Oberon Clone

Does anyone have a recipe for an Oberon clone?

If you've never had it you're missing out on something special. It's a citrusy wheat beer that is by far the best beer I've ever had on draft. It's made by Bell's Brewry in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Oberon is fantastic. Luckily there is a shop here that carries EVERYTHING Bells and they were able to get a handful of 5L Oberon Kegs. Pretty nice lookin little buggers. My friend and I killed one in front of a campfire on the last day of summer.

Sorry, no clone though...

jettaman said:

Does anyone have a recipe for an Oberon clone?

If you've never had it you're missing out on something special. It's a citrusy wheat beer that is by far the best beer I've ever had on draft. It's made by Bell's Brewry in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Click to expand...

A keg, eh? The store I buy beer from also carries the entire Bells' line, too. Might just have to ask about the keg.

Yeah, I'll get a picture of it when I get home. Coolest looking 5L keg I've ever seen. They have one left too... might have to go pick that up and stick it in the cellar until spring... The buyer at the store told me that Bell's only made a few of them, they were made for some big party they were having or something like that. That could be wrong info.

I found a site that had a recipe for Oberon. It will take a little playing with because it's for 7.25 gallons of wort. I'll let you know how it turns out.

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cach...oberon+ale+recipe&hl=xx-bork&client=firefox-a

Sorry for the long link.

Finally....

Recipe looks good! With most wheat ales, I begin to tire of the taste after 3-4 and usually switch to something else. Bell's Oberon is the only wheat ale that I can drink continuously without wanting to switch over.

I’d highly recommend culturing Bell’s yeast and making a starter for your Oberon clone. I saved the yeast from six bottles of their 20th Anniversary Ale, made a starter and used it in an ale I did a couple of weeks ago. It was very easy to do. I had read somewhere that Bell’s uses the same yeast to both brew and bottle and that their yeast would really perform well. It did! The yeast I used really took off!

How do you save off the yeast? Not sure how to capture it.

How do you save off the yeast?

With bottles of Bell's it's easy. They don't filter their beers, so the yeast falls to the bottom of the bottle, same as our home brew. Hold a bottle to the light and you'll see it.

Just decant the beer, leaving about a 1/2" in the bottom of the bottle, swirl, then pour into a sanitized mason jar. I cover the jar with santized aluminum foil, screw the top on and leave it in the fridge until I have another Bell's. After six Bell's beers, I can 'wash' the yeast, then make a starter. There more info on yeast washing here!

jettaman said:

Does anyone have a recipe for an Oberon clone?

Click to expand...

Here you go. But it will have to be reduced from the 1 bbl batch size. They say, "This is the actual recipe Bells uses, not a cloned knockoff."
Good luck,
Wild

Cool! Thanks!

So a bbl is 15.5 gallons, yeah? So if I divide this recipe be roughly 1/3 it would work, I would think. Only thing is that I have never done all grain yet. Not sure if I'm ready for that. Still a newbie.

Actually, now that I look at the other recipe I found, I think I would need even more experience to use that one.

Hmm... not sure what I'll brew next, then.

Actually, a bbl. is 31 gallons! They don't list the AA% of the hops used, but I roughly calculated this out to be as follows for a 5 US Gal. batch:

5.5 lbs. domestic (Briess) 2-row
4 lbs. durst wheat
13 oz. munich (Belgian 10-L?)
13 oz. CaraPils

1/2 oz Hallertau @ 45 min.
3/4 oz. Hallertau @ 30 min
1 oz. Saaz @ end of boil (flame-out?)
1/4 oz. Hallertau @ end of boil (flame-out?)

Use a cultured bells yeast or wyeast 1056.

Let me know if this looks to be off. I'm at work and don't have access to ProMash.

Is there any kind of LME or DME that would work for this? As I said I don't have much experience yet, so I'm not ready to delve into AG.

jettaman said:

Is there any kind of LME or DME that would work for this? As I said I don't have much experience yet, so I'm not ready to delve into AG.

Click to expand...

For one of my last extract batches before going all-grain, I found some Briess LME and used it. I really liked the results. Since that is what they call for in this recipe, maybe you could substitute with that?

This is a rough guess, but I'd think you could sub the 2-row with a 3.3 lb. cannister of Briess CBW Golden Light LME and about a 1/2 lb. of plain light DME and for the wheat malt, a 3.3 lb cannister of Briess CBW Bavarian Wheat LME.

Cool! I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all the help!