Blue Moon Clone

Yakima 728
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Haven't been around too much lately. I've been busy opening Station 26 Brewing Co. In Denver.

Come spring, I definitely will be brewing a "Tribute" to Blue Moon probably dry hopped.

Here is a shot of me playing with my new toys.

1457492_532586336837156_123946993_n.jpg


Thanks for the the interest and help in working out a homebrew version of a beer I brewed 18 yrs ago.
 
I'm giving Nilos #12 a shot this week, probably Wednesday. I've only done 2 AG batches before this so we'll see how it goes. A couple things I'm wondering about, I just completed reading through all 89 pages and my head's spinning a bit!

-I've never used rice hulls before, I have a square 10 gallon cooler tun with a steel line mesh so thinking about trying them out. Would I just add ~0.5lb into the whole mix or on top/bottom etc.? (Edit: or do you think these are even necessary with just ~44% wheat?)

-The coriander seed from the LHBS is whole, is crushing it with a rolling pin ok?

-I was planning on just adding the coriander, orange peel, and corn starch into the boil without a muslin bag, would this be ok? (seems to be fine with the seed and peel as Wayne has said he does that, mainly wondering about corn starch)

-Through Beersmith (first time using it...amazingingly helpful!) I'm shooting for 5.5 gallons into the fermenter with the exact grain amounts you have in your #12 recipe Nilo, it estimates an OG of 1.056 so it seems around the volume you were thinking on that recipe?

-Apparently the last Hallertauer batch was a bit off so it's only 2.2%, is just doubling the amount to 2oz of those the same as 1oz of 4.4% or are there other effects?

Thanks guys!!
 
I've done Wayne's recipe to the t a few times, wife loves it and says it's better than the current iteration of blue moon, better flavor and mouthfeel.
 
muddy1015 said:
I'm giving Nilos #12 a shot this week, probably Wednesday. I've only done 2 AG batches before this so we'll see how it goes. A couple things I'm wondering about, I just completed reading through all 89 pages and my head's spinning a bit!

-I've never used rice hulls before, I have a square 10 gallon cooler tun with a steel line mesh so thinking about trying them out. Would I just add ~0.5lb into the whole mix or on top/bottom etc.? (Edit: or do you think these are even necessary with just ~44% wheat?)


-The coriander seed from the LHBS is whole, is crushing it with a rolling pin ok?


-I was planning on just adding the coriander, orange peel, and corn starch into the boil without a muslin bag, would this be ok? (seems to be fine with the seed and peel as Wayne has said he does that, mainly wondering about corn starch)


-Through Beersmith (first time using it...amazingingly helpful!) I'm shooting for 5.5 gallons into the fermenter with the exact grain amounts you have in your #12 recipe Nilo, it estimates an OG of 1.056 so it seems around the volume you were thinking on that recipe?


-Apparently the last Hallertauer batch was a bit off so it's only 2.2%, is just doubling the amount to 2oz of those the same as 1oz of 4.4% or are there other effects?


Thanks guys!!
Click to expand...

=> I don't use rice hulls. It depend on your mash tun and how easy you get stuck mashes. Remember that the hulls will draw heat from the strike water, so you have to consider that to reach your target mash temp.

=>Yes, crush it slightly

=>I use a bag for the peel and coriander, not for the starch

=>My recipe is for 5gal

=>Yes. You can also play with your brewing software to get same IBU's.

Good luck.
 
Ok, another result for any interested! Just poured the first of Nilo's #12 out of the keg. Nilos #12 on the left, Blue Moon on the right. The color's almost spot on, with the clone being maybe a little bit darker. I think I carbonated a bit too much, hence the much larger head on mine and it tastes a tad bit too much. Most important part -> the taste is pretty dang close! Mine is giving me more flavor (I think maybe coriander, still a noob with using that though) on the back end but overall I would say pretty similar. I'm doing a blind taste test with some friends for it this Saturday, pretty hopeful I'll get a few votes towards the clone!

Big thanks to everyone that contributed to this I'm very excited about how it came out.

IMAG0169.jpg
 
Sorry, can't sift through 90 pages (holy jeez). Did anyone decide if there was an acceptable extract recipe for Blue Moon? Love it and would like to take a shot at it.

Cheers!
 
Adventures in homebrewing has a good blue moon clone recipe I have made it and my friends say it is actually better. Just google their name and find it under clones. Their ingredient sheet is on the webpage so you can grab the ingredients wherever is convienent for you
 
So much to read lol...

