Oberon Clone - Late Addition? Hops Reductions?

[tyhoward]

For our second brew my friend and I are trying our hand at the below recipe we found online for an Oberon clone. I realize we probably won't get it dead on without harvesting Bell's yeast, but it gives us an opportunity to learn and improve down the road.

Two Questions:
1. Should we do a late addition with the DME to get more accurate coloring?
2. If yes to the above, do we need to adjust the hops portions to account for this?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts / advice.



12 oz Munich & 8 oz Belgian Caravienne at 150° for 30 mins
remove grains and add 2½ lbs light DME & 3½ lbs wheat DME.
Bring to a boil and add:
1 oz Hersbrucker 3.3% for 60
½ oz Hersbrucker 3.3% for 30
½ oz Saaz 3.5% for 15
1/3 oz Saaz 3.5% for 7 minutes

Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast

OG: 1.057, FG: 1.014, IBU: 24, SRM: 7, ABV: 5.5%

 

[plumbrew]

For our second brew my friend and I are trying our hand at the below recipe we found online for an Oberon clone. I realize we probably won't get it dead on without harvesting Bell's yeast, but it gives us an opportunity to learn and improve down the road.

Two Questions:
1. Should we do a late addition with the DME to get more accurate coloring?
2. If yes to the above, do we need to adjust the hops portions to account for this?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts / advice.



12 oz Munich & 8 oz Belgian Caravienne at 150° for 30 mins
remove grains and add 2½ lbs light DME & 3½ lbs wheat DME.
Bring to a boil and add:
1 oz Hersbrucker 3.3% for 60
½ oz Hersbrucker 3.3% for 30
½ oz Saaz 3.5% for 15
1/3 oz Saaz 3.5% for 7 minutes

Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast

OG: 1.057, FG: 1.014, IBU: 24, SRM: 7, ABV: 5.5%

One of my first Extracts was the Oberon clone, although it was the clone of Solsun from Bell's before they changed it to Oberon, which was a bit closer to a Saison then the current Oberon.

I think your recipe looks fine, and I wouldn't worry too much about when you're adding the DME. Try it the way you got it and the worst that happens is, you have a good beer and it gives you an excuse to make it again with the changes of when you add the DME.

The only suggestion I would have is to think about using Wyeast 3711 French Saison instead of 1010. I used it with my Oberon clone and it was just amazing and it's the only yeast I'll use when doing a Saison.

 

[Yooper]

For our second brew my friend and I are trying our hand at the below recipe we found online for an Oberon clone. I realize we probably won't get it dead on without harvesting Bell's yeast, but it gives us an opportunity to learn and improve down the road.

Two Questions:
1. Should we do a late addition with the DME to get more accurate coloring?
2. If yes to the above, do we need to adjust the hops portions to account for this?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts / advice.



12 oz Munich & 8 oz Belgian Caravienne at 150° for 30 mins
remove grains and add 2½ lbs light DME & 3½ lbs wheat DME.
Bring to a boil and add:
1 oz Hersbrucker 3.3% for 60
½ oz Hersbrucker 3.3% for 30
½ oz Saaz 3.5% for 15
1/3 oz Saaz 3.5% for 7 minutes

Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast

OG: 1.057, FG: 1.014, IBU: 24, SRM: 7, ABV: 5.5%

I"d answer like this:

1. Yes
2. No. When you add the extract doesn't affect the hops, although brewing software uses the gravity for calculating IBUs. Use the same amount of hops, even if you add half of the extract late. It will be good.

 

[tyhoward]

Thanks for the input. We already had the ingredients when I posted this so no chance to change. As you said this will probably be a recipe we come back to so good to have some ideas for improvement.

We brewed this over the weekend and did roughly 70% late addition. The color looked pretty good although we finished around 12:00AM so hard to tell in my poorly lit garage

 

[ibrewmyown]

Oberon is one of my favorite beers to have on one of my tappers at all times. Everyone seems to like it A LOT so I brew it often. I've brewed it several times using the all grain recipe below. I've recultured yeast with great success but to tell you the truth, in my opinion there is very little difference in taste but if it gets to stay in my kegs longer, the recultured yeast batch gets better with age. When I brew it I brew 12+ gallons and sometimes I will pitch one with recultured yeast and the other with WYeast 1272 American Ale II. I've tasted A bottle of Oberon and both home brews all at once side by side and this recipe is very very close. I've had the beer finish too low a few times and when it does, you lose a bit of that malty sweetness but its still very good. I'm experimenting with using this recipe with a lager yeast. I call it my "Oberlager". I just racked to a secondary for the lagering and it tastes very smooth. cant wait to keg it. the color is awesome. It looks like the sun coming up early in the morning. Oberon just hit the stores here this weekend so I picked up a 12 pack to drink and reculture.

