Coors light clone i created ended up being very awesome....take a look

Well, a while back i had a few threads about trying to make a coors light clone. Despite a few of you who had some doubts, it came out tasting very very good, and went over well with some buddies who actually preferred my beer over coors. Here it is:


It took about 10 days to ferment (@ 55 deg F) until a stable FG was achieved. Then had it lagering at 35 deg for 40 days. Even though i made this beer using all DME it came out exactly like i imagined it would. Dry, yet a nice malty aftertaste leaving it very drinkable for a hot summer day or a good "dart shooting" brew.

For those of who would like to try it out, here is the shizznit:

- Munton's Extra Light DME 3 lbs.
- Rice Syrup Solids 1 lb
- Corn Sugar 1 lb
- 1oz Saaz Hops
- Saflager S-23 (lager Yeast)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OG is about 1.042-1.046
FG is about 1.004-1.008
135 calories per 12oz beer
9 IBU's
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Boil 2.5 gal of water then toss in the DME, Rice Solids and corn sugar as usual, once back up to boil, throw in the hops for 60 min. Flame out, chill to 60 deg, then ferment at 52-58 deg F.

After active fermentation is complete and your hydro reading is stable, lager it at 35 deg for 40 days or longer.


On another note, thanks to all who helped me out through my first beer i create on my own.

For the related links about this beer:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/trying-out-recipe-light-beer-have-few-questions-212514/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/distinct-sulfur-smell-current-batch-beer-217741/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/question-lager-yeast-ferment-quickness-217467/

It looks nice. What would you say are the major differences between actual Coors Light and your version?

Looks like a tasty brew alright. Seems like you have nailed it. I might suggest that next time you save 2 pounds of DME and add it in the last 10 minutes of the boil. This would help to make it even lighter in colour.
Congrats on making a style that even for experienced brewers is hard to do.

MeatyPortion said:

It looks nice. What would you say are the major differences between actual Coors Light and your version?

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Mine, i would say, has a slight malty taste at the end. Mine also was ever so slightly hazy. Next time ill use Irish moss or something to clear it up or perhaps let it lager longer.

Not a bad beer for using exract.

Coors light clone? Did you just pee straight into the bottles or set the urine in firmintaion for a few hours and mix with water?

Sorry, it's Coors, had to go there. I am glad it turned out to your liking.

dmichaell said:

Coors light clone? Did you just pee straight into the bottles or set the urine in firmintaion for a few hours and mix with water?

Sorry, it's Coors, had to go there. I am glad it turned out to your liking.

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I'd like to add to the HBT unwritten rule book.

Don't be an unprovoked ****** to a fellow brewer...just sayin'

Oh, and when being an unprovoked ****** to a fellow brewer, use spellcheck...

Beer geeks to BMC chuggers, we all get sneered at by wine snobs!!! We gotta stick together

I'm glad this turned out for you, I would also suggest late DME addition to lighten it up a bit more. as for clarifying it, try Irish moss or whirflock tablets, this should assist in clearing it up. The big pisser is the time it takes to get a lager to the tap to see how it turned out. Again congrats on your first Lager!

Just making a joke. My apologies to anyone who was offended.

dmichaell said:

Just making a joke. My apologies to anyone who was offended.

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We kissed and made up



Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Thats cool!

That would probably satisfy all the "non home brew" friends who refuse to try my brews!

Great job, it looks beautiful! Clarity is perfect. I'm hoping the light refreshing taste is there. Did you bitter with the saaz, or use it for aroma? You don't mention in your recipe.

Only other thing is as mentioned above, you'd get a slightly lighter color by adding the malt in stages. Still, you should be proud

msarro said:

Great job, it looks beautiful! Clarity is perfect. I'm hoping the light refreshing taste is there. Did you bitter with the saaz, or use it for aroma? You don't mention in your recipe.

Only other thing is as mentioned above, you'd get a slightly lighter color by adding the malt in stages. Still, you should be proud

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He said the hops went in at 60 min so they would be for bittering.

Sent from my iPad using HB Talk

msarro said:

Great job, it looks beautiful! Clarity is perfect. I'm hoping the light refreshing taste is there. Did you bitter with the saaz, or use it for aroma? You don't mention in your recipe.

Only other thing is as mentioned above, you'd get a slightly lighter color by adding the malt in stages. Still, you should be proud

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yeah, he beat me to it, i just added saaz for bittering, thats it.

dmichaell said:

Coors light clone? Did you just pee straight into the bottles or set the urine in firmintaion for a few hours and mix with water?

Sorry, it's Coors, had to go there. I am glad it turned out to your liking.

