New Glarus Moon Man Clone Help

I'll be interested to see how the flavor holds up over time for you guys that are predominantly late-hopping and/or using FWH. I'm currently struggling (read: not enough time or resources to brew frequently enough) with whether or not late/bittering hops fade faster than FWH hops, which I've heard are "more stable". I've done done all late hopping on two occasions but feel my last batch faded real fast due the condition of my hops (old Centennials). Now I've got a 3oz FWH (5 gal) kolsch that I'll get into this weekend to determine if its too bitter or the hop flavor is too strong (or fading).

14thstreet said:

I'll be interested to see how the flavor holds up over time for you guys that are predominantly late-hopping and/or using FWH. I'm currently struggling (read: not enough time or resources to brew frequently enough) with whether or not late/bittering hops fade faster than FWH hops, which I've heard are "more stable". I've done done all late hopping on two occasions but feel my last batch faded real fast due the condition of my hops (old Centennials). Now I've got a 3oz FWH (5 gal) kolsch that I'll get into this weekend to determine if its too bitter or the hop flavor is too strong (or fading).

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Funny that you say that because the NG site actually says not to leave Moon Man laying around... it's meant to be enjoyed RIGHT NOW. What do you suppose that means? The hop profile will fade quickly if you don't consume it in a short time. Late hops *DO* fade quickly, for sure but I think 60-min additions and FWH additions are more stable than that. Great discussion, gentlemen.

kenlenard said:

I'm thinking about the idea of not using ANY early hops. This idea would suggest that the grain bill (mine was nothing but Briess pale malt and C60) should be straightforward and that the mash temp should be relatively low so that you don't have to worry about a sweet, malty or complex grain bill sticking out like a sore thumb. You have nothing to offset the sweetness so a dry(ish) beer is critical. A 150-151° mash temp, no early hops at all, enough hops added in the last 10-15 mins to get the IBUs to 35ish and the dry hop... this is what I'm thinking. Of course, I could just be living in an alternate universe too!

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That's what I did, unless you feel that 30M hops are early hops...Most of my aditions were after 30M, with just some bittering there.

kenlenard said:

Funny that you say that because the NG site actually says not to leave Moon Man laying around... it's meant to be enjoyed RIGHT NOW. What do you suppose that means? The hop profile will fade quickly if you don't consume it in a short time. Late hops *DO* fade quickly, for sure but I think 60-min additions and FWH additions are more stable than that. Great discussion, gentlemen.

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The aroma of hops is generally what fades. It comes out with Co2 as well. I think bottled beer is more stable for this reason as everything is contained until the time it's drank. A keg off-gasses every time you pull a pint. Dry-hopping in the keg has worked well for me in the past, in a voile bag of course.

tre9er said:

That's what I did, unless you feel that 30M hops are early hops...Most of my aditions were after 30M, with just some bittering there.

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I think your 30 minute addition might be better than my FWH addition. I went with FWH with the hopes of "smooth bitterness" (which FWH has always given me) but I maybe should have thought about "no bitterness" or "much less bitterness" instead. I have not done a side-by-side with Moon Man yet but my guess is that my version is going to come across with quite a bit more punch to it. My version is not even on tap yet... just in an on-deck fridge so maybe I'll let it sit for a bit and do the comparison in a few weeks and see if it mellows a little. I still have to get my Oktoberfest to the taps! :rockin:

There is also the issue with the hops, of course. I feel like I get some Citra (passionfruit, tropical fruit, peach, mango) in Moon Man and it *IS* a Pacific NW hop so I chose that one. I clearly get some grapefruit so Amarillo was clear too. Motueka is supposed to have a sort of lemon-lime thing going on and not sure if that fits but it was a NZ hop so I went with that. I had heard such good things about Nelson Sauvin so I just went with that and the Simcoe seemed to fit well with the Amarillo (both Pacific NW hops). I'm 100% sure that I'm off on the hops but the end result is very close, IMO.

kenlenard said:

There is also the issue with the hops, of course. I feel like I get some Citra (passionfruit, tropical fruit, peach, mango) in Moon Man and it *IS* a Pacific NW hop so I chose that one. I clearly get some grapefruit so Amarillo was clear too. Motueka is supposed to have a sort of lemon-lime thing going on and not sure if that fits but it was a NZ hop so I went with that. I had heard such good things about Nelson Sauvin so I just went with that and the Simcoe seemed to fit well with the Amarillo (both Pacific NW hops). I'm 100% sure that I'm off on the hops but the end result is very close, IMO.

