Wheat Bock

A rich, cocoalike, malty wheat beer.

2.0 lbs. Pale Liquid Malt Extract
1.5 lbs. Dark Liquid Malt Extract
0.5 lb. Honey
1.0 lb. Chocolate Malt
1.0 lb. Roasted Barley Malt
1.0 lb. Belgian Aromatic Malt
1.0 lb. Flaked Wheat
0.5 lb. Wheat Malt
1.5 lbs. Caramunich Malt
0.5 lb. Caravienne Malt
0.5 lb. Cara Pils Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 60L
----
11.5 lbs. Total

1 oz. German Spaltz 60+ minutes boiling
0.25 tsp. Irish Moss 10 minutes boiling
1 oz. Tettnang 5 minutes boiling
1 oz. Tettnang 2 minutes boiling

Bavarian Lager Wyeast 2206

Pumpkin Ale !

This stuff is bubbling away, and the pumpkin crud is tumbling all around! I let it sit for a day, and by then there was so much crud in the blow out tube I actually had to remove the tube to clean out the hops and allow the foam to escape. Here's my recipe, which is a modification to several recipes I found floating around on the internet:



7 lbs. United Canadian Amber liquid malt extract
8 lbs. pumpkin
1 lb. Vienna malt 4L
1/2 lb. crystal malt 40L
1/2 lb. wheat malt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 ounce Mt. Hood hops (boiling)
1 ounce Hallertauer hops (finishing)
1 teaspoon irish moss
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ounce freshly grated ginger
Wyeast 1056, American Ale

I smacked the yeast and let sit. I removed the guts from one pumpkin, cut it into large chunks, and baked in a large pan with a small amount of water for 1 hour at 350 degrees. I added the pumpkin to a 3 gallon kettle filled with water and steeped at 170 degrees for 1 hour. In between here I didn't feel that the pumpkin was roasted thoroughly from the previous step so I picked the pieces out and mashed them, then added back to the kettle. After the hour was up, I removed the pumpkin pieces and added the steeping grains (Vienna, crystal and wheat). I steeped at 170 degrees for 30 minutes, then removed the grain with a small strainer. The reason I steeped the grain separate from the pumpkin was there was not enough room there was so much pumpkin! I added the sugars, extract, boiling hops and enough water to completely fill the kettle, and brought to a boil. I boiled for one hour. After 45 minutes of boiling I added the finishing hops and irish moss. At the end of the boil I added the pumpkin spices. Then I funneled the wort to a carboy without sparging and topped off the concoction with enough water to make 5 gallons. After it cooled down to 80 degrees I pitched the yeast, attached to a blow out tube and put it in my closet.

Thoughts: I would add less finishing hops next time, like half as much. Also, I would cook the pumpkin longer, until it was really soft. I would also mash the pumpkin after it was fully cooked, before adding to the kettle. I am not confident that the pumpkin flavor fully transferred to the wort and probably should have cooked the pumpkin longer.

Hobo Delicious

That's the name of my cider. It was the cheapest brew I've made so far. I bought 5 - 128 ounce jugs of pasteurized apple cider NOT from concentrate. I added 1/4 pound of brown sugar, 1/4 pound of honey, and 2 cups of corn sugar (it was laying around and I didn't have enough brown sugar). I threw in a couple clove stems, few too many dashes of cinnamon, and pitched Wyeast 3184 sweet mead yeast. After 3 days I felt like I wanted something darker and stronger, so I heated 2 more pounds of dark brown sugar, and a pound of honey in water, funneled into another carboy, and racked the cider on top of it. I had too much for the 5 gallon carboy! For some dumb reason I decided to bottle one bottle and I left it out on the deck in case it exploded. Little did I know that this cider was not even close to done and when I opened the bottle the next day it erupted like a volcano all over the deck. It's been three weeks now and the fermentation is just beginning to slow down. The sweet mead yeast seems to work a lot slower than ale yeast. It hasn't been racked since I added the brown sugar and there's barely any yeast at the bottom of the carboy. Probably because the apple cider was so filtered, being bought from the store.

Peaches 'N Wheat are coming your way !

Peaches N Wheat

My latest brew-ha is a modification to a recipe from the Wine and Hop Shop, on Monroe Street, Madison WI, called Winsome Wheat. I wanted to make a fruit ale this time around. I thought about raspberry ale, but I can't drink very much tart beer. Then I remembered a really great tasting apricot ale from Pyramid Breweries Inc. called Apricot Weizen. It was very refreshing and even my wife who doesn't like beer enjoyed it. I went with Peaches because right now they're really ripe and in season. The Winsome Wheat kit was a bit darker than my desire, so I replaced 1.5 pounds of the dark liquid malt extract with 0.25 pound dry wheat malt extract and 1 pound of honey. This probably won't lighten the beer as much as I want, but it's all I had on hand at the time. I cut the amount of hops in half to reduce the bitterness. Just for kits I also doubled the amount of crystal malt. I used 5.5 pounds of freshly pureéd peaches. I picked Bavarian Wheat yeast from Wyeast Laboratories.

