toestothesun

Recipes 

Here's the recipe I used

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: US-05
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 29.2
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7
Tasting Notes: Awesome beer for the warmer months

This is an American Wheat Ale that I love. It resembles a hefe-weizen, but it tastes nothing like one. It's easy-drinking, with an evident sweetness from the honey and honey malt. The hops, especially the late addition Centennials, balances out the sweetness and gives it a nice subtle aroma. I brew this in the Spring typically, but it can easily be a refreshing summer beer.

Fermentables
6lbs Wheat LME
1lb Orange Blossom Honey
.5lb Honey Malt

Hops
.75oz Mt. Hood (6 AAU) @ 60 min
.75oz Mt. Hood (6 AAU) @ 20 min
1oz Centennial @ 1 min

Yeast
US-05

Add half the extract at the beginning of the boil, then add the remaining in the final 10-15 minutes. This will increase the bitterness a little bit while also keeping the beer lighter. If you want the beer to be cloudy, take a cup of regular wheat flour and add it to some water to create a slurry. Add the slurry to the boil with around 15-20 minutes left. Add the honey with about 3 minutes left in the boil.

You can easily sub the Centennials with Amarillos or possibly even Cascades.

This is one of my favorite beers.

IrishBrewer74

Recipes 

Like stated above... Take a few hydrometer readings over a few days. That's the only way to tell when fermentation is done. How long can depend on too many variables, but the numbers will stay the same when it's reached FG.

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toestothesun

Recipes 

Also, this is going to completely sound like a noob question but I do not rely upon the potential alcohol volume scale on the hydrometer to determine my ABV?

IrishBrewer74

Recipes 

That's more of a rough estimate assuming everything fully ferments out. If you search the forums or online you can find calculators where you plug in your original gravity and final gravity and it'll tell you your alcohol content. There is a math equation that will tell you how much alcohol you have: starting gravity minus final gravity divided by .0074

So 1.052-1.014= .038. .038/.0074=5.13% if your gravity is finished right now as is.

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step

Recipes 

You could but you need to look at the initial potential alcohol and then subtract the final potential alcohol to get a figure

toestothesun

Recipes 

Thanks guys

pjj2ba

Recipes 

The only "damage" you could do by transferring early is there will be more yeast to settle out and the beer might not be as clear. There should be plenty of yeast in suspension. They are the ones doing the bulk of the "work" anyway. Those that have settled out don't do much.

The big danger is bottling too early as that can result in bottle bombs.

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