Fat Yak - Ag Clone

[dpadden]

from the recipes posted in here. has anyone tasted theirs and how close is it? i haven't tasted one of theses but we had friends around the other week who said this was a nice drop..

was interested in brewing this and want a nice recipe.. AG ofcourse..

i'm tinkering with my recipe above, a touch less hops and about 85% ale malt, 10% wheat, 5% caramalt. Once I'm happy with it will post back up on the weekend and hopefully should be in fermenter by monday...will let you know

 

[schooey]

After tasting the Fat Yak recently, I reckon all of you are being extremely generous on the IBU level. Sure there was plenty of late floral hopping there, and I could definitely taste the resin-iness of NZ varieties, but the bitterness was almost imperceptible to my palate. To suggest that this beer could be cloned at 30-35IBU is just not right. Sub 20 is my guess!

I reckon you are right, blackbock. I just finished a case of this stuff after the last fortnight, and i don't think it would be outrageous to suggest that it is only about 18-20 IBU. After two weeks of it, I found it to be very sweet, very thin bodied and quite out of balance... but hey, that's just me.

I think the beer should be at least 35-40IBU, the fat yak from the bottles I have had lately have not finished all that great because the bitterness to me is too low in this beer, it to me really needs at least another 5ibu to liven it up a bit and give it a more refreshing finish.
Too be honest I can't imagine buying it in bottles again but will enjoy it on tap again at the casino for sure.

So yeah I agree however I think it would be better with more bitterness.

See, that brings us back to the cloning v.s recipe development argument. If you wanted a relatively good clone of Fat Yak, there is no way you would be going anywhere over 25 IBU, if you want to improve Fat Yak to make it into a beer more to your taste, then go for it, but you're not making a clone, you're developing a recipe.

The other interesting thing I find with the recipes listed is nobody has made a sugar addition. That residual sweetness I taste in Fat Yak gives me the impression that there has got to be some sugar in there to the tune of around 10%

 

[olde]

Interesting inconsistencies in this beer. I've been working through a case of the stuff all week, but had one out of the tap with lunch today. The tap product had a much more interesting late hop character than the bottled stuff... But maybe the bottles were a little on the old side, or a dud batch. The case was on special.

I had my first taste of this 2 weeks ago, from the tap at a local pub. First impression was "bloody beauty, hops in a beer from the pub". Was almost as good as what I can knock out with kits and bits at home, (but at 10 times the cost). Next time in town, a week later, and I was actually looking forward to calling in and having another couple.
Bad move, no hops except on the back palate, and I resorted to Old for my seconds.
Not sure if the keg had just aged (smallish pub and not a lot of drinkers who will step outside the 'new or old' parameters) or if it was a new keg with a lot less hop to begin with, but either way it was pretty inconsistent.. and very disappointing.

 

[michaelcocks]

I had my first taste of this 2 weeks ago, from the tap at a local pub. First impression was "bloody beauty, hops in a beer from the pub". Was almost as good as what I can knock out with kits and bits at home, (but at 10 times the cost). Next time in town, a week later, and I was actually looking forward to calling in and having another couple.
Bad move, no hops except on the back palate, and I resorted to Old for my seconds.
Not sure if the keg had just aged (smallish pub and not a lot of drinkers who will step outside the 'new or old' parameters) or if it was a new keg with a lot less hop to begin with, but either way it was pretty inconsistent.. and very disappointing.

There seem to be some massive inconsistencies here:

Is it high IBU low IBU ? Everyone has a different opinion..
For sure it's got NS and Cascade hops
I agree something sweet remaining.
There is more than "a touch" of dry hopping going on the hope aroma is quite high in the ones I've tasted (especially on tap..)
Touch of wheat in there too I think.


BTW Everytime I have had this beer I've loved it, and consider it to be fairly highly hopped (but with that amount of hop aroma maybe it's actually less than at first appears (my VB and New drinking mates like it ... so maybe it isn't high IBU... I dunnno now I am real confused ... Maybe my nose is telling me hop and my brain is saying ..."OK must be high IBU's then"...


Are they still tweaking the recipe at MB ???

Anyway I am interested to hear clone outcomes... Just did the Dr Smurto Extract clone of James Squires Golden Ale - absolute corker..

 

[Fourstar]

The other interesting thing I find with the recipes listed is nobody has made a sugar addition. That residual sweetness I taste in Fat Yak gives me the impression that there has got to be some sugar in there to the tune of around 10%

Which is why i was weighing up the use of JW caramalt to get that sweetness. I think you have set it in stone for me now, maybe 100g of crystal and 100 of caramalt for that residual bready/doughnuty sweetness

 

[gava]

Which is why i was weighing up the use of JW caramalt to get that sweetness. I think you have set it in stone for me now, maybe 100g of crystal and 100 of caramalt for that residual bready/doughnuty sweetness

I'll be interested in testing one of your recipes for this.. do you have a beersmith file?

