Goodbye Shotgun IPA is in the bottles and its time for batch#2 to get started. We've tasted the IPA a couple of times already and it is amazing. Next taste I will take a picture - its got a great head, color and flavor. My only change next time will be to increase the 60 minute hops in order to increase the bitterness. I actually entered the IPA into the Heart of the Valley Oregon Homebrew Competition last week; I'm really interested to see how it stacks up against other IPAs
On to batch #2 - an american wheat. Yesterday was the Kentucky Derby and sadly the second place filly, Eight Belles, suffered a fatal injury. Presumably, her name was derived from the nautical phrase "Eight Bells" - ironically meaning the end of a sailor's watch - pretty good time for a brew, eh. In honor of Eight Belles and Eight Bells, here is our try at an American Wheat. Its based on a partial mash recipe for a hefeweizen from Bader Brewing, but I'm calling it an American Wheat because I'm going to add some hops at the end, not traditional for a hefeweizen.
8 Bells American WheatOn to batch #2 - an american wheat. Yesterday was the Kentucky Derby and sadly the second place filly, Eight Belles, suffered a fatal injury. Presumably, her name was derived from the nautical phrase "Eight Bells" - ironically meaning the end of a sailor's watch - pretty good time for a brew, eh. In honor of Eight Belles and Eight Bells, here is our try at an American Wheat. Its based on a partial mash recipe for a hefeweizen from Bader Brewing, but I'm calling it an American Wheat because I'm going to add some hops at the end, not traditional for a hefeweizen.
3.75 lbs Unhopped Coopers Wheat Beer Malt Extract
1 lb Light Dry Malt Powder
1 lb Briess Wheat Dry malt powder
1 lb Briess Faked Wheat
1 oz tettnanger hops (60 min)
.25 oz tettnanger hops (15 min)
White Labs American Hefeweizen Yeast
Making the wort
This time I started heating 5 gallons to start with rather than 3. Also, I used Portland's finest tap water instead of bottled water. Once I hit 150 degrees, I started steeping the flaked wheat in a grain bag. After steeping the wheat for about 30 minutes, I removed the bag and brought the water up to a rolling boil. Once at a boil, I added 2 cups of extract and 1 oz of hops and boiled for 60 minutes.
45 minutes into the boil I added another 1/4 oz of hops and I put the wort chiller into the pot to sanitize. The hop addition at this point is not traditional, but I like hops and it seemed like a late hop addition might make this summer beer more refreshing.
After 60 minutes, I added the rest of the extract and the powders. Once mixed, I started to cool it down. It took almost 20 minutes to get the wort down to 78 degrees. After cooling, I poured it into a 6 gallon carboy, took a specific gravity reading, pitched the yeast and put on the airlock.
Thats it. The specific gravity reading was higher than expected at 1.058. The high gravity probably explains why the beer tasted undrinkably sweet when we tasted it. Not sure how this one is going to turn out. I'm also not sure why the gravity was so high (it was supposed to come in at 1.048).
After a week in the primary, I am going to rack this to a secondary fermenter.
45 minutes into the boil I added another 1/4 oz of hops and I put the wort chiller into the pot to sanitize. The hop addition at this point is not traditional, but I like hops and it seemed like a late hop addition might make this summer beer more refreshing.
After 60 minutes, I added the rest of the extract and the powders. Once mixed, I started to cool it down. It took almost 20 minutes to get the wort down to 78 degrees. After cooling, I poured it into a 6 gallon carboy, took a specific gravity reading, pitched the yeast and put on the airlock.
Thats it. The specific gravity reading was higher than expected at 1.058. The high gravity probably explains why the beer tasted undrinkably sweet when we tasted it. Not sure how this one is going to turn out. I'm also not sure why the gravity was so high (it was supposed to come in at 1.048).
After a week in the primary, I am going to rack this to a secondary fermenter.
1 comment:
Have you ever thought about making horse "flavored" ale? That's really pushing the metaphor, but what the hell..
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