Blue Moon Clone #12

Increased coriander from 0.375oz to 0.5oz from recipe #11. Very tasty and refreshing beer. I can't tell the difference to the commercial beer.
Complete recipes here.

Blue Moon clone # 10&11

My #9 BM clone was a disaster. Used WY1010-American Wheat yeast and that may be the culprit, lots of clove taste, had to dump the whole batch.
Anyways, posting here the results of #10 and #11, here were the changes:

#10
Mashed for 75min, not planned
Used 6.5lb of wheat and only 3lb of row, not planned. Run out of 2 row

#11
Used double orange peels, so full 3oz

Here's the side by side pic

Can you guess what is what?

Left is #10, center is the commercial, right is #11.

Color wise, very similar, hard to pick one. Taste wise, the double orange tasted much closer to the commercial beer for me.

recipes are posted to same place, Here

The Ultimate Mobile Homebrew Dispenser

Watching TV, no, this is how I spend some spair time (and $).

Features:

• 2 taps, capacity for two 2.5 gal kegs + ice.
• External CO2 ball lock post, to connect a compact CO2 injector or regular CO2 tank.
• Built in stereo amplifier with two 2-way speakers.
• Internal mainteance free battery, run time over 6h without charge. External wall charger or solar panel charger.
• 12VDC lighter outlet with optional dual USB port adapter. You can charge your phone or small device with the cooler.
• Audio imput from regular stereo jack plug or BlueTooth devices (external bluetooth adapter).
• Built in clock, internal&external digital thermometer and battery charge monitor.
• White board for displaying the beers on tap

Using the bluetooth adapter is pretty cool, you can play your favorite songs remotelly from your cellphone's play list or Pandora station. It also allows you to control the box volume from your cellphone.
While connected using the stereo jack to your cell phone, it will also work as a hands free device. You can take or make calls from your cooler, how cool is that? If connected with Bluetooth though, it will not provide a duplex capability, so people will not be able to hear you, unless you are doing a voice over IP call like yahoo, skype, etc

Two Taps:

White board and charging connector:

Power switch and lighter socket/USB port adapter:

Two way speakers:

Audio Amplifier:

Audio input with bluetooth receiver connected:

Digital panel:

Inside views:

CO2 post:

Minimum internal damage:

Video:

It is Gold.........and Silver!

Cream ale and Mac & Jacks clone recipes scored Gold and Silver at the 2013 Joint Base Lewis-McCord in WA state, an AHA sanctioned competition.

Here are the very brewed recipes:

Cream Ale, 5gal batch
Mash, 60min, 158F
9lb 2 row
1/2lb Belgium biscuit 25L
1/2lb carapils
1lb flaked corn

Boil 60min
1oz hallertau 4% for 60min
1/2 hallertau 4% for 10min
1/2 hallertau 4% for 5min
1 tsp irish moss for 20min

Fermented with S04 at 65F for 9 days

OG=1.052
FG=1.016
ABV%=4.5
IBU=16
SRM=5


Mac & Jacks Clone, 5gals batch

Mash, 60min, 155F
8lb British Pale Ale
1lb Carapils
1lb Crystal 80L
2lb Munich 10L

Boil 60min
3/4oz Centennial 10% for 60min
1/2oz Cascade 6% for 15min
1/2oz Cascade 6% for 0min

Fermented with WY1098 British Ale at 65F for 7 days. This was a yeast cake from a previous batch. Usually, this fermentation takes 2 week to complete but the cake speeded it up and also provided a lower FG.

Dry hopping in keg
1oz Cascade 6%

Note. I added Calcium Chloride and Epson salt as usual to provide some calcium and magnesium, as I usually do for my very soft water, but this recipe I also added 7g of Baking soda to increase sweetness perception (read this somewhere). Not sure if that played any role in the score.

OG=1.056
FG=1.012
ABV%=5.8
IBU=30
SRM=14

Updated - Mac & Jack's African Amber Clone

Update 4/22/13: Full list of recipes can be found here.

This is an update to the recipe, 3rd I tried so far.

5gal batch.
British Pale Ale - 8lb
Carapils - 1lb
Crystal 80L - 1lb
Munich 10L - 2lb
Mashed at 155 for 60min
Centennial 10%  - 3/4oz for 60min
Cascade 6% - 1/2oz for 15min
Cascade 6% - 1/2oz at flame out
Cascade 6% - 1oz dry hop in keg
Wyeast 1098 British Ale fermented at 65F
OG=1.056
FG=1.012
ABV%=5.8
IBU=30
SRM=14

This beer tasted much better than the first attempt. Sweetness and bitterness were balanced for my palate. I still think the real beer has more IBU's, but I don't mind the way it is now. Perhaps using Magnum hops instead of Centennial would give that long last bitterness that the real beer has.

Blue Moon Clone #8

Here's the recipe of #8, also found HERE:

- 5lb White wheat malt
- 5lb 2 row
- 10oz crystal 10L
- 10oz munich 10L
- 1/2lb Carapils

Mashed at 152 for 60min

1.2oz Hallertauer for 30min
2 TBS corn starch for 10min
0.375oz coriander for 10min
1.5oz Frontier dry orange peels for 10min

Fermented at 65F for 2 weeks with S05.

Numbers:
OG=1.053
FG=1.006
ABV%=6
IBU=14
SRM=6

The use of munich malt was a mistake. I though I was using crystal 10 and after 10oz was milled I realized the mistake, so I stopped and milled another 10oz of crystal 10.
I had plans to add some wheat gluten but decided to mix it with water first before adding to the boil. Good that I did the test because the gluten turned into a big rubber ball and would probably mess up my batch. Lesson learned, no gluten!
The boil was only 30min and did not use irish moss in an attempt to increase chill haze. The beer came out very cloudy and thick, just as I wanted.
I did a side by side test today and honestly, color is so close one can't tell the difference. Body is also very close and taste wise, yes, best match so far.

Here's a side by side photo, clone is on the left

 Head retention after 1min, looks better on the clone.

And the lacing on the clone was awesome.

Mac and Jack's African Amber Clone update 2

Update 4/22/13: Full list of recipes can be found here.

Got some beer from a local store to make a side by side comparison, here are the results:

Clone is on the left.

Findings:
Color - Seems that clone is lighter, but almost undetectable
Aroma - Same
Head retention - Same
Flavor - Clone tastes sweeter, more malty flavor, quite less bitter, which may be due to the extra sweetness. The bitterness sticks to the tongue much longer on the real than the clone.
Body - Same

If I would correct the recipe, it would probably get an extra 1/2oz of hops for 60min and remove the lactose. I however, like the clone better than the real, just my taste.

Note: Measured gravity of the beer, just for the sake of it, Clone=9.0 and real=8.0 brix.

I finished my glass and had to post a pick of the lacing on the clone.