danculwell
Well-Known Member
I just got this email from the guys at New Belgium. It's a response to my asking about their recipes. Thought I would share.
Dan
Thanks for your question about brewing.
In an attempt to help you brew a Fat Tire clone, here are some suggestions:
Incorporate a nice medium crystal malt into your malt bill as well as some toasted or biscuit malt.
Mash to shoot for a medium finishing gravity that wont leave the finished beer too sweet.
Boil with three hop additions utilizing more noble European hops.
Use a nice neutral ale yeast at a temperature on the cool side for ales.
Next 1554. For your malt bill, in addition to pale malt, I would suggest using some nice dark caramel malt, some black malt, a bit of chocolate malt and a higher than average percentage of dextrin malt such as Weyermann Carafoam. Dont use too much black or chocolate as 1554 is not opaque.
Mash as a single infusion and keep mash temperature on the warm end of the conversion spectrum for a short period of time.
I would suggest boiling for an average period of time while keeping your hops limited to one addition at the beginning of the boil shooting for low bitterness. The focus of this beer is the malt.
Use a neutral ale yeast that doesnt throw of a lot of esters in fermentation and go for a nice cool fermentation temperature to help keep ester production down. If possible, rack off of the yeast after fermentation is complete (allowing ample time for a thorough diacetyl rest), and cellar cold if possible for maturation.
I hope this helps and good luck with the brew.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers!
Christian Holbrook
Brewer
New Belgium Brewing Company