Blue Moon clone a little off target. Any ideas why?

[Bennypapa]

Brewed a Blue Moon clone kit from Austin home brew 8-26-11
Yeast vile (white labs) was kinda warm when it got here so I fridged it until I could make a starter. Made a 1 quart starter, followed all the instructions, had experienced brewers helping through the whole process.

In addition to the instructions with the kit I used campden tabs in my tap water to neutralize the chloramines.

Everything seemed to go off without a hitch. Hit all my temps for the partial mash part of the brew, boil went well etc. OG was 1.05.
Fermentation showed no signs until about day four. I stirred with a sanitized spoon at day 2. By the end of day four things were bubbling about 1 bubble every second. Krauzen was visible on day 5 and bubbling lasted about another 10 days and stayed at 68~70 degrees according to my stick on fermometer and 2 other external thermometers.
Bottled with bottling sugar per instructions at 20 days post brew after FG 1.01 held for 2 days.
I have sampled 1 a week until this week and I have had 1 a night.

Aroma at opening is definitely wheat but a little citrusy and something a little foul/maybe sulphury though that foul smell is very faint.
Appearance is fairly cloudy and orange in color and it is nicely carbonated.
Flavor isn't bad, but it isn't great. The main thing I don't like at this point is the tartness. It seems a bit sour to me.

NOW, keep in mind I am drinking these beers so whatever flavors I am not liking can't be that bad but I want to understand the whats and whys so I can make beer taste like I want. Crap shoots are not as fun as good beer.

So to recap, "Blue Moon" clone from Austin homebrew. White labs Yeast was about 94 degress when it arrived so I made a starter. Used campden tabs to get out the chloramines. Fermentation started 4 days in and lasted 10 days @ ~69 degrees. Beer is a little sour after being in the bottle 3 weeks.
Why?
What do I do next time to get less sour taste?
OH!, one other thing that may or may not matter, I put the entire contents of the brew kettle (I had removed the grain bag per instructions) into the fermenter. Hops, orange, coriander and all went into the fermenter.

Thanks all,
Ben

 

[mikee]

Just let it age a bit more. Wait a week or two and try it again. Don't worry too much about leaving all of the stuff in the bucket through fermentation. I do that all the time. Belgians sometimes take a bit of time - flavors change from one week to the next.

Brew another batch or two and then you wont be as tempted to consume your beer right away.

good luck and have fun!

 

[nilo]

Have you tested you water or got a water report to cofirm that you need to reduce Chloride?
I think that your yeast was very stressed wiht low cell counts (mostly dead), so it took that long for it to multiply and get things going. A stressed yeast can produce off flavor, that may have been the case. Wild yeast may have had the opportunity to get in, but I doubt, with you FG at 1.010.
Like Mikee said, give it some time to mellow. Some off flavors may go away. Next time, try to get a fresh vial of yeast or buy dry yeast (S33, S04, S05). I have brew several batches of blue Moon clone with S04 and have been very successfull.

 

[Wayne1]

If you used the White Labs Belgian Ale yeast, it would not taste like Blue Moon.

Blue Moon uses a very neutral ale yeast. The yeast that should be used is something like Safeale S-05, Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001.

The Belgian strain will give the beer some slight tartness.

Another thing to be concerned with is if you might have use bleach as a sanitizer.

Next time you try the recipe, use a more neutral yeast. Use StarSan to sanitize and try bottled water.

Good luck.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I will say that I followed Waynes advice and made a hell of a tasty brew. I don't how dead on it is to blue moon but I cannot keep it in stock around here.

 

[Bennypapa]

Have you tested you water or got a water report to cofirm that you need to reduce Chloride?
I think that your yeast was very stressed wiht low cell counts (mostly dead), so it took that long for it to multiply and get things going. A stressed yeast can produce off flavor, that may have been the case. Wild yeast may have had the opportunity to get in, but I doubt, with you FG at 1.010.
Like Mikee said, give it some time to mellow. Some off flavors may go away. Next time, try to get a fresh vial of yeast or buy dry yeast (S33, S04, S05). I have brew several batches of blue Moon clone with S04 and have been very successfull.

I have not tested nor seen a report but a friend works in the water control department for the city and that is the source for my concern about chloramines. Thanks for the yeast tips. The kit used white labs w400 yeast.
I used StarSan for sanitizing.
I'll sneak one a week and see if it changes over the next month or so.
Too bad you guys aren't close. I'd love to have some opinions on how it tastes. I had to miss brew club this month so I couldn't get any opinions locally. Maybe by next months meeting it will taste better. That would be awesome:rockin:

Thanks!

 

[Slowfro]

Try this recipe out. I made it a few months ago and it's very good. Mine didn't turn out as a dead clone of Blue Moon but it is very close and all the Blue Moon fan friends of mine enjoy it a lot!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/blue-balls-belgian-wit-blue-moon-clone-24978/

 

[Bennypapa]

Cool, Thanks!