Mad Elf Clone Experiment

I decided to attempt a Troegs Mad Elf clone this winter. I really enjoy Belgium strong ales and stouts during the cold months and I thought this beer would be a fun and exciting one to try to clone. I first went to Troegs website and was pleasantly surprised that they listed Mad Elf's main ingredients (www.troegs.com). I wrote it down and brought it to my local homebrew shop (love2brew) where we concocted our own little clone recipe. 

Here is our list of ingredients:

Munich Malt

Chocolate Malt

Extra Light Dry Extract

Hallertauer

Saaz

1lb of honey

1lb of sweet cherries in the secondary (rinsed, frozen, and destemmed... with pits)

My Malt

My set up... notice the home brew to the left. That would be my first batch! It's an Irish Red :)

After 2 weeks in the primary I transferred it into my secondary fermenter on top of 1lb of sweet cherries for another 2 weeks.

Time to bottle! 

SG: 1.075
FG: 1.030

I jumped the gun a little bit on this one by only leaving it in the primary for 2 weeks thinking that would be enough but it was not. My goal was to get an abv. of 8.5% but instead it's only 6%. It's also a little too sweet because I only added sweet cherries (Troegs uses both sweet and tart). When I try to make this again I am going to do 3 weeks in the primary and 2 weeks in the secondary. This was a serious experiment for me having never brewed a beer over 5% and having never used food in the fermenters.

After waiting about one month after bottling I decided to do a side by side taste test. My beer is the one on the left and Mad Elf is on the right.

   

Pour

Mine poured more of a dark red color compared to Troegs clear bright red/copper. Mine also had a thicker head then Troegs. 

Smell

Both had the same sweet smell that you come to expect from a Belgium Strong Ale with cherries. 

Taste

I came very close to an exact replica in terms of taste. The only difference was that Troegs had a little more of an after spice bite that mine lacked. 

Mouthfeel

Overall I am very pleased with how my clone turned out. It had a malty, fruity sweetness with just a touch of hops. It was smooth and much more drinkable at 6% compared to the 11% Mad Elf. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this learning experience and besides the fact that I didn't hit my expected gravity I did create a beer very similar in terms of taste to Troegs Mad Elf. I only hope to make it better next time. =)

*** For more details on this recipe please visit http://www.love2brew.com/Articles for an article written about my brew. ***