The guys at New Belgium are pretty cool

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 won’t 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. Don’t 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 doesn’t 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

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God I love 1554. That is really cool of them to give you so much info. I'm too much of a noob at this to turn that into a viable recipe though. For those of you that are better versed, does that info give you any insights that you didn't already have?

Wow, I too am too much of a n00b to turn that into something real, but that's awesome that they're willing to help out like that.

a lot of craft brewers are this way. it's awesome. i've received some very detailed information from Avery, East End, Barley John's, and a handful of others about specific beers. it's one of the things that really defines a "craft" brewer to me.

They are a cool brewery. And for those who do not know, (I myself didn't until today) they have come out with an IPA. It's called Ranger IPA. A beer rep. gave me a couple of them today. I drank one right away...I really liked it.

Definitely cool of them, we brewers, in general, seem to be a pretty open bunch of people.

I lived in Colorado in the mid 90's and lived on Fat Tire. I think they are a really unique brewery. I am not a huge fan of some of their beers but they all have a "New Belgium" taste and take on different styles which I think sets them apart from other breweries, whether you like their beer or not (I rarely buy it anymore and did NOT like Hoptober). Cant wait to try the IPA.

rawkstar said:

They are a cool brewery. And for those who do not know, (I myself didn't until today) they have come out with an IPA. It's called Ranger IPA. A beer rep. gave me a couple of them today. I drank one right away...I really liked it.

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I'm pretty excited about that. I didn't realize until I saw it on their site a couple days ago. It says

Coming to where good beer is served and sold February 1, 2010!

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I hope that means at my local liquor/grocery store.

I brewed this recipe after trying 1554 only once. Needless to say, I was impressed. I know this is blasphemey, but I don't get the hype of Fat Tire, so I haven't bothered too much with NB beers. Anyways, I think it'll be in the ballpark, although I didn't use any CaraPils or Cara Foam. Also, I thought my FG was a few points higher than it should have been. I just bottled it on the 25th, so in a month or so I'll know how it is...

Darkness Ale
23-A Specialty Beer
Author: Marc L.
Date: 11/23/09

Size: 6 gal
Efficiency: 80.35%
Attenuation: 68.6%
Calories: 171.32 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.051 (1.026 - 1.120)
Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (0.995 - 1.035)
Color: 24.26 (1.0 - 50.0)
Alcohol: 4.59% (2.5% - 14.5%)
Bitterness: 26.7 (0.0 - 100.0)

Ingredients:
6.0 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
2 lb Biscuit Malt (Mout Roost 50)
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 120°L
1.0 lb Vienna Malt
.5 lb Special B - Caramel malt
.5 lb Wheat Malt
2 oz De-Bittered Black Malt (Mout Roost 1400)
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt
.5 oz Northern Brewer (9.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Saaz (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
.5 oz Northern Brewer (9.8%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
.5 oz Saaz (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
0.0 ea White Labs WLP810 San Fransisco Lager

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 5.0 gal; Strike: 166.14 °F; Target: 151.0 °F
01:03:00 Sach Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 149.1 °F
01:03:00 Sparge - First Runnings: 0.0 gal sparge @ 168.0 °F, 0.0 min; Sparge #1: 3.38 gal sparge @ 201.0 °F, 0.0 min; Total Runoff: 6.88 gal

Notes
Mash temp was lower than planned...150-151.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

yeah, Fat Tire is incredibly boring to me. the hype is because it was one of the earliest recognizable wide-spread craft beers.

I've listened to several Podcast interviews with the brewers at New Belgium.

I don't think they would appreciate having their beer called a "Style".... =)

However, it is very cool of them to share such information.

It's Yummy!!!

Lucky! When I contacted Mendocino Brewing about the hops used in their seasonal Imperial IPA they told that information was confidential.

Like others though, I'm not a fat tire fan.

Huh, I've found a lot of craft breweries will share the general ranges/ingredients for their beers. They often have a cut and paste style response ready for those who ask. They usually seem to leave out exact quantities, but give enough info to work from. Truth be told, NB isn't my favorite but the people are lots of fun. I've enjoyed working with them on their annul "tour de fat".

MBasile said:

Lucky! When I contacted Mendocino Brewing about the hops used in their seasonal Imperial IPA they told that information was confidential.

