Many craft beer fans entered the world of better beer through Blue Moon. It’s an very smooth and citrusy representation of the Belgian Witbier style: pale yellow in color, somewhat hazy from the use of wheat and oats, and with prominent citrus aroma and flavor from orange peel and coriander.
One of the big differences between traditional witbier and Blue Moon is that the latter uses an American ale yeast rather than a Belgian strain. If you want a more traditional interpretation, substitute Wyeast 3942 for the strain listed in the blue moon recipe below. Keep on the low end of the fermentation temperature range to avoid excessive phenolics.
When serving, remember that Belgian wits are supposed to be hazy – try giving that bottle a swirl before you pour it to enhance the haze.
Ready to brew? Then check out these two Blue Moon clone recipes. One of the beer recipes is for homebrewing a Blue Moon using extract in a partial mash. The other is a Blue Moon clone recipe for all-grain homebrewing.
Blue Moon Recipe (Clone)
(Partial Mash Beer Recipe, 5-Gallon Batch)
Specs
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
IBUs: 9
ABV: 5.4%
SRM: 5
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. Wheat LME
1 lb. Two-Row Brewers Malt
1 lb. White Wheat Malt
.75 lb. Flaked Oats
1 oz. Hallertau hops (3.9 AAUs) @ :60
3 oz. Valencia dried sweet orange peel @ :10
1.5 tsp. fresh ground coriander @ :10
Wyeast 1056: American Ale Yeast
5 oz. corn sugar for priming
Directions: Prepare a 2L yeast starter. Mash the two-row malt, wheat malt, and flaked oats in 5 quarts of water. Hold temperature at 154°F. for 60 minutes. Strain the wort into the brew kettle, then rinse grains with 1 gallon of water at 170°F., collecting run-off in the brew kettle. Mix in liquid malt extract and add clean water to bring boil volume to 3.5 gallons. Bring to a boil, add hops, and boil for 60 minutes. Add the orange peel and coriander in the last 10 minutes of the boil. Chill wort, top off to 5 gallons, and stir to mix and aerate. Pitch yeast and ferment at 65F for one week, then transfer to secondary for two weeks. Bottle with priming sugar and condition for two weeks. Optional: serve with a slice of orange.
Blue Moon Recipe (Clone)
(All-Grain Beer Recipe, 6-Gallon Batch)
Specs
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
IBUs: 9
ABV: 5.4%
SRM: 5
Ingredients
5.5 lb. Two-Row Brewers Malt
4.5 lb. White Wheat Malt
1 lb. Flaked Oats
0.6 oz. Hallertau hops (2.4 AAUs) @ :60
3 oz. Valencia (sweet) orange peel @ :10
1.5 tsp. fresh ground coriander @ :10
Wyeast 1056: American Ale Yeast
5 oz. corn sugar for priming
Directions: Prepare a 2L yeast starter. Single infusion mash at 154°F., using 1.5 qts water per pound of grain. Sparge to collect 7.5 gallons of wort. Add hops at beginning of 60-minute boil. Add orange peel and coriander in last 10 minutes of boil. Chill wort, pitch yeast starter, and ferment at 65°F. for one week, then transfer to secondary for two weeks. Bottle with priming sugar and condition for two weeks. Optional: serve with a slice of orange.
Have you ever brewed a Blue Moon clone recipe? How did it go? Share in the comments below!
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.
Question: I just tried this recipe for the first time. It’s been several years since I made homebrew and I have never made a beer with this many ingredients to it. And I have never made homebrew with DME. After 10 days I racked into a secondary and I had about 1.5 gals of trub (more than any other brew I have made by far). I went ahead and added 1 gal of filtered water to the secondary. Any thoughts?
Express Brewing, actually, we do not recommend topping beer back up the way that you would when making wine. By adding the extra water, you have probably watered down the beer.
Adding water to a secondary is not recommended. It will reduce your avb and the flavor of the beer will be compromised.
I’m sure you figured out if you beer is good by now but in the future I wouldn’t add water. If you do, I’d boil it, just like you boil the wort before adding or just boil extra water with priming sugar (if you bottle). I’ve made this beer a few times, if like sour beers this recipe will make an excellent sour beer with correct yeast. I personally hate sours tho, don’t ask me how I know this.
What yeast should I use to make it taste like a sour? Thanks.
I modified the AG version of this recipe for 3 gallons and giving it a go this weekend. I’ll report back once it’s time to drink! Cheers.
I brewed 85 Gallons in a 3.5Bbl system. So far so good. I’m still force carbonating in my bright tank. Mash temp 148 (I wanted 154) Total boil time was 60 minutes in electric Kettle.
Ingredients: 2-Row Pale Malt-65Lbs // White Wheat-43Lbs // Flaked Soft White Wheat-35Lbs
HOP’s: Willamette-8 Oz’s-30minutes and Hallertauer-8 Oz’s-50 minutes (all Pellets)
Extras: Coriander Seed crushed-8 Oz’s 15 minutes // Bitter Orange-8 Oz’s 15 minutes // Sweet Orange-8 Oz’s 5 minutes
All Hops and Spices were put into steeping bags and pulled from kettle after time-out and before transfer to Fermenter via heat exchanger
I used 6 Vials of White Labs WLP400. Recommend 7 for this size of wort. Fermentation started 15 hours after pitching. Nice slow steady fermentation.
