Blue Moon Clone

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Alright so I am doing a 15 gallon batch of this during the labor day weekend. However I am doing ten gallons (post boil) of it in my keggle and the other 5 gallons in a 9 gallon brew pot. I am mashing everything together since I have a 19 gallon mash cooler. I was thinking about making the ten gallons a blue moon clone then using the other 5 and not adding corriander or orange peel and making a hoppy pale "wheat" ale. Any suggestions on what hops to use and whether I should still add the orange peel? Also suggestions on how to make sure my 20+ gallons of pre-boil wort is evenly mixed since I can't fit it all in one pot. Basically wanna make ten gallons of blue moon clone then 5 gallons of a hoppy pale ale using the same grain bill since I bought enough grain for a 15 gallon batch....

Thanks
 
Hi Wayne:

Thanks for sharing all the great stuff here. I really appreciate the help you give to everyone. I have brewed a few PM "Blue Moon" batches before I saw your thread and probably came close to the Blue Moon - Honeymoon. I had used Belgium Abbey yeast in these batches along with honey.

The batches tasted great although as Im reading this thread I'm finding out the true recipe and can now try a real Blue Moon clone although I do not have the ability to do all grain yet. I do have a 10 gal Rubbermaid cooler that I have been doing several PM batches in and have a recipe I am going to brew in two days... making the starter tonight with 1056 American Ale.

Here is the recipe Im using for PM - My PM method starts with a PreBoil of approx 3 Gal of water, cooled to 70ish and into the sanitized 6 Gal glass carboy (about 2.5 Gal)

My wort Pre Boil volume is approx 3.5 Gal and ends with about 3 Gal of wort to end up with 5.5 Gal fermenting.

5.5 Gal Batch
2.5# - 2 Row Pale Malt - Rahr
1.5# - White Wheat Malt - Rahr
1.0# - Flaked Oats
0.5# Rice Hulls - (Soaked in Warm Water prior to adding to mash)

My LHBS used 3.3# of Northwestern Weisse LME to make up the rest of the fermentables in the wort boil.

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Chico - 2Qt starter 2 days prior to brew day

0.7 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh Hops (4% AAU) - Not sure this is the right amount. 75 Min

1 oz Ground Coriander and 0.325 oz Minced Sweet Valencia Orange Peel (McCormicks) as you suggest (3:1 Coriander)

I am using a 10 Gal Rubbermaid cooler so I am mashing the 5# grain with 6.25 Qts of Water at target 154F for 75 min (+ 3 Qts for Tun Loss and +2 Qts for Grain absorbtion for a total of 11.25 Qts)

Sparge with 8 Qts of Water to a target mash out temp of 168F for 10 Minutes

Clear wort volume from the mash tun into the kettle would be approx 14 Qts to get the remaining 12 Qts Post Boil

My question is about the Northwestern Weisse LME - Northwestern says their Weisse LME is 65% Red Wheat and 35% Barley. Do you think the Weisse LME is appropriate here or should I look at another supplier to get a 100% Pale Malt LME or one with less wheat malt or is there a base LME with White wheat instead of red wheat or am I worrying too much?

Best Regards,

BBB
 
Most wheat lme is 65% wheat. I looked for a difference between white and red and the difference seems to be Suttle. Dont use plain dme as that would not give you nearly enough wheat flavor. I would go ahead and use the red lme I think you will be fine. As always please post your result so we can all work at making this clone better
 
ekjohns

I read your post about Oberon and I have to say I had a Bells Oberon on tap in Madison last week and was very impressed.

I have been doing a few Hefes lately, the last a classic Weihenstephan with a decoction mash. I could not place the flavors in the Oberon though after starting out with a Capital Oktoberfest.

After looking around I did not find many recipes so thanks. I will be trying that one next spring and will try to get a sixer to harvest the yeast for that batch. Did you find anybody that brewed this recipe yet?

