Why the cold crash? BM supposed to be cloudy.
Blue Moon Clone
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Why the cold crash? BM supposed to be cloudy.
groundchuck
Well-Known Member
Thanks to Wayne1 for the great info on how to make this brew. I made 10 gallons a couple months ago and have been really loving it. I plan to make this a regular brew for sure. We split the batch into two 5 gallon batches. The first five came off the top of the boil kettle nice and clear. The second 5 got some of the coriander and Valencia seasonings from the bottom of the boil kettle (unintentionally). In the first month you could notice a slight difference between them. However now you can't tell them apart. Here is a pic of both compared to the original. Yummy for sure!
groundchuck
Well-Known Member
I had an opportunity to visit the mother ship today during a stop in Denver (on the way to Summit county for spring break). As I approached the front door at noon with giddy anticipation, the excitement was quickly dashed as I realized they didn't open for 2 more hours. Curses!!! I didn't feel like waiting 2 hours so we walked across the street and hit Breckenridge Brewery so all was not lost.
stbnj
Well-Known Member
I will be brewing this on Saturday as my wife loves Blue Moon. It was actually the first six pack she brought to my place when we were dating. We also drank at Sandlot while in Colorado this summer. I will be splitting the batch between s05 and either some Forbidden Fruit or Belgian Wheat. I'll do another batch later but I'd like to get a more Belgian wit beer out of this brew day too.
ShootersBrewCrew
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Okay this time I brewed it right!
Yielded 9.5 gallons!!! Thanks again guys for the feedback. This time was a total success and used my new tired system!!!
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Yielded 9.5 gallons!!! Thanks again guys for the feedback. This time was a total success and used my new tired system!!!
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
mrkrausman
Member
I just brewed Wayne's original recipe. I used 1/2 pound rice hulls and had a little trouble with stuck sparge in the first runoff but made it through ok. My question is, is it necessary to crush flaked grain (oats in this example)? I think next time I will increase the amount of rice hulls.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
Flaked grains should NEVER be crushed/milled. Just add them to the mash tun.
stbnj
Well-Known Member
Tasted a sample today and it was great. The Mrs. approved which was really the point of brewing this. Also Blue Moon was the first 6 pack she ever brought to my place when we were first dating so it was cool to be able to make our own.
I am brewing a batch of beer with my m.i.l. For mothers day. She wants blue moon. That led me to this thread. I went out and bought a hoegarden and a blue moon and have been drinking them side by side, trying to decide which apptoach to take, knowing she may not belooking for a clone per se.
The biggest difference other than the phenolics in the hoegarden, to me, was the seemingly hugely full body of blue moon. It reminds me of a beers ive mashed upwards of 157. Blue moon is also a little more bitter, though the orange flavor i think is sweeter.
Food f or thought anyways. I think im going to try wayne's second recipe with a higher mash temp. Will report back.
For those interested, my personal preference lies with the hoegarden, though blue moon is enjoyable. For my wife, blue moon was the clear and immediate winner.
Im thinking ill try nottingham dry ale yeast.
The biggest difference other than the phenolics in the hoegarden, to me, was the seemingly hugely full body of blue moon. It reminds me of a beers ive mashed upwards of 157. Blue moon is also a little more bitter, though the orange flavor i think is sweeter.
Food f or thought anyways. I think im going to try wayne's second recipe with a higher mash temp. Will report back.
For those interested, my personal preference lies with the hoegarden, though blue moon is enjoyable. For my wife, blue moon was the clear and immediate winner.
Im thinking ill try nottingham dry ale yeast.
Which recipe did you use? Let us know how it goes!
stewart194
Well-Known Member
Nilo -
I made 10 gallons of your #12 recipe yesterday. Everything went really well, except the cornstarch clumped together the second it hit the boil. I tried breaking it up with my mash paddle but I still had several large clumps at the end of the boil. While cleaning out my brew kettle the chunks literally felt like rubber.
Just curious if you had experienced this or not.
I made 10 gallons of your #12 recipe yesterday. Everything went really well, except the cornstarch clumped together the second it hit the boil. I tried breaking it up with my mash paddle but I still had several large clumps at the end of the boil. While cleaning out my brew kettle the chunks literally felt like rubber.
