Spotted Cow Extract Clone Help / Challenge...Will Donate $25 to HomeBrewTalk

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BrewNinja1 said:
Well I finally broke out a bottle of spotted cow and did a side by side comparison. Taste is nearly identical. Color is very close. Mine was cloudy, theirs is clear (even though on the bottle it mentions its hazy...bs). The only real difference is aroma. SC is has a much more floral aroma that was pretty strong. Mine had it, but not nearly as strong as theirs. Other than that, spot on! Here is the recipe I used:

Recipe: Spotted Cow Clone
Style: Cream Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.59 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 5.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 48.78 %
2.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 19.51 %
1.75 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 17.07 %
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
0.35 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 10.1 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (30 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
1.10 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.25 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 12.81 qt of water at 164.6 F 152.0 F
Click to expand...

ok ... I brewed this recipe 5 days ago (my first all grain by the way) .. and I just did a gravity check with a little taste test, and I can already tell it's going to be very close to the real one ... man I am going to love being able to have a spotted cow when ever I want .. I live in southern indiana and new glarus doesn't distribute out of wisconsin the way I understand it :mad: .. anyway .. thanks for the recipe ... I think it's going to be very good :)
 
Well I just had a sample of our attempt at the Cow (kind of). The yeast we used was Wyeast Budvar 2000 (a lager yeast) that had no starter (way underpitched). My fears may have been realized. The beer at this point (not yet lagered, and not carbonated), is too sweet and fruity. Lagering should mellow it out, so I'll get back to you all in a month.

I think it will be passable, but would have been a million times better with an appropriate yeast and pitching rate.
 
I rebrewed this last Wednesday and got much better efficiency doing a full volume BiaB mash and ended up with about six gallons of 1.048 wort. I adjusted the hop schedule a bit and will detail that once I sample the beer. I pitched this one at 65 degrees and have this one fermenting at 55-57 degrees F in a cool corner of my basement and it has been slowly bubbling along for the last two days. I'm not sure how high my pitching rate will be since my 1 qt starter volcanoed in under 30 minutes (I top-cropped the last batch with this yeast and pitched the whole works!). I also ended up mashing a bit warmer than I wanted at 154 degrees. I'm hoping for a cleaner profile with these changes and I must admit that there's still a lot of learning that I have to do before I'm proficient at this AG stuff.
 
Just brewed this last night for the 1st time AG (last year I did a PM). Hopefully this turns out better since I wasn't too impressed with the PM results. I ended up getting a stuck sparge from too fine of a crush which was a PITA, but in the end collected 6gallons wort, boiled down to 5.25.

Strike water was a bit high, so I added some cool water and stirred the mash at dough-in and next thing I knew I was at 151 so just a bit lower but I think it should still be good. I ended up with an OG of 1.053, which by my calcs was about 74-75%brewhouse eff.

BrewNinja, thanks for the recipe, I pretty much used what you said you've settled in to except i only had 1.5# flaked maize, nothing too significant there.
 
I just finished my first corny of the partial mash recipe from this thread. It was awesome.... so awesome the second batch is already in the secondary. Just saw the ag recipe cant wait to try it biab style. The partial mash recipe was almost an exact clone in a side by side test. The only differance I noticed was it had a much more hoppy aroma than the cow. Thanks for all your hard work to perfect the clone guys :mug:
 
here's a pic of the one I brewed on post #201 ... this is really close in color as far as I can tell from other pics of the real thing ... the taste is just wonderful .. I only get SC once a year in june so I don't exactly know the taste of it, but I can tell this is very close ... I'll be taking a few of these up there in june to compare and I'll give a side by side taste evaluation to you all ... BEER IS GOOD !!!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.ph...2&set=a.502154727341.282208.595697341&theater

here's my version of the recipe scaled down to 4 gallons which is as much as I am able to boil at this point

http://hopville.com/recipe/521750/cream-ale-recipes/scc-ale-spotted-cow
 
Minor detail... But I'm drinking a SC right now and just realized the reason some of us are seeing cleaner pours from the bottle when New Glarus states it's a cloudy beer is because the yeast have fully suspended out. I almost think this beer is meant to be drank from the bottle which arouses the yeast and adds flavor. Something to think about when perfecting the cl
 
one.

iPhone messed up. Totally noticing a taste profile change as I finish the bottle. This is how I remember spotted cow... It's better from the bottle than glass
 
wookiemofo, you raise a good point with an unfiltered beer that is typically cloudy. Take Hoegaarden for example, right on their bottle they say to pour 2/3 into the glass, then swirl the remaining around in the bottle to swish up the yeast and create the proper head before pouring it all in.

I haven't had a true SC in a while, but I have 5 gallons in primary right now so I'll have to pick up a 6er to compare again, both from the bottle and the glass.
 
