Project: Snow Day

[Helly]

Good luck. Mine is not on tap yet. I must be brewing a lot lately because I went from what I thought was a pipeline shortage to all but one of my kegs being full. Good problem to have with the holidays upon us. I will post a pic and tasting notes when I can.

 

[Helly]

So, it's too dark and I'm getting a roasty flavor as a result of being off on the grain bill. And it's not hoppy enough for my liking so I'm thinking of doing a 1 oz keg-hop this weekend. The good news is, it's a good beer and tastes great. Just doesn't taste like what I was going for.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

Let me know how that turns out and send a picture of a pint!
I was just reading an article about doing a "cold steep" with your dark grains (i.e. the midnight wheat and C-80) and then just mashing your other grains at normal temp. Supposed to give the dark color, but less roasty flavor. Something I may keep in mind if I brew this again.

Mine was aggressive with the hops putting the 3 different kinds in for the entire boil...interested to see how it plays out.

 

[Helly]

I have never tried that myself but I've wondered about it. Did a little more reading on midnight wheat and it seems to be recommend to keep it at 6% or less of the grain bill. I did put 1 oz of Cascades in the keg and it brought that fruitiness back up. Here's a pic. I'm not sure if the color comes through real well. Looks black at first but I'd call it dark brown with a reddish tint once you hold it up to the light. It's a nice beer for sure but it's not snow day and either way I want to tinker with it and continue to develop my take on this style. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1418507429.370538.jpg

 

[Spellman]

Just thought I would share some of my results with one of my favorite beers. I have been trying to nail this clone for some time now. I think I have gotten the grain pretty close, but am still tinkering with the hop bill. You know you are there when you get a deep mahogany color that is a deep red around the edges of the glass when held to the light. Here is what I had in beersmith from years past for the grain:

5g batch 72% tot efficiency
10lbs 2 row 83%
1lbs 8oz crystal 80L 11.3%
12oz midnight wheat 5.7%
American II 1272

I had played with the amount of midnight wheat several times and if my memory serves me 8oz was too little and 1lbs was too much. I don't think I ever messed with the 80L, but the 2 row could go up or down based on what you want you starting gravity to be. Different sources have this at 7% abv, but their website currently lists it at 6.2%. Somewhere in my office I have the printouts (I know I still have them but where?)of the different recipes I have tried. My first attempt was the closest and very similar side by side, but I know I didn't dry hop it and that may have been the real difference. It lacked that piney punch to the mouth, but it was before I had ever dry hopped before. I wish they would bring this one back at least in their folly packs. I'm sure I could nail it now. I still have one bottle that is from the last year they did it, but won't give us much evidence of the hops now.

My current try for the hops are:
60min 1oz Styrian Goldings
30min .5oz Centennial
15min 1oz Centennial
15min 1oz Styrian Goldings
5min 1oz Cascade
then I plan to dry hop with cascade

My original recipe used more cascade in the boil, but I think centennial should help punch up the aroma more. Looking at it even now, I'm not convinced the late addition of the styrian goldings is needed, but I figured that it may give back some of that earthy/floral notes that I seem to remember.

One thing I tried different this time was mashing at 148 instead of 152. On NB's website they say on the cool side, and earlier in this thread they had listed some pretty low FG that had been mentioned. Should help with that dry piney/citrus flavor to shine through. I hope I got it close because I made 10g's! My current eherms system is all calibrated for 10g and I know I can get what I put in. Haven't gotten my 5g batches under control yet and I didn't want this to be the test batch with wild inaccuracy. I'll post back when the results are in!

 

[Helly]

Spellman thanks so much for sharing. I like the ratios that you have, they make good sense for the color that this beer should be. Not sure how I settled upon what I did. I will probably use your notes as a starting point for my batch 2. Your notes on midnight wheat make sense with what I'm seeing and also back up other home brewer comments I've read.

I really wish they would bring it back too. There are a couple beers that seem to be on two year rotations on/off, and I know it was a new one when they did it in 2011 (?) but I'm hoping they at least give snow day that treatment.

 

[olotti]

I'm so excited I found this thread. Snow day was one of my fav if not my fav new Belgium beers they've made and I was supremely disappointed they didn't do it again. So what's the consensus recipe here to try.

 

[Helly]

I think Spellman is close but I'm very curious to see how Matt's turns out. I had too much midnight wheat in mine. This was just my first attempt but I will be doing it again for sure.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

So I feel Snow Day will come back next year as the "Revival" beer in their sample pack. It's two below this year and if I'm not mistake that puts Snow Day next! Guess I'll have to save a bottle to compare! Great to see we are picking up some steam on this thread again.

