Someone Tell Me About Fat Tire Ale

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Fat Tire & Mothership should be pretty obviously different. Fat Tire is a pretty amber/red hue with nice malty notes and no wheat. Mothership is pale blonde with a citrusy wheat character.

Maybe the taps or bottles got mixed up?
 
Im a die hard fan of New belgium brewery. I really like fat tire but think Mothership wit is masterpiece sent from heaven by god himself.....and on top of it all its a employee owned company. How many companies out there give two S#*Ts about there emplyees? A+++ in my book
 
+1 to all the +1s for this brew.

I tried my first in Vegas a while back, and found another 6er down the road.
Now this is going to be added to the 'must brew' list. Good beer.
-Me
 
Heading to Ft Collins to visit SWMBO's Dad in a couple of weeks. Will be stopping by the brewery for a tour and free set of samples and some fresh Fat Tire
 
i have tried every combo of grains bills and come up short. i think they have some special yeast strain made for them. almost all of their beers have the same yeast character. i just bought some bombers while working on the outer banks of NC (since i cant get it her in VA beach). the 1554 and the mothership wit both have this similar yeast flavor that is unique.
The 1554 is made with the same lager strain as Blue Paddle...but the 1554 is fermented warmer (like, low ale temps). As for the others, I don't know but Fat Tire doesn't have the Belgian yeast flavors/aroma...never tried Mothership Wit so I don't know if that has any Belgian yeast flavors/aromas.

I have family in Ft. Collins and hope to take a brewery tour during the Christmas holidays.
 
If you decide to brew a clone, I'd stay away from the recipes that feature Belgian yeasts. According to my local beer guru, New Belgium uses fairly traditional American Ale yeasts.

For Fat Tire, New Belgium uses "Fat Tire Ale Yeast". It was released as part of what was then call the Very Special Strains program (now call the Private Collection) from Wyeast Labs during the fourth quarter of 2007. I've made a 5 gallon and a ten gallon from that pack and have 4 vials frozen, currently the only yeast in my "ranch".
 
For Fat Tire, New Belgium uses "Fat Tire Ale Yeast". It was released as part of what was then call the Very Special Strains program (now call the Private Collection) from Wyeast Labs during the fourth quarter of 2007. I've made a 5 gallon and a ten gallon from that pack and have 4 vials frozen, currently the only yeast in my "ranch".
Does it have any esters/phenolics to the degree of many Belgian yeasts or is a clean ale type yeast? Anything else you remember about this yeast from those batches?
 
Does it have any esters/phenolics to the degree of many Belgian yeasts or is a clean ale type yeast? Anything else you remember about this yeast from those batches?

Fairly clean, or at least clean enough that the maltiness overpowers any esters coming from the yeast. I used The Pols Fat Tire clone which has a lot of Munich in the mash bill compared to other clones. It comes off with a lot stronger of a flavor than commercial FT. I've been told that commercial FT had a stronger flavor in the past, but those are anecdotal reports at best.
 
Fat Tire is a good beer. However, I find that the biscuit malt to be just a wee bit over the top. I don't know if I could drink all of a five gallon clone batch. That said, It seems like I always get requests to bring it back when I travel. Why Oklahoma is isolated from their brews is a big question mark.
 
Does it have any esters/phenolics to the degree of many Belgian yeasts or is a clean ale type yeast? Anything else you remember about this yeast from those batches?

It's clean, I've got some in the deep freeze, too. Before it was released, the brewers at New Belgium suggested just using a clean ale yeast when trying to clone Fat Tire.
 
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