Bells Oberon Clone

CornyKegs 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
So if I'm going to do this as extract, should I use the Cara-Pils or maltodextrin?
 
Brewed the recipe on page 16 (well a variation of it) a couple weeks ago (14 days in the primary currently)... looks good so far! Dryhopping beginning on Tuesday and going for a week.
 
GMJager said:
Brewed the recipe on page 16 (well a variation of it) a couple weeks ago (14 days in the primary currently)... looks good so far! Dryhopping beginning on Tuesday and going for a week.
Click to expand...

I think that is the same recipe that Crypto posted on page 2? This is the recipe I have been using as well. Just brewed my 2nd batch using this recipe yesterday! :mug:

I'm down to about a 12 pack of my first batch of this recipe and it has been fantastic! :)
 
Brewed a slight variation on the extract recipe posted and here it is fermenting happily at 72-73 degrees off yeast harvested from Bell's pale ale. Can't wait to try it!

YrKROCF.jpg
 
cjalderman said:
Brewed a slight variation on the extract recipe posted and here it is fermenting happily at 72-73 degrees off yeast harvested from Bell's pale ale. Can't wait to try it!

YrKROCF.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a bit on the warm side! Hope it turns out!

I say this because I've had my best results with this style fermenting around 65-67F. Some amount of ester production is OK, but a clean ferment is much preferred over that.

Just my $0.02
 
Yeah I usually right at or below 70F but I've read that to get the closest match to an Oberon flavor with Bell's yeast you should ferment it warm around 72F so it will give off esters that you want to match the flavor
 
I like the looks of it. But no reviews or discussion on that site that I can see. It sure looks to be nice and easy...which is better than the decoction manuever. I say you try it and me being somewhat local - I can judge it for you - I'll have one (12oz.) of the decocted version on hand as well.

Jim
 
It would be interesting to hear the results from that recipe.

Personally, I've been happy with the results from making this beer using Crypto's decoction recipe so I really don't see a need to change anything...
 
Jhoss said:
I like the looks of it. But no reviews or discussion on that site that I can see. It sure looks to be nice and easy...which is better than the decoction manuever. I say you try it and me being somewhat local - I can judge it for you - I'll have one (12oz.) of the decocted version on hand as well.

Jim
Click to expand...

Cool man, I'll hit you up when it's done(and if its drinkable being my first AG batch and all). I work in Royal Oak, so I'm semi close.:mug:
 
anyone get a ton of diacetyl when using Bell's yeast? i have used it three times and each batch, even when fermented in the mid 60s, tastes like butterscotch. no other yeast has given me this problem. i give the yeast plenty of time to clean up after itself too.
 
I've cultured and used 1272. I've produced some very clean beers. Some were indistinguishable between commercial Bells and homebrewed.
 
frank55 said:
anyone get a ton of diacetyl when using Bell's yeast? i have used it three times and each batch, even when fermented in the mid 60s, tastes like butterscotch. no other yeast has given me this problem. i give the yeast plenty of time to clean up after itself too.
Click to expand...

I get it but only when it's still very green. Given a few weeks to condition in the bottles and the butterscotch flavor goes away.
 
Cryptochronolite said:
I know this is an older thread, but I believe I've just perfected the Oberon Recipe. I did some side by side tastings and after my fourth batch I believe I have it.

FIRST Problem with all these formulas was the nose, Oberon's citrusy nose is super evident. I found that it takes almost 3 oz of Hops, to fix this.

SECOND Problem was the carmel and complexity. that took me a while to fix - finally, I found it: Decoction. I have been on a decoction kick for a while and decided that this could be a candidate.

Here's my final recipe:

6lbs American 2 row
4lbs American White wheat
.5lbs Carapils

1oz Saaz 30min (leaf)
1oz Saaz 15min (leaf)
.5oz Saaz and 1oz Cascade in secondary (dry hopped for 14 days) (leaf)

Start in at 133F for 15 minutes
Decoc 12 pints of mash (adjust this for your system)
155F for 60minutes
mash out.

My first recipe wasn't as close to the original but I knew I was on to something. I used Wyeast 1010 (VERY CLOSE) but not exact. I then decided to harvest some Bell's yest from a bottle. - that's when it became perfect.