Taste good and smooth now after only 1 week in Bright tank.
Good citrus flavor but hard to taste any Orange. Hope that comes-out with aging…
I’m working with a recipe, it calls to ferment at 65F for one week, then transfer to secondary for two weeks.
Why transfer to a secondary container – clarity?
Scott, there are a lot of opinions as to why. Clarity is brought up as a reason for this, but there is also the issue of dead yeast cells adding flavors to the beer. One could argue that a cleaner tasting beer will be produced if the bulk of the sediment is removed early from the fermentation.
I have made this recipe 4 times now . The first time exactly as stated above. Turned out great but the orange peel was a little much for me . Second time I cut the peel in half and I felt that was just right.. Not being a huge orange peel guy the third time I got rid of it all together and I really liked that batch the best for my friends who desire that taste I added an orange slice and they were in business . I just brewed another batch last night and I cut the oats all together. we will see how this goes! All in all a great recipe
The recipe says to sparge to 7.5 gal.for the grain recipe. The total volume is 5 gal. Is that evaporation of 2.5 gals in the brew process? I’m trying this for the first time. Don’t get it.
John, thank you for bringing this to our attention. The all grain is actually a 6-gallon recipe and we have made the appropriate corrections to the article. In the boil you will lose about 1.5 gallons of wort to evaporation.
This is my 2nd all grain brew. It came out fantastic! I omitted the valencia orange peel and used the outer core of one orange grated. I soaked it in vodka to sterilize for ten minutes, drained it and put it in the third fermentation rack for four days than bottled. Excellent recipe! Making it again double.
just to clarify, are the Valencia orange peels in this recipe dried or fresh?
Yes, I omitted this and used a fresh orange grated. Soaked it in vodka and put it in the third fermentation for four days.
Paul, the sweet orange peel referred to in this recipe is dried.
Sweet Orange Peel
http://www.eckraus.com/sweet-orange-peel.html
The recipe looks very gold, unfortunatly its for a 5 gallon batch… How it works if i want to brew only 1 gallon ? I divide all the ingredient by 5? Thanks
Damien, that is correct, you will divide all of the ingredients by 5 to make one-gallon. The only exception is the yeast, you will still use the entire packet of yeast for one-gallon.
Thank you very much!! Lets make some 🙂
Your better off making 5 gals. The yeast your gonna use is the same. Make a yeast starter, see YouTube, for 24hrs and brew the recipe the next day.
Entire packet of yeast for one gallon??????????
Gregory, yes you want to add the entire pack of yeast even if making only one gallon. What you are adding to the wort is not an amount of yeast so much as you are adding a starting colony of yeast. The yeast in the packet represents the minimum number of yeast cells recommend to start an active fermentation, regardless of batch size. The article posted below will discuss this in more detail. The article is discussing wine yeast but the sames rules apply.
How Much Yeast To use
http://www.eckraus.com/blog/how-much-wine-yeast-to-use
Good info, thx
Gonna try this next week. Can I sub navel orange peels?
Gary, yes you can substitute with the navel orange peels.
I just brewed 10 gal of a similar blue moon clone recipe. It recommended Safale 05 but I use Chico strain liquid because the shop didn’t have it. You really should try to find some mccormicks ground orange peel for this recipe, I hear it makes a difference. I put some Irish moss in mind forgetting it’s supposed to be cloudy, oh well?
I was wondering how a lager yeast (Wyeast 2124) would work. The ambient temp in that part of my house runs from 79-85 degrees in the summer.
extexanwannabe, you can certainly use the lager yeast. However, keep in mind that using the lager yeast will make the beer less fruity.
Thanks for the heads up!
This will be my first time making any beer. Is there a 3 gallon recipe
I would like a 3 gallon recipe. Is that possible? If yes will to post. Also this will be my first time making any beer.
Jamie, all you need to do to turn the 5-gallon recipe into a 3-gallon is divide all of the ingredients by 5 and multiply that by the the number of gallons you want to make. The only exception is the yeast, you will still use the entire packet. Good luck with you first beer making experience. Please let us know if we can assist you.
I’ve completed an extract batch of this and it worked out just fine! My brewers supply didn’t have LME so we used DME instead. I started out at 1.06 OG and finished at 1.019. I used Omega West Coast ale yeast and just pitched it from the package (no starter). I only did a primary stage and cold crashed it after two weeks, then right to the bottle. I’d give it two weeks to condition at room temp. and serve cold. I will probably make it again but might try a partial mash conversion for some of the DME. Tastes very close to the original!