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+1. I'm sure yours is much, much better than Coors

That is awesome! So it was made with just DME no grains? This I have to try out. I also have to search the Rice Syrup Solids.

azscoob said:

I'm glad this turned out for you, I would also suggest late DME addition to lighten it up a bit more. as for clarifying it, try Irish moss or whirflock tablets, this should assist in clearing it up. The big pisser is the time it takes to get a lager to the tap to see how it turned out. Again congrats on your first Lager!

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i wanted to resurrect this thread simply by asking how late would you add the DME for light color?

And adding it later would mean im basically boiling hops and water until the DME is added right?

No, actually typically in a late extract addition brew you use half the extract as normal (for hop isomerization you need some malt present) then add the other half of the dme somewhere in the last 20-15 minutes, just long enough to steralize it.

I'm impressed.

brewd00d said:

i wanted to resurrect this thread simply by asking how late would you add the DME for light color?

And adding it later would mean im basically boiling hops and water until the DME is added right?

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You'll need to put in some at the beginning to buffer the water, otherwise your pH will be too high for your hops and you could get some astringent off-flavors. Seems like many people around here that do late additions do 50/50 - half at the beginning and then the rest with a few minutes to go.

brewd00d said:

i wanted to resurrect this thread simply by asking how late would you add the DME for light color?

And adding it later would mean im basically boiling hops and water until the DME is added right?

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I'd put a pound if the extract in at the beginning, along with the rice syrup, and add the rest of the extract at flame out, along with the corn sugar.

Revvy said:

No, actually typically in a late extract addition brew you use half the extract as normal (for hop isomerization you need some malt present) then add the other half of the dme somewhere in the last 20-15 minutes, just long enough to steralize it.

I'm impressed.

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would it make a difference if i added the rice syrup solids or extra light DME first then add or or the other at the end?

brewd00d said:

would it make a difference if i added the rice syrup solids or extra light DME first then add or or the other at the end?

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Nah not at all! I was just thinking of the "least messy" way to do it! Since they're solids and not liquid, it doesn't matter. If it was dry extract, and liquid extract, I'd probably add the dry first because it's a pain sometimes to whisk it in to get it to dissolve. But, no, it doesn't matter at all.

then add the other half of the dme somewhere in the last 20-15 minutes, just long enough to steralize it.

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I'm just curious here why would you want to boil dme. It has enzymes in it that actually help your brew, if you boil it you will kill most (if not all) of them... You mention steralization but is it really required for DME?

Also just wanted to say that brew looks great! How did you keep the temps so low?

Looks great, I make a similar summer beer using 3lbs extra light DME, 1 lb rice solids, US-05 yeast and amylase enzyme in the secondary.

So I assume since you didn't mention topping off, this was only a 2.5 gallon batch?

I'm going to use this and tweak it a little. This is definitely a good beer to have when you are drinking a lot, like during a football game.

Would boiling only half the DME make the IBU's go up?

It's really such an insignificant thing, don't forget you're going to be "dilluting " the boil with more dme later which will even out any extra initial bitterness. And then if you are topping off with your top of water to your 5 gallons, it's going to go down to whatever the recipe was calculated to anyway.

That can of cooper's pre-hopped extract people usually start with is a prime example of this....Read this,

Revvy said:

The trouble is that the IBUs of the cans of hopped, pre diluted lme is through the roof. If you look at the data for coopers kits, the pre-diluted extract in that can is like 700IBUs...it's only when it gets diluted it comes down to what we get in the final product.

At least once a year someone comes on here after reading the cooper's website freaking out or thinking it is a misprint. But someone on here actually wrote to them and they explained. I post this like once a year.

I fell for that one myself. 710 IBU and 560IBU is for the bitterness at 1.7kg level. By the time you dilute to (say) 23litres, the IBU of the wort is no where near that level.


Coopers Kits

Lager 90 EBC 390 IBU
Draught 130 EBC 420 IBU
Real Ale 230 EBC 560 IBU
Bitter 420 EBC 620 IBU
Dark Ale 550 EBC 590 IBU
Stout 1800 EBC 710 IBU
Canadian Blonde 70 EBC 420 IBU
Bavarian Lager 90 EBC 390 IBU
Mexican Cerveza 53 EBC 300 IBU
Australian Pale Ale 90 EBC 340 IBU

This is for the concentrated form in the can - to get the figure for 23litres: multiply by 1.25 and divide by 23.
To convert EBC to SRM: SRM = (EBC - 1.2)/2.65

Therefore 710 IBU in can = 710 x 1.25 divided by 23 litres = 38 IBUs.


Here's a followup post with an email exchange between a homebrewer and someone @ Cooper's.


Quote:
QUOTE (My email)
How do you calculate how bitter a beer is?

I made a Coopers Bitter, which from your website says is 620 IBU. This is the bitterness of the tin yes?

If made to 23L, what would the bitterness of the beer be?

Would it be 620IBU/23L = 27IBU?

