Thanks all! Not trying to clone Blue Moon per se, just trying to get the idea of that style of beer into a bottle. I'm not much into cloning...If I want Blue Moon I'd just buy it (and I do).
I just dig what it is and would like to get something along the same lines. All I know for sure is that when I racked into secondary it smelled *heavenly*. I hope to bottle next weekend...
I'll need to polish off another half case of my "prohibition" style experiment I tried. Not to get off topic but that is an interesting brew. Had over a pound of table suger in it. I found it in my wifes grandfathers journels from wayyyy back in the day.
The recipe you ask? One can of any hopped extract, a pound of suger. Very cidery from the suger, but that is an interesting taste. It's not overpowering, kind of unique. Not something that you find on a store shelf, thats for sure.
Also, you have to use a liquid yeast strain for this style of beer; not a dry yeast. Such as White Labs Belgium Wit (WLP400) or the Wyeast equivalent.
There are many wheat/wit/hefe yeasts available in liquid, but this statement above is isn't totally accurate. There is a dry wheat yeast out there. I plan on testing it today on a 2.5 gallon batch of Wit.
Product Description:
Brewferm Blanche (12 grams): The new dried brewing yeast from Brewferm has arrived! Brewferm Blanche is a top fermenting yeast suitable for producing Belgian-style Witbiers and other brews where light banana and clove aromas are desired.
Thanks to all for the Orange-Wheat Beer Recipe that emulates the Blue Moon. Haven't tried it myself but think that is going to be my next brew. I tried the Hoegaarden Clone recipe in one of the Clone Brew Books and noticed that, indeed, like others have said, it came out darker and much stronger in flavor than what I was looking for. I boxed it up and put it down in the cellar for a few months for aging and will come back to it in March and see how she tastes.
As to the color issue, look up "late extract addition" techniques. There's no need for extract to be boiled a full hour; you can add most of it to the boil in the last twenty minutes and it will be sanitized (you don't need to worry about getting a hot break with extract, most was removed during the manufacturing process).
As a side note, hops utilization is higher with less extract in the boil during the beginning, and with these kinds of beers you've got to be REALLY careful about that.
What this will do is lighten up the beer considerably. It may still have "too much" flavor, but at least you'll have something that LOOKS more appropriate.
Thanks, Bird...
I'll have to try this method with my next Belgian. The recipes I were using always said to boil the extracts (after steeping the grains) for 45-60 minutes. I can't say I dislike the results of my extracts sitting through long boils. Though I like the sound of this shortened extract boil, is there any reason a long boil would be benefiticial?
__________________
Primary 1: The Astronomer: An Imperial Stout Primary 2: NA Secondary 1: Potion #6: An Irish Stout Bottled/Conditioning:
- Vander Maass German Wheat
- Mad Tiger: Honey IPA Bottled/Drinking:
- Vander Maass German Wheat
- Mad Tiger: Honey IPA Up Next:
- undecided
Though I like the sound of this shortened extract boil, is there any reason a long boil would be benefiticial?
Even with a late extract edition, you are still going to need a "long"/60 minute boil in most cases... You need the longer duartion boil (with or without extracts) to extract the bittering oils from your hops.
So basically, you can late add the extract and boil the extract for only 15 minutes, but if you make the entire boil 15 minutes (hops and all), your bittering from the hops is going to be lacking...
^ With that said, please note boiling hops in just water for 15-30-45 minutes before the extract edition is going to give them much higher utilization/bittering qualities in that time. So make sure you plan your hop schedule accordingly with the late edition.
Some good brewing software would help you plan out this late extract edition a little better than just guessing...
What I do with BeerSmith if I want to do a late edition is make (in essence) 2 recipes in the software. You need to play around this way because there is not a simple checkbox or something for a 'late edition' of extract... So, I start a recipe with basically the steeping grains, boil size [water], duration, and hops I plan to use in the first part (no extract) of the boil. This will give me an idea of the IBUs I can expect from boiled hops before extract edition. Then I'll modify the recipe or create a second recipe with the extracts, remaining hop schedule, remaining boil time, etc. to get an idea how it will finish up. I think overall it allows me to paint a decent picture of how the late extract edition will work; probably not perfect and won't be until BeerSmith configures itself to except recipes with late edition, but better than just guessing...
OK, just checked the gravity and it's 1.020, not quite down to the 1.010 that I'm expecting. It has been fermenting for about three weeks now. It is still bubbling about every 30-45 secongs. Should I RDWHAHB?
__________________
Diamondzen Brewhouse:
Primary: English Pub Ale
Secondary:
Aging: White Ale, California Common
Drinking: John Bull Pilsner, Austrailian Pale Ale
On Deck: The balls to go all-grain
OK, FG is down to 1.012. Beer is clear with only a few bits of foamy head in the secondary fermentor. Recipe states OG should be at 1.010. The beer tastes sweet, but I assume that is from the 2.5 lbs of honey. It's been in a fermentation vessle for over a month.
Do you all think it is ready to go?
__________________
Diamondzen Brewhouse:
Primary: English Pub Ale
Secondary:
Aging: White Ale, California Common
Drinking: John Bull Pilsner, Austrailian Pale Ale
On Deck: The balls to go all-grain
Linear Mode
