Blue Moon Clone Extract from AHS

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

boxcarburnout

New Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Does anybody know if the Blue Moon Clone Extract from AHS is any good? I just got into brewing have done a couple other wheat beers. Also, how much of a difference is there in the extract kits and the mini-mash kits?
 
mini-mash requires you to steep for about an hour and then sparging it, it's a cinch. Check out biermunchers, I have that in secondary and it smells like its going to be very tasty.
 
I have the AHS blue moon clone in the carboy right now. Took a gravity reading today and the sample was pretty delicious. Should be ready to bottle in the next couple of days. I think it's gonna turn out really well.
 
I haven't done their extract/PM Blue Moon, but I have done their AG version. It turned out great! Everyone that tried it, loved it. I bet their extract version is good, too.
 
I am thrilled to see that AHS makes a Blue Moon clone! I can't seem to get my wife to get excited about homebrewing, not like me anyays. She just isn't a big beer drinker. But she does like Blue Moon. So I figure I'll buy that one next and see if I can't inspire her! I already put it on my Wish List at AHS' website!
 
I am also going to attempt to brew a "Blue Moon Clone" of Belgian Witbeer on friday, however my kit is from Midwest Brewing. I was wondering if anybody had some good tips in order to help this beer turn out great. Im brewing it with my gf's dad who is a big blue moon lover. It is a all extract kit though cause I dont have the equipment/time/experience to do a partial mash.

Please help a newbie brewer impress his GF's dad with his brew skils! :D
 
worxman02 said:
I am also going to attempt to brew a "Blue Moon Clone" of Belgian Witbeer on friday, however my kit is from Midwest Brewing. I was wondering if anybody had some good tips in order to help this beer turn out great. Im brewing it with my gf's dad who is a big blue moon lover. It is a all extract kit though cause I dont have the equipment/time/experience to do a partial mash.

Please help a newbie brewer impress his GF's dad with his brew skils! :D


The partial mash is waaaay simple and definitely adds to all aspects of your beer.
Just heat the water to temp (usually about 150 - 160 F) and let the grainbag set for 45 minutes to an hour - then throw away the grains and use the grain tea as your boil water for the extract. It's that simple. ;)
 
worxman02 said:
I am also going to attempt to brew a "Blue Moon Clone" of Belgian Witbeer on friday, however my kit is from Midwest Brewing. I was wondering if anybody had some good tips in order to help this beer turn out great. Im brewing it with my gf's dad who is a big blue moon lover. It is a all extract kit though cause I dont have the equipment/time/experience to do a partial mash.

Please help a newbie brewer impress his GF's dad with his brew skils! :D
A friend of mine did one from Midwest and loves the flavor. Be aware that the extract clones tend to be bit darker in coler, but that is really the only variance.
 
Thanks so much for the replies guys. Should I attempt to add 1/3 of the LME at the normal time and then the other 2/3 LME at the last 10-15 mins of the boil in order to get that lighter color? or will that mess up the taste of the beer? According to BrewYourOwn.com ( http://byo.com/feature/1401.html ) A belgian witbier is one of the top ten hardest homebrews. I guess im also a little confused about what partial-mash actually consists of? I've only bought kits which I assumed were extract kits, but they have always come with grains.

Is a partial mash just using grains and steeping them for the recommended time (60 mins)?
 
roofjump said:
I've always just added the extract (100% of it) to the last 15-20min of the boil, for light beers at least

This might be a dumb question, but what are you boiling for the other 40-45 minutes? The extract from steeping grains?
 
jfrizzell said:
This might be a dumb question, but what are you boiling for the other 40-45 minutes? The extract from steeping grains?

The hops. Beyond sanitizing your extract, water, etc, the only reason for the long boil is hops utilization.
 
Ok, thanks guys. I'll check the instructions that midwest gave me cause I dont remmeber what they recommend.

Wish me luck brewing tonight!
 
Ok, UPDATE:

It turned out very good. It looks extremly close to Blue Moon in color. It is still slightly green tasting, but getting better very fast. My gf says its the best beer she has ever had, and (before we tried my beer) the whole time we were in Seattle on a sailing trip she was raving about the Fat Tire I had bought, since I live in NJ and you can't get it here. I think that a Fat Tire clone will be my next batch, probably going to call it a Flat Tire since my gf kept mispronouncing the name.My friends also raved about it when I brought it to our party.

I did a 100% late extract addition, which I think really helped the beer. It kept the color nice and light, and very close to the original blue moon. Actually I want to take a picture of a bottle of blue moon and my brew to compare.

I also think that Midwest supplied too much priming sugar as I recieved 5 oz. and
according to Palmer's book "How to Brew" about 4 oz for 5 gallons is enough.

I transferred it to a secondary and left it there for about 1.5 to 2 weeks.

I am extremely pleased and excited that I finally made a good homebrew, since the 1st two batches can out like crap. My roomates and I basically oxidized the crap out of the beer by accident by pouring and splashing the hot wort into a fermenter containing cold water in order to aerate it. We didn't know much then.