I made the starter last night on the BM batch planned for tomorrow so Ill let you know how it turns out in 4 weeks. I did measure out my orange peel last night and found that the jar of peel looked like it had a small % of white bits mixed in with the darker shades of dried peel. I used a small fine mesh stainless steel strainer and the small white bit parts got caught in the strainer and the good outside peel parts went through. After sifting I came up with maybe a better quality of dried peel that I weighed out to 10 grams for my 5.5 gal batch

The jar of coriander I had was less than 1 oz and whole seeds so I need to get some more. I plan on grinding whole seeds in a coffee grinder to get the freshest flavor I can and I will use about 30 grams.
 
I never tried the oberon clone. I was going to and cultured yeast from only 2 bottles very successfully. It should be pretty easy to do. My problem was I had some oberon and some blue moon and after i opened the oberon I was not impressed so I opened a blue moon and did a taste comparison. Personally i liked the blue moon much more than the oberon so I decided to try and difference recipe. For me the side by said taste to me seemed like blue moon was a little sweeter and had more orange and corriander. I think the general base taste is the same with just more spices for blue moon. Try and use the recipe on here and tone it down for oberon (oberon yeast will go along way for cloning). Sorry i could not be of more help
 
Thanks Wayne....worked like a charm.

I have to say that that is a fantastic recipe, and one I will make many more times. Since I followed your instructions and made it as you did once, now I can tweak it and know what affect it has on taste. Thanks again for all your input on this recipe - Bellyslide Belgian White.

stand1.jpg


very nice beer nicc and cloudy and beautiful head...I will def be brewing this one.....
 
I brewed the PM version yesterday and Ill update the recipe and volumes I used:

My Partial Mash method starts with a PreBoil of approx 2.5 Gal of water, cooled to 70ish and into the sanitized 6 Gal glass carboy (about 2 Gal) so I needed 3.25 gal post boil to get 5 total gal in to the carboy leaving 1Qt for trub loss.

My wort Pre Boil volume is approx 3.75 Gal and ends with about 3 Gal of wort to end up with 5.0 Gal fermenting.

Grains used for a 3.75 Gal PM Boil for 5.0 Gal Total Batch Size
2.5# - 2 Row Pale Malt - Rahr
1.5# - White Wheat Malt - Rahr
1.0# - Flaked Oats
0.5# Rice Hulls - (Soaked in Warm Water prior to adding to mash)

I ended up using at the initial boil
1/2# of Muntons Extra Light DME that I had leftover from the starter
1/2# of Muntons Weisse DME that I also had from a previous batch

Added 1.0 oz Hallertau Mittelfrueh Hops (3% AAU) for the last 60 Min of a 90 min boil - need to calculate the IBUs.

I waited to add the 3.3# of Northwestern Weisse LME until 45 minutes left in the boil to keep the color as light as possible.

I added 1 oz Ground Coriander for the last 10 Minutes

I added 0.325 oz Minced Sweet Valencia Orange Peel (McCormicks) at 5 Minutes (A 3:1 ratio)

I used a 10 Gal Rubbermaid cooler and ended up mashing in the 5# grain with 9 Qts of Water to get to the target of 154F for 75 min. 1.5 Qts/# would be only 7.5 Qts but I had to add extra hot water to get to the strike temp.

After waiting 90 minutes the temp was down to 146F so I re-calculated a sparge with 11.5 Qts of 190F strike water to get to 168F which I overshot just a little to 172F and had to add 1/2 qt of cold water to get to 168F which I held for 10 minutes before vorlaufing and lautering about 14 Qts of clear wort into the kettle.

I allowed +3 Qts for Tun Loss and +2 Qts for Grain absorbtion and a boil loss of 3 Qts for the 90 minute boil.

At 90 min I cooled in the large basement sink with a pre fill of cold water to initially cool to about 120F or so and then drained and refilled with cold water and I large bag of ice to get to 70. Into the new pre-santiized 6.5 gal carboy.

Hit 1.056 actually so I was a little surprised.

