Clone Beer Dog Fish Head - Midas Touch

[Xcorpia]

Hi:

I'm planning on brewing the original recipe this week. How aggressive is the fermentation? Do I need a blow off tube for this? Also, the batch size is 6.5 gallons. Does this mean 6 gallons of original wort + 0.5 gallons juice?

Thanks!

 

[millaj92]

Hi:

I'm planning on brewing the original recipe this week. How aggressive is the fermentation? Do I need a blow off tube for this? Also, the batch size is 6.5 gallons. Does this mean 6 gallons of original wort + 0.5 gallons juice?

Thanks!

I can't say for sure because I haven't made a batch going by original recipe, but with my recipe the fermentation was pretty aggressive (with a starter). I made a 5.5gal batch in a 6.5gal primary and I had to use a blow-off tube. That recipe only calls for .25gal juice so I'm guessing your initial batch size should be 6.25gal, going by that recipe.

 

[Xcorpia]

Thanks for the heads up. Well then what I'm going to do is divide the batch and use two 5 gallon carboys because this brew is way too expensive to lose a single drop. I was planning on buying a 7.5 gallon carboy especially for this recipe, but if a 6.5 gallon carboy didn't work for your 5 gallon batch then the 7.5 gallon one isn't going to work for me.

The Muscat juice is on its way so I'll know soon enough if this will work.

 

[bknifefight]

I think you're too worried about it. It seems like using 2 carboys is a good way to get an inconsistent beer. If you have a 7.5 gallon carboy, that should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch. Use some fermcap to keep the krausen down if you are that worried about losing beer to blow off.

 

[brew2enjoy]

Does anybody know if I can lower the boil to 3 gal? Sams recipe says to do a 6 gallon boil which I do not have the ability to do at this time. Would lowering it to a 3 gal boil and adding the remaining water in the primary cause any problems? Will i need to adjust anything in the recipe?

 

[bknifefight]

Does anybody know if I can lower the boil to 3 gal? Sams recipe says to do a 6 gallon boil which I do not have the ability to do at this time. Would lowering it to a 3 gal boil and adding the remaining water in the primary cause any problems? Will i need to adjust anything in the recipe?

You'll be fine with a partial boil.

 

[millaj92]

I think you're too worried about it. It seems like using 2 carboys is a good way to get an inconsistent beer. If you have a 7.5 gallon carboy, that should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch. Use some fermcap to keep the krausen down if you are that worried about losing beer to blow off.

I have to agree with bknifefight here. I didn't use any fermcap for whatever reason in mine so you could do that, or the 7.5gal would give you plenty of head space I think. Why don't you just cut the recipe down to a 5.5gal batch?

 

[Xcorpia]

Thanks for all the input. I'll do the whole 6.5 gallon batch then and place it in the 7.5 gallon bucket. I want to use up all the ingredients I already purchased for it and I don't want to compromise the flavor by dividing it into two smaller batches. I'm brewing this tonight!

 

[brew2enjoy]

keep us posted. I am gathering ingredients for this.

 

[Xcorpia]

I'm brewing this now. Only 45 minutes of boil left. Yay!

Hey brew2enjoy: Is that DFH 60 minute IPA any good?

 

[bknifefight]

I'm brewing this now. Only 45 minutes of boil left. Yay!

Hey brew2enjoy: Is that DFH 60 minute IPA any good?

I know you asked brew2enjoy, but it is a great IPA recipe.

 

[brew2enjoy]

I'm brewing this now. Only 45 minutes of boil left. Yay!

Hey brew2enjoy: Is that DFH 60 minute IPA any good?

I know you asked brew2enjoy, but it is a great IPA recipe.

It's not just good, it's incredible. BTW, its Yooper's recipe which is in the database. It's only been bottles for 2 weeks and it is better than the real thing. It has been preferred over the DFH beer in a blind test by 3 of my friends so far (not including me). so yeah lol, its pretty good!

 

[Xcorpia]

Hmm...maybe that will be my first IPA then. Thanks for the recommendation.

OK, so my batch is bubbling as I type. I'm a little disappointed because my OG came out as 1.070, 16 points lower than the expected OG. I followed the recipe to the tee (except for the saffron, I added about 30-40 threads). I did the boil with 6 gallons and topped off to 6.25 gallons in the bucket (other 0.25 gallon will be the Muscat juice). I measured the OG about 3 times and adjusted the reading to the temperature. I have no idea what happened. Maybe I had to leave the volume at 6 gallons?

