Water profile for Heady Topper clone

I was wondering if anyone had a water profile they suggest to use when making your heady topper clone. I’m going to be making the NB kit this weekend and would like it as close to HT as possible. I hear that sulfate around 600 isn’t out of the question but I’m concerned about that being excessive. This is not a cheap kit so I don’t want to make something that’s just “drinkable”.

Since I just enjoyed a Heady Topper last night, I can comment on the beer and suggested water treatment.

First, this is a hugely hoppy beer. But it’s not super drying or bitter. So I don’t think that you need to resort to huge sulfate content in the brewing water. A more standard 300 ppm SO4 should be fine.

From the beer’s lack of clarity, it’s apparent that this beer has a huge amount of dry or torpedo hops. In fact, my glass had a nice sediment of lupulin in the bottom by the finish. This thing is loaded! So its apparent that using a bunch of calcium in the water to improve clarity is a waste of time. There is no way to make this beer clear due to the hopping. Just accept the delicious haze. So this factor also suggests that adding a bunch of gypsum for its calcium content is not necessary. Again, this points to using the Pale Ale profile in Bru’n Water as an adequately enhancing profile for this beer.

Enjoy!

[quote=“mabrungard”]Since I just enjoyed a Heady Topper last night, I can comment on the beer and suggested water treatment.

First, this is a hugely hoppy beer. But it’s not super drying or bitter. So I don’t think that you need to resort to huge sulfate content in the brewing water. A more standard 300 ppm SO4 should be fine.

From the beer’s lack of clarity, it’s apparent that this beer has a huge amount of dry or torpedo hops. In fact, my glass had a nice sediment of lupulin in the bottom by the finish. This thing is loaded! So its apparent that using a bunch of calcium in the water to improve clarity is a waste of time. There is no way to make this beer clear due to the hopping. Just accept the delicious haze. So this factor also suggests that adding a bunch of gypsum for its calcium content is not necessary. Again, this points to using the Pale Ale profile in Bru’n Water as an adequately enhancing profile for this beer.

Enjoy![/quote]

Excellent Martin. Thanks for the input!