Anyone remember New Belgium Loft?

Greetings! I'm new here, so first I want to say thanks for this forum. The knowledge base here is tremendous. I'm new to brewing, but I'm gaining ground every night pouring (pun intended) over this forum.

So my question is, does anyone have a clone for New Belgium Loft? That orange kite holds a special place in my heart, and I just haven't been the same since they stopped making it. I searched the recipe database to no avail.

I think I read somewhere that it had lime leaves? Any ideas, Brew Masters?

You can do another search for "Skinny Dip Clone" if you want to get close. Supposedly, this brew replaced Loft, and the recipe (also supposedly) is near to, if not the same. Just try a light wheat beer recipe with cascade, and you should be pretty close.

I threw this recipe together sorta quickly..

3.5 lbs Wheat Malt
3.25 lbs 2-Row
.5 lbs Caramel 40
.25lbs Victory

.5oz Cascade at 60
.25oz Cascade at 20
.25oz Styrian Goldings at 20
.25oz Cascade at 10
.25oz Willamette at 10

And some Kaffir Lime leaves and Coriander somewhere in there...maybe at flameout? I've never really used spices and such.

Thanks for the recipe. It looks like a good start.

I remember NB saying Skinny Dip was replacing Loft. Honestly, I never thought Skinny was as good, and I assumed that when the said "replacing" they meant simply that all the brewing equipment used for Loft would now be used for Skinny.

What struck me about Loft was the subtle flavor in the after taste. It was one of the first beers I moved to that had the extra spices.

And now Skinny Dip is being replaced.
http://beernews.org/2011/01/new-belgium-somersault-to-replace-skinny-dip/#more-16267

I too loved and miss loft. I am working on a clone recipe myself and was wondering if you ever tried this and if so how did it come out?

I have not tried this yet. It's still on my short list though.

Actually, the list is by no means short, and therein lies the problem. But I will post when I brew it.

Any thoughts on the recipe?

Here is what i am working off of...

Loft is classified as a Belgian Pale Ale...however it does not fit the style exactly as it is more of a session beer than the standard pale ale...on one website i found...

"Loft Beer is a refreshing ale brewed with both barley and wheat malt, a blend of Liberty and Sterling hops, and then spiced with the exotic kaffir lime leaf. Loft delivers an uplifting zest, a taut, hoppy line and a mouthful as big as the sky." 4.2% ABV.

Based on this i came up with the below receipe (but i am still tweeking). I plan to brew this weekend and see how it turns out. Please note that i am brewing this as a Parti-Gyle receipe with a Belgian Blond ale taking the first runnings...do to the lower mash temp i added the specialty grains for body in addition to color, flavor, and aroma. From listenting to the brewing network session beers require a diverse specialty malt bill in order to fill out the beer and give the impression of a fuller alcohol drink. I may toss in some malto-dextrine for additional body at the end of the boil.

The hop schedule is a complete guess but i am using all late addition hops to get more of the flavor and aroma to come through the finished product as the description states it keeps a hoppy line. The key is the Kaffir lime leaf which i have searched for for nearly a year until finally realizing Denver has a specialty spice shop that carries everything under the sun....if you are searching for Kaffir try googling "Spice shop" and the name of your town. You may need to order online...i bought a 1/4 oz and there are more than enough leaves for this receipe and another that i will use them with...

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Winds Aloft (Loft Clone)
Brewer: Ryan Kilpatrick
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.93 gal
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 5.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.00 %
3.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 30.00 %
0.50 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
1.00 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (20 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
1.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (10 min) Hops 8.9 IBU
2.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (5 min) Hops 9.7 IBU
1.00 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (5 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
6.00 items Kaffir Lime Leaf (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
6.00 items Kaffir Lime Leaf (Secondary 5.0 days) Misc
5.00 gal Denver, Colorado Water
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) [Starter 1Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Saccharification Add 12.50 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F
10 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F


Notes:
------
Pre boil gravit s/b 1.036 ... 7.93 gal 90 min = 6.24 gal 1.046

taalhiker said:

And now Skinny Dip is being replaced.
http://beernews.org/2011/01/new-belgium-somersault-to-replace-skinny-dip/#more-16267

Click to expand...

That's a shame. Somersault to me seems to be an all around unremarkable beer. Maybe that's the point- a gateway beer for BMCers?

So i brewed the receipe and bottled the whole batch. Ended up with 1/8oz kaffir in last 10 of the boil and 1/8oz dry hopped for 2 weeks. Bottled with DME to get to 2.8-3.2 volumes co2.

Aroma: Punch of Kaffir citrus, floral, and slighlty spicy from the late hops.
Color: perfect belgian pale ale...light golden but not sunny, creamy white head. Slight haze (maybe do a protein rest?).
Taste: citrusy and floral, nice balance of hops, dry and spritzy.

Turned out great, may make some tweeks but not many...gonna enter a competition as belgina specialty ale and see how it does.

Also, i emailed New Belgium for some receipe help and the below was their response...

For your homebrewing question, here are some pointers to brewing a beer like Loft: >Use a base pale malt and some C-40 malt.
> Mash for a long time at a low temperature.
> Use a blend of Cascade and Willamette hops.
> Add the Kaffir at flame out. Only use about an ounce.
> A nice neutral ale yeast fermenting at a modest ale temp (22 – 25C) should work well. OG should be ~12 Plato.

So my receipe was way off, but i have put together the b below to try next...

Recipe: Loft per NBB TYPE: All Grain
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 8.5 SRM SRM RANGE: 8.0-14.0 SRM
IBU: 26.5 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 20.0-30.0 IBUs
OG: 1.048 SG OG RANGE: 1.048-1.054 SG
FG: 1.010 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.014 SG
BU:GU: 0.553 Calories: 160.8 kCal/12 oz Est ABV: 5.0 %
EE%: 75.00 % Batch: 5.00 gal Boil: 5.72 gal BT: 60 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------


Amt Name Type # %/IBU
7 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 88.6 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.4 %

Total Grain Weight: 8 lbs 12.0 oz Total Hops: 1.50 oz oz.
---MASH PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD WATER CHEMICALS BEFORE GRAINS!!<<<<<<<
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 10.94 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F 75 min
Mash Out Add 0.00 qt of water and heat to 168.0 168.0 F 10 min

---SPARGE PROCESS---
>>>>>>>>>>-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 72.0 F/72.0 F
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD BOIL CHEMICALS BEFORE FWH
Fly sparge with 4.03 gal water at 168.0 F
---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG Est OG: 1.048 SG
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 11.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 11.2 IBUs
0.25 oz Williamette [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 2.0 IBUs
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 2.0 IBUs
0.83 oz Kaffir Lime Leaf (Boil 5.0 mins) Herb 7 -

Please post if you try any of these or your own!

From what I have read Loft, is Skinny Dip.. supposedly they changed the name in 08'.

I am surprised to see that they used c-40 instead of c-20.

1oz Kaffir seems like WAY to much.

They do seem to be giving you a "homebrew recipe" idea, because they didn't mention the third hop, the third grain, or the peach juice that was listed on their website.

Also the plato on the website was 8 something, not 12.

This is all assuming that Skinny Dip, truly is Loft...
I put up an extract version at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/new-belgium-skinny-dip-127027/ that should be easy to convert over to all-grain... who knows if it will be close or not, but it does have all the right ingredients (sub peach juice) and managed to hit the same % and cal's.

I also sent them an email asking to critique my recipe, since they no longer sell it.