Recipes

Mega Omega Hazy DIPA

A hazy double IPA collab by WeldWerks Brewing Co. with Omega Yeast

By WeldWerks and Omega Yeast

Mar 13, 2023

WeldWerks and Omega Yeast partnered up on a mission to find the Thiolized sweet spot for a WeldWerks’ hazy double IPA. Wanting a more intensely expressive thiol profile than they experienced with Cosmic Punch, WeldWerks set out to harness Helio Gazers thiol-blast with a soft, pillowy landing, constructed as only the famous house of haze can do. Here’s their recipe, below. But first, a few things to consider during recipe formation:

To note:

  • Intensely saturated thiols can max out your sensory sensitivity pretty fast.
  • Relative to Cosmic Punch, Helio Gazer is so efficient at converting precursor that loading up precursor with mash hopping isn’t strictly necessary, but still a great tool.
    • Mash hopping is often more relevant to amping up or dialing in with Cosmic Punch, which converts precursor less efficiently comparatively.
  • We’ve found that dry hopping, especially with hops in certain formats, can decrease some of the sensory perception of thiol character, perhaps simply by having competing hop character. 
  • Even when you want a lot of thiol character, that dampening effect, particularly when using an intense strain like Helio Gazer, Star Party and Lunar Crush can serve as great balance.
  • With so many opportunities to increase and intensify thiol notes and also to add in other character, it’s really up to the brewer what elements to incorporate to dial in thiol intensity.

About Mega Omega:

  • With Helio Gazer as the fulcrum, the grist bill, hops, and hop timing were planned for balancing haze stabilization and mouthfeel on one end, with a lot of thiol-enabling on the other.
  • The characteristics of experimental New Zealand hop Mega Motueka, which contains Phantasm, were elevated by thiol character even as they participated in adding precursor to help create it.
  • Since adjuncts have little to no thiol precursor, WeldWerks’ signature high-protein grist that includes white wheat, flaked wheat, and flaked oats served haze and mouthfeel, while the remaining blend of pilsner and pale ale base-malts added precursor. 
    • Helio Gazer is so much more efficient at transforming precursor from malt than Cosmic Punch that there is still plenty for it to do its best work in this adjunct-heavy grist.
  • The grist was rounded out with dextrin for extra fermentables.
  • There’s a small amount of acidulated malt.

Grist

NameType%
Pilsner (Great Western)Grain39.5%
Pale Ale Malt, Northwestern (Great Western)Grain26.3%
Oats, FlakedGrain9.9%
White Wheat Malt (Great Western)Grain7.2%
Wheat, FlakedGrain6.6%
Acidulated (Weyermann)Grain3.6%
Dextrin (Proximity)Grain3.6%
Bioglucanase GBOther- -

For the hot side hop addition, hops were added during an extended whirlpool at 194°F. This kept the aromatic potential high and minimal bitterness.

Hot Side Hops

Name%ProcessMinTempIBU
Mega Motueka (T90)3.6%Steep/Whirlpool60194.4°F15.1
Motueka (T90)7%Steep/Whirlpool 20194.4°F11.8

Yeast: Mega Omega was fermented with Helio Gazer. This intensely Thiolized strain produces absurd levels of passion fruit, dank guava and fresh citrus zest and great, stable haze. It was pitched at 68°F fermented in primary for 4 days and secondary for 10 days. 

Dry hop: the approach for dry hopping was to balance in hop character with the dominant thiols that were present in the beer. To accomplish this, Motueka, Mega Motueka, and Lotus were added at two different points at approximately 3 lb/bbl total.

Dry Hopping

Name%
Mega Motueka (T90)3.6%
Lotus (T90)16.6%
Mega Motueka (T90)3.6%
Motueka (T90)7.0%
Lotus (T90)16.6%
Motueka (T90)7.0%

Helio Gazer has like 200 times that intensity threshold as Cosmic Punch, so for our collab beer, we used that and a tried-and-true Juicy Bits grain bill with lots of oats and lots of protein to get that haze and that mouthfeel going – and Lotus hops to get a little bit of a differentiation. 

In the whirlpool we did two additions of Motueka and Mega Motueka, which has Phantasm powder, to lay the foundation for the precursor biotransformation, then two dry hop additions as well with the same two hops. We definitely designed this beer to push the limits.”

Matt De Miranda, WeldWerks.

Mega Omega Hazy DIPA

Vital Statistics

  • Batch size 18 bbl
  • Boil time 75 min
  • IBUs 16.9
  • OG 20.552°P
  • FG 5.762°P
  • ABV 8.23%

Raw Materials

  • Yeast
    Helio Gazer

  • Mega Motueka (T90)
    WP: 16.5 lb, Dry Hop 1: 11 lb, Dry Hop 2: 16.5 lb.
  • Motueka (T90)
    WP: 11 lb, Dry Hop 1: Motueka 5.5 lb, Dry Hop 2: Motueka 11 lb.
  • Lotus (T90)
    Dry Hop 1: Lotus 5.5 lb, Dry Hop 2: Lotus 11 lb

  • Pilsner (Great Western)
    39.5%
  • Pale Ale Malt, Northwestern (Great Western)
    26.3%
  • Oats, Flaked
    9.9%
  • White Wheat Malt (Great Western)
    7.2%
  • Wheat, Flaked
    6.6%
  • Acidulated (Weyermann)
    3.6%
  • Dextrin (Proximity)
    3.6%
  • Bioglucanase GB

Process

  • Hot side: add hops during an extended whirlpool at 194°F.
  • Pitch Helio Gazer 68°F.
  • Ferment: primary, 4 days; secondary: 10 days.
  • Mega Motueka: 3.6 AA / 16.5 lb / 20 mins left in WP. Motueka: 7AA / 11 lb / 20 mins left in WP.
  • Dry Hop #1 — 9 days before transfer. Mega Motueka: 11 lb // Motueka 5.5 lb / Lotus 5.5 lb.
  • Dry Hop #2 — 4 days before transfer. Mega Motueka: 16.5 lb // Motueka 11 lb / Lotus 11 lb.

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