Spotted Cow Extract Clone Help / Challenge...Will Donate $25 to HomeBrewTalk

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Brewed a Spotted Cow clone attempt based on some of the ideas in this thread. Here is the recipe I ended up with (5.25 gal):

7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 75.7 %
12.0 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) 8.1 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 5.4 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) 5.4 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 5.4 %
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [7.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min 14.1 IBUs
0.25 oz Saaz [2.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min 2.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast

Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes
OG was 1.047

Fermented in a temp controlled freezer. Started at 65 degrees and let is rise to 68 after a week. 2.5 weeks in primary, cold crashed for 2 days and then moved to a keg and force carbed.

FG was 1.015

Overall it is very good, but slightly too full-bodied and the FG is higher than I was expecting. I haven't had the Spotted Cow in months, so I can't compare it to the original.

Next time I'll either increase the Munich or sub in some Vienna to boost the malt flavor a bit. I'll also lower the mash temp to increase fermentability.

Thanks to all in this thread for your efforts to clone this brew!
 
While I've never had Spotted Cow, I brew a cream ale that is awfully similar to this and it's possibly my favorite recipe.

11 gal batch:

14 lbs 2 Row
1 lb Flaked Corn
1 lb Flaked Barley
1 lb Carapils
1 oz Sterling 60 min
1 oz Sterling 15 min

Mash at 152, ferment with US05. I can never keep this beer around. Each keg is usually kicked within 10 days of tapping.

I am intrigued by using crystal and munich. I may give them a try next time.
 
Hello everyone, I am relative newcomer to home brewing and certainly to this thread. Having grown up in Wisconsin and now living in Illinois, I am a huge fan of being able to brew my own. While I have only done extract kits so far, I am aware of the process to partial mash, and have everything I need. On to my question:

Which post has the best extract/partial mash recipe? Most of the more recent posts appear to be all grain.

Also, I know the speckled heifer kit has been discussed in depth, do you guys think this kit could be improved by swapping in a kolsch yeast rather than the american ale yeasts that are listed as options?

Thanks in advance
 
WiscoProud said:
Also, I know the speckled heifer kit has been discussed in depth, do you guys think this kit could be improved by swapping in a kolsch yeast rather than the american ale yeasts that are listed as options?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I use Kolsch yeast fermented at 62F for 21+ days and also use Cluster hops which the kit uses. I usually make 5 gal all grain batches and have a keg on tap as we speak. Cheers. How close are you to Round Lake?
 
Badger39 said:
Just as the title states. I moved away from Wisc. and am going through withdrawl from Spotted Cow.

So here is the challenge, who thinks they can best duplicate Spotted Cow.

Ive found a couple of recipes, but they are not true extract recipes, and I do not have the resources (equipment wise), and I can not go all grain at this time. If anyone has a good extract recipe for Spotted Cow Ill put my money where my mouth is and donate $25 bucks in your name to HomeBrewTalk.

So help me and help the forum!
Click to expand...

I go to WI on business trips and never leave without several cases of New Glarus. I couldn't find their stone soup on my last trip. Bummer. Wish I could help. :(
 
WiscoProud said:
Hello everyone, I am relative newcomer to home brewing and certainly to this thread. Having grown up in Wisconsin and now living in Illinois, I am a huge fan of being able to brew my own. While I have only done extract kits so far, I am aware of the process to partial mash, and have everything I need. On to my question:

Which post has the best extract/partial mash recipe? Most of the more recent posts appear to be all grain.

Also, I know the speckled heifer kit has been discussed in depth, do you guys think this kit could be improved by swapping in a kolsch yeast rather than the american ale yeasts that are listed as options?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Ritebrew has a spotted cow partial mash kit: http://www.ritebrew.com/product-p/851083.htm

I have not done this one personally but all the kits I have done from ritebrew have come out well.
 
Hittin this up again tomorrow....Went over really well last year at Easter so we'll see if I can turn it around in a month.
 
I've got this boiling right now. I grew up in WI, and Spotted Cow is my husband's fave beer, so that inspired him to help out on brew day today.

It's been 2+ years since we were back in WI though, so I am not at all in a position of telling if the recipe is a successful clone. I'm sure it will be tasty though :)
 
I didn't realize this thread was started so long ago, at first. Got to page 2 or 3 and someone finally mentioned Northern Brewers Speckled Heifer. Started skimming looking for a follow up post by the OP. Never found.
NBs Speckled Heifer is a great clone of Spotted Cow. To my palate if you mash slightly warmer the result has more body.
 