Pitched with
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Chico - 2Qt starter 2 days prior to brew day


Now bubbling away, smelled great in the kettle. Ill primary at 65-68F for 2 weeks and keg for about 2 weeks before trying it out.
 
Here's mine from a couple months ago:

Personal notes: I used ~1.75 teaspoons McCormick valencia orange peel as per the advice of some others on this topic. It had a sour edge to it, which I think would have been cut had the attenuation not dried out so far (1.010). Next time, I'd cut back to 1.5 teaspoons (or switch to real orange peel) and try to mash higher. I also only had access to Mt. Hood hops and I'm not sure if that was a good sub for Hallertauer Mittelfrueh.
 
Well I brewed a 15 gallon batch of this over the weekend but boiled 5 of it seperately. Ten was as Wayne's recipe reads and the other five I didn't add the spices but added 4 ounces of hops instead (amarillo, centennial, simco,and cascade all with 20 minutes or less in the boil). Anyways, I was hoping to get ~1.053 OG on this and only got 1.047 OG. I used basically the exact same method as my last beer where I got higher efficiency than planned and ended up with a higher OG than expected. This is my first time using wheat in an all grain recipe. Does wheat grain usually give a lower efficiency or did I probably just do something wrong?
 
Well the Blue Moon like batch I made as a PM with Wheat LME turned out great. Color was a darker as expected but it was enjoyed with several friends at a fall picnic in October. I ended up fermenting in my primary for over 4 weeks at 67-69F and then in the keg for 2 weeks before serving.

I now have the equipment to do a full AG batch so I'm anxious to try the real recipe but first I tried a Hoegaarden like recipe as that has become the brew of choice recently around the house.

After trying a few in bottles recently I was really interested in the white color of the beer. My first 5 Gal AG batch was a recipe I cobbled together in Beersmith after reading about 10 or 15 recipes. I made this with the Forbidden Fruit yeast.

Wayne: Have you tried brewing any variations like a Hoegaarden ? I know you said you did not care for the Belgium yeast flavors. I wanted to try the true Belgium Wit style to compare to the Blue Moon so I will be doing this soon.
 
BeerBaronBob,

It is going to be very hard to find a traditional Belgian Wit. Many years ago Hoegaarden was taken over by InBev and they started changing the recipe that was revived by Pierre Celis. Disgusted with what had been done to his beer, Pierre and his family went to Austin, TX to set up a brewery to make Witbier the "correct" way. I have met Pierre and drank witbier with him. It was very, very good.

As with a lot of breweries, there was money trouble. Miller acquired it and eventually closed the brewery and sold the equipment and name to Michigan Brewing Company.

Pierre is back in Belgian, in his home town of Hoegaarden. There have been rumors that InBev was going to close the plant in town. They were planning to switch production to a different plant and use "modern" techniques such as high gravity brewing to produce the beer for less expense.

You can try the InBev version of Hoegaarden, but it will not be Pierre's recipe. It will not be fresh and fresh is what witbier is all about.

I did very much like Celis White while it was made in Texas. I do prefer the cleaner taste of Blue Moon. That is just my preference. I do not care for sour, banana, clove or other sort of flavors in my beers. I tend to got for "cleaner" tastes of styles coming from the UK and Germany, with the exception of weiss.

My favorite style is IPA. The original Blue Moon was something I thought would be perfect to drink watching a baseball game. Light and refreshing with a touch of orange. No funky off flavors. It could be sold to people used to industrial lagers with no problems.
 
Wayne, from what we know of blue moon today by tasting it, how much you think the recipe have changed thru the years?
I'm asking that because the beer I taste today seems to have a darker color and more thickness that most recipes call for.
I have the recipe below fermenting right now and wondering what you think of it.

