Oskar Blues Old Chub clone from BYO

[MrNic]

Has anyone had the Nitro Old Chub Scotch Ale. I believe its the same as the Old Chub but on Nitro. THis leads to my question. Do you think if I were to do this clone and simply put it on my Nitro tap I would recreate that same creamy Nitro Old Chub Scotch Ale? Logic says yes, but curious if there is anything different about the two beers.

Thank you

I highly doubt the recipes are different.

 

[springtime]

Thanks MrNic. seems logical. Not sure if anyone has had the Nitro version. Fantastic beer. Having an Old Chub as I type.

 

[MrNic]

Thanks MrNic. seems logical. Not sure if anyone has had the Nitro version. Fantastic beer. Having an Old Chub as I type.

I've had the nitro version. It's very tasty. I'm not sure it's worth the extra price though...

 

[MitDaseinBier]

I haven't had Old Chub in a good year or so. Haven't been able to get my hands on in until just recently. I had the nitro last week. It seemed too....smooth.

 

[unclebrazzie]

I brewed 4 gal. of this recipe in July.
Fermented with Danstar Windsor.

Now, with December just begun, the beer's just stopped fermenting in secondary/lagering. Airlock was active until three weeks ago. FG is now around 1.006. What's left is a thinnish beer, which kinda tastes like a very tame Speciale Belge.

No idea what happened to this brew, but it's certainly no longer a Scotch.

Will try again in a couple of months, and set this failed batch next to it to highlight all the differences.

 

[Oldskewl]

What FG are most of you seeing with this recipe. I started with an OG of 1.082 and ended with an FG of 1.022. Seemed a bit high. Mashed at 156 and fermented at 69 with a 2L starter of 1056.

 

[Oldskewl]

After 4 weeks in the bottle, this beer is definitely sweet. After 8 weeks in the bottle it mellowed out, but a tad sweet still. It is a tasty beer, but drinking one back to back with Old Chub, it's still off. Not convinced the yeast is 1056 or a specialty grain may be missing. I can't put my finger on it. I am going to give it another try in a couple months and either mash 1-2 degrees colder or try a Scottish ale yeast. Still highly recommended.

 

[jturman35]

Any updates on this recipe? I'd love to brew this old chub Scotch Ale.

 

[Oldskewl]

I'm gonna give it another shot over the winter. I just finished my last bottle last week. I may try some Scottish Ale yeast this time though

 

[jturman35]

Yea I really screwed this recipe up. Scaled downed from 5-2.5 gal using BS and only ended up with 1.5 gals into the fermenter using 9.1lbs of grain.

 

[jturman35]

I plan on trying this again in the morning with my new system. Hopefully it goes better than the last time! I’m will be using WLP001 instead.

View attachment 560691

 

[Oldskewl]

What yeast did you use?

 

[jturman35]

White Labs California yeast. Blowing off as I type and just a tad over 24hrs. My LHBS dosnt carry Wyeast so I went with WLP001. I read someone claimed Oscar Blues uses Cali Ale yeast for this beer. Im not sure how true that is. Hopefully this turns out well the hydrometer sample was a little harsh but I never really like the green samples anyway.

 

[jturman35]

Judging by the color of the real deal I’d say this recipe is a little off? Maybe my expectations are too high. Looking at the pic on the second page of this thread mine is exactly in line with this recipe. This pic stinks but the Old Chub has a dark ruby red tint. My fermenter beer looks more like a muddy brownish color. Os there any chance this beer darken to a more dark ruby red over time? I know beer darkens over time but this doesn’t look close at this point.

 

[jturman35]

Update: I missed my OG by 6 points and came in at 1.081, FG was 1.028. I just tasted the hydro sample at 30 days. Bottled this today.
This is my second attempt at this clone and taste 10 times better than my first attempt. The hydro sample has the smoke character and warmth as the real beer! Can’t wait to see how this turns out in a few months!