I think I might have to rethink my strategy of 3-4 weeks in the primary and 4 weeks in the bottle. While this clone was good at 4 weeks, it still had a slightly "off" aroma to it and didn't finish as clean as a Spotted Cow. Forward to 5 weeks in the bottle and it's an entirely different story! It really is amazing to me how much of a difference an extra week makes. The aroma is extremely close to Spotted Cow (I'm from WI - I'll do a side by side soon), and the taste and finish are just about there now. This has happened with my last two beers (caramel amber and this clone) - good after 4 weeks, but 5-6 weeks in the bottle makes them a completely different animal. Patience! :mug:
 
Does someone have a good partial mash for this with instructions? I would like the newest addition if possible!
 
Batch #2 is a success. It's a bit too young to do a comparison, but it is definitely a good quaffable beer. I'm not sure my hop addition changes were quite what I was going for, but they are friendly to the taste. I'm guessing that I had some DMS issues with the first batch. My stovetop wasn't quite strong enough to get a good hard boil going on during the first batch for a 60 minute boil. I did a 90 minute boil with this batch and there's no detectable DMS to me. I've got a more powerful stovetop now and will be upgrading to a lager outdoor burning this summer.

For those who are wondering, I did a FWH Northern Brewer and a flame out Saaz. I'm going to do a 60 min NB, 15 min Saaz, and 0 min Saaz next time for a bit more bitterness and hopefully flavor. I did undercarb this batch it seems. I was measuring out the 5 oz that BeerSmith was telling me but 4 oz seemed (so much for "thinking") like enough so I stopped there; bad idea. I'll do the full 5 oz next time.

I'm going to give the remaining batch at least one more week war conditioning and then a week in the fridge for "lagering" (actually to get the Kolsch to settle out for brightening).
 
I used the recipe below. It is a slight variation of the one that I posted a few pages back with the side-by-side pic.


Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.50 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain
1.63 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (FWH-90 min) Hops 18.1 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (0 min) Hops 0 IBU
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
Harvested Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale

Mashed at 154 for 60 minutes (BiaB)

Fermentation
4 days @ 54 degrees F (from OG to 1.015)
17 days @ 65 degrees F
OG - 1.048
FG - 1.006
ABV - 5.6%

(I went from memory so some numbers might be slightly off for the time being)
 
Well I bottled on 3/22, so I put a bottle in the fridge yesterday for the 2-week test. I poured the homebrew version in 1 glass and true Spotted Cow in another. To me they were as close to identical as I think you can get. I brought them upstairs and my wife couldn't tell between them, thought mine had a nicer aroma, and picked mine as the better beer. I definitely call this a success and will probably have to get another batch going soon! :mug:


Here's a comparison picture my wife took with her phone...
http://ow.ly/i/9US6
 
Congrats Slowfro!

I finally brewed my next three Spotted Cow clone batches this past weekend. These are 2.5 gallons batches. I am very optimistic!

For my third batch I swapped out the Vienna malt that I used in my second batch and made a few adjustments.

Spotted Cow Clone #3
3.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 65.42 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 18.69 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 9.35 %
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.67 %
0.10 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 1.87 %
0.75 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.40 %] (60 min) Hops 13.1 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [6.80 %] (5 min) Hops 2
Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565)

For the fourth version I kept the recipe the same as version three, but I used some Safale K-97, which is supposed to be a Kolsch strain. Not many places carry it (I had to order from AHS), so even if it works out, I might not be able to get it easily.

Spotted Cow Clone #4
3.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 65.42 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 18.69 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 9.35 %
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.67 %
0.10 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 1.87 %
0.75 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.40 %] (60 min) Hops 13.1 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [6.80 %] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
1 Pkgs SafAle Kolsch Ale (Fermentis #K-97) Yeast-Ale

For the fifth version I went back to my second recipe with the Vienna malt, but I used the K-97 yeast that I used in #4.

Creamy Cow #5
3.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.25 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 18.42 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 18.42 %
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.60 %
0.18 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.31 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.40 %] (60 min) Hops 17.3 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [6.80 %] (5 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
1 Pkgs SafAle Kolsch Ale (Fermentis #K-97) Yeast-Ale

It was a brewing marathon this weekend! I also brewed a Russian Imperial Stout on Friday. Four days of brewing! Spring Break is the best.
 