Spellman- Very exciting to hear you have tackled it a few times! I think you are on to something with it actually being around 7%. Mine came in around 7.1%-7.2% and I thought something was off, but we shall see. I think the most exciting thing is even if we don't hit it head on everyone seems to report that it is still an awesome beer!

My bottles have been conditioning away for a week. Two to go and then I can test my results!

 

[WhiskeySquirrel]

I'm glad I found this page and I'm surprised its still alive! I plan on doing my first all grain brew this Saturday with RichBrew99's SnowDay recipe.

Since This will be my first AG brew, would anyone mind taking a look at my Beersmith output for a sanity check? I'm looking for criticism or tweaks that may help. I noticed my SG predictions were different from RB99's but maybe thats because he has his efficiencies dialed in for his equipment in beersmith...

 

[WhiskeySquirrel]

Ended up brewing RB99's recipe as is. Somehow ended up with about 6Gallons post boil, but SG was on point so we'll see how it turns out. I was thinking the total preboil volume of 6.5G was high, guess I have some Beersmith tinkering to do.

Plan on doing 1.5-2 weeks primary and 1 week secondary. basement is pretty cold at 59 degrees, but I've heard SA-05 has some pretty good temp ranges.

 

[Helly]

We've drank quite a bit of this the past couple days at our parties. It's been a big hit.

 

[Spellman]

Eager for mine, won't be able to try it for a few more days though. It's currently crash cooling while I'll be out and about for christmas.

 

[Spellman]

Finally got it kegged just a few minutes ago...awesome. Without having a fresh snow day to compare to, I would say aroma is probably pretty close. I would say that I would like to see just a tad more bittering up front, but with carbonation it may bring it out a little more.

SG 1.060
FG 1.012

I may be chasing a ghost of what I remember, but I feel like there was a bit more bitterness and piney upfront like I said, but there is plenty on the backside. After a few days in the fridge and proper carbonation, we'll see if that opens up a bit. One note on my brewing process to disclose, I did use a SS hop spider, 6x14 300 micron. Not sure if that would effect it or not, I've made some wicked pale ales with very little hops that turned out super hoppy. I am not sure but I have been wondering if it lessens bittering. I'm pretty sure that most if not all aroma comes through it, but I've had some ipa's lately that didn't turn out quite like they had before that. I used all but the last addition of hops in it. The cascades I pitched right in. The lhbs didn't have styrian goldings, instead they had st celia, which should be pretty close, but they were like 2.something aa, so for my 10g batch I used 3oz for the initial bittering instead of 2oz to offset that. Next time, I would maybe try swapping out my late addition styrian goldings with some cascades or centennial to try and capture a bit more pine.

At any rate, without having a new Snow Day straight from the brewery, this is pretty dang close. And an amazing beer at that!

 

[Helly]

Thanks Spellman. I was looking through some of my old notes and I had saved a version of the recipe that was very close to what you posted. Grain bill was the same for sure. I'll be trying something like that on my next attempt.

 

[grevengrevs]

subscribing. Hope to try this soon.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

I opened up one of my bottles after 3 weeks. It was pretty good. I think it still needs another few weeks of conditioning though. Also, it was a bit murky and few hop pieces from the dry hop I guess I missed. I'll post a photo next time I crack one up.
Happy New Years!

 

[Helly]

Keg just kicked. Bummer. Gonna have to brew version 2 pretty soon.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421675705.481252.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421675740.656122.jpg
About 9 weeks later and it is amazing! Good smooth taste. Chocolate followed by a refreshing hop flavor. I think I would have dry hopped my 2 gallons with more then half an ounce next time. Possibly double or triple and leave it for a week instead of just 3 days.

 

[Helly]

Matt that is a good looking brew. Your color seems very close. I'm with you, my original attempt at the dry hop wasn't enough for my liking. I'll have to check my notes but for 5 gallons I think I did 2 oz of cascade in the fermenter followed by another 1 oz in the keg.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

I kind of wish I had brewed more then 2 gallons now haha I'll make sure to save a bottle or two until next winter. I'm sure Snow Day will be their revival beer in the sample pack like 2 Below was this year.

I'm thinking I want to try and tackle the New Belgium Ranger IPA next!

 

[WhiskeySquirrel]

My attempt at RB99's recipe came out pretty good, color looks great and the beer is fantastic, although I'm not sure how close it is to Snow Day. The goose chase continues!

This recipe came out with a bit of a smoky after taste to it, its definitely not bad, not exactly sure where its coming from, perhaps the midnight grains, but its not not what we had hoped for. Next time we brew we will most likely reduce the amount of midnight grain and increase the hops during boil.

 

[BrewingBears]

This thread is a few years old but I’m hoping someone has really dialed in a 5 gallon, all grain clone for NB Snow Day at this point. Anyone?