New Glarus Moon Man Clone Help

I found a post that listed the alleged 5 hops from Moon Man by one of the brewers from New Glarus. Im trying to come up with a recipe for it. Ive never made my own recipe though so Im looking for some help. Here is the base recipe, Im just not sure how much and type of hops to use for bittering/dry hopping. Anyone have any suggestions?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.94 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 7.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 0.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.19 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
1 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
1.00 oz Southern Cross [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)Hops -
1.00 oz Target [11.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Pacific Gem [15.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Riwaka [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -

1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.50 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 13.13 qt of water at 168.2 F 156.0 F

I hope you find out, Id love to know, awesome beer.

You've got me confused. No hops in the boil? All dry hops?

No, thats what I need help with. Puttin which ones in the boil and which ones to dry hop with (or some both Im sure).

Man good luck- New Glarus plays the cards close to the vest- in fact I do not believe they have ever provided a recipe for a homebrewer. I'm not sure Dan even likes hombrewers after a couple comments I have seen him make in an interview. He is a professional brewer and never was a homebrewer so he obviously has a different take on it. I like the beers though, with exception to Spotted Cow. Stinks, I've got to be in Wisconsin to get them, but I still give them plenty of business while I am there.

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Yeah I know. Apparently someone knew one of the brewers there and they told him the hops in it (He thought Southern Cross was right, but wasnt sure on that one).

Its a great beer though and Id love to not pay $9 a six pack for it.

i made an all-cascade IPA that had a similar hop profile to moon man. I mean, those are a lot of crazy-random hops....

the key to this beer is mash low. also, 1.057 is way too high OG in my opinion. This is supposed to be a "session IPA".

I thought that mashing higher would give it a maltier flavor...did I go the wrong way?

I looked up all the hops (cause I hadnt ever hear of some of them) and while a crazy blend, none of them didnt fit, so I have to believe its close.

It should be 1.051...I forgot to change it to a 5.5G batch =D

BrewNinja, Did you ever give this a shot? I've been looking at doing a clone of this myself.

Not yet. Some of the hops are pretty special order, so I was waiting till I needed something else in order to buy them. Last I checked a few months ago rebel brewer carried them...but I didnt need anything else and shipping was high for a couple of oz of hops. If you do end up trying it, let us know how it goes.

I'm not an IPA/hop-head, but I love this Moon Man by NG. Any chance that you've tried brewing this BrewNinja?

Nope...everytime I find Riwaka in stock, by the time I get an order together its gone. Someday maybe.

I messaged Dan before for help with a Black Wheat clone. He all but gave me the recipe. He told me the hops in Moon Man when i talked to hime last summer at the brewery, and Riwaka or whatever was deff. not one of them. Cascase, amarillo and a couple others. Great guy.

Are we talking about the same Dan Carey? He has always been extremely tight lipped about his brews and never willing to share too much info. The listed hops in my first post were from another forum where someone who went on a tour got the info from a brewmaster. Im not saying they are right or wrong...just what someone else was told.

Same Dan Carey. I messaged him on BA, and I had a response in a couple hrs. For my black wheat,He gave me much of the grain bill, and said to culture some yeast from a bottle of Dancin Man to get the authentic yeast strain they use. He didnt seem 'tight lipped' to me. Not as open as say, Surly, who give out exact recipes for homebrewers though.

incutrav said:

I messaged Dan before for help with a Black Wheat clone. He all but gave me the recipe. He told me the hops in Moon Man when i talked to hime last summer at the brewery, and Riwaka or whatever was deff. not one of them. Cascase, amarillo and a couple others. Great guy.

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So, do you have any more details on this? I've been waiting patiently for New Zealand to finish up their hop harvest. I've never used Riwaka, but from the descriptions. it's one I definitely will be trying soon. Either way, I would really love to have some Moon Man on tap at home, so if you can give any more detail it would be greatly appreciated.

incutrav said:

Same Dan Carey. I messaged him on BA, and I had a response in a couple hrs. For my black wheat,He gave me much of the grain bill, and said to culture some yeast from a bottle of Dancin Man to get the authentic yeast strain they use. He didnt seem 'tight lipped' to me. Not as open as say, Surly, who give out exact recipes for homebrewers though.