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I'm sure yours is closer to the orig. I used Pac Gem and Motueka for flavor/aroma and did the 30m with Nugget. I ended up 34 IBUs but will shoot for something closer to 20 next time, even though I do love this beer a lot as it is.

I think both of the NZ hops I used add a complex mix of fruits, citrus, tropical, melon, and the nugget gives a neutral, pleasing floral flavor.

tre9er said:

I'm sure yours is closer to the orig. I used Pac Gem and Motueka for flavor/aroma and did the 30m with Nugget. I ended up 34 IBUs but will shoot for something closer to 20 next time, even though I do love this beer a lot as it is.

I think both of the NZ hops I used add a complex mix of fruits, citrus, tropical, melon, and the nugget gives a neutral, pleasing floral flavor.

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There is another local brewer here who tried something similar and used Pacific Jade. I can't recall what the profile is but he said it was a really nice hop. I think the clues given on the NG website is about as good as we're going to get (4 Pacific NW hops and a NZ hop) but I am signed up for the NG HardHat tour on Saturday 12/14 and plan to dig up as much information as I can on Moon Man, Two Women and Staghorn. Maybe if I can keep up & talk with the tour guide, I can pry some information out of him or her. If so, I will surely share whatever I pick up with my brewing brothers. Cheers!

kenlenard said:

There is another local brewer here who tried something similar and used Pacific Jade. I can't recall what the profile is but he said it was a really nice hop. I think the clues given on the NG website is about as good as we're going to get (4 Pacific NW hops and a NZ hop) but I am signed up for the NG HardHat tour on Saturday 12/14 and plan to dig up as much information as I can on Moon Man, Two Women and Staghorn. Maybe if I can keep up & talk with the tour guide, I can pry some information out of him or her. If so, I will surely share whatever I pick up with my brewing brothers. Cheers!

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Good luck with the HardHat tour! I haven't been able to get up there for one of those, but was going to do the same thing as you when I finally get up there.

No doubt. Scout any ingredients that are visible. If they let you smell any hops, take mental notes.

I meant to say Friday 12/14, not Saturday. Hey, tre9er... You're in NE but you've had New Glarus beers? Do you have family in WI or are you originally from there? Funny thing about NG is that they used to distribute to IL but eventually got into a kerfuffel with the distributor and eventually ended up in Wisconsin only. I do like their approach... Deb Carey said that she doesn't want to be the biggest brewery, just the best. I admit that I like their beers, especially Moon Man, Two Women and Staghorn. I'm looking forward to the tour and I'm afraid I might buy $200 worth of bottles, merchandising or both!

My FIL is from Sheboygan and WF Bay. We vacationed in Sheboygan and Mackinac this summer. Moon Man one of best PAs I've had!

I didn't remember Moon Man being as light in color as it is as I was making my grain bill. as it turns out, I wasn't even close. But anyway, we all like pictures of beer so here it is. It tastes great anyway, and will be even better next go with the Motueka hops that I have now.

I knew it was light but I agree... my wife poured one into a glass the other day and I was like, WHOA! I held it up to the light and was very surprised at the color. I have determined that about 4.5 to 5 ounces of C60 in an otherwise all-pale malt grain bill gets you pretty close to the color of MM. Great looking beer, lalnx! Cheers.

lalnx said:

I didn't remember Moon Man being as light in color as it is as I was making my grain bill. as it turns out, I wasn't even close. But anyway, we all like pictures of beer so here it is. It tastes great anyway, and will be even better next go with the Motueka hops that I have now.

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My Fashionably Late PA (inspired by MM) is pretty much the color of the beer on the right. I like that color and it tastes great, so whatevs.

tre9er said:

My Fashionably Late PA (inspired by MM) is pretty much the color of the beer on the right. I like that color and it tastes great, so whatevs.

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Exactly, my pale ales always end up right in that color range also. I like a little C40, little Munich, and I love some Buscuit in there also. So that said, other than right now while I am trying to see if I can get it to match MM color/flavor etc. I will have to drop those items out. But when I achieve that, It will likely be just like this current one other than the addition of Motueka.

(but this weeekend I'll be brewing something with some unidentified home grown hops.)