Cooking the wort went very smoothly. I steeped the peaches for 15 minutes at around 170 degrees Farenheit. It smelled like Peach Cobbler. Yummy! I didn't sparge this time because I wanted the peach pureé to sit in the fermenter during the first stage. Also, I am using an open blow tube during the first stage fermentation because wheat beer is usually too explosive for an airlock during this time (I learned that with my Trippin Trippel). This will also give the added benefit of removing hops residue through the blow tube, which I could not sparge because of the peach pureé.



Hydrometer reading: 1.033 (1.030 + .003 correction) ~4.55 % alcohol potential

Ale For All

Just bottled my new brew. I'm calling it Luke's Trippin' Trippel. It's a Belgian Style Ale. It already tastes good, and it hasn't even been conditioned! Very strong too.

Hydrometer: 1.0195 (1.018 + 0.0015 correction) ~2.8

My initial hydrometer reading must have been wrong, because that gives me a 2.45 % alcohol level, and that stuff is MUCH stronger.

Oh Well.

Fresh Beer is the Best Beer

I couldn't resist any longer. I put some of my beer in the fridge. A few hours later the taste... a shining success! Tastes just like a great Pale Ale, and one half liter put me on my ass! A tiny bit of a strange aftertaste, but hardly noticeable and plus I popped the top early, it still has more aging to do!

I started right away on my second batch. This time I borrowed a receipe from BeerRate.com, called Evolution Ale. Supposed to resemble a Belgian Tripel. It's still just an extract recipe, no mashing yet.

Here's the ingredient list:
7.5 lbs wheat dry malt extract
8 oz 10L crystal
4 oz caravienne
1.5 lb light honey (added to secondary)
2 oz Hallertauer (60 min) (3 oz for partial boils)
1 oz Tettnager (5 min)
.5 oz coriander
.5 oz bitter orange peel
.5 oz cardamom seeds
Wyeast Liquid Belgian wheat yeast

This time I added the specialty grains right to the water, and used a strainer to remove the grains after 30 minutes of steeping. Also, since I have two carboys now, I chose to do the first stage fermentation in a carboy, using a funnel and strainer to sparge the wort as I added it to the carboy. I attached a hose to the top of the carboy instead of an airlock and will let the foam and residue blow out.

1.042 (1.040 + .002 correction) ~5.25

Went out and bought funnel with strainer, overflow hose, spare airlock, cooking thermometer for my next [undecided] batch, and 12-22oz. bottles, an automatic siphon, and a bottle filler, for my current batch. These suckers are bottled! I forgot to get a hydrometer reading, and I only had 4 gallons left of the 5 gallons just before bottling. The 1 gallon must have gone missing during the siphoning.

Still fermenting very slowly. I think it will be ready to bottle in another day or two. I have 340 ounces in bottles, I think I need 450 or so! Cleaning labels off bottles is a chore. My Uncle gave me a spare carboy!! I think next time I will try first stage fermenting with it and an overflow hose.

Strange Brew Success!

Specific Gravity 1.019 (1.018 + .001 correction)
Potential Alcohol % ~1.0
Current Alcohol Content 5.2%

Amazing! Still no bubbles, but the hydrometer shows fermentation! When did it happen? Oh well! Siphoned to carboy. I see a big bubble in the airlock! yay! With all the messing around I did with this brew, including adding baking yeast, this is going to be one strange brew!

Here is the carboy, filled with Warbler Pale Ale! A few more days and this will be ready to bottle!

Still no sign of fermentation. I'm going crazy, bought some brewing yeast and sprinkled it on top like the shop owner suggested.

Added BAKING YEAST because I could not detect fermentation and I had no brewing yeast, shop was closed!! Shook it around, kept poking my nose under the lid. Not wise. Still no bubbles from the airlock! Suspecting air leak.

Strange Brew

Specific Gravity 1.048 (1.046 + .002 correction)
Potential Alcohol % ~6.2

I have decided to publish my brew log. I am a first time beer brewer, long time beer lover.

I boiled at very high temperature for a long time, and was unsure that I rehydrated the yeast properly. No bubbles from the airlock!

Here is the "Ale Pale" where the brew will ferment.