Blue Moon Clone

[pascott6]

Thanks Wayne

 

[harrisds9880]

Just transfered to the secondary yesterday, must say smells and taste great so far, was almost tempted to transfer straight to the keg.

 

[nilo]

here's #7, same as #6 but replaced the oat flakes with 2 TBS of corn start to last 15min on boil. Same thickness, better chill haze.

Recipes can be found at
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxL7TXS8tHPsNWM2YmQ1YTYtMGY1YS00YjJjLWE5ZDktMmQ2ODdmMzljNDUz/edit

 

[jjcoolj]

here's #7, same as #6 but replaced the oat flakes with 2 TBS of corn start to last 15min on boil. Same thickness, better chill haze.

Hi Nilo, on #7 there's a yeast change to S-04 as well? #6 had S-05.

--JJ

 

[nilo]

Hi Nilo, on #7 there's a yeast change to S-04 as well? #6 had S-05.

--JJ

That is correct. I used S04 instead of S05.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

So whats the fermenting/aging timeframe on Nilo's recipes to get good? I always hear that wheat beers tend to go downhill being aged longer and are typically better up front within the first few weeks after fermentation is done.

Going to be making this for someone as a pregnancy gift, so i know the date approximate date...trying to figure out when it'd be best to brew this and bottle it so its ready. She wont likely be able to drink it immediately with feeding and all but still would be good to plan out so i can make sure i have carboys or buckets available and not taken up with my other brews.

 

[J8D]

Well I am back on the Blue Moon Clone saddle again thanks to several of you. After five previous attempts I had grown bored with my results. Part of this was that I started when this thread was young (the ratio of orange to coriander was backwards&#61514. All the same, I had a couple of “good” variations and some that tasted like vitamins. This was likely do in part to my own early brewing mistakes.

In checking back in on the thread last week (after a good time away), I found it to be huge (yes I read through the whole damn thing) and still alive. Further, I found that many of the shortfalls I found in the results had been addressed. I now have 10 gallons bubbling away. It smells great. I am sure it will be my best version yet. Thanks to Wayne1 for taking the time (and patience) to get us on track with the original BM recipe while also embracing the tweaks and changes by others. Also huge thanks to Nilo, ekjohns, and the rest of the folks for sticking with the recipe, refining it, and helping the rest of us perfect our own (I say with fingers crossed).

 

[nilo]

So whats the fermenting/aging timeframe on Nilo's recipes to get good? I always hear that wheat beers tend to go downhill being aged longer and are typically better up front within the first few weeks after fermentation is done.

Going to be making this for someone as a pregnancy gift, so i know the date approximate date...trying to figure out when it'd be best to brew this and bottle it so its ready. She wont likely be able to drink it immediately with feeding and all but still would be good to plan out so i can make sure i have carboys or buckets available and not taken up with my other brews.

Depends on the yeast. If you use S04, it ferments in 3 days, S05 will take 2 weeks. Once fermented, I would leave it in keg for 2 weeks.

 

[jjcoolj]

Depends on the yeast. If you use S04, it ferments in 3 days, S05 will take 2 weeks. Once fermented, I would leave it in keg for 2 weeks.

Hi Nilo, after fermentation is complete, do you recommend transferring to keg with priming sugar/DME and then waiting two weeks while it carbonates and ages? Or do you suggest transferring from primary to keg, waiting two weeks, then adding priming sugar to allow carbing to start? Thanks!

 

[nilo]

jjcoolj, I think that you will find a wide range of opinions here about how long you should leave on primary, if you should use a secondary or not and aging time.
I'm on the side of drinking my beer as soon as possible, as long as flavor is not impacted. Sometimes I leave more time if I have other brews available to drink and i'm not desperate.
What I usually do it to leave at least a week in fermenter for S04 and two weeks for S05 (Generally 1 week after fermentation is completed). If I was naturally carbonating, I would transfer to keg and add corn sugar and leave at room temp for few days to carbonate, then move to fridge and cool for another week before drinking.

 

[J8D]

I brewed the latest and greatest Nilo version of Blue Moon only I did NOT use the corn starch but instead went with the oats. I also could not find the Valencia orange so instead went with another type of “dried orange peel”. After the beer was done I put it on my stout faucet. All I can say is WOW. This is what I spent the five previous batches trying to achieve. If you have not done so, put this sucker on nitrogen. It is magical. Thanks again to all the great contributions.

 

[caioz1jp]

I saw in another thread based off the austin homebrew recipe that they are using a 30 minute boil. Could this possibly help address the body and color issues. I have been under the impression that the longer the boil, the thinner the body, lighter color, and dryer your beer will be.

 

[Wayne1]

I saw in another thread based off the austin homebrew recipe that they are using a 30 minute boil. Could this possibly help address the body and color issues. I have been under the impression that the longer the boil, the thinner the body, lighter color, and dryer your beer will be.

I'm not quite sure what you may be referring to. The 90 minute boil is to get full utilization from the hops, and evaporate the correct amount of water to hit the correct OG.

If anything, a longer boil will darken the color, increase the body and increase the unfermentable content causing it to be sweeter.

 

[caioz1jp]

I'm not quite sure what you may be referring to. The 90 minute boil is to get full utilization from the hops, and evaporate the correct amount of water to hit the correct OG.

If anything, a longer boil will darken the color, increase the body and increase the unfermentable content causing it to be sweeter.