Thanks for your help,
Rob.

And got the reply:

QUOTE (Coopers reply)
G'day Robert. You're close. You also need to take into account the volume of can (1.25l) and allow 5% loss during fermentation:

(620 X 1.25)/23 X 95% = 32 IBU

Cheers, Frank.

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Hope that helps somewhat give you an idea.

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Whatever happens during the boil initially is going to be countered exponentially by what you do later in the process. It's like how recipes are scalable. Or how if you boil too much wort down, the gravity increases by exactly the amount that if you replace it with the water you boiled away to get to the correct final volume.

Like if you boil away an extra 1/2 gallon during the boil and take a refractometer reading, it's x points higher in gravity. Then when it's cool you add 1/2 gallon of top off water and take a reading it's exactly x points lower than the first reading. It's not too different with IBUs, except it's going to be too little an amount to really notice in the final product. Our tastebuds really can't distinguish close gaps in IBU's. You could drink the same recipe beer made at 10 IBUS and not tell the diff really if you split the batch and made the other beer 12 or 13 ibus.

makes perfect sense, thank buddy

Well i made another batch, same exact recipe and same time lagering.

Only this time during the boil i only put in half the DME, used irish moss, and used isinglass for clarification purposes.

I took a sip 1 hour ago and its not as "malty" tasting as my last one. def better than my first one.

brewd00d said:

Well i made another batch, same exact recipe and same time lagering.

Only this time during the boil i only put in half the DME, used irish moss, and used isinglass for clarification purposes.

I took a sip 1 hour ago and its not as "malty" tasting as my last one. def better than my first one.

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Shweet! Did it come out lighter in color and clearer as well?

I would say it came out a tad lighter. crisp clean dry finish, with a snowy white head. mmmmmm.

finish EM!!

You topped this off to 5 gallons, right? Or was this just a 2.5 gal batch?

CrackShotHolmes said:

You topped this off to 5 gallons, right? Or was this just a 2.5 gal batch?

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Yes, it was a 5 gal batch. If only I had bigger kegs.

When you lagered did you leave it in the Primary on top of the yeast? Or transfer to a secondary?

Thanks for the post I want to give this a try!

QUOTE=brewd00d;2708352]Well, a while back i had a few threads about trying to make a coors light clone. Despite a few of you who had some doubts, it came out tasting very very good, and went over well with some buddies who actually preferred my beer over coors. Here it is:


It took about 10 days to ferment (@ 55 deg F) until a stable FG was achieved. Then had it lagering at 35 deg for 40 days. Even though i made this beer using all DME it came out exactly like i imagined it would. Dry, yet a nice malty aftertaste leaving it very drinkable for a hot summer day or a good "dart shooting" brew.

For those of who would like to try it out, here is the shizznit:

- Munton's Extra Light DME 3 lbs.
- Rice Syrup Solids 1 lb
- Corn Sugar 1 lb
- 1oz Saaz Hops
- Saflager S-23 (lager Yeast)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OG is about 1.042-1.046
FG is about 1.004-1.008
135 calories per 12oz beer
9 IBU's
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Boil 2.5 gal of water then toss in the DME, Rice Solids and corn sugar as usual, once back up to boil, throw in the hops for 60 min. Flame out, chill to 60 deg, then ferment at 52-58 deg F.

After active fermentation is complete and your hydro reading is stable, lager it at 35 deg for 40 days or longer.


On another note, thanks to all who helped me out through my first beer i create on my own.

For the related links about this beer:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/trying-out-recipe-light-beer-have-few-questions-212514/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/distinct-sulfur-smell-current-batch-beer-217741/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/question-lager-yeast-ferment-quickness-217467/[/QUOTE]

Necro bump.

Man, I'm so lucky. I have Coors Light on tap, in four rooms of my house. Hot and cold!

DonP said:

When you lagered did you leave it in the Primary on top of the yeast? Or transfer to a secondary?

Thanks for the post I want to give this a try!

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Transferred to secondary and it sat for two months @ 36 deg F

Do you have any coors bottles to bottle it in? How will you ever know if it's cold enough to drink without those blue mountains?

Yeah, the dead arise, but I think it's a valid question. To answer it I would offer its not necessary to rack off the yeast cake if lagering a month or less. That being said I almost always do because I may not get to it in a month or two and am amazed at how much yeast drops out of suspension. As far as brewing lighter beers, any brewer who wants to test their skill should brew an American lager, cream ale, or kolch to style. Flaws in technique will be readily apparent.

astropunk said:

Thats cool!

That would probably satisfy all the "non home brew" friends who refuse to try my brews!

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Hey there I'm now to this hobby but with the wines iv made noticed that I preferred the taste of honey to that of sugar. Would substituting 1 lb. Of sugar for 1 pound of honey be ok?