 

[luckybeagle]

Brewing this exact one this week for my second AG brew. I do not have temperature control yet, but I have a stable part in the house that never seems to deviate from 70F. Do you think this is too warm? I have an Inkbird but no fridge to hook it to, so unless I can find one on the cheap it'll be subjected to the ambient temp of my daughter's closet

I'll be pitching the recommended American Ale yeast from the Wyeast smack pack.

Thoughts?

 

[jturman35]

Maybe a fan with a wet towel to help keep the temps down below 70. I don’t think it would make a noticeable difference honestly.

 

[mashpaddled]

Brewing this exact one this week for my second AG brew. I do not have temperature control yet, but I have a stable part in the house that never seems to deviate from 70F. Do you think this is too warm? I have an Inkbird but no fridge to hook it to, so unless I can find one on the cheap it'll be subjected to the ambient temp of my daughter's closet

I'll be pitching the recommended American Ale yeast from the Wyeast smack pack.

Thoughts?

70F is a little warm. Fermentation is exothermic so if it's 70F ambient the beer is going to ferment warmer than that.

Portland might be too humid for a fan and towel to cool the beer. Can you move your fermenter under an AC vent? Anything to drop the temperature a few degrees would help.

 

[Oldskewl]

The upper limit of 1056 is 72 degrees. I’m sure at 70 ambient you will be above 72 in the fermenter. Maybe a water bath with a frozen bottle of water in it during active fermentation. Depends on what type of fermenter you use.

 

[luckybeagle]

I've got the Old Chub clone fermenting (followed the BYO recipe almost to a T). I only pitched one packet of Wyeast. It seems to be doing well, bubbling every 5 seconds or so here on day 3. Didn't oxygenate, but shook the carboy real good before pitching. Pitched at 69 and have the liquid temp currently at 68 thanks to some cool days lately. I've got a blowoff tube attached and was wondering a few things:

• My OG was 1.082 - about 4 points higher than BYO called for. Should I pitch another yeast packet since it's higher gravity and will be (hopefully) in the 8% range, even though it's bubbling and swirling away? I have about 6" of krausen skuzzle sitting on top of the liquid
• Should I ditch the blowoff tube and swap for a simple airlock? Or does it really matter? Just thinking about backpressure since this one isn't as aggressive of a bubbler as my recent hefeweizen was.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jturman35]

I have never used Wyeast but anything over 1.60 I do Starter or two packs of yeast! I recently started using Imperial which is supposedly 200b cells and I still do a starter for anything over 1.060.

 

[luckybeagle]

I have never used Wyeast. It anything over 1.60 I do Starter or two packs of yeast!

Thanks! I'll pick up a second one and dump it in. Hoping for a nice, strong brew and of course a proper ferment.

 

[jturman35]

Let us know how it turns out! I have made this beer twice and something always goes wrong. My second batch the bottles never carbed, so I ended up dumping 24 bottles in a keg. After 2 days in the keg the beer was great! Towards the end I starting noticing a lot of prune/raisiny taste. I thought about cutting back on the Special B on my next batch.

 

[Oldskewl]

I just brewed this up for the second time 2 weeks ago and I did a 2L starter of 1056. I do a 1L starter for every beer up to 1.060, just to wake up the yeast and make sure I have enough(The older the packet the less yeast you have). Anything from 1.060 to 1.085 I do a 2L starter. For beers over 1.085 I will either do 3L starter or a step starter(1L for 24-48 hours and then a 2L for 24 hours).

You may want to do a starter with that 2nd pack before you pitch it in.

 

[luckybeagle]

Thanks for the advice oldskewl. Unfortunately I saw it after pitching a fresh packet of 1056 3 or 4 days ago without first making a starter. D'oh! Perhaps it was overkill - I ended up with maybe 4 gallons in the carboy due to equipment and trub loss.

I brewed it about 8 days ago and had an OG of 1.082. Today I took a gravity reading and am showing 1.020, which is what BYO said should be the FG. The airlock is bubbling every 15 seconds or so. The krausen has practically disappeared. It tastes amazing and smells great. But 8 days is super short from what I'm hearing most people do with this brew. Should I let it sit another week and then bottle? Another 3 weeks? A couple more days? Seems fast... what should I do?

