Finally brewed my wheat. I spent so much time thinking about this recipe and trying different wheats and wits that I decided to let it gravitate towards the wit category. Also, the whole small batch then full batch idea kinda went out the window. I just ended up doing a full 5 gallon batch. Here's the recipe:

Palo Alto Wheat (BIAB)

5lb 2-row
5lb Wheat Malt
1lb Flaked Wheat
.5lb Honey Malt

Mashed at 153 for 60 min, dunk sparge to full boil volume

My extraction came out piss poor for some reason, so I added 1 lb light DME pre-boil. Not sure what messed up, but that's why I keep DME on hand. Oh well.

.5oz Pacifica @ 60 min
1 oz Motueka @ 30 min
.50z Pacifica @ 5 min
zest of 1 lemon @ 5 min
zest of 1 orange @ 5 min
2 sprigs of rosemary 10" at flame out

I decided to go ahead and use the wyeast 3944 smack pack and see how it goes.

After one day, one of my carboys blew the airlock out. I sanitized everything and put a new airlock in, so hopefully it's not screwed. Next time it's blow off tubes all around.

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After one day, one of my carboys blew the airlock out. I sanitized everything and put a new airlock in, so hopefully it's not screwed. Next time it's blow off tubes all around.

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Smart move...I've personally always hated airlocks. Going blow-off tubes all around is one less thing to worry about IMO.

And I wouldn't worry too much about infection (not that you are). During active fermentation there should be a good amount of positive CO2 pressure coming out the top and a very large and very active culture of yeast ready to out-compete any other organisms. And just think of all the open fermentations going on in professional breweries as we speak!

And interesting recipe btw. Definitely let us know how it comes out.

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Just to give you info on chest freezer;
Mine was 5cuft which is about 30" square... A really small footprint IMO. I got it on craigslist for $50, and temp controller was $50.

I don't know that you can do a whole lot else outside of manually cooling for much less money. And it can hold two carboys, and can lager to boot.

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I've been looking, but nothing that cheap on craigslist that I've seen in my area. My wife also looks at garage sale lists in the area on Facebook. I need to clean out some space in the garage, probably, but I can probably fit one in.

I've used that Wyeast 3944 several times, and it never fails to blow off. I underpitched once and it still blew off, only a week later than normal.

Thanks jock and farmer!

I'm not too concerned. It wasn't a catastrophic explosion or anything, just a little mess. I'm more concerned that I overpitched in the smaller carboy (2.2 gallons in a 3 gallon) and under pitched in the larger one (2.8 gallons in a 5 gallon). When I keg the batch, I'll be blending them together.

Looks somewhat similar to my rosemary wheat.

AggieOO what do you do differently? Just a different grain bill, or different process?

A number of things, but the biggest is that I add my rosemary during the boil, and I only boil for 30 mins.

Can't remember if it was this thread, but I remember someone talking about a Sorachi Ace clone a while back. Finally got to taste ours and man, what a distinctive hop. We didn't try and clone Brooklyn's exactly by any means, but the similarities are definitely there.

I've always been a big fan of simple recipes whenever possible as I think many brewers are too quick to add 14 different malts and 8 different hop varieties without knowing exactly how they're going to work together.

Malt: 100% Pilsner
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.003

Mash: 154F for 60 min (this yeast attenuates like crazy, so I like mashing higher to prevent the beer from getting too dry)

Hops: 100% Sorachi Ace (~40 IBUs)
- all late additions (we added them all in the whirlpool, but the timing/amount will vary depending on your process and equipment so you'll have to make your own calculations)

Yeast: Wyeast 3711 (French Saison)

We were planning on dry-hopping a portion of the batch, but the aroma is already fantastic given all the late hops. Also, since 3711 attenuates so well, expect 3-4 weeks of primary fermentation. The gravity will drop quickly to 1.008-1.012 then slowly chug away for a couple more weeks.

I wish we could get our hands on a lot more Sorachi because this beer's very unique and definitely a winner IMO.