5gal batch
4# Briess 2 row
4# Flaked wheat
2# Briess white wheat malt
1/2# Carapils
1/4# Crystal 40L
1# Flaked oats
1# Rice hulls

Boil:
1oz Hallertauer for 60min
1/2oz cariander for 10min
2 chamomile tea begs for 10min

Fresh orange peel from 1 orange infused in vodka and into primary

Eff%=70, mashed at 158F.
Dry yeast S04 at 65F

OG=1.051
FG=1.015
ABV%=4.7
SRM=6
IBU=14

The taste and smell from fermenter are just fantastic :)
 
Im still holding to the belief that the current blue moon uses orange extract as opposed to orange peel. I know wayne used dried orange peel I feel this has changed as a cost cutting measure. The reason i think this is because every which way i have tried to introduce the orange flavor (dried vs fresh orange peel, care of zesting, different types of oranges) i always get a bitter orange peel taste that i dont get in blue moon. My next attempt with have extract added in primary
 
nilo - I also have been thinking blue moon has some crystal. Without it the color is much more pale and never gets that yellow orangy color. I also feel like all my versions have been less sweet but that could be problems with my mashing and temp control during ferm.
 
I'm not really sure where Blue Moon is being made these days. When it first was released, it was contract brewed at a few different locations. One of which Sam Adams now owns. It might be made in the MillerCoors Memphis plant. Although since the merger there are quite a few locations that Miller owned that might have had surplus production.

Blue Moon is very successful. It is now, most likely, brewed high gravity and blended (watered down) to keep production costs low. Brewing 250 bbl batches, I don't think they would use dried spices. They might use an extract to add both the coriander and orange flavor. I do not know this for sure, I am only speculating.

I have not drank any Blue Moon in well over two years. It is not what I would care to drink at this point in my life. As mentioned earlier, I prefer IPAs. If I go to a liquor store, I will buy a locally made IPA. At a restaurant, I would choose New Belgium's Fat Tire over Blue Moon. Although Ranger would be my first choice.

I have given you all the original Blue Moon recipe as was brewed at Coors Field when it was first released. I suggest you first brew it as posted. From that point, you can make whatever changes you wish to make suitable to your tastes.

Nilo,

I would suggest a different base grain from Briess. To my taste, Briess 2-row is very pale and bland. The Great Western Pale Ale might be a better choice. You might even look into using a European Vienna as a base malt. That might give you the additional body and color you are looking for.

Your recipe uses too much wheat. Just use the wheat malt. The flaked wheat will dry out the flavor and bleach out the color. 1 lb of rice hulls is twice as much as needed. I don't care for the flavor of chamomile, but it is your beer.
 
Blue Moon Belgian White was first sold commercially as Belly Slide Belgian White at the SandLot Brewery at Coors Field during the 1995 opening season.

We did do a little fine tuning of the recipe, which was developed by Dr. Keith Villa of Coors R&D. Mostly to do with the ratio of Orange Peel to Corriander.

The amounts of grains we used are roughly:
50% 2 row pale malt. (The first couple of batches were made with Great Western)
40% white wheat malt
10% flaked oats.

Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops were added for a 90 minute boil. Bittering should be around 17.5 IBU. Only one addition.

Blue Moon has always used pre-ground corriander and Valencia orange peel. Keith did not want the bitterness of Curacao oranges. He preferred the sweetness of the ground Valencia.

Try 1.25 tsp of ground corriander added to the kettle 10 minutes before the end of boil. This is for a 5-6 gallon batch.

Add 0.33tsp of ground Valencia orange peel 5 minutes before the end of boil.

The Chico strain would work well in this recipe. You want a neutral taste from the yeast. Keith has said that the flavors that should come through are the orange peel and corriander, not the yeast.

Be careful when lautering. I have made this recipe and some variations of it in three different pubs, with three different systems. I usually have trouble and end up sticking the mash. Run off very slowly.