Made a batch of Speckled Heifer a few weeks ago and finally cracked one open last weekend.
Slight corn taste, but subsequent bottles since then have had less.
Thin yeast cake on the bottom, nice and clear with and a little chill haze, but has good carbonation in Grolsch bottles.
The head is a little thin, but that's my only complaint.
Crystal hops are nice and crisp.
e2a6253dc901225afb1c9af6254682b2_zpsdcbb581b.jpg

I've never had a Spotted Cow so I'll have to wait on the comparison.
Wish I knew someone in Wis...
 
Have you tried BIAB? It's the only method I use. Plus you get to do all grain recipes. All you would really need is a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, and plenty of YouTube videos to learn/tweak other people's methods
 
I just bottled a speckled heifer kit on Monday. I used the Wyeast Kolsch II yeast, so hopefully it worked well. The sample I had smelled right, and tasted relatively close. I guess we'll have to see though.

This was the second partial-mash kit I have ever done, and I know my conversion leaves something to be desired. Fingers crossed its good.
 
im currently brewing this recipe with a different yeast and i believe different brew method. im using the wyeast 2565 and using a step mash method with 30minute rest at 122 degrees and 60 minutes at 149 degrees.
 
I'm currently brewing the recipe posted by brewninja in this thread. The recipe is as follows:

The recipe is:
Spotted Ninja Cow
Style: Cream Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Boil Size: 7.5 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.5 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.5 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.0gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 4.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 81.6 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 87.6 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
5 lb Pale 6 Row US (2.0 SRM) 48.8%
2 lb Belgian Pilsner (2.0 SRM) 19.5%
1.75 lb Corn, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 17.1%
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 lb Crystal Malt 20L (20.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%) Boil 60 min 13.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Saaz [4.0%] Boil 30 min 4.8 IBUs
1.00 Whirlfloc tablet
1.0 pkg Kolsch Yeast Wyeast Labs #2565

No Sparge Mash - Mash In - Add 7.5gals of water at 160 F - 154.0 F for 90 min



My question is....what's the point of the 90 minute boil in this recipe? This is the first one I've come across to require the extra 30 minutes. Is it just for wort concentration? (Boil for 30 min to concentrate wort then add hops?)
 
Well what I actually did is cut this entire recipe down to a 7 gallon mash, simply because my kettle is only a 7.5 gallon kettle and I wasn't sure if it would be better to do the full 7.5 gallon mash and just leave some behind in the mash tun, or cut the recipe down to yield a volume that would entirely fit in my kettle. I'm assuming it doesn't make a difference, eh?

So perhaps I could have simply done a more concentrated mash? 6.5 gallons with the same grain bill?


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I appreciate your digital recipe log as well. I'll have to start keeping digital copies like that myself!


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I wouldn't have done the same bill on 6.5, but the end s.g. Is what you're looking for.
 
Using brewmate is nice but I haven't compared it to any other brew tools out there. The math seems correct so...
It was one of the first free ones I tried and it's worked for me so far. You can export to the brewmate website (the page I sent you to) where others have contributed as well.
 
Sounds great, I will give it a try

So it looks like I'll be doing a 60 minute boil. I only yielded about 5.5 gallons out of the mash...so hopefully I'll hit the target gravity and all will be well. I'm so excited for this one! It will be the first brew that I will keg.


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tinman717 said:
My question is....what's the point of the 90 minute boil in this recipe? This is the first one I've come across to require the extra 30 minutes. Is it just for wort concentration? (Boil for 30 min to concentrate wort then add hops?)
Click to expand...

The 90 minute boil is because there is pilsner malt in the recipe. Some believe that pilsner malt needs to be boiled for 90 minutes to drive away all DMS. Some also like boiling for 90 to add a tiny bit more color/flavor from the kettle itself. Not necessary at all, just personal preference.
 
MetallHed said:
northern brewer has a new partial mash kit called Speckled Heifer that I will be brewing on Friday... it's a farmhouse ale, but I'm not sure if they're just playing on the SC name or it's an actual clone..

we shall see....
Click to expand...

