1000 Blue Moon Clones

brettwasbtd said:

I believe this thread is the main one - former employee divulges info on the recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/blue-moon-clone-65328/

For a true clone I think that you need to use an american yeast, the wit yeast is very tasty though!

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jwalker1140 said:

I'd stick with a grain bill closer to Wayne1's recipe in the above thread if you're really determined to nail it (i.e., 50% 2-row malt, 40% white wheat malt, 10% flaked oats). Hop with Hallertauer or something similar and definitely use WLP001, 1056 or US-05.

The biggest challenge seems to be getting the spices right, but I've also thought the commercial version has a lot of variation - draft tastes different than bottles, fresher tastes different than older, etc. My suggestion would be to start with equal amounts of freshly crushed coriander and dried sweet orange peel, maybe 0.50 to 0.65 oz of each.

I've tried some of the much-discussed variations in that thread, like the ones that call for crystal, boiling the oats, 3.0 oz of orange peel, fresh orange zest, etc., and they just don't seem as close to me. Good, maybe even better in some ways, but not as close. Good luck!

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BrewerBear said:

I used Brewtarget to come up with this

7 pounds 2 row 51%
5.5 pounds white wheat 40%
1.25 flaked oats 9%

I think it would come out close. Good luck and keep us updated.

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BrewerBear said:

I used Brewtarget to come up with this

7 pounds 2 row 51%
5.5 pounds white wheat 40%
1.25 flaked oats 9%

I think it would come out close. Good luck and keep us updated.

Click to expand...

BrewerBear said:

I used Brewtarget to come up with this

7 pounds 2 row 51%
5.5 pounds white wheat 40%
1.25 flaked oats 9%

I think it would come out close. Good luck and keep us updated.

Click to expand...

jwalker1140 said:

That seems like a lot of grain for a 5 gal batch. Consider something like this:

5 lbs 2-row
4 lbs white wheat malt
1 lbs flaked oats

With a 5 gal batch, post boil, and 70% efficiency, this gives an OG of 1.053, which is exactly what you want. You'll note that the lbs = the target % too, which makes this easy to remember.

I'd suggest that you mash between 152-154 for 60-90 min, boil for 60 min. One hop addition at 60 min to get 17.5 IBUs. Toss in 0.6 oz of fresh ground coriander at 10 min and 0.6 oz of dried sweet orange peel at 5 min. Ferment with 001, 1056 or 05 at 67F and you're there.

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jwalker1140 said:

13 IBUs seems low, but maybe they're using the Tinseth formula or something whereas I'm more used to the Rager formula. I use Beersmith 2 and when I add 13 IBUs worth of hallerteau using Tinseth and then switch to Rager, the IBUs change to 17.4. Regardless, 1oz of hallerteau (AA ~4%) at 60 should put you in the ballpark.

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