Fat Tire Clone My @SS

http://***********/recipe/685.html

I suggest Trying Yoopers Clone, It was the first Extract I did and it is pretty close maybe a little better.

Sorry in advance. This will be on and off topic...

First, one of the reasons that I'd bet most of us brew is that we hate the taste of commercial brew. I've never had a Fat Tire Ale that was an original so I have no opinion. It might be good - it might be bad.

Second, we are people. Therefore we are full of opinions. The internet, and forums more specifically, almost beg us to let those opinions be known. Being judgemental of people's opinions when a topic that they feel strongly about is just as bad as those people being judgemental about the the topic they are responding to.

I made a Fat Tire Clone as my first homebrew from a recipe I found in "Beer Captured" by Tess and Mark Szamatulski. I did the mini-mash version. I am neither a fan not a hater of this brew. I will tell you this - It's a brew that I feel requires patience. This could easily be the OP's problem. I know mine was flagging down a troop of monkeys for the first month I drank it. Now, the banana aroma is completely gone. It tastes "OK" but is not something I see myself brewing again. I have 2 bottles left that I will probably let age another 3 or 4 months just to see if it tastes that much better...we'll see. My point here is that maybe he should wait awhile.

For any interested, here's the recipe I used:

1.5 lbs Belgian 2-row
8 oz US 80L Crystal
6 oz German Munich
4 oz US Victory
3 oz Belgian Biscuit

30 minutes steeping and then ladle sparging

4 lbs alexanders Pale Malt Extract Syrup
2.5 muntons extra light dry malt extract
1/3 oz yakima magnum @15 AA

start of boil

1/2 german hallertau Hersbrucker
1 tsp of irish moss

45 min into boil

1/4 oz willamette

50 min into boil

yeast: the recipe calls for wyeast 1762 belgian abbey II. I used White labs Belgian ale WLP550

Part of the problem with the recipe above is that Fat Tire is not a Belgian beer and the brewer himself said he uses Wyeast 1056 American Ale. No wonder you didn't like it.

Forrest

Austinhomebrew said:

Part of the problem with the recipe above is that Fat Tire is not a Belgian beer and the brewer himself said he uses Wyeast 1056 American Ale. No wonder you didn't like it.

Forrest

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Thanks for being one of the only online suppliers who actually get that!

Yuri_Rage said:

That recipe looks pretty good. The ferment was a little on the high side, especially with a fruity Belgian yeast in a beer that only has a hint of esters in the flavor. Was the beer overly yeasty or fruity?

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The beer seemed yeasty as you described...was this the high fermentation temperature?

Ewalk02 said:

The beer seemed yeasty as you described...was this the high fermentation temperature?

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usually a yeasty off taste is due to the beer being to green and a little more aging will help it. If the beer has been aging quite long and it still tastes yeasty, Odds are that the yeast you pitched was to old or unhealthy.

I've never had Fat Tire before, and I don't recall seeing it at any of the liquor stores around me. Is it similar to any other commercial beers? For those of you who hate Fat Tire, what's a "better" version of it's style? I generally don't mind if people don't like a particular beer that I enjoy, but if they know of something that's even better, I would really want to try it out!

we picked up a keg of Fat tire from new belgium brewery itself last year during the GABF. Whatever they had in that keg was NOT what we get in bottles down here in AZ. That keg was fan-freakin-tastic.

Sure the bottles were pasteurized and probably sat in a warehouse all summer long too

i ve brewed the one from AHBS and it was dead on personally. actually had a friend in town from CO and he said that it tasted better than a fat tire.

Chimone said:

we picked up a keg of Fat tire from new belgium brewery itself last year during the GABF. Whatever they had in that keg was NOT what we get in bottles down here in AZ. That keg was fan-freakin-tastic.

Sure the bottles were pasteurized and probably sat in a warehouse all summer long too

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I find a lot of kegs taste much better than the bottled version. I don't think that unique to fat tire.

Just found this thread and recently brewed an extract version from AHS. It was spot on.