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**mysteryberto** · 09-08-2008, 04:47 AM

Sorry to bring back a dead thread but after about 4 months it's time for an update.

I bottled some of this today to make room in my kegerator. It's now smoother tasting with less of an alcohol bite. However it has become even sweeter with almost no hop taste left. It's almost too sweet to drink.

I still think a brewery releasing homebrew kits is awesome. But I found this kit majorly lacking in hops. Also I think the candi sugar could have played a part in making the beer sweet.

If I were to try and clone dead guy again I'd probably just use Yooper's clone recipe.

**Revvy** · 09-08-2008, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mysteryberto

Sorry to bring back a dead thread but after about 4 months it's time for an update.

I bottled some of this today to make room in my kegerator. It's now smoother tasting with less of an alcohol bite. However it has become even sweeter with almost no hop taste left. It's almost too sweet to drink.

I still think a brewery releasing homebrew kits is awesome. But I found this kit majorly lacking in hops. Also I think the candi sugar could have played a part in making the beer sweet.

If I were to try and clone dead guy again I'd probably just use Yooper's clone recipe.

Yeah, I found it odd that they add candi sugar, going by Yooper's clone it really dosen't need it.

Chad · 09-08-2008, 12:56 PM

Revvy, if you've got any of your Yooper Dead Guy left, maybe you and Mysteryberto could do a small swap to compare the kit beer to your version. I'd be interested to hear how each of you assesses the other clone brew.

My take on Yooper's recipe is on the schedule for later this month or possibly early October, depending on when I can free up space in the fridge. Mine actually will be a lager, pitched onto the yeast cake of a Vienna lager that is burbling away now.

Chad

Bert1097 · 02-16-2010, 08:35 PM

Sorry to drag up an old thread but I just finished brewing this kit myself. When the kit arrived a few weeks ago one of the DME bags had a hole in it which left the entire inside of the box a sticky mess.

Like previously mentioned the instructions were lacking in identification of the brewed items which kinda stinks if I want to repeat the recipe. Another problem w/ the instructions was that they too were coated in DME so I through them away w/o really paying attention. I have to laugh at myself after reading the previous threads b/c I assumed that all the bittering hops were to go in at 60 min and the aroma hops were to go in at 58 min. Maybe that will help out w/ the lack of hop flavor and too much sweetness mentioned since I should be getting more IBU's from the full 60 min boil?

Another thing I did differently was adding the DME and candi sugar pre-boil. I do full boils so I don't think this will hurt me too badly.

Lastly, I weighed each bag of DME and added 0.5lbs of extra light DME to make up for what I thought I had lost in the box. This is concerning since my OG is 1.084 even after topping up to just over 5gallons. The projected OG on the box was 1.067.

I would love to hear peoples' thoughts.

Bert1097 · 02-16-2010, 08:54 PM

Although there is precious little information regarding the ingredients I ran what I had through beer smith and it doesn't make any sense.

5.5# extra light DME
8.5 oz Candi Sugar
1.5# of specialty grains; I ran this as crystal 60

With these fermentables I got a projected OG of 1.059. I suppose it's possible that the wort wasn't mixed completely although I doubt it. Between dumping it into the fermentation bucket then mixing it w/ my wine thief I was pretty sure is was mixed adequately. I even took several readings after more mixing.

I'm stumped.

Retarded_Penguin_Brewing · 02-16-2010, 10:17 PM

for those with itunes, check out the brewing network presents-the jamil show. they did a show about cloning rogue dead guy dated 6-22-09. they interviewed the head brewer there at rogue and although he wasn't quite forth coming with information about it because it's one of their proprietary beers, you can still get an idea of what malts are used. they actually use a lot of crystal malt ranging from about 60 up to 120. check it out, it's a good listen.

quickly · 02-19-2010, 06:27 PM

I have a certain place in my heart for this kit...

When I first started brewing I brew a couple batches a brown ale and a red ale... they weren't great but certainly drinkable.

The third batch was a cream ale I brewed it in august-sept in VT huge temperature shifts. It ruined the beer and me from homebrewing.

About 6 months after the cream ale I decided I'd get this kit and give it one more go.

It came out great. That was more than 2 yrs ago and I've been brewing at least one batch a month since then. I don't think that it completely clones a dead guy but its a damn good beer.

**OcularTrauma** · 09-04-2012, 03:01 AM

This is from the kit I just brewed. Interesting how the ingredients have changed for 2012:

3lbs Pilsen Light DME (Brewcraft) @60
2lbs Amber DME (Brewcraft) @15
1lb "Brewers Crystals" (Brewcraft) @15
1lb Munich - slowly warmed to 160F, rested for 10 before boil
0.5lbs Crystal 40L - slowly warmed to 160F, rested for 10 before boil

1oz Perle 7.0% "raw" (whole,dried - HopUnion) @60 "bittering"
0.5oz Mt. Hood 6.1% "raw" (whole, dried - HopUnion) @15 "flavor"
0.5oz 0.5oz Mt. Hood 6.1% "raw" (whole, dried - HopUnion) @flameout (+10 min rest before cooling) "aroma"

Recommended Yeast: Wyeast PACMAN
Alternate: US-05/WY1056/WLP001

Hope this helps someone!

StusBrew · 11-17-2012, 11:12 PM

I saw this kit recently in LHBS and was curious about it. If it was similar to the bottles you'd buy in the store. I've seen yooper's recipe and I've listened to Jamil's podcast version. Just curious about the taste of the kit compared to all grain, etc. Let me know.

**OcularTrauma** · 11-19-2012, 01:12 AM

Just my $0.02, but not sure I'd do this kit again.

It was very expensive at my LHBS after I added the PacMan. DGA is my go-to commercial brew and the kit just... didn't do it for me. I think the "Brewers Crystals" really kinda threw things off. I fermented it at the lower end of the fermentation temperature listed on the instructions to try to keep it as clean as possible and I ended up with good attenuation. It seemed too sweet in the end, even though I finished on the lower end of the prescribed FG. I would say that mysteryberto's notes at the top of this page are a good summery of what I found as well.

Maybe it was something in my process or environment? I've been doing all grain for a while now so I figured this would be a quick and easy way to make 5 gallons and fill tap space with something I love. It is a decent beer, it just wasn't DGA for me. I'd try Yoopers or Jamils before I would pony up for this again.