Sorry to jump on the band wagon a bit late, but I live in Texas and am only able to get Moon Man via a buddy who goes to MN to visit family once or twice a year. Would love to be able to make anything close to Moon Man - love the aroma and drinkability.

lalnx - did you attempt a clone? any luck?

dlittle58,

My last attempt was very close, but to much bitterness from my early additions. grain bill worked out good for color. This will be how I do it next time, I will be going all late additions 20, 15, 5 and then dry hop.

9 lbs 2 row
.50 lbs crystal 40
.50 lbs Munich

mash @ 150

hopping will be @ 20, 15, 5, minutes, 4 grams each of summit, citra, amarillo(or cascade if I need to sub.), Pacific Gem, and Motueka.

ferment @68 with S-05 or maybe nottingham, because for me nottingham can get a touch of fruit in that temp range.

finally dry hop with 8 grams each hop for 7-10 days.

feel free to beat me to it, and report back, I have a few other beers to make before I wedge this one in again.

Thanks so much! That hop combo was the interesting/hard part for me.

also with the hop additions you want to end up in that 25 to maybe 30 IBU range.

You may need to figure the average bitterness for your hops (add all the alpha % together, divide by number of varieties). Use that number as your alpha value, and adjust your addition amounts based on that number. I need to do that, because my spreadsheet that I do my calculations with only has 10 lines for hop additions, and I would need 20 (five hops X 3 boil additions, and 1 dry hop addition). I just consider it my "hop blend" and it was 11.7 % AA this last time.

Anyone have any recent luck on recipes? I'd like to try to make this, but not sure where to start.

I'm on my second batch of this, bottling this weekend. First batch was nothing short of amazing, and arguably better than the Moon Man I've had the last couple of times passing through WI. Aroma hops are fantastic immediately after bottle conditioning, and change noticeably over the first few weeks. Pretty sure this is what I've experienced with bottles of Moon Man as well, which is why it's right on the label that it's best fresh. So to me, because I don't live in WI anymore, homebrew is the best of all worlds.

Forgive the atypical batch size -- I do stovetop no sparge BIAB in 2g batches, which are fantastically easy and clean.

Grain bill:
4lb 2-row
2.6oz Crystal 60
Mash at 154

Aiming for ~25IBU with hop additions:
Nelson Sauvin (11.8%) 0.21oz
Citra (14.5%) 0.16oz
Amarillo (9.2%) 0.25oz
Motukea (7.2%) 0.32oz
Simcoe (13%) 0.18oz
(mix all of this as a hop blend, then split in 5 parts for each addition)

FWH, 10, 5, 2, FO

Ferment with an entire smack pack of Safale US-05, because yeast.

Dry hop ~5d with 0.5 oz of the hop blend as above.

I'm still dialing things in with my setup -- I overshot my OG on my first batch, but missed my target volume, and on the latest I hit my volume but undershot my target OG. Will probably bump up the 2-row by 10% and double crush next time. Regardless, this is one fantastically flavorful beer with very subtle and smooth bittering, which takes a back seat to the aroma hops until the beer ages for a bit. It's so good that you probably won't get to that point, though

Earlier in this thread I mentioned an attempt and my five hops are the same as RutherfordBrave's (above). I mentioned that I may have bittered the beer too much with 7.2 AAU of equal amounts of the 5 hops used as a FWH. A local homebrewer went on the NG tour and was told that MM uses 4 Pacific NW hops and 1 NZ hop... which makes my hops inaccurate but still close. Coincidentally, I happened to be making a Columbus (a hop I have largely ignored in my 15 years of brewing) and Cascade pale ale. The aroma of these two hops was VERY similar to that of Moon Man. In fact, I would not be the least bit surprised if the 4 Pacific NW hops were Columbus, Cascade, Amarillo and Citra. Riwaka could be the NZ hop, not sure. I plan to try this again as I have all 4 of those hops (and also Motueka) and I still have some commercial Moon Man that I bootlegged over the border. These Columbus hops have a very unique aroma and it reminded me very much of Moon Man. My 2¢.

When I bring Moon Man back to Maryland, I notice a big difference in flavor if I save it for more than a couple weeks. Refrigeration would probably help keep the profile going longer, but for now any extra beer is stored next to my brewing equipment. Regardless of comparing it to Moon Man or not, this is in the territory and definitely a great brew.