Well I made a run at this


TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications

Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.94 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 3.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 84.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
Code:
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
5 lbs 8.0 oz  Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        50.00 %       
4 lbs 6.4 oz  White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)                Grain        40.00 %       
1 lbs 1.6 oz  Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)                    Grain        10.00 %       
1.50 oz       Hallertauer Hersbrucker [3.90 %]  (60 min)Hops         17.2 IBU      
3.00 tsp      Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 min)            Misc                       
3.00 tsp      Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min)         Misc                       
1 Pkgs        SafBrew Ale (Yeast #S-05)             Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 11.00 lb
Code:
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
120 min       Mash In            Add 3.41 gal of water at 167.8 F    152.0 F

The only tweaks which i feel were minor were the yeast, I didn't have time to get the chico strain up and running and the orange/coriander. Based on the results from the thread I upped the ratio.

Its getting kegged this week after a 3 week ferment, taste out of the hydrometer is fairly spot on. Thanks again Wayne. I know you are a stickler for a clone so I hope my variance isn't too far off
 
MeanGreen,

The grain bill, yeast and hops look great. The spices are a personal taste. I would have suggested brewing it first as written and then changing it to taste.

It is nice to sit back and say that. I know it is very hard to not want to put some personal touches on any recipe. Hell, I hardly ever brew my own recipes the same way twice in a row. Most of the time when I change a recipe it is because I do not have the exact same ingredients. I try to sub things that will get the same taste. I don't always succeed, but I do try.

My main contribution to the Blue Moon recipe was the ratio of coriander to sweet orange peel. I do realize that the same type of spices are not available today. The McCormick's orange peel seem to be the closest to the Valencia orange peel I used. I appreciate all the feedback from everybody who has brewed the recipe. With your help, perhaps we may be able to update it to fit what is available to homebrewers nowadays.
 
My recipe is pretty darn close to yours (when you scale for efficiency), and after doing 3:1 on the coriander/orange, last night I just did the same as you, 3tsp of each. Let us know how it turns out once you get it kegged. The S-05 shouldnt be that much of a difference either.
 
MeanGreen,

The grain bill, yeast and hops look great. The spices are a personal taste. I would have suggested brewing it first as written and then changing it to taste.

It is nice to sit back and say that. I know it is very hard to not want to put some personal touches on any recipe. Hell, I hardly ever brew my own recipes the same way twice in a row. Most of the time when I change a recipe it is because I do not have the exact same ingredients. I try to sub things that will get the same taste. I don't always succeed, but I do try.

My main contribution to the Blue Moon recipe was the ratio of coriander to sweet orange peel. I do realize that the same type of spices are not available today. The McCormick's orange peel seem to be the closest to the Valencia orange peel I used. I appreciate all the feedback from everybody who has brewed the recipe. With your help, perhaps we may be able to update it to fit what is available to homebrewers nowadays.

Thanks Wayne. One other question popped out at me in the thread and I don't think I resolved it.

Based on my experience cooking I prefer fresh ground spices. Was that how Blue Moon was made, with fresh ground coriander?

If so was it more cracked, like a mortar and pestle or ground to a fine powder or just bought outright ground?

Depending on the answer that may make a difference in the ratio, no? that the powder is more concentrated than just a cracked one?

Again many thanks for this
 
When I was brewing Blue Moon, it was on systems between 10 and 15 barrel brewlengths. Roughly between 375 and 500 gallons in the kettle. Dried, pre-ground, not powered, spices were the only practical method to use.

I scaled down the amounts used in those systems to a homebrew sized batch. I do realize that spices do not scale all that well. My spice suggestions were just that. The ratio of coriander to sweet orange peel was fairly important, at least in those size batches.

Once again, I suggest trying the amounts in the recipe I posted. If it does not work for you and the type of spices you use, then change them to suit your taste. At least you will have a reference point from which you can modify the recipe.
 
Wayne, I agree and I am going to, I wasn't questioning your recipe, just was wondering what the origins were. People say ground, and was wondering if it was more complex than that.

Cheers
 
i am pretty new to brewing and have read through this thread. i would like to make a pretty easy extract version of waynes recipe (partial mash at most). i know it wont be a clone, i just want to get something that slightly resembles blue moon and then work up from there. wayne (or anyone else) do you have an extract version?

we just cant get blue moon all the way over here in australia.
 
