Which BYO Fat Tire Clone is more accurate?

BYO published two Fat Tire clone recipes this year. One in the March/April issue and one in the December issue. Has anyone made either of these? If so, what did you think of them? If not, which do you think looks more accurate? Or, provide your own clone if you think it's that good.

Fat Tire Clone (March/April):
5 gal, OG = 1.050, FG = 1.013
IBU = 20, SRM = 14, ABV = 4.8%

8# 10 oz. 2-row Pale Malt
8 oz. Munich Malt
8 oz. Carapils Malt
8 oz. Crystal Malt (20L)
6 oz. Biscuit Malt
1 oz. Chocolate Malt
0.8 oz. Willamette (90 min.)
0.4 oz. Fuggle (20 min.)
0.4 oz. Fuggle (0 min.)
Wyeast 1272 or WLP051 Yeast

Mash at 154F for 45 minutes. Ferment at 68F.

Fat Tire Clone (December):
5 gal, OG = 1.050, FG = 1.013
IBU = 19, SRM = 14, ABV = 4.7%

8# 10 oz. 2-row Pale Malt
1# Munich Malt
8 oz. Crystal Malt (80L)
6 oz. Victory Malt
0.4 oz. Target (60 min.)
0.5 oz. Willamette (10 min.)
0.5 oz. Goldings (0 min.)
Wyeast 1272 or Wyeast 1792 or WLP051 Yeast

Mash at 154F for 45 minutes. Ferment at 68F.

I'm assuming that since the second recipe came from New Belgium themselves, it's probably more accurate.

I was thinking the same thing, but wanted to check to see if anybody had brewed either of these before. I'm wanting to make a 10-gallon batch of Fat Tire clone as my first All-Grain endeavor come spring and was looking for a little input.

I just brewed the December recipe tonight. Overshot the OG by almost 10 points doing a partial mash! The color is quite brown, however, I imagine it will clear up and (hopefully) get some caramel/amber color. I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know how it went.

the byo clone's edition has one as well.. ill find it to compare.

knuckledragger said:

I just brewed the December recipe tonight. Overshot the OG by almost 10 points doing a partial mash! The color is quite brown, however, I imagine it will clear up and (hopefully) get some caramel/amber color. I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know how it went.

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Good to hear! Definitely post your end results as I'm looking to brew the December version this Spring.

brewingkitty said:

the byo clone's edition has one as well.. ill find it to compare.

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It will be interesting to compare, thanks for the input!

I'd also second the one from the brewery in the Dec issue. Anyone know of a place to get their yeast? Anyone have a slant perhaps?

the Mar/Apr recipe is the same as in the 150 clones edition.

Took a gravity reading today. Down to 1016. Sample tasted a tad fruity, I fermented at 69-70 so that's probably why....

I've brewed the BYO clone and it wasn't very close in my opinion. I'll have to check my notes when I'm back at home, but I think I overshot the gravity by 5 or 6 points. That probably had an effect. I remember thinking the hops weren't quite right.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

I've brewed the BYO clone and it wasn't very close in my opinion. I'll have to check my notes when I'm back at home, but I think I overshot the gravity by 5 or 6 points. That probably had an effect. I remember thinking the hops weren't quite right.

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Which one? The one created by BYO or the one from NB published in BYO?

So I bottled the december recipe 10 minutes ago. Color seemed a tad light and the sample was watery and green. The aftertaste of the sample definitely has a fat tire resemblance but up front, it seems off. I'll report back in 3 more weeks after bottle conditioning!

Ace_Club said:

Which one? The one created by BYO or the one from NB published in BYO?

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The original BYO clone in their clone book. I haven't tried the New Belgium suggested clone yet.

knuckledragger said:

So I bottled the december recipe 10 minutes ago. Color seemed a tad light and the sample was watery and green. The aftertaste of the sample definitely has a fat tire resemblance but up front, it seems off. I'll report back in 3 more weeks after bottle conditioning!

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Excellent, I look forward to hearing the results.

