Blue Moon Belgian White Clone

Here is the recipe that I've put together for the next brew, a Blue Moon Belgian White clone:

6 lbs - American 2 row
4 lbs - White Wheat
1 lb  - Flaked Oats

I'm planning to mash on the warm side for a sweeter conversion, target will be 156F.

Boil for 90 minutes:

1.5oz Mt Hood @ 90
1.5tsps crushed Coriander @ 10
.5tsps crushed sweet orange peel @ 5

Will use WLP001 - California Ale yeast as the information I've read says to use.

The particulars:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 25.2
Color: 4.0 SRM

Not sure when I will get around to actually brewing this, probably sometime in February.

Next Brew

I know it will still be a few weeks before I brew again, but it is already in the planning stages.

I'm going for a Blue Moon Belgian White clone. I've researched a number of different recipes up to now and I think I have a good feeling for what it needs. I haven't quite built out the recipe list for what I'm going to use yet though.

My friend from Aurora (you know who you are) very generously got me a gift certificate to NB that will be utilized, along with a few other purchases. One thing I don't know if they have yet is the right adjuncts. A Blue Moon thread on HBT talks of specific dried orange peel to use, the commentor was one of the brewers that helped develop the beer back in the 90's.

Once I get the grain bill, adjuncts, and yeast decided, I will post the recipe and brew day schedule that I plan to use.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Blue Moon, it holds a special place in my heart as it was one of those beers that launched my beer snobbery at Old Chicago.

Cheers!

Yeast Washing

So, I put the Slam Dunkle (Dunkleweizen) into a keg last night. It should be ready in a few days.

That allowed me to utilize my new pressure cooker to sanitize jars for washing the yeast cake.

This was a dry yeast packet from one of the last beer kits I have bought. I didn't take much note of which company it was from, or yeast strain, my notes only said 'German Wheat'.

Well, now I have 4 'German Wheat' yeasts to use in the future. The process itself was simple enough, I'll be doing this again with the yeast from Ranger Danger, as well as Brown Turkey. I think I have just enough mason jars for those 3 yeast cakes. I may in the future just save two jars instead of the 4 I got out of the Dunkle.

With liquid yeasts from White Labs, or Wyeast running in the $6 - $8 range, this should be saving me a good portion of the cost of future brews.

Northern English Brown

Next beer to be brewed is going to be a Northern English Brown Ale. I've looked at numerous recipes to get a good idea of how most of them are built. Here is what I've come up with for the style.

Mash at 150F for 90 minutes.

8# Marris Otter
1# Victory
.5# Crystal 120L
.25# British Chocolate Malt

Boil for 90 minutes.
1.5 oz UK Fuggles @ 60
.5 oz UK Fuggles @ 10

WLP002 - English Ale Yeast

Specification Targets:
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
IBU 25.6
SRM 21

Style Guidelines
OG: 1.040 - 1.052
FG: 1.008 - 1.013
IBU: 20-30
SRM: 12-22

This should be on the upper end of the ABV scale at 5%, mid hoppyness for the style, and on the darker end.

Should be fun.

Sourcing Ingredients

So, for the home brewers that read this. How much comparison shopping have you done on sourcing grains in bulk?

I've got the main companies linked on the right from which I normaly order supplies. I'm going to forgo kits from here on out, so buying #50 at a time is my likely route and have to price shop in much larger quantities.

I've done a brief comparison on Briess 2-row as a base malt. LHBS will sell for $54 or if preordered (they order on their own schedule and do not put in special orders for 1 customer) they sell it for $46.

I know I have to be overlooking something on Northern Brewer, but I cannot find regular Briess 2-row in a #50 bag, only the 'Organic' 2-row. So, then pricing NB by the # puts #50 at $62.50.

Midwest Supplies has Briess 2-row at $49.50, and also a cheaper brand, Rahr 2-row at $33.60 for #50. (nice prices but is there a reason Rahr is so cheap?)

I know there are a ton of other suppliers out there, but this was just a brief overview looking at this first sources.

So I'm looking at;
NB $62.50 + $12.86 Shipping = $75.36
MS Briess $49.50 + $16.24 Shipping = $65.74
MS Rahr $33.60 + $16.24 Shipping = $49.84
LHBS $46.00 + Tax (and get it on their schedule) = $49.22
     OR $54.00 + Tax For in stock. = $57.78

Anyone got anything better to report?

UPDATE: I've been reading reviews on Briess vs Rahr on 2-row. Majority opinion is that Rahr and Briess are interchangeable as a base malt, but Briess is a bit better on specialty malts. Added new entry to the calculation above.

At a suggestion I checked morebeer.com
MB Domestic 2-row $60.25 w/free shipping