Troeg's Mad Elf

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Dam cope when the yeast drops mine comes out half as good looking as that, how many # of cheeries did you have yours sitting on
 
I used 6 cans of Oregon cherries for that batch half sweet and half tart i believe. My recipe is in there like a year back or so, although I will be brewing my version 2 recipe here in a few months, its like a page or 2 back in this thread.
 
Did Comparison of 2013 Mad Elf (right) and my 2nd version. Mine is darker, likely because I experimented and upped the chocolate malt a bit. My head was more of a white, while the real stuff had a light brown head. Retention was the same. Flavor was almost identical but my wife and I preferred mine slightly more. I can't say why though... I tried pointing out the flavor difference but it was slight and indescribable to me. On my next batch, I will lower the chocolate malt back but keep everything else the same. I think I may try fermenting warmer to see if I can make it more belgiany

1416338497550.jpg
 
poptarts said:
I used 6 cans of Oregon cherries for that batch half sweet and half tart i believe. My recipe is in there like a year back or so, although I will be brewing my version 2 recipe here in a few months, its like a page or 2 back in this thread.
Click to expand...


There is my problem on the red color I used 2 cans sweet and tart but the taste is pretty much spot on guess we will see in 6 days when I bottle she is starting to clean her self up
Now and clearing we shall see
 
Threw a bottle in the beer fridge to see where I'm at hoping its carbed for Christmas party this weekend and Christmas Eve will up date when I pop the top
 
Culln5 said:
I'm leaning towards this recipe..... Did you, or anyone else, ever brew it?
Click to expand...

I still have yet to brew that but I still feel this is the closest clone recipe. V1 was pretty close, the tweaks this one makes should drive it home. Just dont let the yeast get too hot too fast.
 
I have brewed this twice now, never with the sugar added, also I think I was using 2# honey at flameout. I'm going to make this very soon. I think I will try your v2 and see how it comes out. If nothing else I will save $ on way less honey! :)
 
poptarts said:
Just did a gravity reading on the real deal, it is 1.014. So still planning on brewing my recipe i posted way earlier this year with the cane sugar and .05 lbs/gal honey. The email info seems to be accurate.

http://files.samfoust.com/Uploads/madelf2.html
Click to expand...

I brewed a 1 gallon version of this new recipe yesterday. She clocked in at 1.104.

It's currently fermenting away at 68°. What fermentation schedule is suggested?
 
Looking forward to brewing this again next brew...it will be my third time making it. Going to get it just perfect this time! :)
 
I brewed a one gallon V2 of this the end of September. OG was 1.104 and was 1.022 after one week in the primary. At 11% I figured I would throw it in the secondary and add the cherries. A week on the cherries and into the bottles she went.

My questions are:
  • Is a 14 day fermentation sufficient? (7 day primary/7 day secondary)
  • Without thinking about fermentation, I bottled this without any additions to stop fermentation. Just 1 carbing tab in 16oz grolsch bottles...... Should I be worried about bottle bombs?
  • How long should they stay in the bottles?
 
I am just getting this recipe cleaned up in Beersmith, I plan on three weeks primary, three weeks secondary (with cherries) then kegging for a period of time. I usually like to keg, and age most of my beers, especially a Belgian like this. I usually get some of this each year, I drink a few, but found I like it better after it ages for a year. I have two 12 oz, and five 22 oz left over from last year.

To try and answer your question, don't rush it, I don't think you will get bombs, but you really want to give a beer this size all the time it needs. Let us know how it comes out for you.

PS: I just saw Troegs just released Mad elf this past weekend locally, and should be showing elsewhere soon.
 
I typically do primary for three weeks and secondary for three weeks over the cherries as well. Then give it about 2 weeks in the keg before you think about drinking any.
That's what I have done in years past anyway...:)
 
Question!!! I am planning on brewing this with in a week or so. I plan on using the sweet / sour Oregon cherries. How many cans should I use in the secondary? I currently have one can of each, will this be enough, or should I get more? Thanks for your impute!......
 