My main question that i might of missed was when brewing this clone do you put the orange/coriander in a mesh and pull it out after the boils done or leave the orange/coriander in the primary and just let it settle on the bottom for the extent of the fermentation?
 
Wendol said:
So much to read lol...

My main question that i might of missed was when brewing this clone do you put the orange/coriander in a mesh and pull it out after the boils done or leave the orange/coriander in the primary and just let it settle on the bottom for the extent of the fermentation?
Click to expand...

I add the spices in a paint strainer bag (re-useable) during boil only. I guess you can dump in boil and leave in primary also but will need to correlate fermentation time to flavor. Like a week in primary will produce less spice flavors than 3 weeks in primary, for the same recipe. my 2c.
 
My funnel has a strainer so basically the same the thing I don't transfer it to the primary fermenter
 
Hello:

Would love to brew Nilo extract from page 44, but with a higher abv like his Nilo #8. Any ideas how I can adjust the extract. Thanks.
 
Has anyone added orange peels into the primary? I have about 2-3 oz left, that I would hope increases orange flavor. Thoughts?
 
HopHouse said:
Somebody may have already brought this up but one thing I am noticing as I re read all these posts about recipes for this clone I notice many of us (including myself) have been using domestic two row as our base malt. If you're like me you may have noticed the two row is creating a beer that is much lighter in color and doesn't have quite the same flavor profile as blue moon. Nilo's use of crystal (10L) is making up for this but I would have to argue isn't necessarily the same.


Wayne you may be able to speak more to this, but in Wayne's original recipe post, and on the blue moon website they state that they use "pale malt." Now I know the differences may be subtle but if you look at Great Western's Pale malt vs their two row the lovibond rating is different and as Wayne stated that is the malt that Sandlot began brewing blue moon with. My guess is that if we switched to using GW Pale malt instead of just any two row we get much closer to the color and flavor profile... The crystal idea is pointing in the same direction (adding some light toasted flavor) but crystal has a slightly different flavor than pale malt.

Wayne can you speak to this with more authority or am I off my rocker?
Click to expand...

I've been following this thread for over a year now, and have read every post. First off, thanks to Wayne and Nilo for all of the great information.

I ended up brewing Wayne's #2 version. The beer was great. My only critique, based on personal preference, is that it needed less Coriander and more Orange Peel...which I'll adjust for the next brew session.

But I did notice that my beer was not nearly as orange in color as Blue Moon. Not even close really. Any ideas why this might be? Not sure if the post above I quoted has anything to do with it or not.

I did notice that my version was a little "boozy" for this style. OG was 1.056 and FG was 1.010 for an ABV of 6%. I think getting it closer to 5% would make it a better beer...but that might be something to do with my process / system and not the recipe itself...which I can adjust for.

It was also pretty clear and didn't have the haze that Blue Moon has, so I'll try the corn starch method also. In fact I'll probably try Nilo's #12 version next, only using half of the recommended Coriander.

Either way, it was an awesome beer, especially for a first attempt.

Thanks again!

 
I should also mention that I just threw the coriander and orange peel into the boil and did not use a hop bag. I left all of the spices in the primary until I bottled it 3 weeks later, and did not do a secondary fermentation. I also used WYeast 1056 yeast.
 
I have made a correction to my recipe pdf file for recipes #9 to #12. Orange peel used was Frontier Organic Peels, just like recipe #8.
 
How does this look for a 10 gal batch?


Prepare for Brewing


Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
Total Water Needed: 14.91 gal


Mash or Steep Grains

Mash Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.3 %
10 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 48.9 %
8 lbs 8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 38.6 %
2 lbs 4.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 10.2 %

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 27.50 qt of water at 167.1 F 155.0 F 90 min
Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.90gal, 6.14gal) of 168.0 F water

Boil Wort
Add water to achieve boil volume of 12.28 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.046 SG

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.01 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.30 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 18.1 IBUs
2.25 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 6 -
0.80 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 7 -

Estimated Post Boil Vol: 10.40 gal and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.057 SG

Cool and Prepare Fermentation
Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water to achieve final volume of 10.00 gal

Fermentation Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -
Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.057 SG)
Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 10.00 gal)
Fermentation
5/9/2013 - Primary Fermentation (4.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)
5/13/2013 - Secondary Fermentation (10.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)

Dry Hop and Prepare for Bottling/Kegging
Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.015 SG)
Date Bottled/Kegged: 5/23/2013 - Carbonation: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Age beer for 30.00 days at 65.0 F
6/22/2013 - Drink and enjoy!
 