I started my fifth batch of this recipe this weekend, I am on the second generation of this particular strain of yeast, I assume it will turn out okay, but I don't know how many generations that yeast was used at bells, so....

OG 1.059
FG 1.014-016

I have only bottled this beer, I am going to keg this final batch and see how she does.
Click to expand...

This was my first decoction. It came out great! Thanks for sharing!
 
Can someone please give me a quick rundown/procedure for doing the decotion on this? Never done one and I want to make this beer. Do you pull off 12 pints of liquid only from the mash? And then do what with it? Boil for a period of time and then return to the mash?
 
Sixpack said:
Can someone please give me a quick rundown/procedure for doing the decotion on this? Never done one and I want to make this beer. Do you pull off 12 pints of liquid only from the mash? And then do what with it? Boil for a period of time and then return to the mash?
Click to expand...

When doing a decoction, you ONLY want to pull out the grist (solids) and remove as much liquid as possible.

Here is a good Brewing TV episode on decoction for your viewing pleasure.

http://brewingtv.com/episodes/2011/3/29/brewing-tv-episode-34-decoction-day.html
 
JonGrafto said:
When doing a decoction, you ONLY want to pull out the grist (solids) and remove as much liquid as possible.

Here is a good Brewing TV episode on decoction for your viewing pleasure.

http://brewingtv.com/episodes/2011/3/29/brewing-tv-episode-34-decoction-day.html
Click to expand...

I was very leery of doing a decoction mash until I watched that brewing tv episode! It is very helpful! :mug:

Dry hopping my latest batch today and it should be ready for bottling when I get back from vaca next week! :tank:
 
I beleive that only 10 minutes of boil time is needed in this decoction mash. And you need to constantly stir it so it doesnt burn on the bottom.

You dont want to carmelize too long because then it will throw your color off.

If anyone else knows differently, please chime in.
 
I was unsure of the length of time as well. Basically i stirred the hell out of it and got it to a boil for a about five minutes. Then i added it back into the mash slowly scoop at a time. worked out really well. color is damn near perfect and its really tasty.

like ^ said i wouldn't go to long on the boil for the decoction. i won't be changing my method.

i got this grain to glass in 28 days: 14 primary 14 in keg w/dry hops while being carbed up. i'll be brewing this again and i will not fear the decoction.
 
Donzi79 said:
Thinking about trying this recipe I found on another site, using yeast out of a fresh 6er of Oberon. Any thoughts about this?
http://www.brew365.com/beer_bells_oberon.php
Click to expand...

After three weeks in the bottle, I'm really enjoying this recipe. I did a side by side with the real thing and thought it was darn close. I would up the 15 and last hop addition a bit, cause the aroma and hop taste is the only thing I thought was slightly off. I might do another batch to have on hand for late summer.
 
Well it's that time of year again, OBERON DAY!!
I read throught this thread about a month ago picked things here and there, and made my version. Which I'm calling "This isnt an Oberon Clone, its Better" American Wheat.
The keg was carbed up enough yesterday and I tapped it.
Its one of the best beers I ever brewed!

6lb American 2-row
4lb White Wheat
0.5lb CaraPils

1.5oz Saaz 45min
1oz Saaz 15min
After 2 weeks Dry hopped
1oz Cascade
0.5oz Saaz
For 10 days

US-05 1 Packet
Mash 154F
OG-1054
FG-1011

photo.JPG
 
Spartangreen said:
Well it's that time of year again, OBERON DAY!!
I read throught this thread about a month ago picked things here and there, and made my version. Which I'm calling "This isnt an Oberon Clone, its Better" American Wheat.
The keg was carbed up enough yesterday and I tapped it.
Its one of the best beers I ever brewed!

6lb American 2-row
4lb White Wheat
0.5lb CaraPils

1.5oz Saaz 45min
1oz Saaz 15min
After 2 weeks Dry hopped
1oz Cascade
0.5oz Saaz
For 10 days

US-05 1 Packet
Mash 154F
OG-1054
FG-1011
Click to expand...

Spartan, did you do a decoction mash with this recipe? I'm brewing up my first batch of the season this weekend and was thinking about doing it without the decoction mash. I'm using Wyeast 1272 for my yeast but other than that, your recipe looks close to what I've been using... :mug:
 
I did not do a decoction mash, just 154 for 60 minutes. I batch sparge too.
However, I wrote the hop schedule wrong. Sorry!

