Oberon Clone

bobbo · 03-28-2007, 03:31 PM

Hey fellow brewers!
Does anyone have a good extract recipe for an Oberon clone? It's a really good American wheat ale made by Bells, a brewery near me in Kalamazoo, MI. I searched the internet, and all I can find are all grain recipes. I saw a thread here from December 2005, but the amounts of extract were just estimated, and they never mentioned how it turned out.
So anyway, if anyone either has a recipe, or knows how the previously mentioned recipe turned out, I would really appreciate it!

Yeast Infection · 03-28-2007, 03:39 PM

i love Oberon....i love Bells, its such a nice treat. Unfortunately i cant help you here, but i like the direction you are going. Good Luck

cweston · 03-28-2007, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobbo

Hey fellow brewers!
Does anyone have a good extract recipe for an Oberon clone? It's a really good American wheat ale made by Bells, a brewery near me in Kalamazoo, MI. I searched the internet, and all I can find are all grain recipes.

Post an AG recipe that you found and we can help you convert it to extract or extract + grains.

IIRC, Oberon has a golden orange color, which suggests to me a significant amount of Vienna malt, which is not really steepable successfully. That could be an issue.

bobbo · 03-28-2007, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cweston

Post an AG recipe that you found and we can help you convert it to extract or extract + grains.

IIRC, Oberon has a golden orange color, which suggests to me a significant amount of Vienna malt, which is not really steepable successfully. That could be an issue.

From winebarrel.com:

1 bbl batch size.

35 lbs briess 2-row 25 lbs durst wheat 5 lbs belgium munich 5 lbs Carapils

90g hallertau - 45 min 120g hallertau - 30 min 150g saaz - end of boil 50g hallertau - end of boil

Use a cultured bells yeast or wyeast 1056.

This is the actual recipe Bells uses, not a cloned knockoff.

How would this convert to extract and steeped grains? I'd be doing a partial boil; my kettle's only 4 gallons. If it would help with the color, I could do a late extract addition (does this change the amount of hops or malt to use?) Also, what do you think "end of boil" means - the last 5 minutes?
Sorry for all the questions. I just thought of making an Oberon clone last night, and I'm already excited! By the way, I'm not too worried about the color, as long as it tastes right!

cweston · 03-28-2007, 05:21 PM

OK, so it's 50% two-row, 36% wheat, and 7% each carapils and munich.

Wheat DME or LME is about 60% wheat/ 40% barley, so to maintain their ratio, you'd want to use about regular ME and wheat ME in about equal proportions.

I figure a commercial brewery gets about 90% efficiency, so 70 lbs grain in a 1bbl batch means a gravity in the mid to upper 50s.

So, for a five gallon batch, I'd say you need about 7.7 lbs LME or about 6.5 lbs DME, divided between wheat and extra light. Steep about 6 ozs each of carapils and munich (or vienna), which will give you a cloudy beer. If that's not acceptable, skip the munich (or use a small amount of munich LME from Northern Brewer) and use a little malto-dextrin instead of the carapils.

I have to do actual work now--someone else can take over with the hops.

cweston · 03-28-2007, 09:08 PM

Following up on my own hanging curve...

I might be interested in this myself.

I usually brew six gallon batches.

I changed the "belgium Munich" to Vienna, because I think that will lead to a sublty different flavor and color. (I use Vienna in my Saison).

6.5 lbs 2-row
4.5 lbs wheat
1 lb vienna
.75 lb carapils

.6 oz Hallertau 45 mins
.85 oz Hallertaus 30 mins
1 oz Saaz 0 minutes
.35 oz Hallertau 0 minutes

at 70% efficiency, that'd be about 1.052 OG and 17.5 IBUs

You could substitute a total of 7 lbs LME or 5.75 lbs DME split about equally between extra light and wheat for the 2 row and wheat malts in the AG recipe.

The hops amounts are exact recales and convert to ounces figures: I obviously don't have the equipment to measure those amounts exactly. Again, this is based on a 6 gallon batch, full boil.

You could use something like Beer recipator to get the same gravity and IBU amounts based on your batch size and boil volume.

(edit: I see from Bells' website that Oberon has an OG of 1.057)

dannypo · 03-29-2007, 01:24 AM

Here is a recipe I got off of one of the other brewing boards.

Oberon

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00 Wort Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 14.00
Anticipated OG: 1.057 Plato: 14.03
Anticipated SRM: 5.3
Anticipated IBU: 24.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
57.1 8.00 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
28.6 4.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
7.1 1.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
7.1 1.00 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt 1.033 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.60 oz. Perle Whole 8.25 17.8 60 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz Whole 3.50 1.7 15 min.
0.50 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 2.3 15 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz Whole 3.50 1.1 2 min.
0.50 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker Whole 4.75 1.4 2 min.

Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.00 Oz Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP001 California Ale

If you were to do this extract I would say replace the wheat malt and the 2-row with 6.5lbs of wheat DME. The problem with extract in this case is you really shouldn't steep munich. It needs to be mashed. Some stores do sell munich extract now but I have never used it.

CDPike · 04-26-2007, 05:27 PM

Check out www.theredsalamander.com. They are a supplier located near Lansing, MI and have a few recipes including an Oberon clone. As a matter of fact, I'll be on my way to pick up the ingredients for it myself shortly!

bobbo · 04-27-2007, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDPike

Check out www.theredsalamander.com. They are a supplier located near Lansing, MI and have a few recipes including an Oberon clone. As a matter of fact, I'll be on my way to pick up the ingredients for it myself shortly!

Geez, a recipe from my own backyard! This recipe calls for steeping a pound each of torrified wheat and munich. Are these going to work well for steeping? I guess they must, since the recipe calls for it, but according to the WIKI, it looks like they should be mashed (which, although I've read it doesn't take much, I can't do). Thoughts anyone?
Also, it calls for 6 lbs syrup and 1.5 lbs DME. Why does it use some of each? Can't I just use all DME?

Tophe · 04-27-2007, 03:10 PM

I talked to the guy down at bell's and he said he could help me put a clone together. I have not been down there since to build a recipe yet. I'll be looking for a PM recipe .