Click to expand...

incutrav, any chance you'd be able to share your knowledge? I really liked Black Wheat when it was available. Thanks in advance!

14thstreet said:

incutrav, any chance you'd be able to share your knowledge? I really liked Black Wheat when it was available. Thanks in advance!

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Maybe Dan just likes me? Ive messaged him three times, and every time have received a fast and appropriate response. BA automatically purged the message from Dan that had the Black Wheat help! I should have printed it, but i do have the recipe at home, so i can throw it on here one of these nights.

I'd love to see the clone work out because Moon Man turned me on to hoppy brews. A friend in my brew club brewed NB's "Jamil's Evil Twin" and it tasted in the ballpark of MM.

incutrav said:

Maybe Dan just likes me? Ive messaged him three times, and every time have received a fast and appropriate response. BA automatically purged the message from Dan that had the Black Wheat help! I should have printed it, but i do have the recipe at home, so i can throw it on here one of these nights.

Click to expand...

Digging up this thread because DEAR GOD I would love to see that Black Wheat clone recipe. Please, please share if you can find it!

There are Chinook in the Moon man, you can smell them as soon as you pour the beer.

I absolutely love this beer and want to brew something similar or a clone so I am happy with this thread. I did find an article on New Glarus' website that says two key things we should look at for this recipie.

1. He spent over 6 months painstakingly perfecting the hop blend alone. Finally utilizing 5 varieties of hops, of which three are not commonly used in American style ales.

2. Moon Man" is dry hopped 2 and a 1/2 times as much as is commonly practiced in dry hopped beer (2.25 pounds per barrel).


We should be able to agree that traditional American Ale hops contain a higher alpha acid. In reading the discription I thought they would just start with an IPA recipie replace the high acid in bittering with a noble hop and call it good(also pair down the grain bill lower OG). However, as a barrel is 31 gal would mean they are using 1.16 oz/gal, we would need to dryhop with 5.8 oz of hops for a 5 gal batch. That is alot of hops!
I originally assumed that they are using an american style hop to dry hop with, but with the amount involed I would propose they are mixing it with a less traditional lower acid hop maybe 25%:75%. It is a profoundly aromatic brew but not as aromatic as I would assume if 6 ounces of a 13% hop were used per 5 galons for dryhoping.

As the original posters friends gave him the list of these hops, they seem to match up with the article a bit. I would postulate that the Riwaka are used for bittering, and for the bulk of the dryhoping as well. Amarillo for flavoring, and two of the remaining for the last minute. They could also be using three hops for dry hopping, with that kind of amount it would not be suprising.

I plan on brewing a partial mash verison of this. Hopefully I can get a recipie together and get it ordered soon.

Any other thoughts on this? Anyone think I am totally off base here?

Also Brewmasters Warehouse has all the hops in stock right now!

Any luck on this? MM is a great beer.

Nope. Havent tried it. Ive been itching to go take a hard hat tour but it hasnt happened yet. I do have a friend of a friend that works there, and been bugging him to find out the real blend, but I havent bothered him lately. Need to do that again =D

Very interesting. Wish we new for sure what the other hops were. If I hadnt of just made an IBA this past weekend with the hops and grains I ordered from Steelers77, I would think about trying this. Need to work on bugging my buddy and see if he can come up with more to go with citra/riwaka.

I concur about the citra on the nose.

Keeping this thread alive - has anyone successfully harvested New Glarus yeast?

Can anyone else in this thread commit to trying to brew a version they think is MM. I am commited and I will post what I do after some more research on the hops. Right now it looks like Riwaka, Amarillo, Chinook, Citra and I detect some cascade. What a great beer, I think a session dry hopped ale with some of these hops would be a great start.

