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QueenNiyo

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Hello everyone,
Finished brewing my first beer. My family and friends drank it this new years, and the feedback was generally good.

However, my dad and I think the resulting beer was a little bland? Was trying to brew Blue Moon clone, but could not taste any orange or coriander notes. My dad also told me the American Light beer tasted more "beer" than what I brewed. I had a similar observation as drinking from the bottle had less flavor compared when drinking from a glass since the aroma comes into play. Looking into improving my next brews. I doubt it's a watered down recipe because the target was 8L of beer, but I only bottled about 4L only.

Hoping to hear your thoughts on how to improve or what areas I need to look into. My recipe is:
  • 1.043 kg - Pale Malt, Traditional Ale
  • 609 g - Wheat Malt, Pale
  • 139 g - Oats, Flaked
  • 60 min - 8.8 g - Hallertauer Mittelfrueh
  • 10 min - Boil - 10.435 g - Coriander Seed
  • 10 min - Boil - 26.087 g - Orange Peel, Sweet
  • 3.8 g - Lallemand (LalBrew) Voss Kveik yeast
 

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To answer your questions, we need to hear about your whole brewing process.
 
yep

but i searched on google for blue moon clone and this hbt thread came up.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/blue-moon-clone.65328/

this is an amazing thread i obviously didnt read all 36 pages and prolly should before commenting but if accurate, wayne1 who apparently brewed this beer for the company posts the recipe percentages. another member than posted this:

10 gallons. Kegged 5 (didn't last very long), and bottled 5 that I am selectively drinking.

I used Wayne1's percentages and used 1056 yeast instead of a belgian.



50.0% 10.25 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
40.2% 8.25 lbs. Wheat Malt
9.8% 2.00 lbs. Flaked Oats

1.25 oz. Hallertauer Whole 19.3 IBU 75 min

2.00 Oz Corriander Seed 10 Min.(boil)
0.75 Oz Bitter Orange Peel 5 Min.(boil)

Acid Rest 20min @ 104
Protien rest 30min @ 122
Saccrification 60min @ 153
Mashout 10 min @ 168

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.012

3 weeks primary at 68 degrees
2 weeks cold crash secondary at 46 degrees

this recipe is based on someone who actually worked for and brewed blue moon. this is prolly as close as you will get.
 
To answer your questions, we need to hear about your whole brewing process.
For starters, I steeped my malts at 65C into my purified water. I used cheese cloth instead of a proper malt bag. After an hour, I sparged my grain bag and boiled the wort for an hour. When the wort came to a rolling boil, I added my hops in a hop bag. At the 50 minute mark for boiling, I added my fresh orange zest, my freshly ground coriander seeds, and yeast nutrient. I added a little too much yeast nutrient than what's instructed.

After boiling, I put the beer pot in tap water bath, no ice. Cooling took 2-3 hours before I poured it in my fermenter. I pitched my yeast, and closed my fermenter with a 3-piece airlock. At this point I noticed that my brew's final volume didn't reach my target volume. Regardless, I fermented the wort for 1 week, bottled them using a bottle filler attached to my fermenter's spigot. Bottle already had priming sugar. Conditioned my beer for 5-7 days, chilled it for 1 day, and that's when I drank them
 
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yep

but i searched on google for blue moon clone and this hbt thread came up.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/blue-moon-clone.65328/

this is an amazing thread i obviously didnt read all 36 pages and prolly should before commenting but if accurate, wayne1 who apparently brewed this beer for the company posts the recipe percentages. another member than posted this:

10 gallons. Kegged 5 (didn't last very long), and bottled 5 that I am selectively drinking.

I used Wayne1's percentages and used 1056 yeast instead of a belgian.



50.0% 10.25 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
40.2% 8.25 lbs. Wheat Malt
9.8% 2.00 lbs. Flaked Oats

1.25 oz. Hallertauer Whole 19.3 IBU 75 min

2.00 Oz Corriander Seed 10 Min.(boil)
0.75 Oz Bitter Orange Peel 5 Min.(boil)

Acid Rest 20min @ 104
Protien rest 30min @ 122
Saccrification 60min @ 153
Mashout 10 min @ 168

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.012

3 weeks primary at 68 degrees
2 weeks cold crash secondary at 46 degrees

this recipe is based on someone who actually worked for and brewed blue moon. this is prolly as close as you will get.
Will check this out. Thanks! Upon scanning, there are terms here which I have to research first which could help.
 
No matter what you do with the fast fermenting Kveik yeast, especially at higher temperatures, you need to let the beer ferment for two weeks, bottle it and leave it for another two weeks to carbonize and condition in the bottle, and then at least a week in the refrigerator. I worked with this yeast and got a crystal clear beer, but I didn't like it because of its distinct lemony sour taste.
 
That looks horribly oxidised from the photos.

Also, another vote for changing the yeast. Everything brewed with Kveik isolates has a distinctive lemon-yoghurt "kveikiness" to it that seldom goes with the various brews it's often suggested to be used for.
 
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I'm wondering if you got low extract efficiency. That could make it taste bland. What was the OG?

Yes. This is an all grain recipe, so steeping in a mesh bag needs to be done differently than for an extract recipe. You are doing a BIAB here, so the bag should completely line your pot, no constriction of the grain.

You should also get a handle on your volumes. Take your final volume desired, add back in the amount lost to boil off (run a test with water to see how much boils off at the vigor and duration you plan to boil), then add back in the amount that is lost to grain absorption, and this will tell you what your combined mash and sparge volume should be. If you leave anything behind in the kettle (wort absorbed in hops, break material), that needs to be accounted for as well.

Gravity readings are important to know how much conversion you got, and can also let you know when the beer is finished fermenting.

Depending on the lighting in the photos, it does look much darker that it should be, so there could be oxidation issues as well. Was the bottle filler tubing allowing in air bubbles around the seals? How much headspace was in the bottles? How often was the beer exposed to air before bottling?
 
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