Oh and it has been titled "Time waster Wit" and my label can be seen in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=36693
 
"My roomates and I basically oxidized the crap out of the beer by accident by pouring and splashing the hot wort into a fermenter containing cold water in order to aerate it. We didn't know much then."

Alright I'm gonna play the nube card and ask whats so wrong about that? I've only brewed two beers, One I cooled in the sink for as long as possible and the other I poured onto cold water in the primary bucket and then let it cool some more. I wouldn't think that it would create too much problem for simple extract brewers like myself.
 
david_the_greek said:
"My roomates and I basically oxidized the crap out of the beer by accident by pouring and splashing the hot wort into a fermenter containing cold water in order to aerate it. We didn't know much then."

I also thought this was what youre supposed to do, atleast the first time. After that, no oxidation should occur
 
worxman02 said:
I am also going to attempt to brew a "Blue Moon Clone" of Belgian Witbeer on friday, however my kit is from Midwest Brewing. I was wondering if anybody had some good tips in order to help this beer turn out great. Im brewing it with my gf's dad who is a big blue moon lover. It is a all extract kit though cause I dont have the equipment/time/experience to do a partial mash.

Please help a newbie brewer impress his GF's dad with his brew skils! :D

I brewed the Midwest Belgian Witbier(Blue Moon Clone) about 6 months ago. It was GREAT! The color was a bit darker (as are all my brews) but the flavor was excellent. Drop an orange slice in the glass and you will love it even more. I have no real tips to make it come out good except to follow the directions and all the info you have learned here. I am going to brew the Belgian Wit again soon--I may try to add the LME with 20 minutes left in boil so it will be a bit lighter. ENJOY!
 
worxman02 said:
My roomates and I basically oxidized the crap out of the beer by accident by pouring and splashing the hot wort into a fermenter containing cold water in order to aerate it. We didn't know much then.

AFAIK, going into the primary, oxygen is good. The yeast needs it to get a strong fermentation started. After it has fermented (moving into the secondary or bottling) oxidizing the beer will cause it to degrade more quickly.
 
talleymonster said:
I am thrilled to see that AHS makes a Blue Moon clone! I can't seem to get my wife to get excited about homebrewing, not like me anyays. She just isn't a big beer drinker. But she does like Blue Moon. So I figure I'll buy that one next and see if I can't inspire her! I already put it on my Wish List at AHS' website!


We were at a party a couple of weeks ago and SWMBO was drinking a Sam Adams Summer Ale, and she said "I wish you could brew something like this" -- It's (the AHS clone) bubbling away right now:mug:
 
King of the Swill said:
I brewed the Midwest Belgian Witbier(Blue Moon Clone) about 6 months ago. It was GREAT! The color was a bit darker (as are all my brews) but the flavor was excellent. Drop an orange slice in the glass and you will love it even more. I have no real tips to make it come out good except to follow the directions and all the info you have learned here. I am going to brew the Belgian Wit again soon--I may try to add the LME with 20 minutes left in boil so it will be a bit lighter. ENJOY!
sorry NO orange for me
 
no orange for me either, there's already enough in the beer. my roommate said he had it and it was good but i don't know what kinda orange he tried. i didn't like it with the few i tried.
 
trencher said:
AFAIK, going into the primary, oxygen is good. The yeast needs it to get a strong fermentation started. After it has fermented (moving into the secondary or bottling) oxidizing the beer will cause it to degrade more quickly.

I know that oxygen is good going into the primary, however I understood that splashing boiling wort was a no-no. I thought that you had to let it cool down first before oxygenating it.

Well, if that wasn't it, it was something else cause our first two beers did not come out very well at all.
 
worxman02 said:
I know that oxygen is good going into the primary, however I understood that splashing boiling wort was a no-no. I thought that you had to let it cool down first before oxygenating it.

Well, if that wasn't it, it was something else cause our first two beers did not come out very well at all.


What you are talking about is known as Hot Side Aeration (HSA). It's a well debated topic all around the web and generally not an issue post boil. I would consider continuing to identify the problem with your brews. What exactly was the symptom?

Fortunately for those interested in HSA, it is a well-researched topic and the research conducted over the years clearly shows that oxygen pick-up during mashing and mash transfer has an effect on beer flavor.

The topic of HSA can be divided into two are as: 1) aeration prior to wort boiling and 2) aeration after wort boiling. Malt enzymes, such as lipoxygenases and polyphenol-oxidases, that catalyze oxidation reactions are present in the mash and wort prior to wort boiling. In my opinion, this is where the HSA concern makes sense.

The second class of HSA is wort aeration after boiling. The only real consequence I have seen cited about aeration after the boil is an increase in wort color. Keep in mind that very hot wort, wort right after the boil, does not permit much oxygen into solution and under normal brewery conditions this probably won’t cause much wort darkening.

http://byo.com/mrwizard/752.html

The topic was also discussed with respect to AG here recently:
http://homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=34157&page=3
 
Back
Top