33 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

Is there anyone on the board who has experience with this beer? A buddy of mine brought me a sampler pack that had 2 or 3 bottles of Moon Man in it. This has been described as a session IPA. It's pale amber in color and has a nice, citrus-fruit hop nose on it. New Glarus is famously uncooperative to homebrewers and hand out little-to-no information on their beers. This is a sold-in-Wisconsin-only beer so my guess is that very few on the board know about it. But if you've had it, I was curious if anyone had drempt up a recipe. I've seen people suggest that Simcoe or Amarillo could be in the hop nose and others online have suggested that it's a lot of southern hemisphere hops from Australia and NZ. I was at a party yesterday and brought the leftovers from the sampler which only had one Moon Man left. I passed the glass around because the aroma was so nice. At least 5 people asked me if I had another bottle of it.

[JMcG]

Had this beer last summer when traveling to Great Taste, and brought home a 6 (now long gone). I'd say more a pale ale - nice, snappy hops, but not quite hoppy enough or big enough for an IPA. NG also describes it as an APA.Supposed to have a blend of 5 hops, so no one hop dominates the aroma or flavor AFAIAC. Fairly clean all around (yeast and hops), I'd guess something like magnum for bittering and late additions of something piney like simcoe. Citra maybe? Nelsons also possible.

[Big Nake]

I like the idea of Magnum for bittering and also a combination of Simcoe and NS late in the boil and also as a dry hop. One page on their site says that the beer is dry hopped much more than is typical (2.25 lbs of hops per barrel which I believe translates to about 6 ounces of hops in 5 gallons). I don't have to use 5 different hops but I'd love to know which hops are being used here. There is THIS page which has some information on it and I decoded the thoughts on that page about BIG IPAs to thinking that this was a smaller version.

[JMcG]

Found this:https://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28548"Dan Carey says that Moon Man is really neither British nor American, but it has characteristics of both. Most notable is the hoppy nose to the brew. Carey says that attribute makes it the most aromatic beer that his brewery has ever released. Moon Man is made with five different varieties of hops; four of them from Washington’s Yakima Valley and the fifth from New Zealand. Carey uses equal amounts of the five and most are added during a dry-hopping process involving nearly 2 1/4 pounds of hops per barrel. The malts that go into the beer are primarily from Wisconsin- and Minnesota-grown barley"

[Big Nake]

Aha! So would you care to guess about the Washington-state hops and the NZ hop? I have seen a number of stabs in the dark suggest Pacific Gem, Southern Cross and Riwaka. I have absolutely no experience with these hops and I also happen to know that they can be hard to get so any direction here would be great. One grain bill (a guess, clearly) was 8 lbs of English-style pale ale malt, 1 lbs of Crystal 10L and 4 ounces of Crystal 40L. Seems reasonable based on the color. But with so many different hop varieties out there and more & more being introduced every day, I'm not sure how to attack the hops. I know that I would add some amount at 60, more between 15 and zero and then a good dose of dry hops... probably a blend based on that article. Cheers & thanks for the feedback.

[Big Nake]

Just got back from northern WI where I was fishing last week. Had some Moon Man, Two Women and the "Octoberfest", Staghorn which I really like. We also had some Leinie products. I bought the Moon Man and my wife and BIL both flipped over it and went out and bought more. On the way home yesterday, we stopped for lunch and gas and I bought a case of NG beers (12 Moon Man and 12 Two Women) and I just ordered the ingredients to make a Moon Man-inspired beer.I wanted to use Gambrinus Pale Ale malt but they were out so I picked up Muntons Pale Ale malt instead. I know the Moon Man says it's made with Wisconsin and Minnesota barleys (Briess?) but I went with Muntons. I will use the base malt with just six ounces of C60, (I think) and that's all. 100% filtered tap water with some gypsum added. Mash around 151° or so for an hour. Ferment with 1056. The hops I picked up were Simcoe, Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin, Citra and Motueka. I was looking at Galaxy, Riwaka and Southern Cross but they were out (I ordered all of this from Rebel Brewer). I plan to bitter using small amounts of all 5 hops. Then I will make a blend of all five hops and add the blend at 10, 5, 2 and 0. Maybe the blend will be 1 ounce (20% of the blend per hop or whatever). Then I will make another blend and dry hop it in the secondary and even though the website says 6 ounces of dry hops per 5 gallons, some people who have attempted this said they got grassiness that would not fade and I don't want to take that chance. So maybe I'll go with 2 ounces of the blend for 2 weeks and then keg it. If it seems like it could take more, maybe I'll drop a bag of the blend in the keg as well. When I get the final recipe and I see the AA% of the hops, I'll post it all and you guys can bounce it around. I'm thinking that I'll either use a small charge of hops (5 AAU?) at 60 or maybe even FWH it to get that smoothness. Any concerns or suggestions, please LMK. Cheers!_________________

