Good luck!
I’ve never had Spotted Cow, but I have made NB’s Speckled Heifer and thought it was just as described: a happy guzzler.
Comments are in for my Spotted Cow clone! My club held a cream ale only contest yesterday, with 13 total entries, Best of Show style judging, and… my Spotted Cow clone was the only one of the 13 that had appreciable DMS, and they also thought it was slightly tart which I can agree with due to the 2565 yeast selection, and so my entry was kicked out of the runnings right away for these reasons. Other than that, it has a very pleasant grainy and corny flavor, if you like that, and well balanced bitterness. Just the DMS was more than people might want.
This was actually an excellent experiment! What do I mean? Well, if you want to purposely guarantee DMS in your beer, I have proven that you can get DMS if you leave the lid on the boil, and boil very weakly for only 45 minutes! Personally, I am not a DMS hater like some people as long as it tastes corny, which in this version, it’s very much all about the corn and none of that rotten cabbage or celery vegetal flavor that DMS sometimes gives, so this really worked out to accentuate the corn flavors exactly like I wanted.
If you wanted to make a Rolling Rock clone, the exact same technique would get you there as well.
Also interesting… even with a very weak and very short boil, and 2565 yeast known for being a poor flocculating yeast strain… my beer turned out very clear. Interesting.
Love experiments like these. I learned a bunch of cool stuff. And the beer tastes great. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again the same way… even if it’s not the best cream ale you’ve ever tasted in your life. I mean, oh my gosh, this beer actually has flavor. The one that won Best of Show was essentially flavorless. If that’s what you want, good luck with that… I want my beer to taste like something, thank you very much!!!
:cheers:
And oh, by the way… we performed some side by sides, and this recipe tastes NOTHING like Spotted Cow at all. It’s also lighter in color than the real Cow. So I’ll just need to rename it. Any suggestions? Maybe “Purposely Corny Cream Ale” or something to that effect would be most appropriate! I sure like it though. And I have a feeling when I enter into some more competitions, it really really deserves to place at least a 3rd if not 2nd. My Certified BJCP opinion.
My “Ooops!” moment turned out to be brilliant. While I was measuring out the grains for NB’s Spotted Cow clone (Speckled Heifer) I accidentally measured out double the amount of flaked maize. It ended up turning out so well I decided to go with double the amount of flaked maize for all subsequent batches. It’s not a huge difference, but it dried it out ever so slightly, which is the distinction I was looking for versus their generic Cream Ale kit…
