Checkered Brahma (Spotted Cow clone)

[kchomebrew]

Was able to get ahold of a few New Glarus Spotted Cow cream ales this year and was very impressed with it. Have been wanting to make a clone/or something similar for quite some time. Brewing a clone I put together, which I hope is close. I've been reading up on whatever I can to match grains, hops, yeast, etc. I'll post progress along the way with photos. Brewing as we speak.....here it is:

Style: 6A Light Hybrid - Cream Ale
90% efficiency
75% attenuation
OG 1.048
FG 1.012
4.36 SRM
4.69% ABV 18.9

Kettle Volume: 14.0 gal.
Boil Duration: 90min
Efficiency: 90.0% Attenuation: 75.0%
Evap./Hour: 1.33 gal
Final Vol. 11.52 gal.
1.5 gal/lb grist ratio
Water additions: 2tsp CaCl, 2 camp den tablets
Mash: 151F - 90min.
Mashout: 168F

Ingredients:
2-Row Brewers Malt; Briess 9 lb (51.4%)
Pilsner Malt; Weyermann 4 lb (22.9%)
Crystal Malt 20°L .75 lb (4.3%)
Munich Malt; Simpsons .75 lb (4.3%)
Corn Flaked (Maize) 2 lb (11.4%)
Barley Flaked 1 lb (5.7%)
1 oz (50.0%) Northern Brewer (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 oz (50.0%) Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
2 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15m

- chill to 65F - pitch starter
yeast: Wyeast 2565 Kolsch

Primary - 7-10 days
Secondary - 14 days
Cold crash - 7-10 days
Keg - add gelatin

 

[Magic8Ball]

Looks pretty good. I am a fan of the NG Spotted Cow myself. I have been lurking around the thread below. I have enjoyed brewninja recipe. From my memory its "spot" on close to the NG original. This recipe gives you a lot of creamy white head. Just a fantastic cream ale. Please post how your turns out.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/spotted-cow-extract-clone-help-challenge-will-donate-25-homebrewtalk-80344/index32.html

The recipe is:
Spotted Ninja Cow
Style: Cream Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Boil Size: 7.5 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.5 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.5 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.0gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 4.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 81.6 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 87.6 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
5 lb Pale 6 Row US (2.0 SRM) 48.8%
2 lb Belgian Pilsner (2.0 SRM) 19.5%
1.75 lb Corn, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 17.1%
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 lb Crystal Malt 20L (20.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%) Boil 60 min 13.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Saaz [4.0%] Boil 30 min 4.8 IBUs
1.00 Whirlfloc tablet
1.0 pkg Kolsch Yeast Wyeast Labs #2565

No Sparge Mash - Mash In - Add 7.5gals of water at 160 F - 154.0 F for 90 min

 

[kchomebrew]

Finished brewing. Chilled down to 65F - took reading and am right on 1.048 OG - aerated 90 sec. count, pitched starters for split 6 gal. batches - will primary about 7 days and then transfer. Will take some photos when I transfer to secondary.

 

[kchomebrew]

Looks pretty good. I am a fan of the NG Spotted Cow myself. I have been lurking around the thread below. I have enjoyed brewninja recipe. From my memory its "spot" on close to the NG original. This recipe gives you a lot of creamy white head. Just a fantastic cream ale. Please post how your turns out.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/spotted-cow-extract-clone-help-challenge-will-donate-25-homebrewtalk-80344/index32.html

The recipe is:
Spotted Ninja Cow
Style: Cream Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Boil Size: 7.5 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.5 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.5 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.0gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 4.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 81.6 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 87.6 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
5 lb Pale 6 Row US (2.0 SRM) 48.8%
2 lb Belgian Pilsner (2.0 SRM) 19.5%
1.75 lb Corn, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 17.1%
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 lb Crystal Malt 20L (20.0 SRM) 4.9%
0.50 oz Northern Brewer (8.5%) Boil 60 min 13.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Saaz [4.0%] Boil 30 min 4.8 IBUs
1.00 Whirlfloc tablet
1.0 pkg Kolsch Yeast Wyeast Labs #2565

No Sparge Mash - Mash In - Add 7.5gals of water at 160 F - 154.0 F for 90 min

Yeah I think the recipes are fairly similar. I'll make sure to keep you in the loop. Thx !

