One Love Wit

Here's the new brew recipe. I wanted to put together a nice Belgian style Witbier for summer. ...something light and white.... Here's what I came up with.

My buddy Pete (local cellarman at Mother Earth Brewing) introduced me to a peppery wit that MEB had in their tap room. It was delish!! I haven't commited to any pepper yet in this recipe, but I may have to add a small bit in at the end of the boil. Here's what I got so far:

Amount      Item                             Type 
5.00 lb     Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (1.6 SRM)    Grain 
5.00 lb     White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)       Grain 
0.25 lb     Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)              Grain

Time    Amount    Item                               Type
60 min  0.50 oz   Sterling [7.50 %] (60 min)         Hops 
10 min  0.50 oz   Saaz [4.00 %] (10 min)             Hops 
5 min   0.50 oz   Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min)      Misc 
5 min   0.50 oz   Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min) Misc

60 min single infusion mash 152°.  Double batch sparge.

Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG 
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.11 %  
Bitterness: 15.8 IBU 
Calories: 43 cal/pint 
Est Color: 3.9 SRM

Lagerhead Turtle Recipe

So I put together the Lagerhead Turtle recipe a few days ago, and brewed it last night. Here's the basic recipe:

5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 46.51 %
4.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 37.21 %
1.00 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 9.30 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.33 %

60 min 1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %]
7 min 1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %]
0 min 0.50 cup Lemon Balm

Add pastuerized honey at high krausen

Primary fermentation (14 days at 50.0 F)
Diacetyl rest (3 days at 60.0 F)
Secondary fermentation (14 days at 52.0 F)
Lager (60 days at 35.0 F)

Full Recipe

My father-in-law, David Roche, helped out with brewing this beer. (It was a great bonding experience! :-) ) We ended up a few points short of the pre-boil gravity. I have a feeling, I didn't get my sparge hot enough, and may have been a bit too warm on my mash temps.

There are conflicting ideas on how to pitch the yeast for a lager. Some say that cooling the wort to fermentation temp then pitch work best, while others prefer to pitch near ale temps, then cool down slowly to fermentation temp. For simplicity sake, I chose the latter. However, doing this will produce enhanced diacetyl (buttery tones) to the beer, so we'll be doing a diacetyl rest at the end of the primary fermentation to allow the yeast to clean up the diacetyl produced.

This will also be my first beer with honey, and herbs. We added the lemon balm at flameout, and will add local honey to the primary during high krausen. I'm not quite sure how this will turn out yet, but I'm excited to try. I don't want to get too strong of a lemon flavor in there, but if I can't discern any after primary fermentation, I may dry hop some more lemon balm in the secondary.

Prost!

Jeremy

Man's Best Friend

I've finally put the finishing touches on what I've called "Man's Best Friend". It's a german style Hefe with a blend of Wheat, Pale, and Aromatic Malts.

1.00 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 7.84 %
6.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 47.06 %
4.50 lb Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 35.29 %
1.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 7.84 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 1.96 %

60 min 1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.90 %] (60 min) Hops
7 min 1.00 oz Select Spalt [2.00 %] (7 min) Hops
5 min 2.00 oz Malto-Dextrine (Boil 5.0 min)

Full Recipe

It will definitely be exciting to try my first all grain wheat beer. The first of many to come!! I chose to go with close to a 60/40 blend of white wheat malt and pale malt. This ratio, along with the flaked wheat should bring out a strong wheat flavor in the brew. The flaked wheat should also provide the chill haze to the beer that is desirable in Hefes. The aromatic malt will lend a distinct, almost exaggerated malt aroma and flavor to the beer, while the malto-dextrine is there to add a bit of body. Hallertauer hops are used a lot in wheat beers. It has a soft, pleasant, and slightly flowery, spicy flavor and aroma. The Select Spalt will be used just for a bit of aroma.

I also wanted to share a great graphic I found online in regards to hop utilization. As you can see, this graphic depicts how your hops will contribute to the beer depending on different boiling times.

Partial Mash

I think that in order to improve at something you like to do, it helps to have an area of focus. Rather then trying to broad brush all your efforts everything, I believe it's more beneficial to try to specialize in an area. Granted, if you focus all your time on specializing you will limit yourself. The trick is to find a good balance on overall knowledge while at the same time perfecting your craft in a specialized area.

The speicalized area I want is Wheat. Since I had my first Steven's Point White, I've always been attracted to the unique flavor and characteristics of wheat beers. From the Belgian Wit to the German Hefe, I've grown to love most wheat beers that I've tried. My favorites being Hoegaarden and Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse.

Leah and I finished this Franzi boot off in the Dells!

However, one problem arises with this. The basic extract brewing we've done now, will not work as well with some of the grains needed to produce these beers. I'm going to have to make a Partial Mash Tun. Since Leah and I cannot afford (let alone fit in our house) an all grain system. I think this is a great way to get into more of the grain aspects of brewing without the money and space of all grain.

The blueberry wine was bubbling like crazy last night! Since this is our first primary fermentation in a glass container, it was neat to see the CO2 being produced and escaping.

I also wanted to post a picture of our guest bedroom/secondary fermentation chamber! The Kolsch is on the right and the Irish Red on the left. (The pic looks darker then it really is.)