Be sure to report back if you change up the hops. I'm about to do another batch of something, so maybe I'll try your new combination. Would you do the mix the same as before, or would you change things up from FWH to the other additions?

RutherfordBrave said:

When I bring Moon Man back to Maryland, I notice a big difference in flavor if I save it for more than a couple weeks. Refrigeration would probably help keep the profile going longer, but for now any extra beer is stored next to my brewing equipment. Regardless of comparing it to Moon Man or not, this is in the territory and definitely a great brew.

Be sure to report back if you change up the hops. I'm about to do another batch of something, so maybe I'll try your new combination. Would you do the mix the same as before, or would you change things up from FWH to the other additions?

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I think I would try to make each hop addition a blend of all 5 hops and make it so that each of the hops was equal (by weight) or possibly equal by AAU. I was very careful to make the additions equal by AAU last time so I might use more Motueka (lower AA%) and less Simcoe and Citra (higher AA%). But if I tried to make this beer again, I might not make the first addition until 30 minutes into a 60 minute boil because the commercial version is so smooth. There is really NO bitterness in the commercial version, all flavor and aroma. That said, it may not be necessary to divide the hops out by AA% rating but just by weight. So .2 ounces of each hop (for 1 full ounce) at 30, then again at 20, then again at 10, 5, etc. until you reach the target IBU which I think is 35 for Moon Man. If the IBUS were too high, adjust and maybe start at 20 minutes and then 15, 10, 5, etc. I thought about that the first around but my only strategy there was using a FWH to 'soften' the bitterness. I agree with you about just getting into the ballpark. We're never going to make an exact copy so the key is making something very much in the spirit of the original & something that makes you happy and you can call your own. That's the goal on any beer I try to copy. I have a copy of Two Women as well (another nice NG beer) and it's very close. Cheers.

One of my most favorite beers. Might have to try this recipe.

I balanced by AA% in the above blend. Reducing the target IBU may also reduce the perceived bitterness, as I didn't get anything but flavor and aroma during the first few weeks. Now that the flavor has faded I can taste some bittering, but it's still smooth and not unpleasant - just not as super flavorful like it once was. I don't recall MM having any more flavor than I got from this recipe, so I think this is a pretty good target if it's balancing aroma/bittering. My wife liked it, and she hates beer!

kenlenard said:

In fact, I would not be the least bit surprised if the 4 Pacific NW hops were Columbus, Cascade, Amarillo and Citra. Riwaka could be the NZ hop, not sure.

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I would say Willamette, not Columbus. I don't get any CTZ character from Moon Man. That said, I do not possess the greatest palate.

I finally got around to brewing and bottling this recipe. Had the first bottle two weeks ago. I followed Lalnx's recipe but instead of Crystal 40 I went with Crystal 20.

Hops:
Summit
Citra
Amarillo
Pacific Gem
Motueka

4g boiled at 20/15/5, dry hopped for 7 days with the same blend but 8g of each

Few notes I had:
Color is still a shade darker than MM
Smell is fantastic but slightly more citrusy
Flavor is smooth but a little sweeter and more citrusy

A great beer but wasn't MM exactly. Overall it was more candy citrusy (if that makes any sense). Good luck!

Oh and my IBUs were slightly higher also. I think 40ish

kenlenard said:

I think I would try to make each hop addition a blend of all 5 hops and make it so that each of the hops was equal (by weight) or possibly equal by AAU.

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Bump--

Buddy just brought some of these great beers back from Wisky for me. Haven't had MM in a year or so...tasting superb. One of my fav APAs!

Funny you say this kenlenard ^^^^. Maybe its just me, but does this beer remind any of you of DFH60, especially the aroma? I brewed a 60 clone awhile back, used Amarillo, Simcoe, and a little Palisades for flavoring and Amarillo, Palisades, and Glacier for aroma/DH. MM smells almost exactly the same to me (I am no expert) as MM. After the bittering hops (Warrior) I mixed all of the other hops and "continuously hopped" every 5 minutes from 40m to 0m. It turned out great. I may try these hops with another NZ hop..starting at 30 (as some of you said)...using a differnt yeast than I used with DFH. Maybe use WLP001 instead of 002.

FWIW, All of these are Yakima Valley varieties, which is been said to be in MM.
Anyone else think it has a similar hop profile??

