New Belgium Snow Day yeast?

So we had a taste of this beer this past weekend and my girlfriend was really into it. I have to admit it was pretty tasty. Besides making her happy (which can lead to many good things at home), I have been wanting to try the midnight wheat so this is a good excuse.

Overall, it looks like a pretty easy beer to make but I'm wondering what yeast NB uses? Do they have a house strain? I imagine so.

Just curious to see if you found out what yeast they use or have decided on one to use yourself? I am also interested in trying this but cant figure out which yeast to use

i want an extract recipe!!!!

i love that beer, too. i've been thinking about it, and i'd think they use a home yeast. maybe it can be duplicated with a very clean yeast, and let the grain do the talking, like maybe wyeast 1056

I'm going to try to recreate Friday (woo hoo, don't have to work, I'm gonna brew!) I'm at the office so I don't have my recipe, but I'll post it. I'm just taking a wild guess to get close, we'll see what happens. I'm using Wyeast American II.

NB has a house strain. It was available in the past from Wyeast.

Wyeast Fat Tire Ale Yeast Activator Pack

I have used 1272 AAII in the past in fat tire clone attempts and it comes reasonably close.

Snow day is a really good west coast red beer. I dig it.

newski said:

Just curious to see if you found out what yeast they use or have decided on one to use yourself? I am also interested in trying this but cant figure out which yeast to use

Click to expand...

I'm still waiting on some replacement hardware for my Brutus like clone (replacing some valves) so I have not yet tried this. It is the first beer I have in mind once my rig is rebuilt. But I have yet to decide on a yeast. Leaning towards a WLP001 as I have some in stock.

Any of you brew a Snow Day clone yet. I racked mine to a secondary today and tasted it. Mine's good, I think I'm close. Had a bottle of the real thing to compare it to. But warm/flat is hard to compare against chilled/carbonated.

MY OG was only 1.05, wanted closer to 1.07 and not sure what might have gone wrong. Need to figure that out. I think I got the hop profile close, but I might change it a bit. It's dark, but not dark enough, I'll use more midnight wheat next time. I accidentally used caramel wheat, when the real one uses c-80 malt. Also, I think I used to much wheat malt. Snow day doesn't use any, so I might back it out next time. I'll tweak the recipe and try again, but here's my first attempt's recipe:

8 lbs Domestic 2-Row
4 lbs Wheat Malt
12 oz Caramel Wheat
8 oz Midnight Wheat
1.0 oz Cascade (leaf) 9.10% @ 60
0.75 oz Centennial (leaf) 10.80% @ 45
1.0 oz Cascade (pellet) 7.50% @ 15
1.5 oz Styrian Goldings (pellet) 3.40% @ 5
Wyeast American II 1272 (OG 1.050)

Even if it's not close, it's still gonna be a good beer.

Just had a Snow Day about 20 minutes ago! Nice beer.

Wyeast American Ale II seems to be the yeast recommended for New Belgium beers unless the Fat Tire strain is available (which it usually isn't). I just used that yeast in a Fat Tire clone.

I'm a fan of this beer. Definitely gonna try a clone here in the next month or so.

Here is my version:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/project-snow-day-286555/

I just tasted my Snow Day clone from Austin Homebrew supply. OG was 1.072 and FG 1.017 which was the target. Primary for 2 weeks and in keg for 3 days. Tastes too sweet but maybe it just needs time. I sure hope so as I brewed 10 gallons and love that beer. If it doesn't change can I try adding a different yeast that attenuates lower than the White Labs 051? Thanks

Oops. Meant FG 1.019 which was the target and stable for 5 days.