Hi Poptarts,

I have been reading through the posts, but I had a question. Here you state you used 6 cans of cherries:

poptarts said:
I used 6 cans of Oregon cherries for that batch half sweet and half tart i believe. My recipe is in there like a year back or so, although I will be brewing my version 2 recipe here in a few months, its like a page or 2 back in this thread.
Click to expand...

But on your V2 recipe page it states .4lbs per gallon split between tart and sweet.

I am assuming you used these Sweet and Tart cherries.

Did you do a double batch, or would you recommend doing more than the .4 per gallon?

Thanks for the help and I am going to be brewing this soon.
 
VipperOfVipp said:
Hi Poptarts,

I have been reading through the posts, but I had a question. Here you state you used 6 cans of cherries:



But on your V2 recipe page it states .4lbs per gallon split between tart and sweet.

I am assuming you used these Sweet and Tart cherries.

Did you do a double batch, or would you recommend doing more than the .4 per gallon?

Thanks for the help and I am going to be brewing this soon.
Click to expand...

The brewery uses .4 lbs / gal. If I were to make this again I would roll with 3 cans of each for a 5 gallon batch and puree them as well. Best of luck. Keep an eye on blow off, this yeast strain is aggressive.
 
Little thread revival, but it's certainly about time to get this going if anybody is brewing it.

I'm hoping to get it started in the next 2-3 weeks, going to go with v2 of PopTarts recipe, and use 6 cans total to hopefully get the better red color. Other change i'm going to go with is use WY3463(Forbidden Fruit) instead of what the recipe calls for. I already have some ready to go in a mason jar so I don't need to worry about making a starter or making something else to get a yeast cake.

Mine may not clear up as much, but I made a Hibiscus Lime "Wit" this year that cleared up decently so it may work. Not sure on the esters and phenols working out to be the same, but I have never picked up a lot of the Belgiany yeast character in Mad Elf so I don't think that will be much of a difference either.
 
I am not familiar with WY3463 strain. Will it handle the high abv from this beer? What other styles of beer have you made using that strain?
 
It has the same tolerance as most other Belgian strains, listed as being 12%.
This is Wyeast's description:
A widely used strain in the production of Witbier and Grand Cru. This yeast will produce spicy phenolics which are balanced nicely by a complex ester profile. The subtle fruit character and dry tart finish will complement wheat malt, orange peel and spice additions typical of Wits.

I have made a few Wit's and a Tripel with it and find that it has less of the Belgian "funk" characteristics that I have gotten with WLP 545, WY1214, and WY3522.
 
I'm gearing up for this as well. Randomly tried some last year driving home from Pittsburgh after Tgiving. Thought the label was cool! this beer was so good, it pushed me over the hump and started me homebrewing. Love Troegs, Love Hershey, love this beer, PA native. Since I'm BIAB in ten gallon kettle, likely will make about four gallons.

V2 link is broke for me. Using iPad. Anyone else struggling or have alternate link?

ECY has a Belgian abbey yeast, considering trying on this. Thoughts?

Anyone keg and bottle this recipe and prefer one over the other? I hate bottling, but am considering reverting for this one since I want to gift about 2 of 4 gallons. Trying to decide, since its a big Belgian, maybe just bottle condition....but then I have to add yeast , sugar, worry about bottle bombs....leaning toward just biermunch filling half the keg in bombers. I don't remember the commercial beer having yeast sludge, but I was too drunk at the end of the bottle to remember.

Final question. Need to harvest my first ever willamette hops, considering wethopping them into this beer and doing next weekend..I'll PM the guy on here who tried...but think this may be a bad idea, a pretty big variable. Seems too risky. Maybe do a red ale or Dunkel with them instead, and do this later in sept.
 
Tommydee said:
Trying to decide, since its a big Belgian, maybe just bottle condition....but then I have to add yeast , sugar, worry about bottle bombs.
Click to expand...
I don't keg but can say that big beers I almost always prefer to have bottled. I have friends that keg and they seem to always debate how long they want to keep a tap dedicated to big beers since they do t go through them as quickly.
 