Oberon Down The Road
Style: American Ale OG: 1.052
Type: All Grain FG: 1.014
Rating: 4.0 ABV: 5.06 %
Calories: 170.97 IBU's: 21.65
Efficiency: 75.00 % Boil Size: 14.48 Gals
Color: 3.9 SRM Batch Size: 12.00 Gals
Preboil OG: 1.046 Boil Time: 60 minutes
Carbs: 12
________________________________________

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
9.00 lbs 37.50 % Wheat Malt, Bel 60 mins 1.037
15.00 lbs 62.50 % Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 60 mins 1.037

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.00 ozs 5.37 Saaz 60 mins 4.00
5.00 ozs 16.27 Saaz 20 mins 4.00

 

[MerlinWerks]

What's your mash schedule?

Thanks

 

[ibrewmyown]

60 minutes at 154, math out at 170 for 10 minutes then I fly sparge.

 

[ibrewmyown]

Mash Profile
Profile Name: All Grain Profile 1

Grain Temp: 70.00 °FMash Tun Vol Loss: 0.75 Gals
Grain Absorption: 0.13 Gals/lbTun Temp Loss: 4.50 °F
Cooling Shrinkage: 4.00 %Kettle Trub Loss: 0.75 Gals
Hourly Boiloff: 9.00 %

Mash Steps:
Infusion60 [email protected]°F
Add 30.00 qts water @ 171.9°F
Mash Out10 [email protected]°F
Add 11.07 qts water @ 212.0°F
Fly Sparge
Sparge 32.31 qts water @ 170.00 °F

 

[ibrewmyown]

I just experimented and I did the same grain bill with a lager yeast. I have 10 gallons of my "Oberlager" lagering at 30 degrees now. It tasted really smooth when I racked it to start lagering.

 

[Homercidal]

OP, do yourself a favor and try to get some Bells yeast as soon as possible. It really will make a difference, as the brewers at Bells has said, the fruitiness comes from the yeast. They don't add any citrus, not even citrusy hops if I recall correctly.

Hmm... I have some Saaz and Hersbrucker in my fridge, AND a few Oberons left as well...

 

[Brew_G]

OP, do yourself a favor and try to get some Bells yeast as soon as possible. It really will make a difference, as the brewers at Bells has said, the fruitiness comes from the yeast. They don't add any citrus, not even citrusy hops if I recall correctly.

Hmm... I have some Saaz and Hersbrucker in my fridge, AND a few Oberons left as well...

That Bell's yeast is really fruity, and I absolutely love it.

You can use 1272 as a replacement, as this is supposedly the strain that Bell's originally used before it developed its own house characteristics, but you definitely miss out on that smooth fruitiness of Bell's.

I'll be making an Oberon-inspired wheat ale as my next brew, and I do plan on adding some citrusy hops in addition to Saaz - probably .5 oz of Centennial at flameout and 1 oz of Cascade in dry hop. I was thinking of going all Centennial, but it might be a bit overpowering. I trust that I can coax fruitiness out of the yeast by fermenting at around 70F, but I like the idea of kicking it up a little by adding late and dry hop additions of those two.

 

[ibrewmyown]

Bells gives a "how to" harvest their yeast right on their website:

We don’t offer our house yeast for sale. But since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle.

Any of our non-Belgian ales are good candidates for this. If you can get your hands on them, Oberon, Midwestern Pale Ale and Amber Ale are all good choices.

What you will need: 1-3 bottles of beer, a vessel, a flame source and the same ingredients required to build a yeast starter.

DIRECTIONS

1. Refrigerate your bottle of beer for one week. Make sure you have a nice slurry on the bottom. Two to three bottles will yield better results.

2. Open bottle and sanitize the lip with a flame.

NOTE: You may also want to spray sanitizer on and around the cap before opening.

3. Gently pour the beer into a glass, leaving the sediment (yeast) in the bottle.

4. Swirl the sediment/yeast in the bottle and re-flame the lip.

5. Pour sediment into a sanitized container.

6. Grow your yeast using a stepped starter – start with 75ML (about 1/3 of a cup) of wort, then let ferment for two to three days. Then add an additional 750ML of wort and let ferment an additional two to three days.

 

[ibrewmyown]

Here's more information on ingredients, etc., right from Bells.

I can & will, however, offer some suggestions & advice. Aim for a target original gravity of around 1.056 and moderate fermentability. You want a decent portion of wheat, something in the 40-50% range: go as high as you can within the limits of your lauter tun’s ability. A touch of caramel malt will be all the color you need usually. Oberon uses several hops, but the signature varietals are Hersbrucker & Saaz. Don’t be lured into using coriander or orange peel: Oberon is spice-free.

As for yeast, you ideally would culture yeast from one of our bottles, but that’s going to be hard to come by in Denver. With that in mind, I called the homebrew shop attached to our brewery pub/retail outlet. According to them, the most common yeast choice for people trying to clone our beers seems to be the California Ale yeast from White Labs, WLP001.

I would also recommend investigating one of the many collections of clone recipes on various homebrewing websites, as they are absolutely chock-a-block with solid, time-tested recipes that can easily be adapted to your specific set-up at home.

I hope this helps. Happy brewing!

Sincerely,

Gary S. Nicholas
Quality Assurance & Control
Bell's Brewery, Inc.
8938 Krum Avenue
Galesburg, MI 49053