Just curious if you had experienced this or not.
My experience cooking with cornstarch is that you first have to make a little slurry with cold water (or wine, stock etc), otherwise it will clump.
This is correct. It doesn't work in hot temps. You have to mix with cold fluid first. Then add to hot fluids. It should also be right on the box.
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stewart194
Well-Known Member
Thanks guys. I'll do that next time.
ok... A quick question...I have made this brew b4 and was happy with the results...question, how come we dont harvest yeast from blue moon bottles for this recipe?...it just seems the way to go.. has anybody done this?...just a thought.....Tom
I assume commercial BM is no different from most beers, pasteurized beer, no viable yeast left, longer shelf live. Yes?
Nilo....I just opened and poured a Blue Moon....I took a small flashlight and looked at the bottom of bottle, I can see a small layer of sediment wich looks like yeast paste, looking at the top of my bottle it says "A refreshing unfiltered wheat ale"...keyword "unfiltered"...Seems like a possibility to harvest this with a stirplate and flask...stepping up a few times (I have done this with bells)...just an Idea for the purists out there lol.... its a lot easier to rip open a pack of us-05, with great results. One thing I have learned in this homebrew hobby is that you can make this as hard, or as easy as you wish! and Nilo...thank you for your dedication to this topic......cheers.....Tom
Hi, BM looks unfiltered indeed but that doesn't mean it is not pasteurized. Pasteurization is not done by filtering but by temperature changes with objective to kill any living thing in the beer. I'm not saying it is pasteurized, but chances are it is.
Wayne, need your expertize in commercial brewing here man, chime in with your input!
KPSquared
Well-Known Member
Almost for sure pasteurized. If Wayne doesn't answer, pour some out and get it growing. . .
Has anyone tried this with blood orange peel? My spice shop had "regular" orange peel and blood orange peel. I tasted them both and the blood orange was much sweeter, the regular much more bitter. Based on Wayne's comment of 0.3oz being "nowhere near enough" orange peel, I'm going to go with 0.8 oz in my attempt.
Terrible home brew week for me.
Brewed a similar recipe by "memory" and ended up adding hops at 10 minutes; quite the opposite of what I had intended.
Ran out of propane with roughly 4 minutes left in my boil. Crap.
None of that matters, however, as no fermentation has occurred since.
Pitched my backup yeast, still nothing. Might have to dump this, review my notes and try again.
I also kicked my keg of amber home brew that night. So thirsty!
Brewed a similar recipe by "memory" and ended up adding hops at 10 minutes; quite the opposite of what I had intended.
Ran out of propane with roughly 4 minutes left in my boil. Crap.
None of that matters, however, as no fermentation has occurred since.
Pitched my backup yeast, still nothing. Might have to dump this, review my notes and try again.
I also kicked my keg of amber home brew that night. So thirsty!
Limestone_Cowboy
Well-Known Member
Well, I've read this entire thread and had a go at it, so after having recently polished off the last bottle of this clone, I wanted to share my impressions.
Of course I brewed to original belly slide version, in keeping with the theme here and would have to agree with others that the 'body' of the beer itself is not as thick as the modern BM. I drank all of them, so it was def a drinkable beer, but not in the body realm of my smash ales.
basics:
2.75 g batch
2.5 gw 2-row
2.0 briess white wheat
0.5 oats
0.25 carpils
mashed 156 60 min.
90 minute boil
60 min .75 oz Hallertau
S-05 2 weeks, no cold crash.
Some observations/changes I'm contemplating for another batch:
1) I used GW 2-row, thinking that great western sounds like it goes well with Denver. I usually do ales with Rahr and those brews seemed to have the thickness I wanted this beer to have, or be closer too. More or that later.
2) My batch was 2.75 gallon and I scaled the coriander/orange down to the gram from Wayne's original suggestion. After sampling the cooled wort I got the coriander but was missing some orange, so I zested a single sweet orange from my local grocer and dry hopped it. The result was pleasant with only a slightly forward orange flavor, which isnt a deal breaker at my house. Next time I'll just bump up the dried peel from the proportion used at boil and let it ride.