I brewed the December recipe with a couple changes, went with 10 lb 2 row and forgot the .5 oz Goldings at 0 min. LHBS didn`t have the yeast so I used WLP 001. Turned out GREAT!!! 2 weeks in fermenter and 3 in bottle did the trick. Wasn`t as hoppy as the origional when I did side by side taste test, not to be arrogant but I liked mine better. HAHA!!

Fat Tire Clone (December):
5 gal, OG = 1.050, FG = 1.013
IBU = 19, SRM = 14, ABV = 4.7%

8# 10 oz. 2-row Pale Malt <---- 10 lbs
1# Munich Malt
8 oz. Crystal Malt (80L)
6 oz. Victory Malt
0.4 oz. Target (60 min.)
0.5 oz. Willamette (10 min.)
0.5 oz. Goldings (0 min.) <---- Omit
Wyeast 1272 or Wyeast 1792 or WLP051 Yeast <---- WLP 001

Mash at 154F for 45 minutes. Ferment at 68F.[/QUOTE]

VB

So december recipie has been in the bottle for a month now. Tasts pretty good. For some reason I feel like its a tad on the sweet side. My hops additions might have been too weak. Anyway brew it up!

I brewed the second recipe (December) and just kegged it last night. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Cool, because I'm doing this soon also. I'm making a run to NC for an event and plan on stocking up on Fat Tire while I'm there so I can compare it when I'm done (no New Belgium in NY).

Ace_Club said:

I brewed the second recipe (December) and just kegged it last night. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

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So how did yours turn out? Which yeast did you use?

This recipe has been brewed by me multiple times and also other members on HBT. Its a winner and also a Permo orignal.


10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
0.50 lb Munich Malt
0.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 40
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 20
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt
0.25 lb Aromatic

1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 16.0 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (1 min) Hops 0.3 IBU
Mash at 154 for 60
WLP001, PACMAN...etc..etc.. Ferment cool




Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.42 %
Bitterness: 16.4 IBU Calories: 235 cal/pint

I brewed the Dec. recipe in July. All grains the same. I used .50 oz. Centennial at 60 min. .75 oz. Willamette at 10 min. and 1.00 oz. of Fuggles at 0 min. With Wyeast 1272 with starter. Tasted great although maybe not as biscuity as I remember the real Tire. Keg is empty now, so will be brewing this again tomorrow, I think I'm going to bump the Victory up to .50 lb. for a little more biscuit flavor. Oh, and I used 9 lb. of two-row because I did this BIAB with the total water amount and my efficiency is only around 71%

Surprised they call for only 6 oz of Biscuit/Victory... Based on the flavor profile, I would have thought it's more than that.

I've made this: http://*****************.com/fat-tire-clone-recipe-all-grain-t259.html

Not good, and not like Fat Tire at all...

Edit: Hmm... Never realized HBT edits out the names of other homebrewing forums! The original recipe called for 8 oz Chocolate malt, which is *obviously* way out of place in a Fat Tire clone...

When I put the december recipe into Beersmith 2.0 I get the SRM to be 8.6. What are you guys doing to up it to 14ish?

NeeDlzdos said:

When I put the december recipe into Beersmith 2.0 I get the SRM to be 8.6. What are you guys doing to up it to 14ish?

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The software I used put the color estimate at 11 srm. I didn't put it side by side, but from memory it looked pretty close to the real tire.

kicking a tired old horse here. What if I used 3 lbs of Marris Otter as a sub for 3 lbs of 2 row, need to use up the MO, but don't want to ruin a good recipe

I used MO as the base grain entirely a few weeks ago using the Dec '10 recipe. I'm going to post the recipe with tasting notes as soon as the beer is tapped, hopefully in another two weeks.

I brewed the one from the BYO 250 Clone mag (March/April). Hit all the numbers and fermented at the right temp. It definitely was not a clone. It had more of a nutty roasty flavor and was several shades darker. I currently have a recipe that I used New Belgium's website to formulate something close that I brewed this past Sunday... I'll post how it turns out here in several weeks.

thanks Airborneguy, i think I am going to brew this weekend, yea, I do Chanukah. Anyway, I have some S-04 dry yeast on hand so I may try it in the recipe. We should compare notes when we start to sample. I think this should come in about the time I have an open keg.

Happy holiday fellow HB'er

Sheldon

Sounds good! Good luck and Happy Chanukah!