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hey, they've only made one good beer, gotta expect them to keep it close to the vest.

I truly enjoy Fat Tire and also the Tripple from NB. I figure 'to each their own'. I wish I could get it in Michigan but it seems they do not sell it here. I have to travel out west to get it. I remember the old Ranier Beer that I loved...couldn't get it untill I got out west. Then Anheiser bought and closed 'em down....bastards!

Some more info...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/1554-enlightenment-black-ale-new-belgium-72472/#post754729

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/1554-clone-158870/

The whole structure of that company is cool. If you have not had the opportunity you should look around on their site sometime - the whole dynamic is on point. It looks like a place that would be fun to go to work everyday.

woodman said:

I truly enjoy Fat Tire and also the Tripple from NB. I figure 'to each their own'. I wish I could get it in Michigan but it seems they do not sell it here. I have to travel out west to get it. I remember the old Ranier Beer that I loved...couldn't get it untill I got out west. Then Anheiser bought and closed 'em down....bastards!

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Don't despair, Chicago has gotten New Belgium stuff for awhile, and about eight months ago they started distributing to Indiana, your time may well come.

I've also heard rumors they're talking about expanding, which would be really, really cool.

I've never been to the brewery but a friend of mine took the tour a few years back. I believe it is a co-op and from what I was told the employees are some of the happiest workers he had ever seen. After working at NB for 3 years, they get a Fat Tire cruiser bike. And I think its after 5 or 6 years each employee gets an all expense paid trip tp Belgium to tour some of te he best breweries in the world.

Interesting, they have given out little pieces of info to several different homebrewers. This is another email someone received from NB:

From NEW BELGIUM:
"As you could probably guess we can't give you the recipe but we CAN
give you the ingredients. Here is a list of all of our brews in case you
are interested. Fat Tire is at the top.

Fat Tire: 5.3% alcohol
Hops and Spices-Willamette, Goldings and Magnum
Malts: Pale, C-40, Munich and Victory

Sunshine Wheat: 4.8%
Hops and Spices: Coriander, Orange Peel, and Magnum
Malts: Pale, Carapils, Wheat

1554: 5.5%
Hops and Spices: Magnum
Malts: Pale, Carapils, Black, Munich, Chocolate

Blue Paddle: 4.9%
Hops and Spices: Saaz, Liberty, Magnum
Malts: Pale, Munich, Carapils, Aromatic

Abbey: 7.0%
Hops and Spices: Willamette, Magnum, Hallertau
Malts: Pale, Chocolate, Carapils, C-40, C-80, Munich

Trippel: 8.7%
Hops and Spices: Saaz, Liberty, Magnum, Coriander
Malts: Pale, Victory, Munich

Hope that helps! If you would like more information on any of our other
brews (Special Release beers etc..) please let us know. These are just
our 'full time' beers. Happy homebrewing! "

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gunhaver said:

yeah, Fat Tire is incredibly boring to me. the hype is because it was one of the earliest recognizable wide-spread craft beers.

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I agree. When I moved to Boulder in 98. I thought it was the SHizsznit. I too am over it now but I do still get a sixer occasionally. I do like the maltiness of Fat Tire but there are soo many good beers here in Co. However, 2 Degrees Below will always be a fave of mine, and Mothership Wit is pretty nice also

Some breweries will give you every detail about a recipe and some won't give you anything at all. Although it is not the exact recipe, the way that NBB gave you the info is pretty cool because it really points you in the right direction. Formulating and tweaking a recipe will teach you a lot about the ingredients and your process. Even if it takes a few tries to "clone" it, you will probably make good beer in the meantime!

Eric

I was able to tour the brewery last week, what an amazing place. They really take everything to the next level. At 1 year every employee gets a bike and at 5 they get an all expense paid trip to tour Belgium breweries (and they get paid for 40 hours of work that week!)

I put in a similar request for a beer I had on their tour, Tom's beer. It's an apple wheat that was great, hopefully I get some similar help from them.

+1 to ZMAN

2 degrees below is a great seasonal !

+12345 for New Belgium.

They responded to my question about decommissioned kegs, and sold me two kegs that wouldn't seal around the spear properly, for $15 apiece.

I'll also say that the guys at O'Dell are similarly awesome, for reasons I won;t say yet.