 

[.DJ.]

with all this talk abouit the IBU's has anyone asked the brewery directly?

 

[Fourstar]

I'll be interested in testing one of your recipes for this.. do you have a beersmith file?

Yeah i do, however i am not goign to be home for the next 3 weeks to get it (going to vietnam tonight), see my previous post on the 1st page of this thread. my efficiency is set to 68. just duplicate my recipe into beersmith and use the scale function to adjust to your efficiency. Its as easy as piiieeee!

If you want to go the caramalt option just agg 100g to the grains i have already noted in the recipe. you might need to adjust the base malt to keep it @ 5% ABV.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=503975

Cheers!

 

[gava]

yeast: US-05???

Yeah i do, however i am not goign to be home for the next 3 weeks to get it (going to vietnam tonight), see my previous post on the 1st page of this thread. my efficiency is set to 68. just duplicate my recipe into beersmith and use the scale function to adjust to your efficiency. Its as easy as piiieeee!

If you want to go the caramalt option just agg 100g to the grains i have already noted in the recipe. you might need to adjust the base malt to keep it @ 5% ABV.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=503975

Cheers!

 

[Fourstar]

yeast: US-05???

Yep, I'd go in this order, Wyeast 1056, Wyeast American Ale II, then US05. just because i favour the profile of the liquid yeasts. BUT US05 is a safe bet.

 

[manticle]

The other interesting thing I find with the recipes listed is nobody has made a sugar addition. That residual sweetness I taste in Fat Yak gives me the impression that there has got to be some sugar in there to the tune of around 10%

Am I missing something? Surely a sugar addition will lead to dryness and thin body rather than residual sweetness?

 

[schooey]

I said above it was thin bodied and sweet and yeah, it does have a dry finish.. not like a TED, but I still stand by my thinking that there is a sugar addition somewhere between 5-10% in it... Happy to be shot down though

 

[manticle]

Not arguing with that - was just disconcerted by the idea that sweetness = sugar.

The one and only time I tried fat yak I would have said lots of late or dry hopping but not outstanding on bittering additions. Not enough of a fan to offer more.

 

[Effect]

tried fat yak today - totally dissapointed.

but hey, I was expecting something else than what it probably wanted to achieve

Cheers
Phil

 

[MHB]

Sugar isn't added to sweeten the beer in fact it's there to make the beer less malty (sweet). The Carra or Crystal are contributing dextrins to the beer, by lightening the body of the beer these flavours come to the front, as does the bitterness.

It's all about "Perceived" characters for commercial brewers this type of thinking makes perfect sense, they can make a beer that tastes sweeter and/or bitterer while using less of the more expensive ingredients like modified malt and hops.

It's usually pretty easy to tell when there's a dollop of sugar in the brew, step 1 is to take an FG of the beer you want to clone, the alcohol content is on the bottle so there's your OG.

With those 2 bits of information your half way there.



MHB

 

[masculator002]

try columbus amarillo and chinook for the hops, fat yak tastes surprisingly similar to a APA i make using these hops and the yeast to use is the american ale yeast from craftbrewer (us-56 or s05in fermentis) use a lot of hops in the second and final stages of the boil. i.e. 30 grams 60 minutes 30 grams 15 minutes and 30 grams 1 to 2 minutes. (these amounts are for illustration of the point only) aim for ibus to be around the mid 40s or higher. pale malt is all that is needed however the addition of a small amount of amber malt will make the flavour a little more malty. I swear they stole the recipe from me....lol. other possible substitutions include northern brewer, however dont over use this hop as it will dominate, balance with cascade, could also use small amounts of sauvin but if you do you should use a hop like chinook in equal or greater amounts. Happy brewing.

 

[masculator002]

it is a better beer in bottles than on tap for some reason. dont know why because my version was equally as good in the keg as in bottles.

 

[mr_tyreman]

My local has it on tap...had a big night on it Saturday night....woke up a lil worse for wear, but not hungover.

 

[.DJ.]

I asked the brewery about the IBU's... Interesting reply...

Thank you for taking the time to contact us at Matilda Bay.

Unfortunately we can not disclose this information. However what I can tell you is that it has an identical BU value to VB. It tastes more hoppy because of the dry hop addition in storage whilst very little bitterness is absorbed it does impart the flavour.

 

[technocat]

I asked the brewery about the IBU's... Interesting reply...

Fair enough now all we need to know is the IBU of VB, commonly known as given the run around.