Sadly, I haven't had Moon Man in quite some time, but next time I cross the border I'm stocking up. In fact, I'm tempted to head to Hudson this Sunday for just this reason.

Anyway, I brewed a session pale ale (4%, 31 IBUs) that isn't supposed to be a clone of Moon Man by any means, but was inspired by my recollections of it (but with easier to access hops). Absolutely delicious after just 5 days in the bottle. Recipe is here. Whenever I do pick up some Moon Man I will compare, as there might be educational value in terms of grain bill, mash temp, etc.

Brewerb,

I'm in. I'm going to begin the hop search now. I currently just do 3 gal biab batches do to a temporary living arrangement, but it can obviously be scaled. I'll post what I am thinking of trying and welcome any constructive advice. I may need a day or two to get things together bc I'm working nights right now, but I have 12 (rapidly dwindling) MM's in my fridge now to help motivate me. Where are you with your clone attempt?

Also, target IBU's?

No Amarillo out there....may sub centennial

I finally picked up some Moon Man yesterday and did a comparison with my pale ale, which was based on my memories of Moon Man.

Results? It's really not too far off! The colors are almost identical, so that's pretty neat. My pale's use of Columbus and Cascade means it's definitely more citrusy than Moon Man, but I think the bitterness isn't too far off -- in the neighborhood of 30 IBUs for my 1.040 OG.

It's not Moon Man, but I'm really pleased with the similarities. Definitely similar beers.

billysparrows,

I have been drinking my first attempt for a few weeks. It is really good,& it seems close, but I'm not sure if it is a clone. I do not live close to Wi to get MM, but My cousin is bringing some over on Saturday. I will share results after we compare. I don't have the recipe in front of me, but I think it was about 40 IBU. I think I dry hopped with Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe, Chinook & Rakau (NZ) bc I remember a hint of passionfruit & peach behind a grapefruit backbone. I used MO & Golden Promise (bc I ran out of MO). If it is close, I will post the full recipe.

Nice, I'm looking forward to the results. I've done a few beers in that same vein that were pretty close, but def not clones. I do have an actual clone attempt with pacific gem, citra, cascade, centennial, and Amarillo that I just bottled. I will post when I crack one.

It would be nice to get a credible source naming their hops, but oh we'll I guess we keep working. In three attempts at similar beers, I have enjoyed one as much as moon man, and two were good, but not as good as MM.

FYI, I just sent a message to New Glarus on their general comment form looking for some GUIDANCE (not a recipe) on a beer in the style of their Thumbprint Olde English Porter (sour porter). I got a lengthy response that "while open discussion is a great thing" they refuse to share any shred of info on their beers. So, keep working your recipes because we won't squeeze any info out of them!

Yeah, I know people that have dealt with the Carey's on a professional/business basis and weren't impressed with their demeaner/friendliness. They make some pretty good beers, but their unwillingness to help out amateurs like us is discouraging. Oh well, we have Spotted Cow cloned; it's only a matter of time for the rest.

Visiting Indiana and a friend handed me a MM tonight - amazing beer. I definitely detect cascade and chinook. Would love to brew this one. Pretty much an american bitter, lower OG than pale ale, american hops (mostly), and clean ale yeast. Not a ton of body, it has a dry finish.

Looking forward to cloning something like this. Much better than a similar beer Stone brewed (San Diego session or something like that).

I picked up a pound of New Zealand Motueka last night for the hell of it, and found that this hop has almost the exact nose of Moon Man. I think this may be the missing lynchpin we have been looking for. I am working with what I think will be a tasty session pale ale malt bill and a mix of Motueka, Pacific Gem, Pacific Jade and Green Bullet. Hopping it to about 35 IBUs with the Green Bullet and then hop bursting with the others. At the very least, I expect to have a tasty house pale ale to keep in rotation.

Sounds great, keep us posted