Continue reading]]> So, on Saturday 8/10 I bottled my Hefeweizen, which I also call my Witty Weizenbeir.  Final gravity came out to be 1.014, giving me an alcohol percentage of 5.5%.  Not too shabby.

The Hallertauer aroma is wonderful, the beer has a good malt body with a nice show of hop flavor.  Definitely did a good job on it this time.

My Peach Hefeweizen got transferred to secondary with 6 lbs of peach puree.  Fermentation kicked off again on it as well.  I noticed the flavor on this wasn’t as full bodied as the other batch, which accounts for the difference in gravities as well.  My gravity before adding the puree was 1.012.  After the puree was 1.014.  I wondered at first if it should be higher than that, but it is what it is.  Will be a bit before I can get to bottling this one.

Continue reading]]> It’s been since October since I’ve brewed.  So, decided to do a hefeweizen.  But I also wanted to do a peach hefeweizen.  Well, why not do both?  So I did.

After much contemplation I decided on doing one big 10 gallon batch, and I will put half with peaches in a secondary.  That way I’ll have 1/2 regular hefeweizen (for those people who think fruit in their beer is effeminate), and 1/2 will be a peach hefeweizen.  Good plan!

Recipe:

14 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat Malt Extract
3 oz Hallertauer hops (1.5oz bittering, 1oz with 15 minutes left for flavor, 1/2oz for aroma)2 packets Safbrew WB-06- Wheat Beer Yeast
6 lbs Peach Puree (for secondary)

Brought 5 gallons of water to a boil and added the liquid malt extract.  Once it reboiled added the 1.5oz of hops.

Hallertauer Hops in wheat malt wort

Waited 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then added 1oz more of hops.  Waited 10 minutes, then added the rest of my hops.

Strained out the hops and transferred it to my two fermenters, then topped both of them off to 5 gallons.

Hefeweizen in Fermenters

Tomorrow I pitch the yeast.  In a week I’ll transfer one to a secondary with my peaches, which I cheated with and bought peach puree.

6 Lbs Peach Puree

Edit: took gravity today, my smaller bucket had an initial gravity of 1.056, the bigger bucket was 1.050. I’m wondering if I added more water in the larger bucket.

Continue reading]]> So, a friend of mine asked me if my blog was up to date.  Yes, I said.  He said you haven’t brewed since April.  Yeah, yeah.  My beer supplies are running low, time for a summer beer.

I brewed my traditional Half-a-weizen on Sunday.  Simple recipe- 7lbs liquid wheat malt extract. Hop schedule I used Hallertauer hops: 1-1/3 oz for full boil, 1/3 oz at 10 minutes left, then 1/3 oz for the last 2 minutes.

I pitched the yeast tonight.  Initial gravity was 1.050.  Can’t wait to drink this.  I want to add some peaches to the next wheat I brew.  Maybe next time.

Continue reading]]> On Tuesday the  18th my brother in law and I bottled up both batch 29 and 30.  Given that both of these recipes used Liberty hops exclusively, I decided (albeit in a hurry and forgetting the names I had previously come up with) to give both beers names keeping with the spirit of liberty.

Liberty Pale Ale

Liberty Hefeweizen

We started the bottling process around 2PM and finished around 4:30PM (of course, cleanup lasted a tad bit longer.)  We started with the pale ale, getting about 54 12 oz bottles and two 22oz bottles out of it.  Final gravity came out to be 1.010, giving an alcohol by volume of 5.25%.

The hefeweizen we got a lot less bottles, 44 12oz bottles and two 22oz bottles.  When we started transferring the hef, I noticed the sediment wasn’t very compact, and there were a few bubbles rising.  Uh, oh.  Looks like it didn’t finish fermenting.  To compensate, I only added 1/2 of my corn sugar I normally would for bottling.  Final gravity came out to 1.016, but given the unfinished state of the fermentation I would guess it would be closer to 1.014.  With the 1.016 figure the alcohol would be 5.8%, with the 1.014 figure it would be 6%.  Either way, it’s stronger than the pale ale.

I’m giving these guys a week and 3 days in the bottle before I start serving them, due to an upcoming get together with some friends on the 29th.  I’m hoping they’re good enough to drink by then, cause I’m drinking them then.

Continue reading]]> Today had some friends over and we brewed two beers simultaneously.  Been thinking about what to brew for a few days, knowing today was coming, and was having my normal difficulties of deciding.  I knew I wanted a pale ale but didn’t care for the recipes I’ve seen, and I wanted to use my Liberty hops.  So, I made my own recipe for a pale ale, plus I decided on doing a hefeweizen ala Widmer style.  But, none of the pseudo Widmer clone recipes I cared for, so I made my own, since I wanted to use Liberty hops in that as well.

