Moo-Hoo Clone

royal1911 said:

I always like to buy local but my LHBS has made several screw ups on my purchases so I just ordered the majority of my grains and hops online. I do buy 50lb sacks of 2 row and yeast from them though. It sucks to have a great recipe and not have accurate measurements of grains.


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It was actually a pretty honest mistake. I gave them 2 printed recipes when I came and and told them to take their time because I would be at the tap room for a while.

After looking them over the yeast part wasnt very clear.

Bottled my second attempt tonight. Hoping for the best!
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finsfan said:

Bottled my second attempt tonight. Hoping for the best!
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Don't hope, believe and it will be.


Haha I mean, good luck pal.

Has anyone finished and tasted this yet? Thoughts/comparisons against actual Moo Hoo? I plan on brewing some up this weekend, can make a 10 gallon batch for what they're asking for a case around here... Although it is pretty tasty!

And now with labels...

I'll report back when my son samples his gift.

I'm planning on doing an extract version this weekend.

Ok, I didn't tell him it was supposed to be a Moo Hoo clone. His initial comment was; yum... I can taste the chocolate.

When I asked how it compared to Moo Hoo, he said mine has more roasty notes than Moo Hoo and Moo Hoo was more smooth. I'm not sure what he meant by smooth? Maybe the clone has more bitterness??

I told him it was supposed to be a Moo Hoo clone, he said he would get some real Moo Hoo and do a side by side comparison and let me know.

Overall comments were very good. I think he really liked the beer. But sounds like it won't quite pass as a "clone" just yet. Once I get better feedback, I'll post another report and see if there are any suggestions for adjustments.

Moo Hoo brew day... I'll let you all know how it turns out

Cwbeck3 said:

Moo Hoo brew day... I'll let you all know how it turns out

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Nice edelmetal burner! I bought one a few months back and love it.


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Thanks... Picked that up when Midwest was running 20% off over the summer. Great burner especially at that price.

Brew Day went well, except my OG was too low. I'm still getting used to working with this system. The only thing I did different was added 6oz of cocoa powder with 10 minutes left in the boil. It tasted pretty good going into the fermenter, now I guess time will tell...

Cwbeck3 said:

...Brew Day went well, except my OG was too low. I'm still getting used to working with this system. The only thing I did different was added 6oz of cocoa powder with 10 minutes left in the boil. It tasted pretty good going into the fermenter, now I guess time will tell...

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In addition to the cocoa powder added during the boil, do you plan to use the Cacao Nibs in the secondary too?

Yes... I plan on soaking in vodka with a vanilla bean before adding them to the secondary.

@Cwbeck3, what's up with your brew kettle? Did you cut the top off that keg? It doesn't look like it. I'm corn-fused! !!

Haha... Sorry that's my fermenter... I was sterilizing it as I was heating up my strike water.

Oh. Now I see.

I made an extract version last night. It's bubbling away in the closet now!

I tried my first bottle late last week and I have to say I was happy! It was still a little green but the flavors of moo hoo were there! I will wait a few more weeks before I do a side by side, but I am optimistic!

finsfan said:

I tried my first bottle late last week and I have to say I was happy! It was still a little green but the flavors of moo hoo were there! I will wait a few more weeks before I do a side by side, but I am optimistic!

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Sweet!!

I just kegged mine up today. I also bottled 18 so I can let some age. I can tell this one won't last very long on tap!

finsfan said:

I tried my first bottle late last week and I have to say I was happy! It was still a little green but the flavors of moo hoo were there! I will wait a few more weeks before I do a side by side, but I am optimistic!

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Well finfan, been waiting to see your side by side. My son finally gave me his as it took him a while to find the real thing.

He said my version of your clone has more roasty notes and slightly more bitterness. The Moo Hoo has more chocolate flavor that comes through than the clone.

I asked him about adjustments and he said he didn't know if he would make any changes because he likes both for different reasons.

The smell of this batch while it was fermenting was incredible. I gave my son 2 full cases and only kept a six pack for myself. I didn't care for stouts before trying this recipe. Now I am considering doing a repeat to keg for myself.

BTW, I ended up "dry nibbing" 8 oz for 7 days. Was curious about how long you ended up leaving your nibs in the secondary and the notes on the your own side by side.

jbb3 said:

Well finfan, been waiting to see your side by side. My son finally gave me his as it took him a while to find the real thing.

He said my version of your clone has more roasty notes and slightly more bitterness. The Moo Hoo has more chocolate flavor that comes through than the clone.

I asked him about adjustments and he said he didn't know if he would make any changes because he likes both for different reasons.

The smell of this batch while it was fermenting was incredible. I gave my son 2 full cases and only kept a six pack for myself. I didn't care for stouts before trying this recipe. Now I am considering doing a repeat to keg for myself.

BTW, I ended up "dry nibbing" 8 oz for 7 days. Was curious about how long you ended up leaving your nibs in the secondary and the notes on the your own side by side.

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I havent been able to do a side by side yet, but will hopefully be able to soon. I have to agree with you even before I try the real thing again, not enough chocolate. I was expecting more with using a half pound of the nibs and I need to look into other options for chocolate if that didnt do it. I also had mine on the nibs for 7-8 days.

finsfan said:

I havent been able to do a side by side yet, but will hopefully be able to soon. I have to agree with you even before I try the real thing again, not enough chocolate. I was expecting more with using a half pound of the nibs and I need to look into other options for chocolate if that didnt do it. I also had mine on the nibs for 7-8 days.

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Wondering if we do cocoa powder at the end of the boil and cocoa nibs in secondary if that will do the trick? Or if it will introduce more bitterness??

Well, mine has only been in the bottle about 2 weeks.

As a chocolate stout, it is REALLY damned good! Even this new and I'm sure it will be better.