The other thing I did was that I mixed 2 X 3 lb bags of Muntons Light Malt Extract with 2X 1 lb bags of Briess Light Malt Extract, but it shouldn't make that much of a difference, right?

 

[bknifefight]

I may be wrong but won't the extra gravity points be made up with the muscat? I can't remember if the OG for the recipe includes that or not.

 

[Xcorpia]

Midas Touch still bubbling. Today is the 4th day and I haven't receive the Muscat juice yet, so I'm starting to get nervous.

On another note: last night I bought a bottle of 90 min IPA (didn't find 60 min IPA) and tasted it for the very first time. The moment that beer touched my tongue my taste buds fell in love. I can't wait 'till the liquor store opens this evening to buy more! I saw an extract clone of this in the recipe section. Any of you tried it? (I don't have the equipment yet for AG)

 

[Xcorpia]

OK, so I finally racked to secondary tonight after 16 days in primary. That grape smell is wonderful, it's got a beautiful dark golden color and the flavor is excellent. As of now, the SG is at 1.011, which is way lower than the original recipe FG, but I'm not worried about it. According to my calculations I'm almost at 8% abv. I saved a small amount of yeast cake in the fridge so I can do a small starter to repitch before bottling to ensure proper carbonation. I can't wait until it's finally done!

 

[EBrewFro]

So I am planning on attempting this brew soon, I was playing around with a couple recipe calcs as I was going to modify this recipe to be a 5gal batch. I found that when you leave all the ingredient quantities the same but the batch size is at 5 gallons the calculator shows the OG will be 1.086 which is what the recipe calls for with 6 gallons. I also noticed that if I up the batch size to 6 gallons and left the ingredient quantities the same the OG will be ~1.072 which is close to what you got Xcorpia. So I'm thinking the 6 gallons may be a typo or something. Any thoughts?? Oh and this was using Light Dry Malt Extract. (liquid has even lower OGs)

Anyone care to tell how their brew of this turned out? (I don't recall reading any finished product updates)

Also, I.... just lost my train of thought, oh well.

 

[castlefreak]

Looks like the preboil amount of wort is 6 gallons which, after the boil, will yield 5-5.25 gallons. This depends on your setup, kettle shape, humidity, etc. but I always start with 6 gallons and end up with a bit over 5 in the fermenter.

 

[Xcorpia]

Ha! And I was beating myself up for not hitting the target OG, thanks EBrewFro.

I haven't given any updates because I bottled it just 6 days ago. I did get impatient and cracked a bottle open last night and of course it was completely flat. Still drank it though. It had a deep, dark gold color and an awesome grape smell. It was slightly sweet, even though that was probably the priming sugar. It finished a little dry as expected because of the honey. Overall I'm liking it and can't wait until it's totally carbed.

 

[EBrewFro]

Thanks castlefreak, sounds about right. Keep us posted Xcorpia, It'll be a while before I'm ready to brew this but I'm interested.

 

[Xcorpia]

It's been 2 weeks since I bottled it. I tried one last night. Tasty, but still flat...I know the yeast must be having a hard time fermenting the priming sugar with all that alcohol. Maybe I should have re-pitched some fresh yeast before bottling it.

 

[chrismcnally]

I also brewed a Midas Touch clone but from a recipe you can find online at BYO magaine. Here is a link to my 4.5 gallon version. Please note that instead of sugar in this recipe you should use 23 fluid oz or 2 lbs of Alexander's Muscat Grape Concentrate:

http://hopville.com/recipe/362422/home-brew/midas-touch-w-muscat-grape-45-gal

I used the Trappist High Gravity yeast, which I think did fine in my bottle carbonation, thought it took a while, more than 2 weeks, closer to 4. I did add a gram of champagne yeast at bottling, however I think it was probably too old to have done any good. I bottle primed with honey, 4.5 oz by weight. According to my notes I only bottled about 3.5 gallons.

Early results are that the thing is very wine like and still too young tasting. I think the grape flavor, or chardonnay like flavor, is too strong and needs to mellow. On the other hand, I still love it. I served it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I don't expect it to be really ready until March.

