Drunk Monk Clone.

[eon]

I am looking for a three floyd's drunk monk clone or something very close. Here is a picture of the beer (the beer on the left!):

A couple of descriptions:

Cloudy pale orange, medium head retention, mild lacing. The flavor is like the nose, heavy clove and banana. The mildly sweet flavor lingers on pleasantly through the aftertaste.

Typical banana, pears, and clove notes. good, refreshing.

Etc...

Here is a link to ratebeer for some more descriptions:

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/three-floyds-drunk-monk/47369/

I am looking to do extract/partial mash.

I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[Oldsock]

Is there anything especially unique about it? Anything about the character that you particularly enjoy? Have you brewed a hefeweizen before? Without more info from the brewer it is hard to clone a beer that doesn’t have a really unique trait/ingredient. A hefeweizen is mostly about the yeast and the fermentation schedule.

I really like Wyeast 3068 fermented cool, it gives a more balanced character that isn’t too heavy on the banana. I tend to just use pils and wheat malt (which you could sub in as much wheat extract as you wanted to complement a mini-mash). Theirs looks a bit darker than mine, so maybe go with a few pounds of Munich malt as well. Go easy on the hops, just 10-15 IBUs should do it (unless they are adding more bitterness than the usual hefe).

You can certainly try emailing the brewery, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard about them responding to a request for recipe details. You could also try to see if you could talk to the brewer next time you’re in the pub.

Hope that sends you in the right direction.

 

[eon]

I honestly don't remember what I liked specifically about this beer. I had it a long time ago. I do know that I absolutely LOVED it.

I guess if I can't make an exact clone how would I go about brewing a beer like this:

Cloudy pale orange, medium head retention, mild lacing. The flavor is like the nose, heavy clove and banana. The mildly sweet flavor lingers on pleasantly through the aftertaste.

 

[Oldsock]

Steep .5 lbs of light crystal malt (I don't normally add crystal, but if you want some added sweetness it's a good idea), 1 lb of Munich LME, 6 lbs wheat LME, hop with 12-15 IBUs of Spalt (or any other European-ish hop), ferment with 3068 in the 60s until activity ceases, bottle, enjoy. When it is ready, figure out what you like and what you don’t like and re-brew until you get it where you want it.

 

[eon]

Thanks oldsock!

 

[Oldsock]

Thanks oldsock!

No problem, if you end up brewing it let me know how it turns out.

 

[eon]

A couple of more questions. I think I'm gonna go with German perle hops. Sound like a good choice? I have read to only use a bittering addition at 60 minutes. Is this true? Also, Which crystal malt should I use? Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Oldsock]

Perle is a fine choice. Yep an addition near the start of the boil is all you need, although some brewers add a small ~.25-.5 oz closer to the end of the boil for a small hop aroma.

CaraVienna would be the most authentic choice for a light crystal malt, but Crystal 20 would work well too. If you go much darker than that you'll get some darker fruit/caramel flavors that it doesn't sound like the beer had.

 

[eon]

Sorry to bug you again but I can't seem to find CaraVienna online. I see malts with very similar names but cannot find that one specifically. If it's not a problem could you send me a link. Thanks again!

 

[Oldsock]

Some places call it CaraVienne: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...n-malts/caramel-malts/belgian-caravienne.html

Edit: CaraHell from Weyermann would also be a good choice.

 

[eon]

Well, here's what I have so far:

OG 1.041
FG 1.010

5* SRM

12.9 IBU

4.1% ABV

3 gallon boil
----------------------------------

4 lbs. 8 ounces Wheat DME
1 lbs. of Munich malt
8 oz. CaraHell

0.50 oz. German Perle @ 60 minutes

White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

Steep grains @ 155F for 30 minutes


I do all my recipes in Beer Calculus because I'm running a mac. For some reason Beer Calculus screws up all my recipes and doesn't give me accurate numbers!

What do you think? Also, am I steeping too hot?

 

[eon]

I also just thought of something. What if I split my 0.50 oz. of hops. I could do 0.25 oz. of German Perle and 0.25 oz. of Czech Saaz. Not sure though...

 

[Oldsock]

You are at a much lower gravity/alcohol than the the 3F beer. I'd go up into the low 1.050s if you want to be close to them. Are you doing a mini-mash? Munich malt has enzymes and starches, but it needs to be mashed to allow the enzymes to do their job converting the starches into sugars (right time, temp, water/grist ratio).

You can use two different hops, just make sure the IBUs work out to a reasonable level based on the AA% of the hops.

If you have the option of going Wyeast I've had better luck with 3068 than 300, even though they are supposed to be the same strain.

 

[eon]

Let's try this again.

OG 1.054
FG 1.014

17.3 IBU

5.3% ABV

3 gallon boil
-------------------------------------------

6 lbs. Muntons Wheat DME
1 lbs. 4 oz. munich Malt
10 oz. Carahell malt

0.5 oz. German perle @ 60 minutes
0.5 oz. Czech Saaz @ 60 minutes

WLP300


First, the reason I chose the White labs is because it has gotten GREAT reviews. For some reason a lot of the reviews for the 3068 are bad. People talking about sulfur flavors and not enough banana flavor. I dont know...

Can you run this recipe through whatever program you use? Beer calculus messes up my numbers. for example, for another recipe that I did, Beer Calculus calculated say 54 IBUs but then when everyone else ran the recipe through Beer smith or whatever, they said it was actually closer to 88.7 IBUs!! So, I don't know about the accuracy of this program.

According to Three Floyd's website, Drunk Monk is 6% ABV and 18 IBUs. Seems kind of hoppy for a hefeweizen but I don't remember it being overly bitter or anything.

Three floyd's calls Drunk Monk "A traditional style Bavarian Hefeweisse."

If i can come up with a recipe that is 6% and 18 IBUs I'll call it a night and brew it!

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Oldsock]

I get 1.059 and 19 IBUs (assuming whole hops, and 8.25% AA and 3.5% AA) with Promash, sounds perfect if the numbers you got are right. That will give you 6% ABV given an FG of ~1.015.

 

[eon]

I'll be using pellet hops. According to Beer Calculus the AA for Perle is 8.0% and for the Czech saaz it's 5.0%

You still think I should go with the Wyeast?

 

[Oldsock]

I'll be using pellet hops. According to Beer Calculus the AA for Perle is 8.0% and for the Czech saaz it's 5.0%

You still think I should go with the Wyeast?

I've had better luck with it, but I like a subtle banana character. I pitch and ferment in the mid-high 50s, and give 10-14 days of lagering near freezing after fermentation is complete. I used 300 once and thought it was lacking in character compated to 3068, but that was also my only extract based hefeweizen (for the other batches I've done all-grain and decocted, so it is hard to compare.)

 

[doubled0508]

Bringing this thread out of the grave!

Has anyone had any luck from this conversation brewing a clone of Drunk Monk? Now that Drunk Monk is in season at 3F, I am going to take a taste test and attempt to brew a clone.

 

[Steve3730]

Bringing this thread out of the grave!

Has anyone had any luck from this conversation brewing a clone of Drunk Monk? Now that Drunk Monk is in season at 3F, I am going to take a taste test and attempt to brew a clone.

I'm very interested in trying this too. Any info on how it turned out?

 

[doubled0508]

Still haven't had a chance to brew it. Hoping for this weekend. I will see how the recipe turns out.

 

[Steve3730]

Still haven't had a chance to brew it. Hoping for this weekend. I will see how the recipe turns out.

Awesome let me know how it turns out. I won't be ready to brew it for a weeks