First True Beer Experiment!!!!!!!!

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kkocher13

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I've read quite a few posts about Blue Moon Clone's and the debate on whether it should be made with American Ale yeast or Belgian Wit. Rumors are that it was initially made with American ale yeast (check out Wayne's post on blue moon clones) and that as the beer evolved they began using a belgian wit. So i decided to do an experiment. I brewed 1 ten gallon batch and split the batch between two five gallon buckets. In one bucket I put one smack pack of american ale yeast 1056 and in the other I put belgian wit 3944. After two weeks the differences in the two beers are amazing. The american ale yeast fermented out much quicker and has a crisp refreshing taste, but not much of the orange flavor has come through. The belgian wit yeast produced an estery, fruity, deliciously orange tasting example of this beer. Both beers are coming along very nicely. Only time will tell, but after an initial taste I would say the closest to Blue moon is currently the belgian wit. However time, chilling and carbonation can change the flavor profile quite a bit. Has anybody tried something like this before and have they had similar results?
 
I didn't use wyeast but used (I believe these 2, don't have my records with me) US-05 and WLP 400. In the end you just have to use the yeast you like. I enjoyed WLP 400 better but noticed other people I shared with enjoyed US-05 better because it was a cleaner taste. I'm going to be brewing a wit in the next week or two with Wyeast 3463, because I've heard good things about it. I'm looking forward to seeing how this yeast pans out.
 
I didn't do a Blue Moon expiriment, but I did a split batch (4 gallons each in corny kegs) of a Duvelesque Belgian and put in two yeasts.

Surprisingly, the one that I much preferred during fermentation and bulk aging is not the one I prefer finished out of the bottle after sitting for six months.
 
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