3) My OG was 1046 with 1008 FG. This might have an influence on the lower body character, so I'll see if I cant put the next one well into the fifties.
4) The wheat contribution did not go unnoticed. Can't say I get that much wheat from commercial Blue Moon, perhaps its base is a little higher % than belly slide. Not I big wheat fan myself anyway, so in the future I might try a little less wheat.
5) Overall I enjoyed the beer, just need build in a little more body/mouthfeel/malty sweetness. There not a lot of room past 156 mash so that leaves the grains. Might split the Rahr with some Maris Otter, but don't want to inject too many variables at one time. Probably just do Rahr alone next time.
Thanks for everyone's previous contributions to the thread.
Of course I brewed to original belly slide version, in keeping with the theme here and would have to agree with others that the 'body' of the beer itself is not as thick as the modern BM. I drank all of them, so it was def a drinkable beer, but not in the body realm of my smash ales.
basics:
2.75 g batch
2.5 gw 2-row
2.0 briess white wheat
0.5 oats
0.25 carpils
mashed 156 60 min.
90 minute boil
60 min .75 oz Hallertau
S-05 2 weeks, no cold crash.
Some observations/changes I'm contemplating for another batch:
1) I used GW 2-row, thinking that great western sounds like it goes well with Denver. I usually do ales with Rahr and those brews seemed to have the thickness I wanted this beer to have, or be closer too. More or that later.
2) My batch was 2.75 gallon and I scaled the coriander/orange down to the gram from Wayne's original suggestion. After sampling the cooled wort I got the coriander but was missing some orange, so I zested a single sweet orange from my local grocer and dry hopped it. The result was pleasant with only a slightly forward orange flavor, which isnt a deal breaker at my house. Next time I'll just bump up the dried peel from the proportion used at boil and let it ride.
3) My OG was 1046 with 1008 FG. This might have an influence on the lower body character, so I'll see if I cant put the next one well into the fifties.
4) The wheat contribution did not go unnoticed. Can't say I get that much wheat from commercial Blue Moon, perhaps its base is a little higher % than belly slide. Not I big wheat fan myself anyway, so in the future I might try a little less wheat.
5) Overall I enjoyed the beer, just need build in a little more body/mouthfeel/malty sweetness. There not a lot of room past 156 mash so that leaves the grains. Might split the Rahr with some Maris Otter, but don't want to inject too many variables at one time. Probably just do Rahr alone next time.
Thanks for everyone's previous contributions to the thread.
shadows69
Well-Known Member
I mash my clone at 158f degrees to get the body of a blue moon. That seems to be close as far as the body. I still have yet to find that balance of orange and coriander.
Knowing what I know about my system, I gave this a go. Here is my interpretation
I chose my spicing regimen based on Wayne's comments here. I went with cascade for bittering because I have a ton and I've never gotten much flavor from a bittering hop. I went with blood orange peel because that was the sweeter of the two orange peels available at my local spice shop. I went with the whirlpool addition to try to keep as many aromatics as possible. I went with the 158F mash because I perceive (current) blue moon as having a very full body.
My fermentation chamber smells unbelievably good. I'm getting a lot of orange aromatics.
Will report back.
Now, this is Wayne's grainbill proportions, except I added aromatic because I add aromatic to everything; just a thing I do for a house flavor.
I chose my spicing regimen based on Wayne's comments here. I went with cascade for bittering because I have a ton and I've never gotten much flavor from a bittering hop. I went with blood orange peel because that was the sweeter of the two orange peels available at my local spice shop. I went with the whirlpool addition to try to keep as many aromatics as possible. I went with the 158F mash because I perceive (current) blue moon as having a very full body.
My fermentation chamber smells unbelievably good. I'm getting a lot of orange aromatics.
Will report back.
well I am going to brew #12 this saturday....any thoughts about using Safbrew WB- 06..this is a speciality yeast for wheat beer...I happened to see it at the lhbs and grabbed it..(impulse buy)...I also have 05 and 04 as well....my #8 tasted great with 04...thinking bout trying the 06 wheat stuff.....Tom
I would try S05, then you can play with S06 next time, just my 2c
