Search for a Corona clone recipe and you’ll find snark.
I’ve searched for Corona clones and found a few, however I’ve mostly found craft beer snobs. This is an attempt to use the notes of those who have tried before and make changes where appropriate. Corona is a lager and I lack a proper fermentation chamber to make a lager, so this will never be an exact clone. With that in mind, I’m using Mangrove Jack’s M36 Liberty Bell ale yeast, which is incredibly clean fermenting.
Grain Bill / Fermentables
- 5 lbs Pilsen Malt
- 2 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
- 3 lbs Flaked Maize
Hops
- 1 oz Czech Saaz (2.6% Alpha, 4.7% Beta)
- 1 oz German Tettnang (2.0% Alpha)
Yeast
- Mangrove Jack’s M36 Liberty Bell Ale
Target Stats
- OG 1.052
- FG 1.012
- ABV 5.25%
- IBU 14.54
Prior to Brew Day
Prepare yeast starter.
Brew Day (2017-04-01)
Heat 5 gallons of water to 158°.
Gently dough in grains until all grain is covered by water.
Mash grains at 150° for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Remove “grain bag” and allow grains to drain.
Bring wort to a boil for 30 minutes.
Use a hop sack.
Once wort has boiled for 30 minutes, add 0.5 oz Saaz hops and continue for 15 minutes.
Add 0.5 oz Saaz hops and continue boil for another 15 minutes.
Add 0.5 oz Tettnang hops and continue boil for another 15 minutes.
Add 0.5 oz hops and continue boil for 15 minutes. (This is a good time to drop in the wort chiller.)
Reduce wort temperature to 68° and take OG reading.
Sufficiently aerate and transfer to primary fermenter.
Pitch yeast starter into fermenter.
Allow beer 2 weeks in the primary to adequately ferment and cleanup any diacetyl produced during fermentation.
Transfer to secondary, add gelatin finings and allow up to 1 week for beer to clear at room temperature.
Bottle and wait another 2 weeks…
Enjoy!
Notes:
- Visible signs of yeast activity and pressure in the airlock at 12 hours.
- A 1.5″ krausen is visible after 20 hours.
- Krausen is dropping out after 48 hours, still a steady stream of bubble in the airlock and the overall color of the beer is lighter.
- Krausen has completely dropped out at 72 hours, but air lock is still very active with several bubbles per minute.
- Airlock activity has slowed to about 1 bubble per minute at 96 hours.
- Carboy was kept at 66° temperature for the first 96 hours and 68° after it was removed from the brew pot heat sync.
- Yeast is dropping out nicely, leaving behind a decently clear beer after 2 weeks.
- Transferred to a secondary at week 3 and added 1/2 tsp gelatin finings.
- Bottled at week 4, color matches a bottle of Corona, but is slightly less clear. Tastes decent, even when flat, slightly more fruity than Corona at this point, but much improved over the taste at transfer to secondary.
- The flaked maize content is too high in this recipe, making it too sweet. I think reducing it to 2 lbs would be the correct balance. The final product could also use more lemon, lime or citrus that is present in a freshly opened Corona.
- July 20, After nearly 4 months this beer is very drinkable and is a decent cream ale, but still has too much flaked maize.
