Trying to Clone Bells Oberon - Attempt 1

Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:45 am

I'd like to give this a try with an extract kit.

Here is what I've put together so far. I would appreciate any input.

Thanks

Sun Jun 20, 2010 9:38 am

A couple thoughts: I believe their house yeast strain is Irish ale yeast. Not sure where I read that though...
There is a "clone" recipe in the second Clonebrews book. I'm not sure how close it is because those books are kind of notorious for using certain ingredients not even close to the original recipe. BUT, it calls for very small spice additions of coriander and orange peel. I'm not sure if that is info they got from the brewery or if Bells still even does that. No info on spicing on the website and I would think legally they would have to say that on the bottle but I'm not sure.

Sun Jun 20, 2010 2:59 pm

I can give ya some tips... I work with this beer every day. I'm in no position to divulge too much, because well, I don't know what I am and am not supposed to share (just started there 3 weeks ago in the cellar for an internship), but I know one thing that is common knowledge that people at Bell's let outta the bag is the yeast strain.

I don't know the closest WLP or Wyeast equivalent... who needs to. Just culture it outta the bottle! The beer isn't filtered - but it also isn't bottle conditioned... regardless, there is plenty in there for you to culture the strain up.

As for everything else - I prob shouldn't comment on, but I would say what you got should get ya close. Maybe bump your BU's up a bit.... but not much.

Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:08 pm

Hmmm..

I heard the orange peel once as well. I'm not sure though...Could that spice come from the yeast?

Thanks for the input guys!

Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:46 pm

I don't believe there are any spices added. Aside from not tasting anything specific when I used to drink it regularly, I've always heard that it was one of the brews they use to grow yeast for other batches so I would suspect they would want to keep the yeast clean and un-spiced