Panhead Supercharger Clone (I)

About This Beer

Owen’s first crack at a Panhead Supercharger clone — a Home Brew West kit cloning one of New Zealand’s best-loved APAs. He liked it enough to brew it again five weeks later, and to keep coming back to the recipe for years afterward. This is where that long relationship begins.

The malt side is deliberately simple and clean: a Gladfield Ale Malt base with just a touch of Toffee Malt for a hint of sweetness and a little Light Crystal for colour and body — a restrained backbone that leaves room for the hops. And there are plenty of those: 300 grams of Simcoe, Centennial and Citra split roughly half-and-half between the boil and a generous dry hop. Simcoe’s pine and passionfruit, Centennial’s citrus-floral lift, and Citra’s tropical punch are the Supercharger signature.

Brew Day

Mashed at 65°C for 60 minutes with 17.5 litres, mashed out at 75°C, and sparged 14 litres at 75°C into a 60-minute boil. The boil hops went in staged: Simcoe at 60, Centennial at 30, then Simcoe and Centennial together at 10 minutes with the Irish Moss, and a final hit of Simcoe, Centennial and Citra at one minute — 140 grams in the kettle all up (Simcoe 50, Centennial 60, Citra 30).

Fermentation

Two packets of US-05 went in once the wort hit 20–23°C, fermented at 19–20°C for five days. The remaining 160 grams of hops — Simcoe 50, Centennial 40, Citra 70 — went in as a day-five dry hop, and once the gravity was stable the beer was dropped to 10°C, then cold-conditioned at 1°C with finings before packaging.

The figures shown — OG 1.053, FG 1.013, 5.2% ABV, 48 IBU — are the kit’s expected values.