Anyone have additional feedback on the December recipe? I am looking to brew it soon.

Thanks

I brewed the Fat Tire Clone (March/April) recipe as well only omitting the chocolate malt (which seemed wrong to me). While it produced a decent beer, it was not anywhere near fat tire. I would say the malts all blended together and nothing stood out very well. Tasted sorta like a confused amber ale.

I did a side-by-side tasting last night of my version of the December recipe and the real thing. It definitely is not a clone; I look at it as a starting point.

Needlzdos, we actually decided last night that the missing link is chocolate malt. The Dec recipe didn't have any, but when comparing them side-by-side, the real thing had just a hint of roast to it. I added 1/10lb of chocolate to my recipe last night as soon as I got home. I also adjusted the hops because my friend feels that mine had more nose to it and slightly less bittering.

I'm fairly confident that with the changes I made last night, the recipe should come very close to the real thing.

Doing a modified version of the March/April clone. I wanted a bigger bodied, maltier/sweeter but with strong similarities to FT.

7# American pale 2 row
2# Crystal 40
1# Crystal 60
8oz Carapils
8oz Biscuit malt
2oz chocolate malt
8oz honey malt
1oz Willamette 60min
1oz Willamette 15min
Wyeast 1056(because that's what I had on hand)

Don't know how close it will be, but it will be a big sweet beer.

3lbs of crystal with only 7 lbs of base malt is a TON. That beer might not be drinkable honestly. I'm a malt guy and that's way too much for me.

I know, I'm a bit worried, I originally wanted 1 # each of 40 and 60 but accidentally ordered 2# of 40 on the same grain bill as the rest so it was irreversible. Made a very similar recipe a while back with .5# each of 40 and 60 crystal and it was actually very good (not a great clone of FT but still pretty similar). I wanted to step up the malty characters by a factor of 2 but instead I ended up probably tripling it. We'll see how it turns out, probably a bit on the malty side It'll have to be pretty bad to be undrinkable though.

You can hit the 40 in the oven for a short stint and get it to 60ish. Taste is only slightly off but adds a dash of nutty.

Here is the a 6 Gal batch I made for this clone. For me and my buds, it was a pretty good match. Before bottling, it was pretty darn close. The color was a bit darker than fat tire but the taste was almost spot on. I just cracked open my first bottle after bottle conditioning and it has lost a bit of the nutty flavor. However, it is very good. I think I will increase the biscut malt slightly for my next batch. If anyone brews this, I hope you get the same great results I have achieved. Enjoy!

8lb 6oz of US 2-Row Malt
2lb 6oz of US Aromatic Malt
1lb 3oz of German Munich Malt
1lb 3oz of US Rice Hulls
9.60 oz of Belgian Biscuit Malt
4.80 oz of US Caramel 10L Malt
4.80 oz of US Caramel 40L Malt
4.80 oz of US Special Roast Malt

154F for 60 Min
Sparge to 7.2 Gal

0.90 oz of German Northern Brewer (60 Min From End)
0.60 oz of US Willamette (30 Min From End)
0.60 oz of US Willamette (15 Min From End)
0.60 oz of US Willamette (5 Min From End)

Original Gravity: 1.048 SG (12.2 Brix)
Final Gravity: 1.012 SG


Wyeast 1272-American Ale II

I brewed the December version but substituted the Target with Centennial because I couldn't get Target at my LHBS. Mine came out a little lighter in color then Fat Tire but the flavor is kinda close. My gravity started at 1.051 and ended up at 1.010. It has been a big hit with my friends and wife. Overall, this is the best all grain beer I have made to date, so it will definitely be on regular rotation. I think I'll try upping the Crystal a little bit and maybe mash for 60 minutes instead of 45. :rockin:

Looks like I will try the December version for my next batch.

PilotCline said:

Looks like I will try the December version for my next batch.

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I might be trying this, too. I've done Northern Brewer's Phat Tyre, and it was close. The hops didn't quite seen right to me, though. And it was malty, but not quite the right blend of biscuit and crystal.

Thanks for bumping this thread up. I've looked for Fat Tire clone recipes before, but I must've missed this thread in my searches.