[Big Nake]

I'm brewing this beer today. For the sake of documentation, I am putting the recipe here and I will put it in the recipe forum too. For those who haven't had this beer, this recipe may seem weird but I came to this recipe after as much "research" as I could stand (drinking the commercial version and also looking online for reviews and other information). Bottom line is that this is a light amber pale ale that is 5% and about 35 IBUs. It's about as smooth as you can get in the bitterness department but has a flourish of late hops that dance between citrusy/grapefruit and passionfruit, peach, berry and tropical fruits. The New Glarus site says it has 4 hops from the Yakima Valley and one hop from New Zealand. It also says that three of the 5 hops are not normally found in an APA. I am using two NZ hops so I'm already off-track but I still think I will be close as my kitchen now smells a lot like the beer itself.Man In The Moon Pale Ale9 lbs Pale Ale Malt6 ounces Crystal 60°L1 addition of BLEND† as a FWH1 addition of BLEND at 101 addition of BLEND at 51 addition of BLEND at 21 addition of BLEND at 01 addition of BLEND as a dry hopWyeast 1056 American Ale yeastOG: 1.053, FG: 1.012, IBU: 38, SRM: 7, ABV: 5.2%†BLEND is made up of the following:.13 ounces of Nelson Sauvin 11.2%.10 ounces of Citra 14.5%.158 ounces of Amarillo 9.2%.2 ounces of Motueka 7.2%.11 ounces of Simcoe 13%All hops are pellets and each "addition" comes to 7.2 AAU.All filtered tap water with .5g of gypsum and .5g calcium chloride added to the mash. Mash temp of 151°f for 60 minutes.

[Big Nake]

First runnings, meet "hop blend"...

[Deerslyr]

Ken,Moon Man is on my "must have in the fridge" along with Spotted Cow. I don't have a nose for identifying hops, so I'm no help to you there. And I haven't attempted to analyze the grain bill yet, but will ponder it the next time I have a bottle. (I've got about 8 bottles of it left.)Yeah, New Glarus is very tight lipped on their recipes. I can't say I blame them... Mark

[neddles]

The New Glarus site says it has 4 hops from the Yakima Valley and one hop from New Zealand. It also says that three of the 5 hops are not normally found in an APA. 

Riwaka is the New Zealand hop. And it's not normally found in APA. Unfortunately it is in short supply and is no longer available to US home brewers. That leaves 2 usual suspects (APA-wise) and 2 unusual suspects all from the Yakima Valley. Maybe you are on to something with the Simcoe and Amarillo? I guess when I hear from Yakima Valley but not usually found in APA I start to think of american "nobles". Maybe Crystal, Santiam, Mt. Hood? Any other guesses?

 

I'm sure you gave up the search a while ago Ken but I am curious still. It's such a nice hop blend, whatever they are using. Thoughts?

[Big Nake]

Riwaka is the New Zealand hop. And it's not normally found in APA. Unfortunately it is in short supply and is no longer available to US home brewers. That leaves 2 usual suspects (APA-wise) and 2 unusual suspects all from the Yakima Valley. Maybe you are on to something with the Simcoe and Amarillo? I guess when I hear from Yakima Valley but not usually found in APA I start to think of american "nobles". Maybe Crystal, Santiam, Mt. Hood? Any other guesses? I'm sure you gave up the search a while ago Ken but I am curious still. It's such a nice hop blend, whatever they are using. Thoughts?

Clearly you were inspired to dig out an old thread. I'll tell you what... my wife is the MM fan and although I like it too, I save it for her and I don't drink it except to make sure it's u to my exacting standards. All of that said, I believe my wife really likes the Amarillo hops the best and I also think she likes Citra. She has mentioned that she "likes that grapefruity flavor" which I attribute to Amarillo. So when I make my "Man In The Moon", I bitter with Magnum (not consistent with the MM recipe) and I add 2 ounces of Amarillo and 2 ounces of Citra in the last 10 minutes. The color is identical to Moon Man (pale ale malt plus maybe 5 ounces of C60 in a 5-gallon batch to 1.050) and the finish has a nice Amarillo-Citra flavor and aroma and it's delicious. My wife calls my version "Moon Man" and I correct her and say, "Man In The Moon"... because it's not Moon Man. You can see by the posts in this thread that I got very detailed in my attempt. I concluded it wasn't worth all of the effort so my version became an Amarillo-Citra pale ale and it really is delicious, it's just not Moon Man.

