Hefeweizen

 

Another beer that I brewed for the Brew-n-Que and am just now doing a write-up on.  I wanted to make something refreshing, a little sweet and a good warm drinking weather beer.  Hefeweizen is a pretty good beer to fit the bill. 

I added dried orange peel to the beer to give it a little extra kick of citrus.  I had previously bought some “Cutie” oranges last year and noticed how easily they peeled and how little pith they had in them.  I used a grapefruit spoon to scrape out as as much pith as I could and put them in my circa 1980 food dehydrator.  I have used them in a few Belgian beers with good results and used most of what I had left in this beer.  I figure I'll server this beer with some orange slices for anyone who wants them.

I wanted just a little bit of spice in the beer besides the yeast so I added uncracked coriander to the beer along with the oranges to give it some background note spicing.

This recipe is a double batch with half of it going to my work for a happy hour or two.

Malt Bill / Ingredients
Pounds	Type
12	2 Row
8	White Wheat Malt
1	Honey Malt
2 oz	Dried Cutie Orange Peel (5 minute addition)
2 tsp	Coriander (5 minute addition)
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
12	Tettnanger	60
4	Tettnanger	15
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	60 minutes
Yeast	White Labs WLP300 - Hefeweizen
Stats
12 gal	80% efficiency	IBU: 36

Brew-n-Que Gets a New Date

 

We have moved the date of the Brew-N-Que from Memorial Day Weekend to July 13th this year.  There was an overwhelming number of people who couldn’t make it on Memorial Day so we are going to reschedule it for Cait’s birthday.  I have been so busy lately (both at home and being out of town) that I have fallen behind on blog updates.  I will try to catch up on this during the extended weekend.  I have a Hefeweizen and a Fruit Punch Pale Ale that I need to do write-ups for and a bulk aging sour project that I am going to be doing within the next month.

Updates coming soon!

Beer Updates – Apple and Pub Ales

This morning I spent some time cleaning kegs and kegging a couple of beers for the Brew-N-Que. 
The first beer I kegged was my Pub Ale.  I had brewed a second batch of this because the first batch didn’t attenuate nearly as much as I’d hoped.  I tested it again one last time today and the London Ale III yeast must have kicked back in.  The gravity had dropped 12 points from my last test and the beer is perfect at 4.6% abv.  Looks like the second batch that I brewed last weekend will be 5 extra gallons of beer to drink.
The second “beer” I kegged was my Apple Ale. This ale turned out pretty well.  My hydro sample had a week amount of apple flavor to it, which was more than I was expecting.  Usually when I use apple juice in anything the apple flavor completely ferments out.  This session ale clocks in at 3.6% abv and I added 3 cans  of Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice concentrate to the ale to boost the apple flavor.  I might only use 2 cans next time but the extra sweetness will probably go over well with the non beer drinkers in the crowd.  The beer had a very fizzy carbonation now that I hope carries into the finished beer.
I plan to give the Belgian Single another week in the fermenter and keg it next weekend.  This beer didn’t have any simple sugars added to it and I usually ferment all of my beers a minimum of 4 weeks to allow the yeast to clean up the beer and for any solids to settle out.

British Pub Ale – Take 2

 

My first Pub Ale turned out a bit on the sweet side.  My wife said it was still tasty, and I liked it …but it wasn’t what I was looking to brew.  This next beer will be used to either blend with the first one or be served as a second beer.  I bumped up the gravity a bit and gave it a “church mash”. 

“Church Mash” -  Mashed in with the grains and let it sit while I went to church.  I started the mash early and got to it a bit later after church so the mash was 3 hours.  At the end of the mash it was pretty thick.  I added my first sparge water just above the mash temperature to bring the grain bed back up to 152* and then vorlof’d the beer and then drained.  My second edition of sparge water was at mash out temperature. 

I found some old Goldings in my freezer from last year.  They still smelled passable so I adjusted their AA rating down from 5.8% to 5.2% and used them as my bittering hops.  I used my fresh EK Goldings as my flavor and aroma hops.  This years batch seems to be quite a bit better than last years.

The beer is sitting in a corny keg in my garage and will be fermented either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I haven’t checked on the original pub ale in a week or so.  Maybe I’ll check on it and be surprised.  I can think of worse problems than having 10 good gallons of beer on hand!

