midwest kit suggestions??

[chaos2984]

Ok I've got three brew's under my belt so far. Just finished the first one and tastes really good just not clear. And just racked the 2nd and 3rd and the 3rd tastes good so far.

Im looking for like a shocktop or a blue moon style beer from midwest or anyone that makes kits. Anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks

 

[phenry]

If you want to venture from using kits, BierMuncher's Blue Balls wit is just about a dead on copy of Blue Moon. Brewed a batch for some of my Blue Moon loving friends and they just about chugged it they liked it so much. That said, here's Midwest's witbier kit: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrewing-ingredients/recipe-kits/belgian-ales/belgian-witbier.html

(But really, look at BM's recipe in the recipe database. It's good.)

 

[chaos2984]

gotcha. So that witbier is like a blue moon i saw that. i think ill take on some kits now until i get everything down pat and i want to try all grain brews. My gf loves blue moon and i want to brew something she likes also

 

[chaos2984]

anyone else have any suggestions not necessarily from midwest

 

[dmoore714]

anyone else have any suggestions not necessarily from midwest

Here are some recipe kits from Northern that I would like to try in the near future. Not much in common with Blue Moon at all... but they do sound tasty.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...kits/extract-ale-kits/saison-extract-kit.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...tract-ale-kits/phat-tyre-ale-extract-kit.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...h-kits/carmelite-triple-grain-tripel-kit.html

 

[jwalker1140]

Hank's Hefeweizen is great. Would strongly recommend liquid yeast, like WLP300, and a blow off tube. The ferment can be pretty violent.

As a bonus, this is a great springboard recipe for tweaking. The next time try it with a clean American yeast, like Safale US-05 or WLP001, add 1 oz sweet orange peel and 0.5 oz ground coriander at 5 minutes and you'll have something pretty darn close to Blue Moon.

 

[chaos2984]

interesting ill have to see how that is and would it matter to add orange peel to the boil or since in blue moon you add orange to it when you drink it is the same thing. or does that orange give it a special kick

 

[Ultrazord]

Their Belgian IPA is amazing. Strong and belgiany. I'm bottling 3 kits on Monday, so I'll have more info in 2 weeks. The ones to bottle are the Newcastle Clone, the Liberty Cream Ale, and the Amber Bock 20min. I wanted to try a bunch of different things. Remind me in 2 weeks and i'll let you know how those turned out!

 

[Airplanedoc]

belgian wit from northern brewer is pretty good. I believe there are a couple reviews that suggest how to get it a little more to bluemoon and less hogarten

 

[jwalker1140]

interesting ill have to see how that is and would it matter to add orange peel to the boil or since in blue moon you add orange to it when you drink it is the same thing. or does that orange give it a special kick

From what I understand, Blue Moon is brewed with dried sweet orange peel. Do a search on here for 'original blue moon recipe' and you'll find a lot of info from one of the original brewers.

Personally, I think the slice of orange that you get at a bar is just a marketing thing. More typically, witbiers aren't served with orange but they are brewed with it.

 

[chaos2984]

gotcha. Could i increase the orange amount in the brew to help the orange flavor in it

 

[jwalker1140]

Sure. I have a batch that's currently carbing in bottle that I made with 2 oz of sweet orange peel and 1 oz of bitter orange peel. When I bottled, that seemed like a tad too much for my preference, but it may fade. I did 0.375 oz of ground coriander and that seemed spot-on.

I got these amounts from experiments done by another user named nilo. Find the thread named 'Blue Moon Clone' that has 50+ pages. More Blue Moon clone info than you'd ever want.

 

[dmoore714]

gotcha. Could i increase the orange amount in the brew to help the orange flavor in it

I'm still very new to all this, and havent tried it myself. So correct me if I'm wrong (and I probably am). But it looks like different hops and yeasts can produce different flavors in your beer. Scrolling through the different ingredients available on Northern Brewer, there are several that are supposed to be good in wheat beers, and/or produce that fruity flavor you're talking about.

 

[chaos2984]

yea but i think the orange i am looking for has to come from the addition of orange peel.

Now can i just get an orange and use some zest of the peel or do i need special orange peel flavoring to add to the brew ??

 

[RM-MN]

I'm still very new to all this, and havent tried it myself. So correct me if I'm wrong (and I probably am). But it looks like different hops and yeasts can produce different flavors in your beer. Scrolling through the different ingredients available on Northern Brewer, there are several that are supposed to be good in wheat beers, and/or produce that fruity flavor you're talking about.

You're certainly correct in that the hops can produce different flavors. I haven't played with the yeasts but I've done a couple of pale ales that have different hops and one tastes like a ripe mango and you'd swear that the other had grapefruit juice in it. I need to explore hops more yet before I start on the yeasts.

 

[chaos2984]

intresting. how do you know what flavors the hops gives off. And if they are aroma/flavoring hops they are added in the last 5 min of the boil so you get the flavor out of them correct.

 

[RM-MN]

This is one source that I go to. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/hops

Everyone has a different nose with different sensitivities so what one person tastes may not be quite the same as another. I read quite a few descriptions before choosing to do a pale ale with Citra and I was still surprised at the flavor I found which to me was mango. Doing the recipe again with Citra for flavoring addition and Cascade for dry hopping brought grapefruit to my nose.

 

[chaos2984]

ok sounds good ill have to browse around there and read up on that stuff

what would you recomend for a kit for something close to blue moon or shock top

 

[dmoore714]

intresting. how do you know what flavors the hops gives off. And if they are aroma/flavoring hops they are added in the last 5 min of the boil so you get the flavor out of them correct.

Read the descriptions of the hops befre you buy. They'll tell you what flavors and aromas they lend to the beer. Same with yeasts.

 

[chaos2984]

Belgian Witbier is the kit that i came up with from peoples suggestions and searching. Should i add any extra orange peel or change the hops addition to it or anything