[dmtaylor]

Moon Man has been out for many years, so my guesses on hops would be the more traditional C hops.  I've always guessed Chinook was used based on the big pine, and probably lots of other C hops, so probably Cascade, Centennial, and Columbus?  And then for the NZ hop, I think it must be Nelson Sauvin or Pacific Gem, as Citra is too new (released 2008).  Of the two old NZ hops, I think NS is more likely.  So those are my wild guesses.  I could be way way off.  But I bet this combo will get you pretty close.

[positiveContact]

nice deductions there on the hops.

[neddles]

Moon Man has been out for many years, so my guesses on hops would be the more traditional C hops.  I've always guessed Chinook was used based on the big pine, and probably lots of other C hops, so probably Cascade, Centennial, and Columbus?  And then for the NZ hop, I think it must be Nelson Sauvin or Pacific Gem, as Citra is too new (released 2008).  Of the two old NZ hops, I think NS is more likely.  So those are my wild guesses.  I could be way way off.  But I bet this combo will get you pretty close.

 

nice deductions there on the hops.

Not exactly. Moon Man was released in March of 2010. So Citra would not be too new. Additionally in an interview in 2011 the NZ hop growers cooperative revealed that New Glarus had begun to use Riwaka, a hop known for it's distinct grapefruit aroma and flavor. https://allaboutbeer...w-zealand-hops/ That is what defines Moon Man. They don't make any other beers that use Riwaka or any other NZ hops and have not as far a I can tell searching their database of beers past and present. NZ suspended additional shipments to the US of Riwaka a couple years ago noting that only one US brewer was using it in significant quantity. Brewers who were using it would continue to get shipments. My bet is that one brewer is New Glarus. I can't find another US beer that uses Riwaka and is produced regularly in any volume. The 5 hops in this beer are used in equal quantity so it can't be getting all its grapefruit from Riwaka alone. There is probably one or more of Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade, or Chinook. But there remains two hops in that beer that "are not typically found in APAs." and are used in equal quantities with the others. Which has me guessing about some American "nobles" being involved.

 

Anyways, its fun to think about and guess but I'll never nail it I am sure. I am more interested in their technique of using such a huge dry hop on a beer this size.

Edited by nettles, 09 November 2014 - 11:34 AM.

[positiveContact]

Not exactly.

 

it sounded good to someone who had done zero research on it!  the logic was sound - the initial conditions were not

[dmtaylor]

Very interesting info there, nettles.  You may be onto something.  Thanks.

[Big Nake]

I have a local bud who brews and likes MM. He went on the NG tour a year or more before I did and he told me that his tour was led by Dan Carey (mine was not) and that when Dan toured the brewery he would take any and all questions and answer them. I thought my friend might have asked about these hops when on the tour so I emailed him about it. I do remember thinking to myself on the way up to NG, I'm going to settle this once and for all! but I never had the chance and the guy leading the tour gave out pretty much NO information and answered questions only on a cursory basis which is consistent with emails I have sent the brewery (answered by Deb basically saying WE WILL GIVE YOU NO INFORMATION). Somewhere in my research I had heard about the Riwaka and I tried to find it but I was only able to pick up Motueka and Nelson from NZ. There were some others available (not sure which ones) but I wasn't sure which ones had which characteristics so I grabbed Motueka which was pure fail as far as Moon Man goes. In the end, it turns out my wife really likes an Amarillo-Citra flourish in a beer and that's what I ended up using as my own personal Moon Man.

[HVB]

This sounds like a NG beer I will like.  I have had several that they offer and never really understood the draw.  I will keep watching this one though to see where it goes.

[neddles]

This sounds like a NG beer I will like.  I have had several that they offer and never really understood the draw.  I will keep watching this one though to see where it goes.

I would be curious to know which beers of their you tried and how fresh they were. Do you remember?

[HVB]

I would be curious to know which beers of their you tried and how fresh they were. Do you remember?

I would have to go back and look around at bottles.  I know over the time I had at least 6-8 different ones back when I was trading a lot.  They were all sent from people in the area and I would have to assume fresh because trading stale beer is frowned upon.  I just remember getting teh hyped raspberry tart and shared that with some friends and we all agreed it was nothing special and now one wanted to finish the bottle.  It got to the point I requested no NG beer be sent to me as extras.  Maybe they were old, or not their best beers, I do not know but after that I never understood the hype.  They were not awful or poorly crafted beers, just nothing that wowed me.

 

I looked at the website and these are the ones:

Spotted Cow

Raspberry Tart

Belgian Red

Staghorn

Stone Soup

Fat Squirrel

a few from the Enigma series too, Abt and Sour Apple maybe?