and whirlpool hops have gone from theories to highly practiced techniques. But with human ingenuity, the sky is the limit as this beer has demonstrated. What other techniques to preserve hop flavor and aroma remain hidden for us to discover? Do certain hop varieties perform better than others due to their proportions of essential oils compared to alpha acids? Let’s keep the conversation and thoughts going to see what ideas emerge. Prost!
Odell Brewing Co.’s Rupture clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.063 FG = 1.013
IBU = 37 SRM = 8 ABV = 6.6%
Ingredients
11 lbs (5 kg) 2-row pale ale malt
2 lbs (0.91 kg) Munich malt
7 AAU Cascade hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 7% alpha acids)
20 AAU whole leaf Centennial hops, ground (0 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 10% alpha acids)
26 AAU whole leaf Citra® hops, ground (0 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 13% alpha acids)
26 AAU whole leaf Simcoe® hops, ground (0 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 13% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 or Lallemand BRY-97 (West Coast Ale) yeast
¾ cup (150 g) corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Start off by grinding up the flameout hops. Mill the grains, then mix with 4.1 gallons (15.4 L) of 164 °F (73 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Make any adjustments needed for a mash pH of 5.2–5.4. Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. This is a good time to begin milling your hops that will be used at the end of the boil.
Vorlauf until your runnings are clear, and begin your sparge. Sparge the grains with 5 gallons (19 L) and top up as necessary to obtain 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the times indicated. Add Irish moss or Whirlfloc if needed.
After the boil and whirlpool, rapidly chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, which is 65 °F (18 °C) for this beer. Pitch yeast.
Maintain fermentation temperature of 65 °F (18 °C) for ten days or until the completion of primary fermentation, whichever is later. Then, reduce temperature close to 32 °F (0 °C), and bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Odell Brewing Co.’s Rupture clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.063 FG = 1.014
IBU = 37 SRM = 8 ABV = 6.5%
Ingredients
6 lbs. (2.61 kg) extra light dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Munich dried malt extract
7 AAU Cascade hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 7% alpha acids)
20 AAU whole leaf Centennial hops, ground (0 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 10% alpha acids)
26 AAU whole leaf Citra® hops, ground (0 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 13% alpha acids)
26 AAU whole leaf Simcoe® hops, ground (0 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 13% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 or Lallemand BRY-97 (West Coast Ale) yeast
¾ cup (150 g) corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Start off by grinding up the flameout hops. Next bring 5 gallons (19 L) of water to a near-boil before adding both dried extracts while stirring. Stir until completely dissolved. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the indicated times left in the boil. Add Irish moss or Whirlfloc as directed, if desired.
Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe for fermentation and packaging instuctions.
Tips for Success:
From a 30,000 foot view, take your favorite APA recipe and fresh grind all of your flameout & whirlpool hop additions. High quality, fresh, aromatic whole hops are an absolute must in this beer. Grind them at a minimum the same day that you decide to brew (preferably with a grinder that has multiple blades such as Ninja® or Magic Bullet type of mixer/blender); you could even grind while heating your brewing water or mashing in order to same time. Secondly, even in a hop-forward beer like Rupture, you shouldn’t forget to provide a solid malt backbone to allow the hops to springboard off. Finally, Odell doesn’t need to treat their water to brew Rupture but you should aim for a balanced water profile in general especially in regards to sulfate:chloride ratios.
