Calling all Grain masters - Fat Tire Recipe Question

[kennyconley0269]

I have a very important question for all you beer geniuses… Fat Tire… How do they pull off that biscuit flavor?? It’s very pronounced and delicious. And heavy but totally unique and distinct. (I’ve tried Biscuit/Victory). Starting to think I need to experiment with re-toasting the malt? Thoughts?

 

[cubalz]

Victory should provide what you need and maybe some Maris Otter for part of the main grist. I suspect that your brewing salt additions are not quite right to accentuate the biscuit flavor. Can you provide us what salts additions you used in the recipe as well as what water profile. (and what water for that matter)

 

[VikeMan]

Per Christian Holbrook in a 2020 podcast:
Pale Malt
Munich 10L
Briess Caramel 80
Briess Victory

From an old(er) interview with Peter Bouckaert in one of the homebrew magazines (I think):
specialty malts are about 30% of grain bill

Here's what I did a while back in a clone:
Briess Two-Row Brewers Malt- 70%
Briess Caramel 80 - 10%
Briess Munich 10L - 13%
Briess Victory - 7%
I'd say my clone was pretty close. At a club meeting, people struggled to tell the difference in informal blind tasting.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Fat Tire… How do they pull off that biscuit flavor??

Is this the old version of Fat Tire or the new version? From what I can tell, New Belgium may have rolled out different test versions of the new recipe in test markets over the past year or so, selling them in the same packaging as the old version. The page for the current version says: Pale, C-80, Munich, Raw Barley. That could be a more flavorful "Pale Ale Malt" or a more standard "American 2-Row".

 

[kennyconley0269]

Is this the old version of Fat Tire or the new version? From what I can tell, New Belgium may have rolled out different test versions of the new recipe in test markets over the past year or so, selling them in the same packaging as the old version. The page for the current version says: Pale, C-80, Munich, Raw Barley. That could be a more flavorful "Pale Ale Malt" or a more standard "American 2-Row".

I didn’t know there were different versions. Last time I got a fat tire on draft if tasted like I remember it tasting 15 years ago. The raw barley is something I haven’t seen an any clone recipes though. That may be the secret ingredient.

 

[kennyconley0269]

Is this the old version of Fat Tire or the new version? From what I can tell, New Belgium may have rolled out different test versions of the new recipe in test markets over the past year or so, selling them in the same packaging as the old version. The page for the current version says: Pale, C-80, Munich, Raw Barley. That could be a more flavorful "Pale Ale Malt" or a more standard "American 2-Row".

Also what “page” are you referring to? Is there an official recipe page??

 

[kennyconley0269]

Victory should provide what you need and maybe some Maris Otter for part of the main grist. I suspect that your brewing salt additions are not quite right to accentuate the biscuit flavor. Can you provide us what salts additions you used in the recipe as well as what water profile. (and what water for that matter)

Last time I tried a Fat Tire clone I used RO water with the following additions:

5.7g gypsum
3.9g calcium chloride
4.4g epsom salt

Batch size was 5.75gal to fermenter,
5 gal to keg

 

[kennyconley0269]

Per Christian Holbrook in a 2020 podcast:
Pale Malt
Munich 10L
Briess Caramel 80
Briess Victory

From an old(er) interview with Peter Bouckaert in one of the homebrew magazines (I think):
specialty malts are about 30% of grain bill

Here's what I did a while back in a clone:
Briess Two-Row Brewers Malt- 70%
Briess Caramel 80 - 10%
Briess Munich 10L - 13%
Briess Victory - 7%
I'd say my clone was pretty close. At a club meeting, people struggled to tell the difference in informal blind tasting.

Those are the same specialty I grains I used but different percentages. Mine was 82% two row, 9.5% Munich, 4.8% C80, 3.6% Victory… May just need a little tweaking

 

[doug293cz]

Last time I tried a Fat Tire clone I used RO water with the following additions:

5.7g gypsum
3.9g calcium chloride
4.4g epsom salt

Batch size was 5.75gal to fermenter,
5 gal to keg

Seems like a lot of sulfate and magnesium for a beer that isn't very hoppy.