I purchased a DFH Midas Touch bottle and stored it with my homebrew and will taste both soon to see how it compares. I'll let you guys know.

 

[Xcorpia]

4 weeks?!?!?! Let's see if I can wait some more. I like instant gratification .

 

[Native302]

This is a great brew. Visit Milton and tour the brewery and get to sample the 60, 90, 120, midas, fort, ******* brew, etc for free.

It does need time to age as most of their stuff does.

 

[chrismcnally]

OK so tonight I compared a DFH Midas Touch with my recipe, with the Trappist High gravity yeast and all grain. It is now about 5 months after the brew day.

color. The DFH is almost orange, while mine was yellow.


aroma. The DFH was aged a couple of months. It had a nice honeysuckle aroma. was it from the saffron? type of grape? or Honey? Unknown. Mine was, I think apple blossom honey. Might use wildflower honey next time. The aromas were very different. Mine has a bit of a musky scent which I think is the yeast.

I would def cut back on the muscat grape concentrate. 2 lbs for the 4.5 gallon recipe was to much.

Mine had a bit of a musty flavor from the trappist hight gravity yeast, or at least the way I fermented that yeast. Perhaps 70 degrees was too high. I think the DFH had a clean flavor that comes from a different yeast.

Flavor: The DFH is sweeter. There is some alc on the end. The one I have is too grape like, a little chardonnay like. Not sweet though, not at all, very dry.

I like my brew, but I think it's more of a new wine flavor. I think the DFH is better, has a nice clean taste and a superior, blended flavor and aroma.

 

[jerzeedevil13]

Interesting recipe. I saw this one awhile back and kinda put it on the back burner but might have to give this a shot just to have something with a high ABV% for the summer.

As far as the Saffron, as I was re-reading this thread it does add certain characteristics. Some people mention that they didn't notice or taste it but it does make a difference.
From Wiki
"Saffron's aroma is often described by connoisseurs as reminiscent of metallic honey with grassy or hay-like notes, while its taste has also been noted as hay-like and sweet. Saffron also contributes a luminous yellow-orange colouring to foods."

If you add too much it will definitely affect the color, more yellow the more you add.
My sister in-law was on a business trip to India and snuck some high grade saffron back to the states. I've been using it mostly in risottos, the taste is very subtle but you do notice if you make a rissoto without it. Besides the thread which is the best type it also comes in powder form. The price range I've been reading about is probably the type and grade of saffron you guys are buying. The quality of saffron probably makes a much bigger difference when you are cooking with it rather than brewing so I would go with the cheaper versions. As far as the beer, you might not notice any flavor from it because the hops will overpower it but to be true to the recipe I think you have to put it in there.

Putting this on my "things I wanna brew" list.

 

[millaj92]

The (real) expensive stuff is from a plant called the saffron crocus. The cheaper stuff, while it appears to be the same, is actually from the safflower plant. This is why they have very different characteristics. For anyone shopping for this spice, online is the way to go for saving money. Buy only from a reputable spice purveyor and I personally would recommend Spanish saffron for quality reasons.

 

[bknifefight]

4 weeks?!?!?! Let's see if I can wait some more. I like instant gratification .

You might want to stay away from high gravity brews then. I think my batch of this took 6 - 8 weeks before I was happy with the carbonation and longer than that before I thought it hit it's peak.

 

[Xcorpia]

You might want to stay away from high gravity brews then. I think my batch of this took 6 - 8 weeks before I was happy with the carbonation and longer than that before I thought it hit it's peak.

I guess I'll have to learn the virtue of patience because I love high gravity beer . I'm thinking about Aprihop and 90 Minute IPA next. Still deciding which order...

Anyhow, I have some lighter beer in different stages to help me forget about the stronger ones that take longer to be in a drinkable state.

 

[Xcorpia]

I'm drinking a 20 oz bottle of this even though it's still under-carbed. Gotta tell you this is one tasty brew. I am feeling a little woozy though thanks to the high alcohol%. So anyway, I was writing this to make a confession: This was the very first beer I've brewed, except for one Mr. Beer batch, but that doesn't count. The next confession is I've never actually tried the original DFH Midas Touch before. I really don't know if I should, since I like the one I brewed so much.

Cheers!