Maine Beer Co. Peeper Ale clone?

[dickproenneke]

You may want to let it go more than 10 days in primary. Give those yeasties a chance to clean up after themselves and floc out, then drop your dry hops in. 2oz each cascade and centennial should get you in the ballpark.

 

[Jmancan]

Now you tell me! Your probably right, I may have rushed it especially when the ABV was higher than it should be. Next batch!

 

[WouldBeBrewmaster]

The only way to match the attenuation a commercial brewery gets is to use pure O2, pitch a large starter, and heat the wort after primary fermentation starts to slow down. On a homebrew scale a small amount of dextrose (0.5 lb) in lieu of malt will help.

 

[Jmancan]

Heat after? .5 dextrose? Can you elaborate more and provide an example. Understood and agree on the O2 and large starter.

 

[dickproenneke]

Edit

 

[dickproenneke]

Now you tell me! Your probably right, I may have rushed it especially when the ABV was higher than it should be. Next batch!

I'm sure it's totally fine even with the short primary, and hey, the bump in ABV is just icing on the cake Give us an update once you've had a chance to sample

 

[Jmancan]

It's been in the keg a week. Tried a sample. It could be close but it's not smooth yet (still has a pronounced bite) so it's hard to tell. I plan to wait another week or two for it to settle before comparing with an actual Peeper.

 

[bmbigda]

I brewed this the other day so figured I would add my experience to the thread. I followed Daniel's recipe and process as best I could, with a few unintentional changes:
- My mash temp was more like 148 and I chose to shut the lid and walk away rather than fuss with it.
- I actually dry hopped with 9 oz, 4.5 of each, because I apparently struggle with reading comprehension. We will see how much this affects the beer. If anything I've certainly wasted ~$10.

As of writing this I am on day 3 of dry hopping. I got excellent attenuation and was down to 1.009 (see: mash temp). That being said the beer had a noticeable sweetness out of primary, albeit a hoppy/bitter aftertaste. It actually is reminiscent of tasting wort. I'm hoping this goes away when cold/carbed. I've never seen this on a 1.009 FG beer, but the whirlpool hop method certainly has be worried. I definitely stayed well above 175 for 30 min prior to chilling.

I'll post my final results in a week or so when it's pouring. Big thanks to others before me who researched and documented this.

 

[Jmancan]

Ironically, I am also making my second batch of Peeper and on day 3 of DH. Plan to cold crash on Sunday night.
My FG was 1.01 and your right, there was sweetness and hoppy/bitter aftertaste after primary was complete. My wife said it seems like an IPA!

But like most Ales, a few weeks conditioning in the keg is needed before you really want to judge and compare to an actual Peepers to let things mellow out.

 

[bmbigda]

so I'm very happy with my final results. I've done 2 separate side by sides with actual Peeper. the first took place 1 week after kegging and the beers were noticeably different. my version was cloudier and the hop character was fresh, raw, and much more citrusy. the beers also looked different as mine was very cloudy and MBC's was clear.

so I decided to add gelatin to the keg, and sure enough after doing so the beer is very similar to peeper. appearance and aroma are spot on. mine still has more hop flavor and is more citrusy but not off by much.

 

[robopp]

Out of curiosity, I degassed and warmed up a sample of Peeper and tested the final gravity. It's around 1.003, which I guess we all knew, but man that's low. I followed csprague's recipe and it came out kind of harsh. I used red wheat instead of the malted wheat and my final gravity was around 1.006. I'm going to re-brew and maybe move some of the whirlpool to the dry hop.

 

[golfgod04]

any luck with this peeper clone?

 

[k-daddy]

Just last night sampled my first all grain attempt and this Peepers clone recipe with some friends. Amazing flavor and seemingly close in taste to the original. My grain bill was a little off in amounts but the percentages as directed. My OG was 1.059. Turned out to be a non issue as everyone loved it, just a bit more ABV. I did do the 5 minute hop addition by splitting the whirlpool addition per Chris's suggestion. Think I'm an all grain guy from here on out and will have this brew in a steady rotation. Thanks Chris for the recipe!