Brew on

 

[Airborneguy]

I kegged this today. I think I nailed it.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1362780/fat-tire-clone

 

[VikeMan]

The raw barley is something I haven’t seen an any clone recipes though.

Raw barley isn't going to do anything for the biscuit flavor you're looking for, IMO. And I'd bet a paycheck it wasn't in the traditional Fat Tire grist.

 

[Langerz]

I brewed the second recipe from this thread a little bit ago and I thought flavor was spot on to the OG Fat Tire. Color was a bit dark but flavor was right there. I’m not sure I know exactly what you mean by biscuity flavor though.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/which-byo-fat-tire-clone-is-more-accurate.211830/
Haven’t tried the new Fat Tire yet

 

[Cheshire Cat]

My clone is called Flat Tire but it was a letdown.

 

[Beekeeper]

SWMBO loved the taste of the Phat Tire Kit from Northern Brewer:

OG: 1.051 FG: 1.009 ABV: 5.59% IBU: 25.75 SRM: 10.09
5 lb - Bohemian Pilsner Malt (50%)
2 lb - Munich (20%)
2 lb - Munich Dark Malt (20%)
0.5 lb - Caramel / Crystal 60L (5%)
0.5 lb - Victory Malt (5%)

I presented her with the real thing side by side, and was assured that, without being told which was the commercial version, she could not have identified the clone.

 

[faithie999]

SWMBO loved the taste of the Phat Tire Kit from Northern Brewer:

OG: 1.051 FG: 1.009 ABV: 5.59% IBU: 25.75 SRM: 10.09
5 lb - Bohemian Pilsner Malt (50%)
2 lb - Munich (20%)
2 lb - Munich Dark Malt (20%)
0.5 lb - Caramel / Crystal 60L (5%)
0.5 lb - Victory Malt (5%)

I presented her with the real thing side by side, and was assured that, without being told which was the commercial version, she could not have identified the clone.

what was the hop schedule, and which yeast did you use?

thanks

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I didn’t know there were different versions.

New Belgium recently remade the Fat Tire beer more into a Golden Ale style beer. There was some social media buzz because they appeared to be rolling out the new version into test markets (or testing out multiple iterations of the new version?) using the same packaging without no announcement. The revised version should be in white cans or bottles with white labels that does not have the "Amber Ale" descriptor.

Also what “page” are you referring to? Is there an official recipe page??

This Fat Tire | New Belgium Brewing

They list the Hops and Malts used (no amounts or other info). I would guess the listed "House Ale Yeast" is something neutral. New Belgium seems to be paying the bill by brewing IPAs these days, but I am not sure if they use the same yeast for all of their IPAs. At some point, Fat Tire used to have the word "Belgian" on the label, but I think they dropped that descriptor a long time ago (not sure if they changed the yeast or recipe at that time).

An archive version of that same page from a year ago listed:
HOPS: Willamette, Goldings, Nugget
MALT: Pale, C-80, Munich, Victory

 

[Beekeeper]

I followed the hop scheduled and quantities that came in the recipe provide by NB:

1 oz German Perle (60 min)
1 oz Hersbrucker (15 min)​

Pitched Nottingham.

 

[user 338926]

Last time I tried a Fat Tire clone I used RO water with the following additions:

5.7g gypsum
3.9g calcium chloride
4.4g epsom salt

Batch size was 5.75gal to fermenter,
5 gal to keg

I did a 10 gallon batch a while ago and Bru'n water told me to put in about half that much of everything. 11.5g batch vol. In total I had a little bit more calcium chloride actually.

Gypsum 1.5 / 1.5
Epsom salt 0.8 / 0.8
Canning salt 0.3 / 0.3
Calcium chloride 2.5 / 2.5
All numbers above are strike water / kettle

Phosphoric acid 0 / 2.7ml in sparge water

Starting water was filtered but not RO.

Fermentation temp when sideways on me and basically ruined this fear. The wort tasted absolutely fantastic beforehand. I had very high hopes. Now it looks like it's going to be going on my sister's garden if a cold crash doesn't fix it.