 

[jturman35]

Unless I’m doing a NEIPA or IPA I try to go 3 weeks minimum. Both of my Old Chub batches I let go for a month in the primary.

This beer will need some time to come together.

 

[Oldskewl]

Last time I brewed this it ended around 1.020. Sounds like you still have some activity though. I agree with jturman35, IPAs I only let ferment 7-14 days. Bigger beers like this need some time. I did 3 weeks last time and I plan on about 4 weeks with my current batch(mostly due to schedule). It is at 3 weeks Friday, but I will be traveling.

 

[luckybeagle]

Bigger beers like this need some time. I did 3 weeks last time and I plan on about 4 weeks with my current batch(mostly due to schedule). It is at 3 weeks Friday, but I will be traveling.

Alright, I will be patient! Good things come to those who wait. Maybe I'll curb that anxiousness with more brew days to pass the time.

Speaking of patience, I see in your signature that you've got a clone(?) Westvleteren 12 bottled. How'd it turn out?

 

[Oldskewl]

Alright, I will be patient! Good things come to those who wait. Maybe I'll curb that anxiousness with more brew days to pass the time.

Speaking of patience, I see in your signature that you've got a clone(?) Westvleteren 12 bottled. How'd it turn out?

It turned out really nice. Gets better with age. It is approximately 18 months in the bottle now. Tricky part with brewing it is using a krausen catcher and reintroducing the yeast.

This is the version I brewed

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/westvleteren-12-clone-multiple-award-winner.500037/

If you like Belgian beers, the Dragonmead Final Absolution Tripel is excellent. The All Grain recipe is on the 2nd or 3rd page.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...dal-dragonmead-final-absolution-clone.137219/

 

[luckybeagle]

If you like Belgian beers, the Dragonmead Final Absolution Tripel is excellent.

That's awesome! Yes, I love Belgian Tripels and Quads--I just moved back to Oregon from a year of living in the Netherlands and got to drink Belgians just about every day, including the Westvleteren 12. The Westy was a one-time thing at €12 a bottle at my local Dutch bottleshop, but just about everything else was under €2 except for Rochefort 10s and St Bernardus 12s (those were €2.50). One of the reasons I wanted to start brewing is to replicate some of those flavors and styles at home since they're so absurdly expensive stateside!

I may have questions for you on the Dragonmead brew. I'm itching to do something along those lines.

 

[luckybeagle]

Reporting back a month and a half later. The beer was far too sweet a week or so after bottling. My impatient self pretty much wrote it off as a loss and gave a bunch away to casual beer drinking friends who didn't care. Now, it's incredible. I'm almost out (and regretting my generosity, sort of) and so am building up a big starter for a 10 gallon batch. Ferm conditions have dropped to the lower end (65F), so I'm excited to see how different this next one turns out.

I ended up with less beer in my carboy than intended, and my OG was quite a bit higher than the OP's recipe. It was still a tad sweet (probably because of this), but it mellowed beautifully over a month. The alcohol burn/flavor was nice for winter warming, but feedback indicates I should try to mask it more. Hopefully the cooler fermentation on the next go-around will help with that.

I'm very excited to brew this one again. Since it ages well, and since everyone in my beer-drinking network has been heaping glass on me, I'm looking forward to building an inventory of beers that will have ample time to age--if I can stay away from them.

I read an article where the author was very adamant about NOT adding Smoked malts, but instead adding a small amount of Fuggles at flameout for that mossy Scottish goodness (in addition to the 60 min hop addition). Has anyone done this recipe without adding peated/smoked malts?

 

[jturman35]

I haven’t, but seems like I saw somewhere doing a decoction and or an extended boil. I just kegged a Belhaven Scotch Ale that calls for 1.9% peated malt. I know people flame those for using smoke/peat malts in a Scotch Ale. I think Old Chub is an American version of the style which probably does use some version of peat/smoke malt.
I haven’t mastered this one yet but my last Old Chub Clone was great! A little on the prune/raisiny side, but a really good beer. I plan on brewing this again soon.

