Clone Beer Dog Fish Head - Midas Touch

Williams 728
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its funny how the written word can be so easily misunderstood. i wasnt' being defensive, just stating that i didnt think you meant me.

the benefit of what we do is that we can be creative. altering recipes is something we should all do to (hopefully) improve a brew. Like i said, if the saffron doesnt seem necessary, it can be left out, by choice of the brewer. i don't think i'll be doing multiple batches of this stuff due to cost, but it would be nice to know if the saffron does make a difference or not. I agree with you again, khiddy, as i mentioned in #39, DFH's purpose was to recreate an original, ancient recipe for some presumingly good beer. It worked (depending on who you ask). I'll find out if mine turned out well soon enough, then change my handle to 'midas' instead of 'nbspindel'. ha.
 
i'm having issues with my attenuation and i'm not sure if the yeast is done or just taking a while. I brewed on the 16th, that makes it 11 days, and the OG is down from 1.081 to 1.051. It's been fermenting at 60* F, so i know it will be slower, but i expected it to have done more converting than that. What's suggested here? I'll be checking the gravity again in a few days to see if it's still moving downwards. If not, what should be done?

-moving the wort around so as to re-suspend anything that's flocculated out?
-repitch? this wouldnt work properly due to the different phases yeast goes through, right? the original yeast would have eaten all the glucose already and absorbed all the oxygen. am i right?

right now it tastes like honey, but i think i can actually taste the saffron! will have to comment on this more later though when its done.
 
If you can, you should heat it up. I think the temperature range for WLP001 is 68 - 74. 60 is probably too low.

I am excited for this recipe. I have all the ingredients but am waiting for brew a session pale ale to pitch onto it's yeast cake.
 
Does anyone have some feedback about the FG of this beer? The recipe calls for 1.026 which seems high. I am at 1.022, running 74.4% Attenuation (yeast range is 70-75 but I have seen it hit 80) but don't want to end up with bottle bombs like someone else in this thread did.
 
i got down to 1.017. i haven't bottled it (its kegged), so i can't tell you if it's fully done or not, but i imagine it is. i also repitched at some point due to stuck fermentation, which may have helped lower the FG.
 
bknifefight said:
but don't want to end up with bottle bombs like someone else in this thread did.
Click to expand...

That would be me..lol..Don't worry about the bottle bombs..I found out that the beer had gotten some wild bacteria in it (noob mistake) and kept fermenting the beer lower and lower. Once I put them in the refrigerator it was ok. The beer was super over carbed but believe it or not the taste was good.
 
I was planning on bottling but it dropped to 1.020 so I will give it another week. This Muscat Grape Concentrate is just taking forever to ferment out all the way.
 
I bottled this almost 3 weeks ago at 1.018. I was nervous that it may slowly lose a few more points and that my carbonation would be way too much. Curious, I cracked one open last night to give it a try. The carbonation was low (as I opened it too early) and it was good. It has been months since I had a real Midas Touch so I cannot compare, but I liked mine quite a bit. I will give it another month or two to mellow before I share any or start drinking it regularly though.
 
I picked up a 4 pack of the Midas Touch and fell in love with it. But being the adventurous sort I’m thinking of tinkering with the recipe.

1. I am ordering a can of gewürztraminer concentrate this varietal is a spicier grape and think it would do very well to give the beer stronger back end.

2. For the honey addition, I have access to a wonderful blackberry honey, It has a strong blackberry flavor and combined with the spice from the grapes should be wonderful.

3. For the bettering hops I will say I wish the original was a tad hoppier, having said that I am going with 3/4 an oz of Chinook hops.

4. I am also touying with the Idea of using Wyeast 3538-PC Leuven Pale Ale Yeast to also enhance the spicyness as well

So waiting for payday to place my order and I have a friend picking me up a packet of Baby brand Kashmir saffron its graded as 1a and hope it will impart the wonderful straw color.
:fro:
 
I bought this beer awhile ago and really enjoyed it - definitely unique, if not a bit sweet. I should have aged a bottle, but patience is not one of my virtues. I caught a hint of saffron, but there's no way 10 strands in 5 gallons could account for that. Once I get the knack of brewing down, I think I'm going to try to clone/modify it with a bit more saffron.
 
Any updates on this thread? Is it a good clone recipe? Any new thoughts on the necessity of the saffron?
 
Any updates? There are 6 pages of updates. Anyways, the saffron is up to you, I don't think it did anything for my batch and I added more than what the recipe called for. It is a beer that will do better with age as mine is now almost 3 months in bottles and still has a bit of a bite to it.
 
The wort for this clone is boiling right now. The girlfriend loves this beer, and she wanted to start brewing with me, so it's a perfect oppurtunity to get her involved. We got all the ingredients at our LHBS ( Stienbarts, here in Portland ) except for the Saffron ( glad she paid for this batch! ) We're following the Extreme Brewing recipe exactly. I'll post our SG later.
 