[This message has been edited by jock itch (edited 4/30/2014 4:35p).]

That was me. I probably could have left it much longer in the primary, but I was just following an recipe I found on the Google and converted to extract.

I hopped earlier than y'all too, and I have it dry-hopping in the secondary now. Pretty excited to get it bottled this weekend and have ready for a crawfish boil a couple weeks after that.

Since this yeast is so active (still bubbling in the secondary 2 1/2 weeks later), should I consider going lighter on the priming sugar to prevent bottle-bombs?

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Since this yeast is so active (still bubbling in the secondary 2 1/2 weeks later), should I consider going lighter on the priming sugar to prevent bottle-bombs?

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How long ago did you dry-hop? Could still just be off-gassing from all the nucleation points created by the hops.

And have you checked gravity recently? If your secondary has been kept at room temp, there still would be plenty of yeast in suspension to finish it out considering how poorly this strain flocculates. Only issue I see with dialing back the priming sugar is you're basically guessing how much extract is left from the original beer. A gravity reading would definitely at least make it a more educated guess!

Thanks for the help!

I dry-hopped when it went into the secondary on the 20th after only a week in the primary per the recipe I found. I took a reading then, which I don't remember now, but I can do another easily enough to see where I'm at. I've had it in a tub of water indoors, holding temp right around 71-73 degrees. I'm still new to this, so I'll need help interpreting the changes, and I'll take a reading tonight or tomorrow.

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I've been looking, but nothing that cheap on craigslist that I've seen in my area

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I looked for a couple of months.. I also reduced my expectations of condition. The one I eventually got was rusty all on the bottom and not very pretty outside. But some TLC and spray paint makes a world of difference.





Coincidentally, I am planning on putting that thing on craigslist as we speak, to get rid of this weekend. I took the collar off and put lid back on so it's a functioning unit.

[This message has been edited by 62strat (edited 4/30/2014 5:52p).]

62strat, I might be interested in taking that off your hands. I'm in Arlington, FWIW.

Nice. I found one, but it was too small to even fit one carboy, wasn't deep enough front to back.

I'll keep looking. I've got a full beer fridge at the moment, and I'll be gone alot this summer for National Guard stuff, so I've got an empty brewing schedule for now, so it's not a dire need.

Boys, when building a fermentation chamber don't forget about considering the STC-1000 controller. You can find the build on homebrewtalk.com. The unit is $15 plus a few other parts for $30 total. I use it on a free chest freezer and has worked great

Anyone else going to the DeFalcos home brew day tomorrow? Eric Warner (Karbach) is gonna be there, should be a good time!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152350040551558&substory_index=0&id=206101706557

aTm96, I recently built a controller with the STC-1000. Works great! Went a little nerdy and created a custom box with a 3D printer. I'll try to snap some pics of the system. Using a paintcan heater to keep the temps steady.

Dave, good stuff. Dang thing is perfect. Much better than the closet I was once using. I just have a small space heater. Works good as the fan circulates the air when in heat mode

I plan on adding something to dehumidify and a little fan for circulation. I'd say this will better than a dark pantry closet for fermentation.

Next up is switching to electric and fully geeking out on controls.

Yeah, an STC-1000 will be part of any fermentation chamer build, for sure.

I'm hoping my ESB will be ready to drink this weekend. We'll see!

Sooner...did you ever brew that Tripel? How'd it turn out?

I did not. However, I have it as a to-do for this Saturday. Want to brew it and get it in bottles for a BBQ contest I have in June.

Just received all the malt for our Schwarzbier. Never brewed it before, but if it's a winner you guys can say you saw the recipe first.

OG: ~1.048

47% Pilsner
47% Light Munich (~7-9 SRM depending on maltster)
6% Midnight Wheat (Briess)

Hops: Anything noble really and shoot for 25-30 IBUs.

Yeast: W-34/70 (dry) or WLP 830.

(sub S-05, Nottingham or WLP 001/Wyeast 1956 if using an ale yeast.)