So, here are my recipes:

Brett’s Liberty Pale Ale (6 gallon batch):

7 lbs light malt extract syrup
1 lb British crystal malt (40 l)
.5 lbs Munich malt
.75 oz Centennial Hops (60 min-bittering)
.5 oz Liberty hops (15 min left- flavor)
.5 oz Liberty hops (5 min – aroma)
Safale US-05 yeast

Brett’s Half A Weizen (5 gallon batch):

7 lbs wheat extract syrup (60 wheat/40 malt ratio- thanks, Steinbarts!)
1 lb white wheat malt
.5 lbs Munich malt
1.5 oz Liberty hops (60 min – bittering)
.5 oz Liberty hops (5 min – aroma)
Safale WB-06 yeast

Doing both batches at the same time went well, especially since I had two helpers, Jeremy and Mike, both of whom thoroughly enjoy my home brew, and Mike in particular is displaying interest in doing it himself.

We mashed the grains in about 1/2 gallon of water at 150 degrees for 35 minutes (at one point we got to talking and the temp spiked on both, so we quickly added a bit more water to bring the temp down quickly).  We sparged the poor lazy man’s way, since there weren’t enough grains in the pots to justify dirtying my lauder tun.  Then we added more water, added 1/2 the malt extract syrups, our bittering hops, and away we went.  Once both batches had 15 minutes left we added the rest of the malt, and I nearly burned myself when the malt bucket handle broke and dropped into the pale ale.  Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt badly by the water splashing on my foot.  Also added the flavor hops to the pale ale at this time.  With 5 minutes left, added the aroma hops on both.  Once the boil was done, removed the heat, strained the hop pellets out, and poured into the fermenters.

Tomorrow morning I will aerate both, take the gravity, and pitch the yeast.  Then, will need to come up with clever logo’s for the bottles.  I’m having a get together with a bunch of friends on the 29th, so hoping these beers are good and ready by then.

Update:  Initial gravity on the pale ale was 1.050.  Initial gravity on the hefeweizen was 1.060.  Both smell wonderful and taste pretty darn good as they are.  Going to be some fine beers!

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Last night I bottled up my so called “American Style” hefeweizen. It had been fermenting for 14 days by the time I had bottled it. And, by fermenting for 14 days, I don’t mean it was just sitting there for 14 days waiting to be bottled. I mean it was actively fermenting for 14 days.

I got the recipe and the ingredients from a local homebrew shop not too far from work, and they were nice enough to supply me with the recipe. Unfortunately, the recipe never specified how much beer it made, so I just assumed it was for a 5 gallon batch. After brewing it and waiting for 2 weeks, I tried some last night as I was bottling it.

…. What on earth did I just brew?!?!?!

This beer tasted like a cross between a wheat beer and some Jack Daniels. The alcohol content was that strong!

Now, I’m guessing this was probably a 10 gallon recipe. I’m guessing I have something that’s at least a 10% alcohol content. But, since I haven’t purchased a hydrometer yet, I have no way of knowing.

So, if you want a wheat beer that will knock you flat on your butt, come see me in a week, and I’ll hook you up with a bottle or two. As for me, I may hold onto some to use to clean off some engine grease.

Note:  It’s been over a week since bottling, and the taste is similar to what Papazian describes as “band-aid flavor”, which is symptomatic of a bacterial infection in the yeast before I pitched it.  My fault- I tried culturing the yeast for this beer to save some money, and screwed it up.   Grr…

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Well, with all the chaos in the house (me being sick last week, the wife having contractions and sending us into the hospital, and my son barfing all night), I was able to get some bottling done in the midst of this.

Batch number 5 was the weird b@$tard brew that I made by throwing all the ingredients I got from a home beer kit I got from Christmas.   I bottled it up last Thursday while feeling horrible.  There was so much sediment in it that the bottling hose got clogged several times.  I couldn’t find my gelatin to add to it to settle that junk down, so I have 23 bottles of this stuff with massive amounts of sediment.  I tasted some- despite the sediment it was just ok, kinda like a real weak amber ale.  Once it bottle ferments and is chilled I’ll see how it tastes.

Now, batch 4 was the attempt at making a hefeweisen.  Not following a recipe, but following the advice of a friend, we got the ingredients last month, went to brew and realized we’d got the wrong stuff.  The extract that was supposed to be 100% wheat was actually 65% wheat and 35% barley.  That added to the light malt extract and we had a recipe for an amber type beer with a bit of wheat in it.  Also had 4 oz. of  Hallertauer hops.   I started bottling and poured a sample to taste.

Whoa!  It was amazingly interesting!   It was similar to a hef, but closer to a bock.  It had a light body, darker than a regular hef, but the hops were amazing!  Bitter with a great floral and citrus finish.  I have a feeling that will be a great beer, unlike anything I’ve ever had.

I’m excited about brewing some more.  I’m planning on doing an English bitter, an IPA, a real Hefeweizen, and an oatmeal stout made from steel cut oats.  I have to purchase a grain bag and the other goodies I will need, but I’m looking forward to it.