I went for it a month or so back and it was gone, so I used google's cached version to save it as a pdf. It's attached.

Last I tried brewing it, I missed gravity badly enough that I didn't bother with cherries, and it made a great dubbel. It was a bit dark for elf, though. Be mindful of the SRM of the chocolate you use. I'd suggest Dingeman's or Briess, as they're lighter than the English brands.

View attachment Mad Elf.pdf
 
@imasickboy - Thanks for the pdf. I'm looking forward to attempting this, perhaps soon since Christmas is looming.
 
Planning to brew this tomorrow morning, just noticed sugar in the recipe when did you add that? I'm guessing with the honey at 20min but wanted to check and make sure you didn't add it with the cherries in the secondary.

For the cherries, it look like the sweet only come in heavy syrup, is that what you used or were you able to find them in water? The tart seem to only be offered in water from what I can find.
 
Brewed on Saturday, because of weekend schedule I had to brew during the day instead of my normal early morning, RELAXING, brew time. I started my mash around noon, got that to finish right before I had to leave for a kids soccer game, I do BIAB so I let the bag drip while we went to the game. Got home about 1.5hrs later, turned burner on, took pre-boil gravity sample, and took bag down.

Pre-boil SG was 1.072, with 7gal of wort, which is what I needed to finish with 5.25gal based on my boil off and loss of trub calculations. Putting the 1.072 into brewersfriend dilution and boil off calculator showed I should end up at 1.096 almost spot on.

So, 90 min boil no surprises on this topic, started cooling the wort down as normal and got it down to 63 degrees took gravity sample and it only showed 1.082. Knowing this was 10-12 points lower than what it should have been I took another sample... 1.082 again. Both samples had a lot of trub, I emptied both into a jar and put it in the fridge, pitched the yeast since I couldn't do much more at that point to bring it up and walked away for the night.

Next morning, took a reading from the jar of wort I put in the fridge and it showed 1.085 now, not the 10ish points I was looking for but a little higher. At this point I wasn't happy that this was going to end up lower than it should and then I thought, I never changed my recipe to include the 1lb of sugar, so I might end up where I should after all. So, I put everything into brewersfriend to look at the calculations, and by hitting 1.085 and then adding the sugar I should end up at 1.093, almost spot on to the recipes 1.094.

Now I'll give it a week or so to chew through a good portion of the wort and then add the sugar when I add the cherries. Only concern now is hoping the yeast can do their thing and bring this down very close to 1.012ish. Then, get it bottled to allow 3 weeks or so to carbonate and enjoy on Thanksgiving.
 
Quick question for when bottling times comes and about fermentation times

1. For bottling are you adding something like Champagne yeast or just letting the yeast in suspension do the carbonating? I saw @Poptarts say he used WY1118, wondering if others have done the same.

2. Since Troegs adds the cherries about 50% through fermentation they are either leaving it on the cherries for a long time, moving it to a secondary once fermentation finishes or kegging bottling within 3-4 weeks after fermentation. What are those who have brewed this doing. I Was thinking about adding the cherries about a week into fermentation, leave it on the cherries for 2 weeks and then bottle and let it age in the bottle till Thanksgiving time. This just seems like a quick fermentation/bottling schedule for an 11% beer.
 
Ok, my fermentation temp started dropping, signalling the yeast were slowing down on fermenting so I decided it might be about time to add the cherries. Run to the store to pick them up to find out they no longer carry them... run to a different store and they only carry them online. So, I pondered ordering online from a couple different places and figured the earliest I would get them would be Mon-Tues, which likely would be fine, or I could use cherry juice if I could find some without any additives.