Idlehanz said:
She ( we ) hit the OG right on target. 1.086
Click to expand...

Remember, the muscat concentrate will up the gravity but it is hard to say how much. I just assume my batch of this runs about 9% because of how I feel after a bottle :drunk:
 
brewing this weekend...will be doing an all-grain mash, should be interesting and fun. Also using the brx 68 grape concentrate, and will probably add 30 threads of saffron. everything else will be the same...
 
Newbie brewer here, hoping to tackle this recipe sometime soon (not least because my wife is an archaeologist who has worked for over a decade in Turkey, but also because we both dig the commercial version). However, I am a bit thrown by the 6.5 gallon batch size. What do people use to ferment 6.5 gallons?
 
Brewing software like Beer Smith can scale it for you. Or you could just use the ingredients shown for a 5 gallon batch and have it a bit stronger.
 
Craig, thanks for that formula.

My recipe is a little different, an all grain from BYO magazine. I adjusted it down to about 4 gallons. It's been fermenting for two weeks and it's at 1.022. I'll come back here with notes later when I've tasted it:

http://hopville.com/recipe/362422/home-brew/midas-touch-w-muscat-grape-45-gal


CBBaron said:
When figuring out your expected FG on this beer it is pretty safe to just use the malt. The sugars in the grape juice and honey will completely ferment so they don't contribute to the FG.

The muscat juice concentrate is 68 Brix, which translates to 68% sugar. You can estimate the SG it adds by using the weight of the juice times 0.68 and treat it as sugar.

Craig
Click to expand...
 
I love this DFH brew. I found a recipe and modified it slightly and it turned out effing amazing. BETTER than the original I think. Right at 9% ABV. I can taste the saffron but then again I'm a foodie and I love saffron. Don't use the cheap stuff. Also, the grape I got was pasteurized. Here's what I used.

Trappist Ale Yeast-
I did my usual Activator starter. Pop the pouch, give it 8 hrs, boil 1 lb light DME with 1 qt water, chill, pitch. Give it a few days.

Mash- (Technically just a steep, not a full-on mash)
2 lbs. 2-row pale malt
3 quarts @ 150F
30 minutes

Sparge-
1.5 quarts @ 170F

In brew kettle-
Add water to get 2.5 gal
Add 31.25oz light LME
Add 27.78 grams of 4.5% Willamette pellets
Boil for 60 minutes

Last 15 minutes of boil-
Add 52.8oz light LME
Add 18.89 grams of 4.5% Willamette pellets
Add 1 tsp of saffron threads, about 40
I put in 1 tsp irish moss and 1 tbs yeast nutrient, but these are optional I guess

Turn off the heat, add 3 lbs good quality clover honey, and let stand for 5 minutes. Chill, dilude to 5 gal, add 2 lbs muscat grape concentrate, pitch. 10 days in primary, 10 days in secondary, and 21 days in the bottle with 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming.

I got these numbers:
OG=1.079
FG=1.010
ABV=9.0
 
Hi:

I'm planning on brewing the original recipe this week. How aggressive is the fermentation? Do I need a blow off tube for this? Also, the batch size is 6.5 gallons. Does this mean 6 gallons of original wort + 0.5 gallons juice?

Thanks!
 
Xcorpia said:
Hi:

I'm planning on brewing the original recipe this week. How aggressive is the fermentation? Do I need a blow off tube for this? Also, the batch size is 6.5 gallons. Does this mean 6 gallons of original wort + 0.5 gallons juice?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I can't say for sure because I haven't made a batch going by original recipe, but with my recipe the fermentation was pretty aggressive (with a starter). I made a 5.5gal batch in a 6.5gal primary and I had to use a blow-off tube. That recipe only calls for .25gal juice so I'm guessing your initial batch size should be 6.25gal, going by that recipe.
 
Thanks for the heads up. Well then what I'm going to do is divide the batch and use two 5 gallon carboys because this brew is way too expensive to lose a single drop. I was planning on buying a 7.5 gallon carboy especially for this recipe, but if a 6.5 gallon carboy didn't work for your 5 gallon batch then the 7.5 gallon one isn't going to work for me.

The Muscat juice is on its way so I'll know soon enough if this will work.
 
I think you're too worried about it. It seems like using 2 carboys is a good way to get an inconsistent beer. If you have a 7.5 gallon carboy, that should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch. Use some fermcap to keep the krausen down if you are that worried about losing beer to blow off.
 
Does anybody know if I can lower the boil to 3 gal? Sams recipe says to do a 6 gallon boil which I do not have the ability to do at this time. Would lowering it to a 3 gal boil and adding the remaining water in the primary cause any problems? Will i need to adjust anything in the recipe?
 
brew2enjoy said:
Does anybody know if I can lower the boil to 3 gal? Sams recipe says to do a 6 gallon boil which I do not have the ability to do at this time. Would lowering it to a 3 gal boil and adding the remaining water in the primary cause any problems? Will i need to adjust anything in the recipe?
Click to expand...