Start boil with 7 gallons, resulting in 5.5 gallons going into the fermenter.
6lb American 2-row
4lb White Wheat
0.5lb CaraPils

1oz Hallertauer 60min
1oz Saaz 30min
0.5oz Saaz 15min
After 2 weeks Dry hopped
1oz Cascade
0.5oz Saaz
For 10 days

US-05 1 Packet (not re-hydrated)
Mash 154F
OG-1054
FG-1011

Oberon has been released since this first went on tap at my house, and side by side its really hard to tell the difference. I'm brewing another batch this weekend.
 
I do BIAB and I also sparge to get to the pre-boil volume I want.

I've always had a problem when I've been doing a decoction mash of hitting the right temp after bringing the grains to a boil. Well, I just went back and looked and looked to see if I was doing something wrong and I found I wasn't pulling enough grains for the decoction. For some reason, I had put in my recipe to pull just 6 pints instead of 12 pints?! :eek:. So, given my new info, I think I'm going to try the decoction thing again this weekend. If I still have trouble getting it to temp, I might give it up...
 
Spartangreen said:
Well it's that time of year again, OBERON DAY!!
I read throught this thread about a month ago picked things here and there, and made my version. Which I'm calling "This isnt an Oberon Clone, its Better" American Wheat.
The keg was carbed up enough yesterday and I tapped it.
Its one of the best beers I ever brewed!

6lb American 2-row
4lb White Wheat
0.5lb CaraPils

1.5oz Saaz 45min
1oz Saaz 15min
After 2 weeks Dry hopped
1oz Cascade
0.5oz Saaz
For 10 days

US-05 1 Packet
Mash 154F
OG-1054
FG-1011
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recipe, I brewed this on a whim yesterday using yeast from a 12 pack of oberon. I brew extract so as I converted your recipe I didn't realize until afterwards that wheat extract already contains a ratio of "regular" malt and "wheat" malt. It appears my beer won't be very wheaty at all as I maintained the same ratio you had but with light DME and Wheat DME.

Whoops! :drunk:
 
Well, I ended up trying Crypto's recipe using decoction with the adjustments to how much grain I pull for the decoction and I must say I'm glad I did! Had to sample one after just a week in bottles and I think this already surpasses any of my prior attempts at brewing this recipe. It's so good, I'm brewin up another batch this weekend already! :mug:
 
Some arbitrary notes:
Barley Crushed the grist the night before (Crypto's 6,4,.5). Twice decocted. Boiled off a little too much...OG 1068. 60 mins. Loss of 1.5 gals.
Fly sparged, collected 6.3 gals. At 1056 preboil. Brewers Friend says this is 88.53 percent efficiency.
21 grams Hallertau at 60,
.75 oz Saaz at 30,
.25 oz Saaz at 15,

This is a drastic reduction in hops as I'm driving towards a CLONE and past brews have way too much hop presence side by side with Oberon.

6 weeks or so from a sip.

Jhoss
 
Jhoss said:
Some arbitrary notes:
Barley Crushed the grist the night before (Crypto's 6,4,.5). Twice decocted. Boiled off a little too much...OG 1068. 60 mins. Loss of 1.5 gals.
Fly sparged, collected 6.3 gals. At 1056 preboil. Brewers Friend says this is 88.53 percent efficiency.
21 grams Hallertau at 60,
.75 oz Saaz at 30,
.25 oz Saaz at 15,

This is a drastic reduction in hops as I'm driving towards a CLONE and past brews have way too much hop presence side by side with Oberon.

6 weeks or so from a sip.

Jhoss
Click to expand...

Joss, are you skipping the dry hop too? I'll be interested to hear how yours turns out with the reduced hops.

I'm brewing up a new batch this weekend. I'm going to use Hallertau hops for bittering for the first time. I'm trying Hallertau Blanc as the description said it has floral and fruity notes so I thought that sounded pretty interesting. I'm also going to stick with my 2 oz of Saaz for aroma hops as I like the hopiness of the recipe.
 
I do intend to dry hop. I will surely post back upon my side by side comparison. I may dry hop w .5 oz each Saaz and Cascade. Again, pulling back on hops. Oberon just strikes me as malt forward, very little hop presence.
 
