I bought some New Belgium 2 Below awhile back and loved it. Then I had a Fat Tire (my first) and it tasted like a slightly weaker version of the 2 Below. Both beers have what I think is a distinctive chocolate flavor to them. I read where Fat Tire is brewed with Munich and Victory malt though, no chocolate. Is the flavor I’m getting coming from the Munich malt? I haven’t used much of it, and not in a Belgian ale.
I am not sure of the malts. I do agree with you that it is a very similar
base beer between FatTire and -2 below. I love the Dry Hop Flavors in
the -2 below.
To quote from the NB web site “Fat Tire won fans with its sense of balance: toasty,
biscuit-like malt flavors coasting in equilibrium with hoppy freshness.”
There is a clue there…use bisquit-like malt
I had some fat tire and I personally didn’t like the biscuit flavor combined with the chocolate… thats just me though. At first I thought it was the chocolate but I like other chocolate brews. Anybody notice chocolate in SABL?
The clone recipe I have for -2 calls for
9.5# Pale malt
2.25# Caramel/Crystal 40L
1.13# Victory Malt
.67# Munich Malt
Maybe this is just coming from the Victory malt then. I didn’t get a lot of hops when I first tried the 2 below, its really well balanced. They are there though, and it makes the 2 below better than the fat tire.
Of note is the color body and flavor of the Mighty Arrow by the same company…it
has a very similar base thing going on…with different hops.
I am sure that the -2 below had Sterling dry hopping mentioned on the label…I like it so much
in fact, I got some sterling plugs to try dry hoping with as my 1st ever dry hop attempt…not completed yet…
but on the near horizon.
When I think of these comments and our talk on this matter, I wonder (since touring the brewery)
If these similar notes in the base beer are from the method of brewing that they utilize…namely,
the Merlin BK that is at the heart of the brewery.???
http://www.kronesusa.com/downloads/wuerzekochung_e.pdf
Kaiser, can you comment?
I’ve heard they use a good portion of victory malt in those beers. Also, toasting some of the two row will help bring out that toasty/biscuity flavor even more.
Here is a link to a clone that is supposed to be very close (haven’t brewed it myself).
Victory does taste like toasted malt. I toasted some malt and used it in a beer with some Melanoidin Malt and it distinctly reminded me of Fat tire. Personally I think there is Belgian Aromatic malt in Fat tire.
I have brewed “Flat A## Tired” several times from this link and it is almost spot on to the real thing! Also on a side note, I emailed New Belgium once asking them about their Fat Tire yeast, malts etc and this is part of their reply:
Matty Smooth: “I can’t totally give you the recipe, but I can tell you you’re on the right track with Biscuit, Munich and Victory malts. We also use Carapils and a Caramel malt, along with the 2-row. Most clean fermenting ale yeasts should work out just fine for you; I think White Labs’ California Ale would be a good choice, or their European Ale if you want a bit more malt flavor. Ferment a little bit on the warmer side of the temperature profile for low level ester formation and fast vicinial diketone uptake.”
Hope you find some of this info useful.
Hey Wes,
Why not just go over to New Belgium and smooze some employees…
get em drunk and use subversive tactics… 
Take a brewery tour and ask em…what is in those sacks etc?
I get a rack of 2 Below sent east at Christmas annually from my brother in Arizona.
Love that stuff. Fat Tire is a nice beer at the ball park but 2 Below is worth seeking out.
I’ve always thought of it as an ESB with noble-y hops (Liberty or Sterling or both).
I like the clone recipe above, but this seems like a good time to use a darker crystal for the roasted notes, i.e. 2.25# 40L replaced by 1# 90L. But that seems a little dark to me. I’d venture 1/2# 90L, keep the victory and Munich malts and up the pale malt to get your target gravity.
I find Flat Tire to be darker than 2 Below, but I’ve never poured them next to each other for the comparison. Might be my imagination.
Dave, I just might have to give that a try 