BeerBaronBob submitted a PM version in post #169 on this thread. He seemed to like it, but thought it was a bit dark in color.

I am not sure if you can get the same extract in OZ. I am also not sure about the availability of sweet orange peel. Good luck in your quest.
 
Wayne, from what we know of blue moon today by tasting it, how much you think the recipe have changed thru the years?
I'm asking that because the beer I taste today seems to have a darker color and more thickness that most recipes call for.
I have the recipe below fermenting right now and wondering what you think of it.

5gal batch
4# Briess 2 row
4# Flaked wheat
2# Briess white wheat malt
1/2# Carapils
1/4# Crystal 40L
1# Flaked oats
1# Rice hulls

Boil:
1oz Hallertauer for 60min
1/2oz coriander for 10min
2 chamomile tea begs for 10min

Fresh orange peel from 1 orange infused in vodka and into primary

Eff%=70, mashed at 158F.
Dry yeast S04 at 65F

OG=1.051
FG=1.015
ABV%=4.7
SRM=6
IBU=14

The taste and smell from fermenter are just fantastic :)

Hey, just wanted to give some feedback, with pics, of what came out from my recipe.
Here are some basic observations after just 2 weeks bottle conditioned:

1)The color of the clone is petty much "right on the money". I wouldn't change a thing;
2)The mouth feel seems a little thinner than the real, perhaps a little more oats, like 1/2lb more would do it;
3)Clone tastes a little stronger on the coriander. I used 1/2oz for 5gals batch, so probably 1/4 to 3/8oz would do it
4)The clone has a bit more carbonation. Used 1 cup corn sugar to prime 5gal batch. 3/4cup would probably be better;
5) My wife actually liked better the clone, so I'm sticking to this recipe, just will apply the above changes.

Here are the pics, please vote what you think is the clone and which is the real Blue Moon? Anyone?

DSC06207.JPG


DSC06209.JPG
 
The beer looks really good, nilo.

My suggestions would be to not use the Briess 2 row. Switch to Weyermann Vienna as your base malt. With that change, you might want to cut back a bit on the crystal 40L. If it is available in your area, use the Weyermann CaraFoam in place of the Cara-Pils. As you can tell, I am a bit biased towards Weyermann specialty malts. I feel they are quite a bit fuller tasting and give a smoother flavor. Briess always seemed to be thin and rough.

As a bit of a plug, I buy my Weyermann grains from Brewmaster's Warehouse.

You can also cut back on the rice hulls. 1/2 lb should be enough.

Did the chamomile tea add anything to the flavor. Did you detect it's presence?
 
Thanks for the great imput Wayne. I'll look for Weyermann grains at my LHBS.
I don't think I can detect anything from the chamomile, so it could probably be left out.
 
im going to guess the one on the left is the homebrew. Did you find that having the majority of the wheat being flaked as opposed to malted gave you more of the wheaty kind of graining taste that blue moon has? I had one clone with only 1 lb flaked and 5 lbs of white wheat (1 lbs oats) came out thin and didnt have that wheat flavor
 
nilo how did yours come out on the orange taste compared to the real thing? I tried 2 oranges finely zested and got nothin but orange bitter flavor that didnt come across very well
 
I don't think the wheat flakes added anything that makes me want to keep it on the grain bill. The real Blue Moon was much thicker than the clone, so I'm brewing a batch and going hard on the oat flakes, 2 full pounds of it.
Most people that tried the clone noticed that it had orange, but I think it was less than the real, so I'm using now 3 oranges, carefully removing the skin without taking any of the while layer underneath, to avoid the bitter after taste.
I'll also use half the coriander, just 1/4oz. The original 1/2oz was definitely too much.

Ekjohns, you were right, the clone is at the left.

DSC06213.JPG


DSC06215.JPG
 
i was going to try 2 lbs of flaked wheat and 2 lbs of oats as well with 1/4 oz of corriander. Ill try the liquid extract and let you know how it comes out. sounds like we are getting closer!
 
The beer looks really good, nilo.