Hi there,
a friend of mine bought small brewery in Eastern Europe, looking for brewer who can do Blue Moon clone and can pass the knowledge to local brewers, probably someone who was close to Blue Moon taste continuously be the right person, someone who loves to travel bit.. and make some extra money… give me shout if thats you or if you know someone who can do the job… Thanks a lot…
I use an all grain recipe which works great. Hint add some marmalade at the end with the orange peals. Nice touch.
The 5 gallon Partial Mash recipe calls for 1oz Hallertau Hops. the 6 Gallon All-Grain recipe calls for .6oz Hallertau Hops, yet they both have the same IBU. Am I missing something?
Thomas, with the all-grain recipe the boil size is 7.5 gallons and the partial mash boil size is 3.5 gallons. The larger the boil size, the more you get from the hops. Below is the link to an IBU calculator that might also help.
IBU Calculator
http://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/
Hi,
Which dry yeast can I use to substitute the Wyeast 1056?
And is 3 oz of sweet orange peel too much?
Thank you!
Geoffrey, in place of the Wyeast 1056 you can use the Safale US-05. This is a proven clone recipe so I would follow the recipe and use the amount of orange peel that it calls for.
Warning! Do not use 3 Oz. of sweet orange peel. After tasting this the orange is not on your an overpowering flavor (which it’s not supposed to be) but it also adds a lot of sweetness to the beer. This is as close to candy as I have ever tried. After tasting I looked up other recipes and most said to use 1oz. Wish I had read them first. 🙁
What kind of water profile did you use for this recipe? I’d image you would’ve used a very soft water profile. Maybe something like this
Ca=50, Mg=10, Na=16, Cl=70, S04=70 or do you think my Cl & SO4 are to high…..maybe go Cl 50, SO4 50?
Jimmy, when this recipe was developed no water profile was determined.
How can I scale this down to 1 gallon?
Nina, all you need to do is divide the recipe by the number of gallons it makes to turn it into a one-gallon recipe. The only exception is the yeast, you will still use the entire packet.
it says to sparge to get 7.5 gal. is there a specific temp to sparge the all grain recipe? do you just batch sparge? if so do you let it steep again? how long? what temp? tahnks in advance.
Pat, you want to sparge somewhere between 165-170 degrees. Yes, batch sparging is fine. No, you do not need to steep again, you just want to boil out.
The Clone recipe states;
0.6 oz. Hallertau hops (2.4 AAUs) @ :60
3 oz. Valencia (sweet) orange peel @ :10
1.5 tsp. fresh ground coriander @ :10
Does @ .60 mean adding hops at flame out or at the beginning of the boil? Same question with the Oranges and coriander @.10? 10 min left in the boil OR 10 min in? New to brewing so please excuse my ignorance if this is a silly question. Thanks.
Michael, You will mix in liquid malt extract and add clean water to bring boil volume to 3.5 gallons. Then you will bring that to a boil, then add hops and boil for 60 minutes. You will add the orange peel and coriander in the last 10 minutes of the boil.
Just racked the Partial Mash recipe into secondary. 1.064 out of the kettle and 1.011 into the secondary. Color was dark out of the kettle and I thought it would just be off because it was a partial mash brew. However, it has mellowed to be spot on in the last 7 days. Flavor is very promising (recipe as is, except Safale US-05 instead of the Wyeast and DME instead of LME). Can’t wait to get it into bottles. Thanks!
Do you use the coriander seed whole or lightly crush?
Hugo, if using coriander seed for this recipe you would need to crush the coriander.
Hugo, if using coriander seed for this recipe you would need to crush the coriander.
Can I use unmalted wheat instead of malted wheat?
Don, we do not recommend using unmalted wheat. First it would change the flavor dramatically. Secondly, malted wheat has sugar needed for fermentation. If using unmalted wheat the beer may not ferment.
Made a variation on this using golden promise instead of 2row. Came out nice, but not hazy…can hear opaque! The irish moss didn’t do much, beerclear did nothing, it settled out in cask after 2months but that was it. Slightly darker & stronger than expected, but very nice summer beer.
how much priming sugar should you put exactly? Do you have a scale?
Somewhere around 5 oz. This can vary some based on our carbonated you want your beer. Here some more info on this:
https://blog.eckraus.com/carbonating-homebrew-bottles-kegs
the ingrdients i buy it unmilled or crushed ? and i have a robobrew v3 9.5 gal , i need to put more ingredients on it ?
The grains need to be crushed before you start brewing with them. Whether you crush it or some else does is up to you.
If you want to increase the batch size, just add more of the ingredients proportionately. Use two packs of yeast instead of one.
I just gave it a go. Made this for a canoe trip in 20 days (hoping I have 6-7 days fermentation, then 13-14 days in keg). Just under 5 gallons in the fermenter. I did 8 gallons of water biab (hard boil lid off). I sub’d for .6oz of cascade and only 2oz of orange. Other than that stuck to recipe. Will be interesting to see what I get. Will update when we get back from trip.
Quick question regarding the Wheat LME that you use. Is it 100% wheat LME? I can only find wheat LME that is mixed with barley LME as well? Is this normal? Ta
John, Yes, ours does contain barley. All the wheat malts that we have seen are mixed with barley.