Blue Moon Clone brew help...

[damnyankee]

SWMBO and I brewed our 2nd brew ever last Friday: Wayne's Blue Moon Clone (we bottled our first English Bitter yesterday). We made some mistakes and we're not sure if we should just dump it and start over, or let it ferment to see how it turns out. Here's what we did:

5# Rahr American 2 Row
4# Rahr White Wheat
1# Quaker 1 minute oats
1 oz #1056 hops
(coriander & valencia orange peel added per recipe near the end)

Stupidly, we boiled all 5 gallons then cooled to a water temp of 172 deg F. We dumped in all the grains and hops. The temp dropped to only 168 deg F. We turned off the fire and let it sit in the mash kettle, occasional stirring for 90 minutes. During the last half hour, the temp was a constant 154 deg F.

After 90 minutes, we transferred out of our mash kettle into another kettle using a large, fine mesh wine nylon sack to strain out the grains. We squeezed all the water out of the grains (that took quite a while!). The resulting wort was a light yellow and tasted rather sweet and weak compared to my English Bitter. But, there were no funky or odd tastes.

We fired up the burners, quickly brought the wort to a boil, then added the hallentauer mittelfruh hops, and boiled for 90 minutes. At 80 minutes into the boil, we added the freshly ground coriander per recipe and at 84 minutes, we added Valencia orange peels per recipe (during the last half hour, the temp finally dropped to 154 deg and stayed there). QUESTION: As noobs, did we ruin the mash?

We placed the wort in the fermenter and noticed it was down 1 gallon. We put another gallon of hot water in to the wort to make 5 gallons then quickly cooled the wort to 80 degrees. We checked OG (1.054), then placed in the fermenter. It was down about 1 gallon of water from the boil. We then added a gallon of hot water to get it up to 5 gallons (which probably diluted the wort) then added a package of wyeast 1056, put the airlock on and within 1/2 hour, it was happily percolating away. This was Friday. Yesterday (Sunday), the percolating stopped. I'm thinking the water was too warm and the yeast spent themselves out. The wort still tastes rather sweet and light, and the color remains a very pale yellow. SG is now 1.022.

Is this still salvageable? Should we add an extract to it? Should we dump it and start over? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

DY

 

[mojotele]

You definitely denatured a lot of your amylase enzymes by mashing in too high hence the high final gravity. Your final gravity should probably be at about 1.012.

You can try adding some alpha amylase. That should break down some of the unfermentable sugars. I'm not experienced with using it, though.

 

[Wayne1]

Let it sit for about two weeks. Just because observable activity has stopped, doesn't mean the yeast have stopped working.

You did mash too high. You want to hit a constant 154, not drop down to it.
You also should not add any hops to the mash for this beer.

Let it sit and come back and taste it in two weeks. You may find it changed quite a bit.

 

[damnyankee]

Thanks for your advice, Fellas!

Wayne, I see I made a type-o...the hops wasn't added in the mash but rather, it was added to the wort during the boil.

Lots of stuff is floating around in the fermenter. It looks like light colored swamp water. At some point, should I transfer this to a secondary fermenter???

Thanks!

DY

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

A slight thread hijack....WAYNE I made the recipe per your instructions and it is so good I have the ingredients for 2 more batches already.

 

[damnyankee]

A slight thread hijack....WAYNE I made the recipe per your instructions and it is so good I have the ingredients for 2 more batches already.

So Steve, what color is your wort in the primary fermenter? Pale yellow/amber??? (I HOPE!!!)

DY

 

[Wayne1]

Steve,

I am glad the recipe worked out for you.

damnyankee,

WAIT. RDWHAHB. Give the beer at LEAST two weeks in the fermenter. Maybe three. At that point you can transfer to a conditioning vessel if you so desire. It may not be needed.

There are many threads on this site detailing how transferring to a conditioning vessel is not needed. I usually do it only for dry hopping my IPAs.

This past weekend I transferred a Blonde ale that was brewed mid-September. It had remained in the same fermenter the entire time. It went into the keg, absolutely clear.

 

[damnyankee]

Thank you, Wayne!

I'm just starting out and I've read differing opinions on leaving wort in the primary; some say for days, some say for weeks, some say after 30 days the beer gets ruined. Maybe it's personal belief vs fact, maybe it's just the type of beer they are talking about; I don't know. I'm sure I'll learn all that soon enough.

Thank you again for kindly posting the Blue Moon recipe. It's my wife's favorite beer and I'm hoping this can be salvaged.

DY

 

[damnyankee]

8 day "thought I ruined my beer" update...