New Glarus has ssome other great beers..Black Top and Two Women are pretty good too.

Gang: I may have inadvertently made Moon Man. I know I didn't really but hear this... I was at a craft beer fest in the spring and the host brewery (Tighthead Brewing in Mundelein, IL) had a great APA called Chilly Water that my wife and I kept going back for. I happen to know the brewer and asked him if it had Amarillo and Citra and he confirmed that it did. I figured I would make a batch of something similar and I knew the wife would like to have it on tap in the bar. So I put this recipe together and it's on tap right now. I'm drinking a glass of it as I type. It looks, smells and tastes exactly like Moon Man. It's clear as a bell and delicious as hell. That should be the tagline for this beer. The one made by Tighthead was more bitter than mine but my flavor and aroma is outrageously good and closer to Moon Man. Here's what I did...

8 lbs Rahr Pale Ale Malt
1 lbs Weyermann Munich 10L
6 ounces Crystal 60L
1 oz Mt. Hood pellets 5.9% for 60
1 oz Amarillo 8.2% for 5
1 oz Citra 13.2% for 5
1 oz Amarillo 8.2% for 2
1 oz Citra 13.2% for 2
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

OG: 1.052, FG: 1.013, IBU: 51, SRM: 7, ABV: 5.0%

I mashed at 151.6° for 60 minutes... single infusion. I diluted my bicarb-heavy water with some distilled and added back some gypsum and CaCl to get the calcium back up. I only used the Mt. Hood because I was looking for some clean bitterness and I knew they would be lost in the weeds with four ounces of late hops added in the last 5 minutes. Plus, I always have a bunch of Mt. Hood anyway. This is not Moon Man but honestly, this is close enough to Moon Man for me. This is Moon Man. No, this is not Moon Man. Someone slap me before I contradict myself again. If you like MM, brew this beer and then call me when it's ready and I will come and tip a few with you! Cheers Beerheads!

kenlenard said:

Gang: I may have inadvertently made Moon Man. I know I didn't really but hear this... I was at a craft beer fest in the spring and the host brewery (Tighthead Brewing in Mundelein, IL) had a great APA called Chilly Water that my wife and I kept going back for. I happen to know the brewer and asked him if it had Amarillo and Citra and he confirmed that it did. I figured I would make a batch of something similar and I knew the wife would like to have it on tap in the bar. So I put this recipe together and it's on tap right now. I'm drinking a glass of it as I type. It looks, smells and tastes exactly like Moon Man. It's clear as a bell and delicious as hell. That should be the tagline for this beer. The one made by Tighthead was more bitter than mine but my flavor and aroma is outrageously good and closer to Moon Man. Here's what I did...

8 lbs Rahr Pale Ale Malt
1 lbs Weyermann Munich 10L
6 ounces Crystal 60L
1 oz Mt. Hood pellets 5.9% for 60
1 oz Amarillo 8.2% for 5
1 oz Citra 13.2% for 5
1 oz Amarillo 8.2% for 2
1 oz Citra 13.2% for 2
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

OG: 1.052, FG: 1.013, IBU: 51, SRM: 7, ABV: 5.0%

I mashed at 151.6° for 60 minutes... single infusion. I diluted my bicarb-heavy water with some distilled and added back some gypsum and CaCl to get the calcium back up. I only used the Mt. Hood because I was looking for some clean bitterness and I knew they would be lost in the weeds with four ounces of late hops added in the last 5 minutes. Plus, I always have a bunch of Mt. Hood anyway. This is not Moon Man but honestly, this is close enough to Moon Man for me. This is Moon Man. No, this is not Moon Man. Someone slap me before I contradict myself again. If you like MM, brew this beer and then call me when it's ready and I will come and tip a few with you! Cheers Beerheads!

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I'm thinking about giving this a try this weekend. Did you side by side taste it with moon man? Would you change anything?

I did not try it side-by-side because the Moon Man I had was a little on the old side (I'm in Illinois so I do not have it at my disposal all the time). Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. This beer is almost gone and I have everything I need to make it again and I would probably make it exactly the same way. Again, it's not Moon Man... it's a very nice Amarillo-Citra Pale Ale that is very much in the spirit of Moon Man and anyone that likes MM would love this beer. Cheers.

kenlenard said:

I did not try it side-by-side because the Moon Man I had was a little on the old side (I'm in Illinois so I do not have it at my disposal all the time). Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. This beer is almost gone and I have everything I need to make it again and I would probably make it exactly the same way. Again, it's not Moon Man... it's a very nice Amarillo-Citra Pale Ale that is very much in the spirit of Moon Man and anyone that likes MM would love this beer. Cheers.