Okay, I'm doing a side-by-side now between mine and SC. To me it seems that SC has changed over the last 6 months as I'm picking up more of a banana taste but my palette isn't all that refined. I can definitely tell that mine was fermented cold. The beer is smooth, clean, well balanced, but I can pick up a bit of cooked vegetable that I had a bunch of last time. I'm thinking that my boils need more attention and DMS might be an issue with this beer for me. There's a bit of bitterness that lingers that I didn't notice last time so the FWH and 90 minute boil might be contributing there. The flame out hop addition was a waste and I'd definitely keep the 15 minute addition next time. I like my beer, but I'm going to ferment a bit warmer next time (~60 degrees) and do a 60 min bittering addition and a 15 min flavor. The color is damned near identical this time.

I cannot get past the banana to phenolic taste that I am picking up in my current purchased SC. It is almost detracting from the satisfaction of the beer and tastes more Wit like than cream ale. Tonight I like mine better and with a couple tweeks, should be a regular in my rotation for my BMC friends and session nights.
 
So what's our official hop schedule for this?

Everyone seems to agree that its Norther Brew at 60... Saaz seems to be fluctuating from 30, 15, 5 and Flame Out
 
wookiemofo said:
S-05 instead of Wyeast Kolsch?
Click to expand...

yea ... it was what the lhbs recommended since they didnt have a kolsch at the time ... and on this last batch i still have in the fermenter .. i just pitched right back onto about half that cake ... it taste great to me and those i have let try it .. probably would be better with the kolsch but i love the stuff just as is, so i may just keep making it this way .. im a noob so im still learning
 
Just brewed bacth #3... first AG batch of spotted cow. Nailed my eff smack on the nose... first time doing that with an AG batch!

5lb Pale 2 Row
2lb Pilsner Breiss
1.75lb Corn Flaked
.5lb Barley Flaked
.5lb Munich 10L

.3oz Northern Brewer @ 60
.5oz Czech Saaz @ 30

Wyeast Kolsh

Cadarnell's recipe minus the crystal. Putting this on tap as well since I've had carb issues in the past with the bottle. Even contemplating putting it on a nitro tap to see what it does for the fruity/floral aroma.
 
wookiemofo said:
Just brewed bacth #3... first AG batch of spotted cow. Nailed my eff smack on the nose... first time doing that with an AG batch!

5lb Pale 2 Row
2lb Pilsner Breiss
1.75lb Corn Flaked
.5lb Barley Flaked
.5lb Munich 10L

.3oz Northern Brewer @ 60
.5oz Czech Saaz @ 30

Wyeast Kolsh

Cadarnell's recipe minus the crystal. Putting this on tap as well since I've had carb issues in the past with the bottle. Even contemplating putting it on a nitro tap to see what it does for the fruity/floral aroma.
Click to expand...

good luck ... that recipe was taken from a post on here by BrewNinja1 ... once again .. i think its great .. I hope you have access to some spotted cow so you can do a side by side ... cheers man !!
 
Alright all you cows...here's my question. I made the Partial Mash that Wookimofo posted a while back. No major issues have came up except this...

Like many other have when they brew this, the foam on the top never really falls. So while reading about the Kolcsh yeast, people said just give it a little swirl, let it fall, and then rack. Which I did. NOW I have a 5 gall carboy that looks VERY hazy and only the top is giving me the pure orange look that cow has.

I have drank PLENTY of cow in my life, in fact we went through a half barrel here about 5 months ago. My point is, it is never THIS hazy. It has been 48 hrs since this, and nothing has settled out.

Anyone else have the same issue?
 
I cold crash outside for a day or two (I don't have a large enough chamber/refrigerator in the house). Looking at the weather, it is supposed to be chilly later this week in our neck of the woods so I'd put your fermentor outside for at least 24 hours to get everything to settle out. I cold condition all of my bottles of "cow" for at least a week before drinking to get the remaining yeast from priming to settle out. I still get a good 1/8" of sediment on the bottom at times, but it compacts well and I can still pour a nearly clear glass of beer.
 
Good call pvtschultz. You could probably set it outside from thursday night into sunday morning. Get it elevated so you can rack right from the carboy in it's location.

Or just let it settle out in the bottles. As i've mentioned in my previous notes, the cow is supposed to have a yeast character to it, and i think clearing this beer is going against it's true flavor. I just don't know how to institute that yeast character into a keg.
 
Can't tell we're all from the same region eh? I was planning just that, out on Thursday, bottle on Sunday!

Cheers!
 
I shoot for 2.7 volumes per BeerSmith. I shorted my last batch and the result just isn't the same. I'm enjoying it thoroughly, but it would taste better with a bit more bubbly.

I have had SC both ways, cloudy and bright. The first few sixers of real SC I drank a year back or so were bright and missing the yeasty flavor, I really liked it. Lately, the SC that I've had have been a mixture of bright and cloudy. Again, I prefer it bright and w/o the yeasty taste. Just my preference.