The Midnight Wheat isn't "true to style", but it produces a really clean, smooth roastiness that I expect to work well in a Schwarzbier. If you want more authentic try Carafa Special III which is de-husked and will produce similar flavors/color without the astringency associated with some roasted malts.

Jock, I made a black ale once with a very similar grain/hop bill. It was quite tasty!

I've got a Maris otter/cascade SMaSH fermenting right now, and it smells delicious. Dry hopping on Sunday and hopefully kegging next week. Can't wait.

I got a Barley Crusher in the mail today. Is anyone going to the North Texas Beer Fest this weekend?

I bottled the AHS Kalamazoo IPA Friday night and brewed Biermuncher's (from HomeBrewTalk) Centennial Blonde yesterday.

As long as the Kalamazoo doesn't change much during bottling, it will be the best beer I've made so far. The samples before and after dry hopping were excellent. It only called for 1/3 oz Centennial for dry hopping, but I had extra so I bumped it all the way to 1 oz. The recipe also called for 1/3 oz Centennial at flameout, but I bumped it to 1/2 oz to use up all my hops.

When brewing the Centennial Blonde, I experienced why I want more than my 8 gallon pot. BeerSmith said that all the grain and water would fit into my pot so I wouldn't need to "sparge" with some additional water after mash, but with 2-3 pounds of grain left, the water started spilling over the side, partially because the pot was leaning slightly. I had to drain some water out so the grain would fit. I wound up mashing a little low as a result of the extra time it took me to get everything to fit. I ended up hitting my target OG though, maybe even a point higher, so I think things turned out ok. I have an extra 1/2 oz Cascade hops, so I'll probably use those to dry hop. I used Safale US-05 instead of the Nottingham as well.

Here's the recipe for anyone interested in it. It's probably the most made beer recipe from HomeBrewTalk, and a good house beer to have for non-craft drinkers according to the reviews.

****5 Gallon Batch****

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)


Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes.

EDIT: Here's the link to the recipe thread if anybody wants to read through what some people have said and tried.

[This message has been edited by khkman22 (edited 5/11/2014 10:43p).]

Tasted the Sorachi Ace tonight after a week in bottles, and I think I have a winner. Should be great for the crawfish boil on Saturday.

Thanks for the help (and I forgot to take the reading like I said I would).

My ESB has been bottled for 3 weeks now, so I tried a bottle out last night. Next time, more hops probably, as it's really not all that bitter. It's also a bit cloudy, but that's not a huge problem. We're having friends over this weekend, so I'll hopefully get some input from them and tweak the recipe for next time.

Wife: "This is good! This is the first homebrew you've done that doesn't taste like homebrew."

I'll take that as a compliment regarding my NW IPA with cascade and centennial hops I brought back from Oregon. Being able to control temps during fermentation appears to really be helping. Anxious to see how my hefe turns out. It's slowly progressing after a vigorous few days at the start.

Nice job Dave! My wife doesn't like most beer that I like, so she doesn't drink alot of what I brew. She usually is a good sport and tries it, though, unless it's an IPA.

I did a Maic Hat #9 clone for her recently, and she really liked it. We did a blind taste test with some store-bought #9 and the stuff I made, and everyone agreed mine was better. I might have rigged it in my favor, though, a bit, since the store-bought stuff was a couple of months old. :-)

I wanted to keg my wit this weekend, but after disassembling and cleaning my kegs, I discovered that the seals were bad. Of course, the store was closed on Sunday for Mother's day, so I'll have to pick them up on the way home today and keg tonight. It smells like a winner right now, so I can't wait to get it carbed up!

Finally kegged my wit on Monday. The rosemary was very noticeable, but the flavor overall was well balanced. I came out a bit high on my alcohol content, but it's still what I would consider sessionable - 6.5% ABV. Looking forward to this little beauty this weekend!

[This message has been edited by WorkBoots09 (edited 5/14/2014 7:46a).]

Among other things on my list of future upgrades is a kegging system!