Blue Moonwalker

This Thursday I will be attempting a version of Blue Moon that is limited by my knowledge and what my LHBS has on hand. Please, all comments suggestions and criticisms appreciated.

This will be an extract beer.

Soak....
4 oz wheat flakes
4 oz aromatic barley
4 oz oat flakes
4 oz cara pils
for 75 min at 150 degrees.

Add extract (7.5 lb pale ale LME)

Boil
1.5 oz liberty (alpha 3.9%) at 60min
.5 oz liberty at 5min

.75 oz bitter orange at 1 min
.5 oz corriander at 1 min

Pitch White Labs Belgian wit yeast (from starter)

add .25 oz bitter orange at secondary
add 1 tablespoon coriander at secondary

Let me know what you think. I'm definitely new to brewing so any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Any comments..........?

How much LME are you going to be using?

If you are wanting to clone Blue Moon you may want to think about using either all wheat LME, or a combination of Wheat and Pale LME and step some wheat malt. When I was doing PM's I would usually steep between 2-3 pounds of grain in order to really add to the taste.

Just some things to think about.

7.5 lbs of Pale LME

I don't believe that there is any wheat in the LME. I believe it is all barley. Can I steep an additional 2-3 lbs of Wheat Flakes to up the wheat content of the wort? Would I need to sparge those grains? Thanks so much for your help.
Are the Carapils going to move the flavor away from what I am going for? I just really want a sexy head and I read that carapils are good for that. Thanks

Both the CaraPils and the Flaked Wheat will contribute to head retention.

I would recommend adding some wheat malt to your steeping grains rather than wheat flakes, but adding more wheat flakes would be acceptable as well.

To clarify what I meant by Wheat LME, you can typically purchase LME in a few varieties - Pale/light, Amber, Dark, Wheat, and Munich.

Blue Moon is a wheat beer and as such should generally be comprised of at least 50% wheat whether that comes from steeping grains, LME or DME.

If I added 2 lbs of wheat LME to my recipe, as well as the 2-3 lbs of wheat flakes, to balance out the wheatieness, would that create an alcohol content would be too high for this style of beer? I do like a kick ass beer, but would it taste out of character for a WIT? Should I remove the amount of pale LME that I add in wheat LME?

I'm also thinking of adding some tangerine rind shavings to my beer at the secondary to give it a different twist. A 1/2 oz maybe. Anyone tried this with favorable results?

I would try to get a Wit in the 1.040 - 1.050 range.

Your original recipe would have an estimated OG of around 1.070 according to BeerSmith. Adding 2 pounds of Wheat LME and 3 pounds of flaked wheat on top of that gives an estimated OG of 1.100.

I would recommend 5.5 to 6 pounds of Wheat LME in addition to the steeping grains that you have listed here. That will put you in the 1.045 to 1.050 range which is right about where a standard Wit should be.

Here is a recipe from my LHBS that came out really close to Blue Moon. I will be making this one again soon. If I were you I think I would get wheat extract and save your light extract for your next brew, just my opinion.

6 lbs Wheat DME
8 oz Aromatic Malt
8 oz Flaked Wheat
4 oz Flaked Oats
1 oz. Hallertauer (60 min.)
1/2 oz Saaz (15 min.)
1/2 oz Bitter Orange Peel (boil 5 min.)
3/4 oz coriander (Boil 5 min.)
Wyeast #3944