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I think a nice pale ale is not what i'm looking for. I'm looking for Moon Man! I buy this stuff constantly.

So I've been going through the literature that's out there and I have the following:

• Heavily Dry Hopped to 1.43 oz per gallon (2.25lb/barrel)
• Four Hops grown in Washington.
• Fifth from NZ.
• Three of the hops are not used commonly in American Style Pale ales.
• Mix of Oregon and Washington Hops (in Origin).
• Carey uses equal amounts of the five and most are added during a dry-hopping process involving nearly 2 1/4 pounds of hops per barrel.

Sources:

[ame]http://vimeo.com/57642449[/ame]

http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/brewery/headline

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28548

Knowing New Glarus as well, I would guess that hard to find hops (such as Riwaka) are not in it. Dan says himself that he doesn't have much clout in that video. For that reason I would probably go with another NZ aromatic. Not sure how to select the others based on that criteria/knowing that Moon Man is all about "not wrecking your pallet with hops". Part of me wants to go with Mt Hood as one, maybe willamette, a bunch of motueka, Amarillo as that one american pale ale style hop, and maybe chinook.

I'll be honest... I like Moon Man a lot and I have driven over the state line to get some for my wife and I. She likes it quite a bit more than I do as well as other pale ales where Amarillo and Citra are apparent. If I make a beer that I think nicely covers that of a commercial beer, I'm happy. My wife is happy with this beer and has knocked back the vast majority of this keg. I'm at a point where I feel satisfied that I made a great pale ale that looks, smells and tastes close enough to Moon Man. What I made only has three hops... Mt. Hood, Amarillo and Citra. You cannot taste the Mt. Hood and you probably wouldn't be able to pick out Motueka either. Also, I did not dry hop this beer... I added 4 ounces of high alpha hops to the kettle in the last 5 minutes of the boil and got a great hop flavor and aroma that is riding on top of a very light amber beer that is malty enough to stand up to the hops. This is a great beer and satisfies my tastebuds and my brewing creativity. Give it a try!

Finally decided what I was going to settle on for a recipe...You converted me to both Amarillo and Citra, although I think this is wrong its worth the try.

Recipe: Moon Man Clone
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.72 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 5.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 65.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 79.5 %
2 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.7 %
7.2 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.8 %
0.75 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 9.2 IBUs
0.75 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 5.5 IBUs
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 7.5 min Hop 6 6.7 IBUs
0.75 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 7 2.8 IBUs
0.75 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 9 -
1.10 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 10 -
1.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Day Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 15 0.0 IBUs


I ended up choosing the grain bill from the non-adjunct parts of Spotted Cow. Spotted Cow was dry hopped with the hops in Moon Man, so its only logical to me that they use that grain bill with American Ale yeast instead of the Kolsch yeast. Chose Safeale 05, although New Glarus uses 1056. I'll let everyone know how this goes in hopefully 3-4 weeks depending on how fast I try to get it into bottle.

IBU's were selected on a few posts saying that 30's were too high. Color was based off of spotted cow, which is very similar to Moon Man's color. Dry hops are a little more than is in Moon.

Tonight I made the recipe I posted above (with pic) and I made it exactly the same way... except that the hops were higher AA (Amarillo were 8.2 now 10.1 and Citra was 13.2 and now 14.1) and I also used Wyeast 1764 Pacman because I had it and it was ready to roll. Never used this yeast but have heard very good things and heard it was very neutral. I raise a glass to all that enjoy Moon Man here in the Midwest. Cheers to my brewing brothers.

Fermentation just finished after five days at 62-66F. Letting it free rise now, hopefully to 70.

Gravity checks in at 1.010 and the taste is very, very, very similar to moon man. I did it at 28 IBU and it could be a bit more bitter I think. Color is spot on. I'll be dry hopping tonight to get that aroma, and then carbing ASAP. From there, side by side testing and pictures. Hoping to say that its the Citra-Amarillo-Motueka combo that makes this clone a success. Will be back in three weeks or so.