I'm wanting to get to something close to Oberon, but dont have any Saaz in house. Of course I could go out and pick some up if absolutely needed but would prefer to use some of existing stock. What does everyone think about subbing cascade, crystal or maybe hersbrucker?

Here's a list of other hops i have available:
Amarillo, chinook, centennial, cascade, belma, crystal, columbus, citra, willamette, mosaic, warrior, hersbrukcer, sirachi ace.
 
kpr121 said:
I'm wanting to get to something close to Oberon, but dont have any Saaz in house. Of course I could go out and pick some up if absolutely needed but would prefer to use some of existing stock. What does everyone think about subbing cascade, crystal or maybe hersbrucker?

Here's a list of other hops i have available:
Amarillo, chinook, centennial, cascade, belma, crystal, columbus, citra, willamette, mosaic, warrior, hersbrukcer, sirachi ace.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I'd not substitute the Saaz. not if you want to emulate the flavor as much as possible.

Of course, if you just want to try it and see how it tastes, it will probably be "kinda like" Oberon, and might even be a great beer!
 
Thanks, I think I'll pick up some saaz to get a close clone. Gonna pick up some bells beer to harvest yeast also.
 
Here's what I brewed up about 3 weeks ago.

12.5 gallon batch

75% efficiency

OG 1.053

IBUs: 16.4

Color 4.3 srm

10 lbs wheat malt

12 lbs 2 row

1.5 lb C-15

8 oz acid malt



Mash at 154 for 60 minutes, batch sparge



1.5 oz hallertauer Hersbrucker 60 min

1.0 oz hallertauer hersbrucker 30 min

1.5 oz Saaz 15 min

Bell’s Yeast ~ 500 billion cells

1.5 oz Saaz dry hop 7 days. (.75 oz total per keg)

Here's a side by side. A little darker since I used 15l instead of 10l crystal. Tastes pretty damn close. Haven't dry hopped yet, there is definitely a noticeable difference in hop aroma and flavor.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429753372.653315.jpg
 
I'm thinking about doing a very similar malt and hop variety clone with Bells yeast too, but pushing it closer to 28 IBU since I have seen Bell's response that its about 30.

When you said "there is definitely a noticeable difference in hop aroma and flavor." what did you mean with your batch? Was the actual more pronounced than yours or vice versa?

Thanks,
Justin
 
I gave up on the recipe that started this thread:
6lbs 2 Row
4lbs white wheat
.75lbs Munich
.75lbs Carapils/Dextrine
Side X side, I just never thought it was close enough. Decoction, no decoction et all, just no, not close enough.

So I tried this back on May 2nd:
5 lbs white wheat
4 lbs 2 row
.75 Munich
.5 Caravienna
.25 Torrified wheat.
1oz herbrucker at 45
.5 Saaz at 15
.5 Saaz at 7

Just tasted it this past weekend...nice. It has that slick sweetness that I get from Oberon. Stand by for SideXSide. I'm optimistic.
 
Jhoss said:
I gave up on the recipe that started this thread:
6lbs 2 Row
4lbs white wheat
.75lbs Munich
.75lbs Carapils/Dextrine
Side X side, I just never thought it was close enough. Decoction, no decoction et all, just no, not close enough.

So I tried this back on May 2nd:
5 lbs white wheat
4 lbs 2 row
.75 Munich
.5 Caravienna
.25 Torrified wheat.
1oz herbrucker at 45
.5 Saaz at 15
.5 Saaz at 7

Just tasted it this past weekend...nice. It has that slick sweetness that I get from Oberon. Stand by for SideXSide. I'm optimistic.
Click to expand...
So, did you dry hop at all? I will be anxious to hear your results of the side by side...
 

Similar threads

H
Citrusy Pale Ale to clean out the freezer
Replies
7
Views
749
lumpher
lumpher
G
Kolsch recipe - need help
Replies
31
Views
2K
superiorsat
S
F
what grains do i need to turn my straw pilsner into a golden lager
Replies
7
Views
737
hottpeper13
H
3 Dawg Night
Pliny the Elder American Pale Ale
Replies
14
Views
2K
redrocker652002
R
tderanleau
Modelo especial clone
Replies
4
Views
2K
tderanleau
tderanleau
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top