Wayne: hats off to you for teaching me patience. I hope all the other beginning brewers take note: if ya think you ruined your beer, ya probably didn't.

After 8 days, the SG has dropped to 1.018. Of course wifey and I had a sample from the fermenter and we both went "Wow!" It now has the same color as the commercial Blue Moon and it has the same orange peel aftertaste. The 8 day wort is no where as sweet as the original wort was.

Tho this is my second batch of beer I've ever made, there's no question this is going to be a huge hit at our family's Christmas get together.

Wayne, thank you again for sharing the recipe and for your guidance!!!

DY

 

[damnyankee]

Bottling success!!!

I just finished bottling up 50 bottles. Wifey and I had a little sample as we bottled and we went, "Whoa....taste the alcohol!". It has a very light orangish opaqueness with a very light but nice smooth wheat taste with an orangy finish. That is followed up with a nice little alcohol punch. This probably doesn't taste like Wayne's recipe, but It turned out great anyway. I can't wait for it to bottle condition.

Thanks again for the recipe and your guidance, Wayne!

Now...onto finalizing the recipe for my Erdinger Weissbier clone...

DY

 

[damnyankee]

Ok, it's been only 6 days, but we had to pop a top on a bottle to test it. Upon pouring into a glass, we were surprised to see a 1/2" head forming with a fair amount of carbonation. It tasted light, orangy, and refreshing - but the orange wasn't overpowering. SWMBO says "this tastes better than the Blue Moon we just had at lunch".

In a few more weeks, this is really going to be a great tasting beer! And to think I thought I ruined this batch and was going to pitch it...!

Cheers to ya, Wayne!

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

good deal! and yes this carbed up FAST for me also.

 

[damnyankee]

Update:

Now that this has bottle conditioned/aged/mellowed, the "light" taste is gone and the flavor has really blossomed!

Wifey and I agree this is one of the best tasting beers we've EVER had! I'm going to order more grain and get another batch rolling.

Wayne: I salute you! YOU ROCK!!!

DY

 

[Wayne1]

DY,

I'm very glad the beer turned out okay.

You have learned a very valuable lesson. BE PATIENT.

It is a very hard lesson to learn when you are young and used to immediate gratification.

Brewing will help you to learn patience. This will come in very handy if you and your wife ever decide to have kids.

I hope all of you who have brewed this recipe have learned something from it and will pass on your knowledge to someone else.

Happy Holidays.

 

[damnyankee]

Wayne,

I was going to throw this out...no joke! Man, I'm glad you told me to WAIT.

And yes, P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E was the valuable lesson here and I'll be first on the stump to preach it. I'm drinking this Blue Moon Clone in a frosted Hard Rock pilsener glass as I speak and it is AMAZING! Better than the current version found in the Supermarket, that's for sure!

Thank you again!

DY

 

[damnyankee]

I'm hooked on this brew of Wayne's! After several weeks of bottle conditioning, this Blue Moon Clone beer is SO GOOD that I brewed my second batch last night.

Again, I break rules when brewing so here's my process:

1. Started with 6.5 gallons of water (3.25 gallons in 2 kettles)

2. Kettle #1 was 170 degrees, dropped the fine mesh nylon bag of grains in the water, temp dropped to 154 deg and stirred frequently for 60 minutes keeping temp at 154 deg the entire time.

3. Drained the bag of grains into wort in Kettle #1.

4. Dropped the bag of grains into Kettle #2 (fresh 3.25 gallons of clean water at 154 degrees), stirring constantly for 15 minutes.

5. Drained the grains into the "rinse" water (I'm not sure you could call this a sparge???).

6. Poured the "rinse" (sparge?) water from Kettle #2 into the wort in Kettle #1, a little under 6.5 gallons.

7. Brought the solution of Kettle #1 to a boil, added the hops and boiled for 90 minutes.

8. At 80 minutes, added the 0.17 oz of fresh ground coriander (McCormick's grounded in my coffee grinder).

9. At 84 minutes, added the 0.50 oz of McCormick's Sweet Valencia Orange Peel).

10. Flamed out at 90 minutes, cooled to 80 degrees, obtained OG (1.054), aerated wort with my Braun "boat motor", then pitched yeast.

Yeah, I know it's heresy not using a mash tun or a traditional sparge. I have an unusual SS kettle that's has a large diameter so it sits perfectly on the large cast iron grate which protects the two burners on my stove. The cast iron and two burners allow me to easily maintain precise temperature control. And without the mash tun and traditional sparging, all of my wheat brews have turned out PERFECT every time (knock on wood!).

DY