My last bit of advice for those wanting to brew this beer. My Rahr 2-Row seems to be DMS prone and my stove-top burner isn't quite up to the task of a hard boil. I did a 90 minute boil this last time, combined with a cool fermentation, and got a great tasting beer. I'd stick to the 60 min NB and 15 min Saaz for hops. The only thing that I'm missing is that sweet maltiness in the nose, other than that it is a great clone of a WI favorite (among the BMC crowd).
 
Is anyone kegging this beer or is everyone bottling it?

I'm about to get it for the first time and I cannot decide if I should set it and forget it for 2-3 weeks, or prime it at room temp for 2-3 weeks.

In the bottle this beer really benefited from a months rest... i'm worried that force carbing it in the fridge will slow it's aging process too much.

But I have yet to keg it, so it could taste great right from the get go.
 
I think that most of he bottle conditioning time is because of the yeast moreso than anything else. Kegging after three weeks primary (with cold crashing) shouldn't be a problem but I'm just shooting from the hip on this one.
 
I'm brewing this one today. I'm very excited. I've been following this thread and have been eager to get this one in my rotation. SC is a favorite for SWMBO and I enjoy it too.

I actually cooked up a batch about a month ago, but had a catastrophe cooling it, and I lost the whole batch, along with my 6.5 gal carboy. I can't wait to get this one on tap.

I keg all my beers, so I'll let you know.
 
uh oh... ALONG with your 6.5gal carboy? What happened?

Mines been on tap for almost 2 weeks, pulled a small sample last night... tasty! Can't wait for it to fully carb up, good summer beer.
 
Let's call it user error (or an ID-10-T error).

I built a home made wort chiller out of 1/2" SS tubing. It was a reverse concept from the immersion chiller principal. Nearly identical to the concept of a jockey box. Since I don't have a pump, I rely on gravity.

Long story made short, after having an air leak at a coupling that I couldn't remedy, I abandoned the chiller. I went for plan C - ice bath. However, I don't have a sink/cooler large enough to immerse my keggle full of boiling wort, and didn't like the concept of hauling it into the house to put it in the bathtub. I decided to drain the wort into my carboy and immerse it into the cooler full of ice.

Yep, you guessed it - thermal shock. The glass lasted a whole 18 seconds before breaking and sending my wort all over the garage floor.

Now, I should have known better. I just got caught up in the moment and my frustrations got the best of me. Maybe I should have been drinking.
 
I finally tasted my Spotted Cow clones. If you recall I used Safale K-97 (Kolsch) to ferment the 4th and 5th batches. I am not adept at detecting which flavors are which, but the dry yeast is way wrong. Not even sure it would be good for a Kolsch. Maybe that is why it is difficult to find.
The 3rd batch, which is the one where I used Munich instead of Vienna, is very close. I used Hersbrucker to bitter, and most everyone is using Northern Brewer.

Am I wrong or can I use pretty much any hops to bitter?

I really preferred recipe 2, where I used the Vienna:

3.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 55.25 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) 18.42 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 18.42 %
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 4.60 %
0.18 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) 3.31 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.40 %] (60 min) 17.3 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [6.80 %] (0 min)
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
Pkgs Kolsch Yeast Wyeast Labs #2565

I think I may be done with my Spotted Cow cloning, and start to transform this recipe into what I really like. I may begin experimenting with different hops with this grain bill, and then experiment with different yeasts (Belgian!).
All you Spotted Cow brewers have helped me greatly. Thank you.
 
eanmcnulty said:
I finally tasted my Spotted Cow clones. If you recall I used Safale K-97 (Kolsch) to ferment the 4th and 5th batches. I am not adept at detecting which flavors are which, but the dry yeast is way wrong. Not even sure it would be good for a Kolsch. Maybe that is why it is difficult to find.
The 3rd batch, which is the one where I used Munich instead of Vienna, is very close. I used Hersbrucker to bitter, and most everyone is using Northern Brewer.

Am I wrong or can I use pretty much any hops to bitter?

I really preferred recipe 2, where I used the Vienna:

3.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 55.25 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) 18.42 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 18.42 %
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) 4.60 %
0.18 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) 3.31 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.40 %] (60 min) 17.3 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [6.80 %] (0 min)
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
Pkgs Kolsch Yeast Wyeast Labs #2565

I think I may be done with my Spotted Cow cloning, and start to transform this recipe into what I really like. I may begin experimenting with different hops with this grain bill, and then experiment with different yeasts (Belgian!).
All you Spotted Cow brewers have helped me greatly. Thank you.
Click to expand...

thanks for all your work on it ... I will be up in the wisconsin dells in 3 weeks and I'm gonna grab about a case to bring home ... i think Ill try this recipe next and do the side by side with it ... I'm all out of my last batch, which I know was close, but I kinda just want to mix it up a little .. here's to spotted cows !!
 

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