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
8	Maris Otter
.5	Crystal 90
.25	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
26	UK Kent Golding	60
7	East Kent Golding	15
1 Oz	East Kent Golding	5
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	180 minutes
155F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Safale S-04
Stats
5.5 gal	80% efficiency	IBU: 36

Belgian Single/Apple Ale

 

This is the second beer that I have brewed for the Brew-n-Que event.  I brewed a larger batch of this beer to split and make a second beer with will probably be for my own use.  I recently tried a new ale on the market, Redd’s Apple Ale.  Although this beer was a little sweet, I liked it quite a bit.  I am hoping to make something similar to Redd’s with the second half of the batch.

For the Apple Ale I am going to take 2 gallons of Mott’s apple juice and 3.5 gallons of the Belgian single.  I am going to ferment this with S-04 and keg.  I am going to add apple juice concentrate to to the beer when I keg it to give it additional apple flavor and some sweetness.  Kegging seems my best option since the ale will be back sweetened but I don’t want it to continue to ferment.

The Belgian Single is a beer that I have brewed before.  This beer is a great session beer and should go over real well.  People who usually aren’t beer drinkers like this beer.  It is low on the bittering side, malty, and slightly sweet.  I brewed a bit extra to be able to do a real wort starter which is currently on the stir plate with the wlp400.  I have two 5 gallon kegs currently in the garage cooling down with the wort in them.  My no chill beers so far have been great.  I haven’t had an infection with them yet and my beer always clears really well after a couple of weeks in the kegerator.  Another plus with doing no chill is that when I rack my beer to a fermenter I leave a TON of break material in the bottom of the kegs.  I get very clean beer going into the fermenter which helps keep the beer clear through out the whole process.

 

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
11.75	Pilsner
1.75	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
16	Tettnanger	60
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
154F	60 minutes
175F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	White Labs WLP400 – Belgian Wit
Stats
10 gal		IBU: 16

1st Annual Brew-n-Que and British Pub Ale

 

This year I am starting a new tradition.  I am going to have a homebrew sampling and I am going to make some of my pulled pork.  People have been invite with a Facebook invite.  The Que part will be run as a potluck.  I am hoping that we will have a backyard full of people …Rain or Shine (I have large popup tents).   The first beer that I made is my British Pub Ale.

This pub ale is a higher gravity version that then session version I usually brew for myself.  This recipe was one of the first beer recipes that I created when I started brewing.  I actually had a year and a half old sample that I found over at my Grandpa’s house (he is an avid Old Milwaukee Light drinker and couldn’t bring himself to drink something else).  This beer was still great after all of this time.  I usually add Fuggles to this brew but have changed it for only East Kent Goldings.  I opened up a brand new package I got from HopsDirect.com and it smelled so good I decided to only use them.

I am doing this batch as a No Chill brew with a Real Wort starter.  The last few beers I have done like that I have really been happy with.  I don’t have to waste a ton of water chilling the beer down and I don’t have to keep DME in stock to make starter wort with.  It is a win/win situation

 

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
9	Maris Otter
1.25	Crystal 60
.25	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
24	East Kent Golding	60
6	East Kent Golding	15
1 Oz	East Kent Golding	5
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	60 minutes
175F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Wyeast London Ale III
Stats
6 gal		IBU: 32

Belma Session Blonde Ale

 

I recently found a new hop while I was ordering from Puterbaugh Farms …Belma Hops.  Belma Hops were breed onsite by the Puterbaugh staff.

Description - A very clean hop, with a very orange, slight grapefruit, tropical (but not mango/guava, more like pineapple), strawberry, and melon

I have been looking for a hop that would be good in a session ale that I will keep permanently on tap as my every day drinking beer.  Belma’s description sounded really good, and at $5.25 a pound I threw this one in with my order.  I have a suspicion that next year once the word spreads this hop won’t be $5.25 a pound.

I burst hopped this beer and will dry hop it so I get the most out of the Belma’s.  I have heard recently this is a good accent hop to other hops, but I want to see how this hop does on its own.  I may use it with Citra or some other tropical flavored hop.  Try as I might I have never really developed a taste for Cascade or other C based hops.  I am usually more of a English/European hop guy.

The last batch of Mild that I No Chilled turned out great.  I am going to try again on this beer.  I’ll see how a lighter colored beer does with this.  I know when I siphoned my last batch out of the Corny keg and into the fermenter their was a lot of break material and hops that had settled out just like they do when I use my chiller.

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
6	2 Row
.5	Crystal 20
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
10.5	Belma	20
6.5	Belma	10
1 Oz	Belma	Dry Hop
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
150F	60 minutes
170F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Safale US-05
Stats
5.5 gal	75% efficiency	IBU: 17