 

[signpost]

Both of those recipes are higher gravity and have a few more ingredients than the NB Speckled Heifer kit. I don't have easy access to New Glarus, but I definitely enjoyed that kit when I made it.

I have had Spotted Cow before, but I can't remember details to know which recipe is closest to cloning the ABV/gravity of the original. Anybody have the stats on the original?

Also, I'll be curious to know how the Kolsch yeast does with this style. I've made a few batches of kolsch and have plenty of yeast washed and waiting in the the fridge. I've been wondering what else it would be good for. It definitely seems like this would match well with the flavor profile of the 2565. I'll have to keep that in mind.

 

[kchomebrew]

Both of those recipes are higher gravity and have a few more ingredients than the NB Speckled Heifer kit. I don't have easy access to New Glarus, but I definitely enjoyed that kit when I made it.

I have had Spotted Cow before, but I can't remember details to know which recipe is closest to cloning the ABV/gravity of the original. Anybody have the stats on the original?

Also, I'll be curious to know how the Kolsch yeast does with this style. I've made a few batches of kolsch and have plenty of yeast washed and waiting in the the fridge. I've been wondering what else it would be good for. It definitely seems like this would match well with the flavor profile of the 2565. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Not sure about the official gravity for Spotted Cow. I do know that the ABV is 4.80% and my recipe comes in just short of that. But, I like to leave some room incase it attenuates more fully. So maybe it will be 4.8%. Who knows. It's definitely got Kolsch yeast in it. I found an article that interviewed the owner/brewer and it elaborated on some hints as to the ingredients, as follows:
"One day, Carey and his wife and business partner, Deb, visited an open-air museum called Old World Wisconsin. It’s a collection of historic farm buildings that re-create European immigrants’ historic farmsteads, right down to people dressed in historically accurate garb and performing era-appropriate tasks. The couple stumbled upon a German farm where, in the root cellar, people were brewing beer in a kettle. “I wondered, What was the beer made from?” Carey recalls. Outside, he spotted barley and corn crops. Since hops would’ve been expensive to import, he surmised that the beer would be lightly hopped with a blend of American and Bohemian hops. Inspired, he returned to New Glarus and wrote a recipe relying on flaked barley and corn, with a kölsch yeast strain and a cooler secondary fermentation. “It was designed to be a beer that people in the 1850s would’ve made on their rustic system,” Carey says of what became Spotted Cow, a “Wisconsin farmhouse ale.” While distributors were initially hesitant about selling a sweet, fruity and bready beer named Spotted Cow, the response from beer enthusiasts was rabid. “It just so happened that people drank the hell out of it,” Carey says. “We brewed more, and then they drank more of it.”

 

[signpost]

Very cool. I'll definitely be sure to use 2565 the next time I brew up a batch.

 

[kchomebrew]

Transferred both 5 gal batches to kegs and will cold crash and carb for the next 2 weeks. Fg came in at 1.012 as expected. Aroma and flavor are highly reminiscent of spotted cow , but we will see.

 

[kchomebrew]

Tapped the first of 2 kegs. Been cold conditioning for 2 weeks. I'll do a side by side with new glarus spotted cow since I've got one in the fridge. Anyway this beer is killer !! Without a direct comparison it tastes very much like spotted cow. More to come.

 

[kchomebrew]

Spotted Cow is the one in the middle. Bit lighter looking than mine. Other than that, they taste similar (so I''d say I've got this one nailed) with exception that spotted cow is more tart on the finish. Maybe I will use some acid malt next time I make this and back off on the crystal 20 addition (drop it to .50 lb).

 

[universalfrost]

Sorry to bring up a dead thread, but my brother was teasing me with pics of him drinking some spotted cow ( he's in Chicago and goes to the brewery in new Glarus all the time)..

Anyway I have most of the ingredients for this minus the corn...your recipe ever evole ? Either way I think that I will make this based on your response.

 

[SEndorf]

Dead threads unite!
I was in a bar in Wisc. on a motorcycle trip and with a straight face, asked the waitress for a Holstein. She looked at me funny and said what is that? I said, you know.. that brewery in New Glaris make the stuff. She said, you mean a spotted cow? Yes! I said. A Holstein! She came back and said the bartender who has not smiled or laughed in the 10 years she has worked there cracked up laughing on that one.
Always glad to make someone happy.......

 

[universalfrost]

Gotta stop at the brewery if you get a chance.

They have a great set-up and lots of brews to try.plus bring back a few cases