Dark Star Hophead Clone Recipe
Dark Star Hophead is a beer that has become a cult classic. The style is what I would describe as pale and hoppy and the ABV which started at 4% and later dropped to 3.8% places it in the category of cask beers that you can have 2 or 3 pints of, a session bitter.
Cascade hops dominate the flavour and aroma of Hophead and at the time, in the early 2000s, it was bright, refreshing and modern.
Recipe Details
| Batch Size | Boil Time | IBU | SRM | Est. OG | Est. FG | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 L | 60 min | 45.6 IBUs | 9.7 EBC | 1.037 | 1.008 | 3.8 % |
Fermentables
| Name | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Pale Malt, Maris Otter | 3 kg | 93.75 |
| Caraamber | 200 g | 6.25 |
Hops
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Form | Alpha % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cascade | 20 g | 60 min | Boil | Leaf | 5.5 |
| Amarillo | 15 g | 60 min | Boil | Leaf | 9.2 |
| Cascade | 20 g | 15 min | Boil | Leaf | 5.5 |
| Cascade | 50 g | 15 min | Aroma | Leaf | 5.5 |
Yeast
| Name | Lab | Attenuation | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safale American (US-05) | DCL/Fermentis | 77% | 15°C - 23.89°C |
Mash
| Step | Temperature | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mash In | 66.5°C | 75 min |
Download
| Download this recipe's BeerXML file |
Dark Star Brewing
Dark Star started as a microbrewery in the cellar of the Brighton pub The Evening Star in 1994. I grew up in the South East and you could always rely on a consistent, bright and hoppy beer from Dark Star. Being a small, new brewery they were producing beers that would different from large regional breweries and utilising bold, US hops before they were as commonplace as they are today.
Dark Star Brewery was then acquired by Fullers with some of the production transferred to the Fullers brewery and then Fullers was in turn acquired by Asahi.
Malt Extract Version
To brew a malt extract version of this beer substitute the Maris otter malt for one the following:
2.65kg (5lb 13oz) Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract
or
2.15kg (4lb 12ozlb) Extra Pale Dry Malt Extract
Steep the caramalt in a grain bag for 20 minutes, add a third of the malt extract at the start of the boil and the remaining 2/3rds a few minutes before the end of the boil.
Recipe Notes
- The ingredients for this beer are listed on Dark Star Breweries website here.
- An interesting forum thread was also referenced in designing this recipe.
Interested to know how this compares to the original. After speaking to the head brewer at Dark Star, he informed me the hop schedule should be a little warrior at beginning of book then to 50 IBU with cascade in the whirlpool. I also believe they use a mix of yeasts.
It is pretty close in my opinion. The bittering hop may be warrior. Cascade definitely for aroma. Give it a brew I think it is pretty close.