As a Moo-Hoo though, I dunno. I'm going to track some down and do a comparison after a couple more weeks but I agree. It doesnt quite seem to have that chocolatey syrup type taste that Moo Hoo gets.

BTW, 8oz of nibs soaks up a lot of vodka lol. I ended up with an ABV of 6.8 which is a pretty big over shoot for the Moo-Hoo.

Dunno if it was vodka, or a mistep in the recipe.

I'm totally ok with having a big, yummy, chocolate stout though

Im not too sure how else I could tweak the recipe to match the clone considering Terrapin gave me this recipe. I think if we can figure out the chocolate addition that would make a huge difference.

I did 6oz of cocoa powder in the boil for an 8 gal batch and thought the chocolate flavor was spot on. I agree the recipe has more roasted notes and bitterness compared to the real thing, which I'm not too upset about. I also found Moo Hoo a little on the sweeter side. I could probably up the lactose a bit to get there.

Is everyone that is experiencing "roastier" than normal beer using De HUSKED carafa? If not, that is whats causing the excessive roast.

Also, I found out something interesting today from coyote68 that may be the reason that some of us arent getting as much chocolate flavor as we would like. As well as using cocoa nibs, their website also now lists that they use cocoa shells. Not sure if I overlooked that or if that is something new they added to the website. I have contacted terrapin for more info on how to use that, and will be posting out what I find.

I just heard back from "Spike" at Terrapin. He says that they use shells at a rate of 50lbs per 200 barrels after fermentation. If I did the math right, that would be ~18grams for a 5 gallons batch. Does anyone want to check that? haha

I also emailed olive and sinclair to see if they will sell me cocoa shells since they dont list that on their website. I will also follow up on that and see what they say. Cheers!

So, latest batch of Moo-Hoo dropped recently. Anyone else taken any stabs at this?

mbbransc said:

So, latest batch of Moo-Hoo dropped recently. Anyone else taken any stabs at this?

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This is freaky. I actually have BS open looking at this recipe, then happen to see your post pop up... It's fate! I'm brewing this again this weekend.

Thinking of increasing the lactose and adding some cacao powder at the end of the boil this time around to try and enhance the chocolate flavor.

I wonder if @FinsFan has attempted another batch since last posting about the cacao shells??

I'm planning something similar. I plan to add 4oz Ghirardelli 100% cocoa powder with ~5' left in the boil. Once fermentation has completed, I'm going to add 4oz cocoa nibs and a split vanilla bean for a 1-2 wks. I feel like the powder is necessary to get the chocolate flavor packed in there. Vanilla has long been used to accentuate chocolate and I think it will help round out that flavor.

I am using a whole pound of lactose.

I don't have any experience with using vanilla bean and I don't want to drastically change the flavor profile of FinFans recipe as I really liked the first batch I brewed.

However, I would like to bring out a bit more of the chocolate flavor. When purchasing my grist bill yesterday, I also bought a 1oz package of vanilla beans so I do have them on hand. But now I'm thinking of not using it??

I'm thinking I should make small adjustments so I can gauge the impact of each change. Maybe I'll just increase the lactose and throw in 4oz of cacao powder in the last 5 min of the boil this time around

If you use vanilla bean in the secondary, how much do you plan on using? And have you ever compared using vanilla bean vs not using vanilla bean in the same recipe to gauge the impact flavor??

Guess my efficiency has improved since doing this batch last year. Used the same grain bill but ended up with 5.5 gal of wort @ 1.080. Had to add 1/2 gal of top off water to get it down to 1.072.

I went with 1.25 lbs of lactose at 10 min and 4oz powdered cacao at 5 min.

We'll see how it ferments out...

I did this with 4 oz cacao nibs and 2 vanilla beans. Each spent a week on Vodka. They wound up sitting in the fermenter for 3 weeks (schedule got in the way) and the taste was great.

jbb3 said:

Guess my efficiency has improved since doing this batch last year. Used the same grain bill but ended up with 5.5 gal of wort @ 1.080. Had to add 1/2 gal of top off water to get it down to 1.072.

I went with 1.25 lbs of lactose at 10 min and 4oz powdered cacao at 5 min.

We'll see how it ferments out...

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I've had my latest batch with adjustments mentioned above in the keg for a little more than a week now. First impressions; It's definitely more chocolaty and not nearly as roasty as the original FinFan batch. The aroma is not there like before but I attribute that to not using the Olive & Sinclair nibs as I couldn't find them this time around. The original batch had the most wonderful aroma. This batch, not so much.

The 1.25 lbs of lactose seems to have covered some of the roast notes which is what I was after. But now I find myself missing that from the original batch. Between the increased lactose and cacao powder added during the boil, I think it's a little too sweet and too "thick" for my taste. I'm anxious for the son, who is more the stout drinker than me to give it a try and get his comments.

If I were too make adjustments based on my impressions right now, I'd drop back to the 1 lbs of lactose and 2 oz of cacao powder. And obviously try harder to find the Olive & Sinclair nibs. But we'll see how it conditions out after another few weeks in the keg...

Thanks for the work on the recipe Finsfan. I used this as a guide when I was planning a milk stout (minus the chocolat) and it turned out great.

I know this is kind of old, but has anyone tried or tweaked this one recently?

homebrew_nj said:

I know this is kind of old, but has anyone tried or tweaked this one recently?

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Have this on tap right now about 2 weeks old. It came out a little too roasty for my taste even using the Carafa III. Maybe add the dark grains closer to the end of the mash? Also, the lactose seems to pale in comparison to the chocolate. Would possibly up that as well.

A great beer overall but when comparing to the original it's not exactly quite right. Could be a factor of the system/setup and needing to tune it to my process.