You'll be fine with a partial boil.
 
bknifefight said:
I think you're too worried about it. It seems like using 2 carboys is a good way to get an inconsistent beer. If you have a 7.5 gallon carboy, that should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch. Use some fermcap to keep the krausen down if you are that worried about losing beer to blow off.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with bknifefight here. I didn't use any fermcap for whatever reason in mine so you could do that, or the 7.5gal would give you plenty of head space I think. Why don't you just cut the recipe down to a 5.5gal batch?
 
Thanks for all the input. I'll do the whole 6.5 gallon batch then and place it in the 7.5 gallon bucket. I want to use up all the ingredients I already purchased for it and I don't want to compromise the flavor by dividing it into two smaller batches. I'm brewing this tonight!
 
I'm brewing this now. Only 45 minutes of boil left. Yay!

Hey brew2enjoy: Is that DFH 60 minute IPA any good?
 
Xcorpia said:
I'm brewing this now. Only 45 minutes of boil left. Yay!

Hey brew2enjoy: Is that DFH 60 minute IPA any good?
Click to expand...

bknifefight said:
I know you asked brew2enjoy, but it is a great IPA recipe.
Click to expand...

It's not just good, it's incredible. BTW, its Yooper's recipe which is in the database. It's only been bottles for 2 weeks and it is better than the real thing. It has been preferred over the DFH beer in a blind test by 3 of my friends so far (not including me). so yeah lol, its pretty good!
 
Hmm...maybe that will be my first IPA then. Thanks for the recommendation.

OK, so my batch is bubbling as I type. I'm a little disappointed because my OG came out as 1.070, 16 points lower than the expected OG. I followed the recipe to the tee (except for the saffron, I added about 30-40 threads). I did the boil with 6 gallons and topped off to 6.25 gallons in the bucket (other 0.25 gallon will be the Muscat juice). I measured the OG about 3 times and adjusted the reading to the temperature. I have no idea what happened. Maybe I had to leave the volume at 6 gallons?

The other thing I did was that I mixed 2 X 3 lb bags of Muntons Light Malt Extract with 2X 1 lb bags of Briess Light Malt Extract, but it shouldn't make that much of a difference, right?
 
I may be wrong but won't the extra gravity points be made up with the muscat? I can't remember if the OG for the recipe includes that or not.
 
Midas Touch still bubbling. Today is the 4th day and I haven't receive the Muscat juice yet, so I'm starting to get nervous.

On another note: last night I bought a bottle of 90 min IPA (didn't find 60 min IPA) and tasted it for the very first time. The moment that beer touched my tongue my taste buds fell in love. I can't wait 'till the liquor store opens this evening to buy more! I saw an extract clone of this in the recipe section. Any of you tried it? (I don't have the equipment yet for AG)
 
OK, so I finally racked to secondary tonight after 16 days in primary. That grape smell is wonderful, it's got a beautiful dark golden color and the flavor is excellent. As of now, the SG is at 1.011, which is way lower than the original recipe FG, but I'm not worried about it. According to my calculations I'm almost at 8% abv. I saved a small amount of yeast cake in the fridge so I can do a small starter to repitch before bottling to ensure proper carbonation. I can't wait until it's finally done!
 
So I am planning on attempting this brew soon, I was playing around with a couple recipe calcs as I was going to modify this recipe to be a 5gal batch. I found that when you leave all the ingredient quantities the same but the batch size is at 5 gallons the calculator shows the OG will be 1.086 which is what the recipe calls for with 6 gallons. I also noticed that if I up the batch size to 6 gallons and left the ingredient quantities the same the OG will be ~1.072 which is close to what you got Xcorpia. So I'm thinking the 6 gallons may be a typo or something. Any thoughts?? Oh and this was using Light Dry Malt Extract. (liquid has even lower OGs)

Anyone care to tell how their brew of this turned out? (I don't recall reading any finished product updates)

Also, I.... just lost my train of thought, oh well.:drunk:
 
Looks like the preboil amount of wort is 6 gallons which, after the boil, will yield 5-5.25 gallons. This depends on your setup, kettle shape, humidity, etc. but I always start with 6 gallons and end up with a bit over 5 in the fermenter.
 
Ha! And I was beating myself up for not hitting the target OG, thanks EBrewFro.

I haven't given any updates because I bottled it just 6 days ago. I did get impatient and cracked a bottle open last night and of course it was completely flat. Still drank it though. It had a deep, dark gold color and an awesome grape smell. It was slightly sweet, even though that was probably the priming sugar. It finished a little dry as expected because of the honey. Overall I'm liking it and can't wait until it's totally carbed.
 
Thanks castlefreak, sounds about right. Keep us posted Xcorpia, It'll be a while before I'm ready to brew this but I'm interested.
 

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