I never looked at the start date for this thread. Big OOPS. I was wondering when someone would mention Speckled Heifer. It is a good clone. Mashing at a slightly higher temperature will add a little more body which I like.

When I need more bottles I will buy Spotted Cow.
 
I kegged the Ninja Spotted Cow Clone a week ago after it sat in the primary for three weeks. WOW. This beer is AMAZING! Will definitely be brewing again and tweaking the recipe to taste.


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Brewing this again today. Mashing right now. Homebrew shop was out of crystal 20l so I subbed 60l. Will be curious how much of a color impact that will have. I very much liked how the last batch turned out.


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tinman717 said:
Brewing this again today. Mashing right now. Homebrew shop was out of crystal 20l so I subbed 60l. Will be curious how much of a color impact that will have. I very much liked how the last batch turned out.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...


I would keep roughly a quarter of the 60 and substitute the rest in honey or pure cane sugar to balance out the OG.
But if the darkness doesn't bother you go for it.
 
I actually am pleased with the result. The color was just as light as I was expecting.


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ImageUploadedByHome Brew1407539189.920886.jpg transferring to the fermenter right now....check out that color


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So I was shaking the big mouth bubbler and check out what happened guys. The glass on these things is so thin! ImageUploadedByHome Brew1407539900.476191.jpg


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Yep, I was able to save the batch! I called up Northern Brewer and had them send me out a plastic Big Mouth as well as a beer kit.


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Just wanted to post quick here.....there's a winter festival in my town at the end of next month and they have a casual homebrew competition. I think I'm going to brew this up and enter it, as I feel this beer is one that can be enjoyed by most everyone!
 
I'm planning on re-visiting this beer but I'm going to modify the Speckled Heifer recipe a bit to make up for some innefficiencies in my system. Besides these changes I'll follow the instructions from NB.

Fermentables:
9lbs 2 row
.5 lbs Carapils
.25 lbs Flaked Barley
.25 lbs Flaked Corn

Cluster Hops:
.5 oz 60 mins
.25 oz 15 mins
.25 oz 5 mins

Yeast:
Nottingham harvested from an IPA

Thoughts from those that have brewed this recipe and liked it?
 
So someone reddit posted about this and I followed this here. Not sure if this helps but when I toured the brewery they mentioned it only takes 14 days from start to finish and beer comes out after fermentation it has to be watered down, as it's nearly double the abv sold in stores. This made me wonder if Spotted Cow isn't another kind of beer completely.

Just food for thought.
 
Have any of you Spotted Cow fans done water chemistry modifications for your brews? My water is super soft with very low alkalinity and I've realized that I need to do some kind of mineral and acid additions for pretty much any style I brew. Should I just look up an American cream ale profile?

I have a friend from WI so I am hoping to turn out a credible Spotted Cow clone. She brought me a couple of cans and it is pretty tasty!
 
OK, I did Brewninja's recipe and it came out great. Details follow if you want numbers 'n' stuff.

My brew day went well. Mash pH was 5.48, a little higher than my 5.4 target. (That's a constant for me and I need to adjust my mash pH protocol.) For mineral additions, I aimed at the "Yellow Balanced" profile in Bru'n Water. My actual mineral levels in the mash were:

Ca 43
Mg 3
Na 12
SO4 60
Cl 45

Based on some advice I saw in the thread, I did almost a 3 week fermentation at 66F, followed by nearly a week resting in a room-temperature keg, followed by chilling and carbing. The corn flavor was apparent when tasting the fermenter sample, but totally mellowed out with the waiting.

I was able to compare it to the one can of Spotted Cow I had been saving in the fridge for months. (I live near Seattle, so I don't get it often!)

The taste of the clone recipe is very close to the real deal, as is the color. I noted that the clone seemed to have a more intense flavor. The real deal was a little lighter on the palate. The real version also has a very intense fruity aroma that the clone completely lacked, sadly.

The 3 friends that I had helping taste-test preferred the clone. None of them liked the fruity bubble-gum aroma of the original. I do like it, so I want to figure out how to get it back. I assume that it's all in the yeast, and so maybe a fermentation temperature change is called for.

On brew day I did notice that the corn from the mash ended up mostly in a goopy mass on the bottom of the kettle. I have my doubts that it gave its full flavor contribution, since much of it essentially became a dough ball. But, I can't argue with the end results because the flavor was very close to the target.

My friend from WI will be very pleased!
 

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