My suggestions would be to not use the Briess 2 row. Switch to Weyermann Vienna as your base malt. With that change, you might want to cut back a bit on the crystal 40L. If it is available in your area, use the Weyermann CaraFoam in place of the Cara-Pils. As you can tell, I am a bit biased towards Weyermann specialty malts. I feel they are quite a bit fuller tasting and give a smoother flavor. Briess always seemed to be thin and rough.
Wayne, are your suggestions aimed at 'thickening' the mouth feel of Nilo's beer? I, too, feel that Blue Moon has an unusual, yet very pleasing, creaminess to it, especially when it is on tap. It is quite a nice beer in the summer after a hot round of golf. I've never been able to even come close to such a mouthfeel in my years of brewing.

I'd like to add my thanks to everyone else's for contributing to this excellent thread.
 
Briess malts are rather thin tasting to me. Changing to European malts will fill out the body a bit. Nilo's thought on using more flaked oats will also help a great deal on obtaining a creamier mouthfeel.

Welcome to HBT!.
 
beer was kegged today. the orange flavor really came through with about 4/6 of an oz of orange extract. there is no bitterness like i was getting from peel at all. I only tasted a sip and will get a better taste when its carbed and cooled. either way the orange taste is like a beer with the orange slice already added. the taste i had seemed a little thin even with 2 lbs of oats but i think cooling and cabbing will help this out alot. ill post back in a few weeks with a full write up after a side by side comparison. either way i got much more orange flavor with extract than i ever did with orange peel (dried and fresh) and using orange marmalade
 
Hello All,

First off, thanks to all for the education that each of you provide with each response and the sharing of your results. I am about to embark on my first true beer making experience with the AHS Blue Moon PM kit - leap-frogging from my old Mr. Beer LME kits. Just picked up my new 5 gallon equipment and ready to start boiling.

Granted, I am not doing an All Grain but I wanted to get your advice. After reading through this entire (20 page) thread, I didnt see anyone talk about what appears to be the new version of the recipe from AHS. The recipe I am looking at has a couple of interesting notes:
> Mash grains for 45 mins, then remove and sparge with 170 water. (Everywhere I have read recommends for 1 hour mash time.)
> After adding LME, bring to a boil and then start the Hop additions. The kicker tho is the total boil listed on the recipe sheet is only 30 mins.
.5oz cascade - start timer at 30 mins
Blue Moon Add Pack(Contains Coreander and Orange peel) - 15 mins
.5oz cascade (aroma hops) - 5 mins
Then cool down and follow standard steps for adding to fermenter.

Just checking to see if anyone has followed this PM recipe and how was the result? Should I change anything or stick with the written instructions for this first batch?

Appreciate all the insight!
 
hi butcherbrew- the AHS kit you got has a lot of differences from the original Blue Moon recipe that Wayne1 posted, ie, hops (cascade? really?) plus the mash n boil times you mentioned. i also dont know what grains or yeast came with it-- does it say?

as it is your first PM, id try to keep it simple.
imo- stick w/ the AHS instructions, etc & brew it up!
let us know how it turns out!
im sure it will taste like beer, but it isnt a 100% blue moon clone.
good luck!
wendy
 
As I have stated many times in this thread, you may make a similar flavored beer to Blue Moon, but it will not be Blue Moon. Blue Moon has never used Cascade hops. There is no finish hops in Blue Moon. The orange peel and coriander are added at different times.

Most of the discussion here is about replicating the original recipe, not making a kit.

I have no idea what grains or yeast are included in the kit. Blue Moon is best made with pale malt, flaked oats and malted wheat. A neutral yeast should be use, such as Safale US-05. NOT a Belgian style yeast.

The 90 min boil is used to extract all the bitterness from the small amount of Hallertau hops. It is also used to evaporate roughly 10% of the water to hit the correct gravity.

I will suggest you follow the kit directions exactly. Then for your next batch, try the partial mash version that was posted in this thread by BeerBaronBob. I believe it was post #169
 
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