 

[luckybeagle]

I haven’t, but seems like I saw somewhere doing a decoction and or an extended boil. I just kegged a Belhaven Scotch Ale that calls for 1.9% peated malt. I know people flame those for using smoke/peat malts in a Scotch Ale. I think Old Chub is an American version of the style which probably does use some version of peat/smoke malt.
I haven’t mastered this one yet but my last Old Chub Clone was great! A little on the prune/raisiny side, but a really good beer. I plan on brewing this again soon.

Right on. Curious to hear how that one turns out. I love the style but have only had a few examples of it (Old Chub, Wee Heavy/Kilt Lifter, a few others I can't remember the names to).

I think I will continue to use the peated malts. I brewed a Weihenstephan Hefeweizen clone as my first and 4th batches. I followed the Reineitsgebot(sp?) and both times I felt some oats would've been nice for mouthfeel. Next time I'll do that, even though it's not traditional. I'll apply the same logic to the Scottish Ale even if it's not traditional--if it tastes good, it's good enough! I'm not entering competitions and my harshest critics are my freeloading friends (haha) so there's not much to worry about!

Did you find the prune/raisin flavors to add too much sweetness?

 

[jturman35]

I actually like the prune/raisiny flavor from the special B. I came up short hitting my OG, so until I nail this recipe I am hesitant to change the grain bill. With that said this beer was really good at 3-8 months. Could have been dryer which I believe would tame the sweetness some. I’d have to look up my water profile which I build from distilled using brunwater.

Disclaimer: I have only been brewing for about year and half, so take me with a grain of salt.

 

[Oldskewl]

I recently brewed this with a 1/2 oz of EKG at 10 minutes since a lot of Scottish ales seem to have a flavor addition. It had an odd flavor for a 2-3 weeks but is delicious now. Gives it a layer of earthiness.

 

[luckybeagle]

I recently brewed this with a 1/2 oz of EKG at 10 minutes since a lot of Scottish ales seem to have a flavor addition. It had an odd flavor for a 2-3 weeks but is delicious now. Gives it a layer of earthiness.

Awesome to hear. I've got about that amount in my freezer left from a different beer. Maybe I'll go with that instead of Fuggles since its on hand.

 

[luckybeagle]

Thinking about brewing this one again this weekend. This time I am thinking about doing some flaked oats in the mash. I did it with my guinness clone and really enjoyed the silky mouthfeel and creamy head. My two noob questions are:

1. Do I plug the weight of the oats into my total grain bill calculation, even though it's a non-fermentable? The weight has an
2. How much should I use for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[jturman35]

I think it’s smooth enough myself and see no need to add flaked oats. If anything I want to try again without the smoked malt and pull off a gal of the wort and boil down to a syrup and add back.

 

[luckybeagle]

I think it’s smooth enough myself and see no need to add flaked oats. If anything I want to try again without the smoked malt and pull off a gal of the wort and boil down to a syrup and add back.

What sort of effect would boiling down a gallon of wort have on flavor/mouthfeel? Do you compensate for the loss in volume or higher OG with more sparge water? Do you do this concurrently with boiling the rest of the wort in the BK, or do you just boil one gallon of first runnings in your BK before lautering the rest? Very curious!

 

[jturman35]

I’m not sure if boiling down a gal into a pint of syrup would effect mouth feel much, but would add another dimension of flavor.

I just don’t think oats belong in a Scotch Ale, that’s just my opinion. However Old Chub is an AMERICAN version of the style. BJCP guidelines say smoke/peat have no place in this style. Real Scotch ales boil for long periods of time and have a much simpler grain bill.

I just brewed a Belhaven Scotch Ale 5.2% which did have 2oz peat malt. Real earthy and dark, nowhere near the original. I’m letting it sit in the keezer hoping it will condition and get better with time but I haven’t had any luck finding a clone. With all of this said, I have brewed this OC recipe twice and had issues brewing both batches. Yet both times they ended up being really good beer in the end.