Well, I've read this entire thread and had a go at it, so after having recently polished off the last bottle of this clone, I wanted to share my impressions.
Of course I brewed to original belly slide version, in keeping with the theme here and would have to agree with others that the 'body' of the beer itself is not as thick as the modern BM. I drank all of them, so it was def a drinkable beer, but not in the body realm of my smash ales.
basics:
2.75 g batch
2.5 gw 2-row
2.0 briess white wheat
0.5 oats
0.25 carpils
mashed 156 60 min.
90 minute boil
60 min .75 oz Hallertau
S-05 2 weeks, no cold crash.
Some observations/changes I'm contemplating for another batch:
1) I used GW 2-row, thinking that great western sounds like it goes well with Denver. I usually do ales with Rahr and those brews seemed to have the thickness I wanted this beer to have, or be closer too. More or that later.
2) My batch was 2.75 gallon and I scaled the coriander/orange down to the gram from Wayne's original suggestion. After sampling the cooled wort I got the coriander but was missing some orange, so I zested a single sweet orange from my local grocer and dry hopped it. The result was pleasant with only a slightly forward orange flavor, which isnt a deal breaker at my house. Next time I'll just bump up the dried peel from the proportion used at boil and let it ride.
3) My OG was 1046 with 1008 FG. This might have an influence on the lower body character, so I'll see if I cant put the next one well into the fifties.
4) The wheat contribution did not go unnoticed. Can't say I get that much wheat from commercial Blue Moon, perhaps its base is a little higher % than belly slide. Not I big wheat fan myself anyway, so in the future I might try a little less wheat.
5) Overall I enjoyed the beer, just need build in a little more body/mouthfeel/malty sweetness. There not a lot of room past 156 mash so that leaves the grains. Might split the Rahr with some Maris Otter, but don't want to inject too many variables at one time. Probably just do Rahr alone next time.
Thanks for everyone's previous contributions to the thread.