Found these, which both labels showed they only contained 100% cherry juice:
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/single-fruit-juices/just-black-cherry
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/single-fruit-juices/just-tart-cherry

Did a quick search and found a few posts about people using these in other beers in place of cherries so I ran with it. Poured both bottles in last night and noticed fermentation temps went up 3 degrees overnight. @Poptarts said his recommendation would be to go with 3 cans of each type of cherry and after some research I found that each bottle should be equivalent to 3 lbs of cherries, so it should be about the same addition as 6 cans would have been.

I did forget the sugar so I'll likely boil the 1lb of sugar with a small amount of water, cool and throw that it tonight or tomorrow morning. I also tried to grab a hydro sample to figure out how far along it is, but got more krausen than anything and didn't want to keep fussing with it.

As for vigorous fermentation, this yeast (WY3463) has yet to exhibit that for me. In the Wit's, Tripel, and now this that I have used it on the most I have gotten is with this beer, but so far that's only about 1.5-2in of krausen. Seems to do it's thing pretty quickly and quietly compared to many other Belgian strains.
 
finally making this tomorrow, about 2 months later than I wanted. Wife and I just tried a bottle of the real deal, and decided it will be a Valentines beer!

I am doing version 1 recipe BIAB at 152 with version 2 hop adds because I was too rushed and didn't read the whole thread when I ordered my grain! Using Omega Belgian W yeast (westmalle), currently spinning in a 1.8 L Starter. 2 lbs honey, 2 cans tart Oregon cherries, and 2 frozen bags of sweet cherries (12 oz per bag), cause I didn't want to mess with the syrup that comes in the Oregon sweet cherry can.

I am going to pitch this at 65, let it free rise to 72 and control it there.

Debating to just dump cherries into primary on day 10-14ish, but will probably rack to secondary instead. Any advice for those of you who just followed Troegs advice, and added cherries to primary? If I cold crash, can I transfer straight from primary to keg without a giant trubby/yeast/cherry mess?

I noticed my 2 bottles from Troegs did not appear to have any yeast cake, and I'm not a great bottler (quit after batch #5) so I'll just keg this to be safe.

Any tips would be great, wish me luck!
 
bolus14 said:
Ok, my fermentation temp started dropping, signalling the yeast were slowing down on fermenting so I decided it might be about time to add the cherries. Run to the store to pick them up to find out they no longer carry them... run to a different store and they only carry them online. So, I pondered ordering online from a couple different places and figured the earliest I would get them would be Mon-Tues, which likely would be fine, or I could use cherry juice if I could find some without any additives.

Found these, which both labels showed they only contained 100% cherry juice:
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/single-fruit-juices/just-black-cherry
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/products/single-fruit-juices/just-tart-cherry

Did a quick search and found a few posts about people using these in other beers in place of cherries so I ran with it. Poured both bottles in last night and noticed fermentation temps went up 3 degrees overnight. @Poptarts said his recommendation would be to go with 3 cans of each type of cherry and after some research I found that each bottle should be equivalent to 3 lbs of cherries, so it should be about the same addition as 6 cans would have been.

I did forget the sugar so I'll likely boil the 1lb of sugar with a small amount of water, cool and throw that it tonight or tomorrow morning. I also tried to grab a hydro sample to figure out how far along it is, but got more krausen than anything and didn't want to keep fussing with it.

As for vigorous fermentation, this yeast (WY3463) has yet to exhibit that for me. In the Wit's, Tripel, and now this that I have used it on the most I have gotten is with this beer, but so far that's only about 1.5-2in of krausen. Seems to do it's thing pretty quickly and quietly compared to many other Belgian strains.
Click to expand...

How did this turn out?
 
I'm liking it. I haven't had Mad Elf in a few years so I can't honestly say how close it is to the real thing. The last couple I've tried taste like the cherry is coming out a little more. Not much alcohol heat, the 10.8% can certainly sneak up quickly.
 
The first time a few cases of this showed up at a local store I had to laugh.
The elf reminded me of a soused Alfred E. Neuman.
The beer hit shelves near me soon after Octoberfest and was sold out long before Thanksgiving. Some people probably got some as a prank and got more than they bargained for.
 

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