My understanding is that this is as simple as to double every ingredient from a 5gal batch, grains, hops, water, spices and yeast as well. Water chemistry for adjusting mash PH may be different, if you are doing any.


JUST_BREW_IT said:
How does this look for a 10 gal batch?


Prepare for Brewing


Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
Total Water Needed: 14.91 gal


Mash or Steep Grains

Mash Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.3 %
10 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 48.9 %
8 lbs 8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 38.6 %
2 lbs 4.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 10.2 %

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 27.50 qt of water at 167.1 F 155.0 F 90 min
Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.90gal, 6.14gal) of 168.0 F water

Boil Wort
Add water to achieve boil volume of 12.28 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.046 SG

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.01 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.30 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 18.1 IBUs
2.25 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 6 -
0.80 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 7 -

Estimated Post Boil Vol: 10.40 gal and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.057 SG

Cool and Prepare Fermentation
Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water to achieve final volume of 10.00 gal

Fermentation Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -
Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.057 SG)
Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 10.00 gal)
Fermentation
5/9/2013 - Primary Fermentation (4.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)
5/13/2013 - Secondary Fermentation (10.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)

Dry Hop and Prepare for Bottling/Kegging
Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.015 SG)
Date Bottled/Kegged: 5/23/2013 - Carbonation: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Age beer for 30.00 days at 65.0 F
6/22/2013 - Drink and enjoy!
Click to expand...
 
JUST_BREW_IT said:
How does this look for a 10 gal batch?


Prepare for Brewing


Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
Total Water Needed: 14.91 gal


Mash or Steep Grains

Mash Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.3 %
10 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 48.9 %
8 lbs 8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 38.6 %
2 lbs 4.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 10.2 %

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 27.50 qt of water at 167.1 F 155.0 F 90 min
Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.90gal, 6.14gal) of 168.0 F water

Boil Wort
Add water to achieve boil volume of 12.28 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.046 SG

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.01 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.30 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 18.1 IBUs
2.25 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 6 -
0.80 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 7 -

Estimated Post Boil Vol: 10.40 gal and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.057 SG

Cool and Prepare Fermentation
Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water to achieve final volume of 10.00 gal

Fermentation Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -
Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.057 SG)
Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 10.00 gal)
Fermentation
5/9/2013 - Primary Fermentation (4.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)
5/13/2013 - Secondary Fermentation (10.00 days at 67.0 F ending at 67.0 F)

Dry Hop and Prepare for Bottling/Kegging
Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.015 SG)
Date Bottled/Kegged: 5/23/2013 - Carbonation: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Age beer for 30.00 days at 65.0 F
6/22/2013 - Drink and enjoy!
Click to expand...

Looks like way too much cor and not enough OP to me.
 
On my last 5 gallon I went with Nilos 12 and I used .5oz of coriander and 3oz of OP.

I think I had some room to add slightly more coriander but this batch was almost spot onto Blue Moon. Its the only beer that I will start making 10gallon batches of due to popularity.
 
Question, I followed waynes instructions to a T. I hit all of my mash temps and pre-boil gravity but here is where the trouble begins. When I went to take a post boil reading (once wort cooled down to 70 degrees) my gravity was 1.045 when it should have been 1.060 according to beersmith. Any comments as to why its so low?
 
I followed Wayne's recipe the first time and hit 1.060. Personally I thought it was a little too "boozy" for the style and am aiming for 1.050 next time...which you didn't end up too far from.

Did you crush your grains yourself or did someone else do it? I had this issue once and that was the cause in my case...my LHBS didn't crush the grain fine enough.

One other time I was brewing on a windy day, and my boil wasn't as vigorous as it usually is / should have been...so my boil off rate was off which left me with a lower gravity than I wanted. Of course that particular time, I was also left with a larger final volume than I had anticipated also.
 
First - amazing thread. Took 3 days to read, but it was an excellent read. I'm going to try the Nilo #12. Quick question, why S-04 versus the Chico strain?
 
Just popped the top the other day on the first one...a few days too soon, but man, is this good. Friends love it. I zested 4 Valencia oranges and 1Tbls of coriander. Dumped it in at end of boil and let it sit in primary for a week. Smell was outstanding and like I said, it tastes great. Definitely on the list to brew again.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
I'm doing a 15gal AG batch of the "collected wisdom" of this thread right now.

thanks wayne and others.
 
My lhb shop only carries wheat malt and if i order malts from some online stores im paying an extra 20$ shipping. Can wheat malt be used with little change than white wheat malt? I was told their wheat malt is 4lovi and white wheat is less than 3 lovi. i wanna get started on this batch but i wanna make sure everythings spot on.
 

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