Bell's Oberon vs. Louie's Oberon
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:47 pm
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In the picture, Oberon is on the right, and the clone is on the left. Obviously, you can see that the Bell's product was bottled, whereas my homebrewed version was kegged.
Both beers poured with a white head and a typical golden color, although my clone was lighter than the real stuff... but not by much. I'm thinking a change to 40L crystal from 20L would get the color right on. The head poured pretty thin out of the bottle and the homebrew had a lot thicker, longer lasting head, which I enjoyed! Also, the foam laced a lot better from the clone beer.
Aroma from both beers were equal. Not hoppy at all but that bready wheat aroma that makes you feel like you're in a bakery.
The body and mouthfeel of the clone recipe was spot on with Oberon; medium-light and doesn't coat your tongue or the inside of your mouth. But the flavor was the biggest surprise! I should note that I had substituted Hallertauer hops that the clone recipe calls for with Spalt, simply because the alpha level of the Hallertauer at my LHBS was way low and I did not want to increase the amounts so much to get the IBUs because I feared it would make the beer taste grassy. Fortunately, Spalt makes a good substitute where the flavors should be similar. But back to the flavor. It was a dead-ringer for the flavor of the Bell's beer! Lightly citrusy and floral, with a touch of yeast character.
I actually ended up pouring some of the clone brew into the real stuff and it didn't change the flavor at all!
Overall, very impressed with Louie's iteration of Oberon and it costs me about as much to brew 2.5 gallons of it as it does to buy a sixer of Bell's at the store. Two thumbs up for this recipe, Lou!