Well it comes from my extract brewing that the less time you boil the malt extract, late addition, the lighter the beer is.

As for body and dryness i got that from the cream of three crops recipe by biermuncher.

 

[nilo]

I saw in another thread based off the austin homebrew recipe that they are using a 30 minute boil. Could this possibly help address the body and color issues. I have been under the impression that the longer the boil, the thinner the body, lighter color, and dryer your beer will be.

I believe that color and body issues has been addressed and mostly resolved (all grain) within the many recipes that we have tested since this thread started. There has been blind tests done by some where no distiction could be made between the comercial and clone.

 

[caioz1jp]

Sounds good to me. I just want to make sure i get as close to the current available product as possible. I think im going with nilo's number 7.

 

[nilo]

Sounds good to me. I just want to make sure i get as close to the current available product as possible. I think im going with nilo's number 7.

Just wondering how may attempts you are willing to do before you get to something you like. Don't count on getting there the first time. Each brewer has a different system, use different products that always require some adjustments

 

[adam01]

How did you come up with cornstarch instead of Oats - and the amount ?

I brewed #4. It came pretty close - a bit less body, more bitterness (added little too much hops) and more orange flavor.

 

[nilo]

How did you come up with cornstarch instead of Oats - and the amount ?

I brewed #4. It came pretty close - a bit less body, more bitterness (added little too much hops) and more orange flavor.

In cooking, starch is used to thicken sauces without adding any flavor so I thought it would do the same if cooked (boiled) with the wort (and it did). Also, starch increases chill haze. Amount? Just a guess.

 

[caioz1jp]

Just wondering how may attempts you are willing to do before you get to something you like. Don't count on getting there the first time. Each brewer has a different system, use different products that always require some adjustments

If i had the time i would probably give this 3 tries. Unfortunatly i only have until December 18th to get this right lol. I have been agonizing over this recipe as I want it to be as close as possible to the real thing. I would hate to have a dud for her birthday.

The one thing i was wondering though is why no one has tried cascade hops in this recipe. I brewed a cream ale with cascade hops and all i could think about is how much it tasted like oberon/blue moon in the orange citrus department.

Like i said, it seems your #6 and #7 have really hit the mark and alot of people have been having success so that is what I am going with.

 

[pentachris]

I have been agonizing over this recipe as I want it to be as close as possible to the real thing.

Follow the suggestions in this thread, and you'll make a beer better than the real thing, IMO.

 

[caioz1jp]

Ok so today is brew day. Im going with nilo's #6. Im just undecided on whether to use S-04, S-05, or 1056. Also I am boiling my oats. Should I put them in a musling bag or directly in the wort?

 

[nilo]

Ok so today is brew day. Im going with nilo's #6. Im just undecided on whether to use S-04, S-05, or 1056. Also I am boiling my oats. Should I put them in a musling bag or directly in the wort?

Add the oats in a muslin bag. S04 will be faster and clean up really good. For this beer, clarity is not required so you can go with S05 or 1056 if you want.

 

[caioz1jp]

Add the oats in a muslin bag. S04 will be faster and clean up really good. For this beer, clarity is not required so you can go with S05 or 1056 if you want.

Thanks. Im going with S05. Really excited to do this today. Ill post my notes after

 

[caioz1jp]

So i brewed this in doors on friday. Mashed at 152 for 1 hour. Missed my temp oh well. After sparging i was at 5.5 gallons so i missed my volumes. After an hour boil i was at 4.5 so i topped it off to 5 gallons and pitched my S-05 at 75F. Its happily perking hand smells great. I think i may try the cornstarch next time because boiling the oats ina bag seems to have absorbed alot of wort. My other idea is maybe steap the oats in my sparge water while mashing since i batch sparge i could just dump them in that way and not worry about the mess and the odd protien/starch floaties.

 

[nilo]

When I decided to use corn starch, I had in mind it would thicken the beer and increase chill haze. I think it did work for increasing thickness but not chill haze since protein is the key for that and corn starch doesn't have any of it.
So my next batch will get one or two TBS of Wheat Gluten (75% of protein by weight).
Another way to get the same results could be a shorter boil time and removing the Irish moss from the recipe, which I current use.
Would a 30min boil have any other impact to the beer, other than reducing the hop extraction ( that could be compensated with more hops) ?

 

[caioz1jp]

When i brew this again i will try a 30 minute boil.and just mash my oats. At 30 min it should deffinatly have more body and a lighter color.

 

[BakRivrBruen]

What has been the general consensus for carb levels? I'm assuming somewhere in the 2.5-2.8 range?

 

[el_caro]

I would like to brew an AG, 3 gallon batch of this (BIAB)but my head is spinning reading all the posts on this excellent thread. I also do not have any software to scale it with confidence even if I knew which recipe to scale.
Would some kind soul post a link to the recommended recipe or even better scale it to 3 gallons and post it. Sorry to be a PITA but get confused easily if a thread goes on too long.

Cheers

 

[nilo]

El caro, I can help to scale down the recipe that you decide to use. The attempts I made are listed on the link below. I recommend #6 (for my taste). Take a look at other recipes here from Wayne and other great contributors.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxL7TXS8tHPsNWM2YmQ1YTYtMGY1YS00YjJjLWE5ZDktMmQ2ODdmMzljNDUz