Blue moon yeast ?

Anyone know what kind of yeast is in blue moon. And please dont say WLP 400 or Wyeast 3944. I dont get any of those strong clove/bannana/bubble gum flavors when I drink a blue moon.

You could try culturing from a coors

Seriously though, I am almost positive they would be using a proprietary strain. I think I would try one of those yeasts you have listed but pitch a HUGE starter to limit reproduction and ferment cold at no higher than 62º.

No offense, but those are the best two Wit yeasts out there IMO. Have you tried to brew a Wit with those strains yet? Those will produce some clove and banana flavors and will subside over time as well. The Bluemoon you are drinking today was probably brewed a few months ago, plus, the slice of orange really cuts down on what you would really taste in the beer.

If you haven't brewed with WLP400, give it a try. Great yeast and the "off flavors" do subside over time.

Yeah...I like the coors moon . I have tried both yeasts. Just bottled the wyeast 3944, fermented in the sixtys and still got that bannana/clove smell. I didnt think that yeast was supposed to have that flavor profile like the WLP 300. I am convinced its a different yeast....any other opinions?

I am sure it is a different yeast. You could try a neutral American yeast like Am II 1056 or a Koelsch strain. Maybe they get the wittiness only from the spices.

Hey, you cant go both ways! HA!

Take a look through this thread

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/blue-moon-clone-65328/

I was involved in the first commercial release of the beer that came to be known as Blue Moon Belgian White.

Any neutral ale yeast would work better then the Belgian strains, if you are trying to reproduce the same flavors as the Blue Moon beer.

IMHO this beer should really be classified as an AMERICAN White beer.

It differs from BELGIAN beers in it's use of a neutral yeast strain and sweet Valencia orange peel, rather then the bitter Curacao orange peel.

I plan on brewing a version of this beer this weekend using either Amarillo or Cascade hops of compliment the citrus from the sweet orange.

I do agree that a more neutral yeast may be better for a Blue Moon clone. Although, I couldn't help but think what type of flavor profile you'd get by actually using both WLP400 and WLP001. May make a pretty good beer!

I freakin new it Wayne. Thanks for verification. Any idea waht strain they use? Now I have another bannana wheat. Anyone downriver mich want it?

The actual strain is proprietary to Coors. I have gotten good results using 1056 Chico and the Ringwood 1187.

Wayne1 said:

Any neutral ale yeast would work better then the Belgian strains, if you are trying to reproduce the same flavors as the Blue Moon beer.

IMHO this beer should really be classified as an AMERICAN White beer.

It differs from BELGIAN beers in it's use of a neutral yeast strain and sweet Valencia orange peel, rather then the bitter Curacao orange peel.

Click to expand...

+1000000 on this. Blue Moon isn't really very much like a Belgian wit--it's _really_ citrusy (unlike the coriander "citrus" flavor in a St Bernardus, Hoegaarden, Celis, Allagash White, etc) and lacking in the spicier clove undertones.

It's basically halfway between a wit and an American wheat along the lines of Pyramid or Red Hook "hefeweizen".

Now, that's not a knock on Blue Moon. It's just not really a Belgian-style wit.

Just sitting here drinking a Blue Moon and discovered considerable yeast in the bottom of my glass, and in the bottle. Not the first time. I recently had a 12-box that had evidently been stored upside down and had considerable yeast deposits in the bottleneck and cap. So I started looking to see if anyone had cultured Blue moon yeast from a bottle.

Been brewing seriously about four years and am becoming more interested in yeast cultivation.

I seem to always have a Wit brewing these days. May try to culture up some Blue Moon yeast and see what happens.

You may want to be cautious harvesting yeast from a commercial brew. Some use a different "conditioning" yeast at bottling vs the yeast used in primary fermentation. This is to prevent us homebrewers from obtaining a proprietary yeast strain! Not sure if Blue Moon does this though....

I had forgotten about that, thanks. I am finding that the amount of visible yeast in each bottle varies greatly, from none, to homebrew bottle conditioned. If Blue moon were bottle conditioned I would think the yeast woul be the same. I think I'll ttry to find out if they are bottle conditioning.

All I ever usued was WLP400and it's been great. I took samples to our local Micro-brewer and he also agreed it was great. I've made 4 batches so far, and they usually are gone in a week!! Good Luck!!

you can try WLP515 Antwerp Ale i used and my brew tasted a lot like blue moon.

1056 or S04

I used Belgian Wit WLP 400