The first batch of beer for 2009 was a quick and easy Hefeweisen. My wife is a big fan of many German style wheat beers. She was very fond of Paulaner Natural Wheat, but has recently been turned on to Hacker Pschorr. She now prefers the HP because it has less of the banana notes than from the Paulaner yeast. So I was on a mission to make an extract beer with some specialty grains that fit the description.
While at the brew shop buying a new boiling pot (Note from Mrs. Brew Meister: he decided the larger pot would eliminate boil-over and that the basement brewery will require time and budgeting), I thumbed through a copy of Brew Your Own that had 150 top clone recipes. I patched together an ingredient list that I thought would do the trick, and I changed my yeast from the normal White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale yeast to WLP351 Bavarian Weizen yeast. I think it will create a spicier less banana/bubble gum flavor.
- Start the 4 gallons of water boiling in the main boil pot
- In a separate pot, bring ¾ gallon of water to 160F. Add 1.5# of pils malt
- Steep at 150F for 50 minutes
- Pour water and grains through a strainer into the larger pot
- Ladle hot water through the grains in the strainer for a few minutes.
- Bring everything to a boil for a total boil of 60 minutes.
- Add 4# Muntons wheat dry malt extract 60 minutes
- Add 1oz Spalt hops 2.4AA 60 minutes
- Add ½oz Tradition hops 5.2AA 60 minutes
- Add 3# liquid wheat malt extract 15 minutes
- Add 1/2 oz Tradition hops 5.2AA 15 minutes
With an immersion chiller, I cooled the wort down to 74F in 15 minutes.
I pitched the White Labs Weizen WLP351 and stored it on a first floor room until fermentation started about 10 hours later.
It is now in the basement bubbling away at 64F. So far, so good.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Beer Hackers For Sure (clone recipe)
Monday, July 7, 2008
FINALLY! A recipe (or more) for White Beer
We were inspired to create a Belgian Wit beer that would be ready around our anniversary. Mrs. Brew Meister always enjoyed Blue Moon Belgian White. We also just drank a bottle of Unibroue - La Fin Du Monde. Holy cow is that a good spicy beer; and at 9%, one bottle is the perfect size.
I took a recipe from a book at the local brewshop and adapted it to fit what the store had in stock, and the modifications I wanted to make. In honor of the anniversary, I give you...
White Wedding Beer
- 1# Belgian Biscuit Malt in 2 gallons of water @ 160F for 30 minutes
- Sparge with 1 gallon of water @ 168F
Bring the water to a boil
- Add 6.6# of 55/45 Wheat DME, 1oz crushed coriander seeds, and 1oz sweet orange peel
Boil for 5 minutes
- Add 1oz Saaz hops
Boil 40 minutes
- Add 1oz Cascade hops and 1# clear Belgian candy sugar
Boil 15 minutes; cool to 75F
- Add White Labs Belgian White Yeast
It has fermented for a week, I am moving it to the secondary today. It will probably be there for five weeks before bottling.
Here are some other Belgian White Recipes I found on the Interwebs. I have not tried these yet, but they sound good, and have various skill levels.
Partial Mash From BYO: Blanche de Chambly (look halfway down the page)
All grain from jrhomebrewers: Leffe Blonde clone
An extract recipe from BYO: Celis White Clone
Cheers!
Friday, May 2, 2008
Should have known it when we named it
Clever name, that Dubbel Trubbel. I thought my husband had something catchy going. Little did we know that a "wardrobe malfunction" would cause some real trouble...
Tap-A-Draft is not our friend. The first time we ever used it, we noticed that the rounded bottom of the PET bottle couldn't stand up straight, so we left it on its side. A trail of ants led us to realize it had leaked beer through the floor.
This time, we figured we'd sit the bottle up within a cardboard box. No leaking. Brilliant. Bought the charging cartridges. They didn't work out. I defer to my spouse on the technical details. And, of course, then the bottle wasn't airtight.
Our beautiful Belgian beer, the one we waited months to savor, was now on the edge of air damage. All because we dressed her up in a Tap-A-Draft. Well, no longer. We are kegger/bottlers from here on out.
Of course, my devastated better half thought we ought to pour the entire batch out, but I, Mrs. Brew Meister, am a terrible influence. I said, "For all of the waiting and trouble, the least we can do is get drunk off of it." And we did.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Belgian Epiphany
I have always been a hophead, inspired originally by British Bitters and IPAs. Then I moved on to West Coast ales with insane amounts of hops and a higher-than-normal ABV. Moylan's Triple IPA and Rogue Brewery's Brutally Bitter (among others) were my choices. Everything went off without a hitch. Primary fermentation lasted 6 days, secondary fermentation lasted 8 days. At the end of secondary, the beer tasted a bit fruity in the nose, with banana or apple, followed by a warm tongue-coating maltiness. The hops were still surprisingly apparent in the taste. The alcohol was pronounced as it went to the belly. It finished with a sharpness reminding me the beer is still too young. The batch was primed with corn sugar and bottled in an assortment of glass and Brew tap bottles.
However, my wife traveled to Europe several times for work when we first married. She would go to England, the Netherlands, and Germany, and come home talking about some of the great European beers she was trying fresh off the tap. While I did enjoy a Hefe or Bock, she never really brought home any of the Belgians. My only real experience was local sources of Lindeman's Kreik and Framboise. Not good samples in trying to convince me of the Belgium brewing magic.
I have since traveled several times to the Netherlands and once to Germany, but never made time to research or find good beers. It was usually whatever they served in my isolated Dutch hotel, or the one local Irish establishment in the heart of Schweinfurt.
During an extended work trip last year, Mrs. Brew Meister and I methodically sampled every variety possible. We started with the grocery store close to our lodging. Grolsch Kanon, Le Chouffe Blond, Paulaner Naturtrub, Hoeggarden's Grand Cru and Verboten Vrucht...oh, there will be more on beer travel later.
I was fascinated with the complexity of these brews. Many were malty, vinous, yeasty, heady, and downright delicious. After we returned home, my thoughts were still with these styles. In fact, the first batch for 2008 was a Belgian Dubbel based on a "Joy of Homebrewing" recipe. I was probably inspired by time spent in Europe drinking as many new dubbels, trippels, witbiers, schwartzbiers, hefeweizens, farmhouse ales--and anything else I could try.
When I visited the Local Brew Shop, and asked, I was recommended the "Joy" version with a few minor alterations:
I had a few friends over to show them the joys of homebrewing. It was also an easy sell, as we sampled a few beers from the style
I forgot to check FG, out of practice. Still, all and all, a great way to kick off the Brew Year.
