All-Grain - American Wheat Beer - 2nd place Best of show - 2011 HBT BJCP competition
Recipe Type: All Grain Yeast: Wyeast 2565 Kölsch Yeast Starter: 1.5 L on stir plate Batch Size (Gallons): 6.0 Original Gravity: 1.050 Final Gravity: 1.010 IBU: 19 Boiling Time (Minutes): 60 Color: 3.9 SRM Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 9 days at 62 °F Tasting Notes: Refreshing beer with a nice mouthfeel and a light clean fruitiness.
Here's the recipe for my American wheat beer that won 2nd place BOS and 1st place Hybrids (Category 6-7) in the HBT BJCP 2011 contest. I brewed this on March 6th, so it was about 3 weeks old for the first round judging. I was surprised that it was actually very drinkable only 11 days after brewday (but still extremely turbid). As the Kölsch yeast continued to settle out in the keg, the more subtle fruity fermentation characteristics began to come out a little more.
I just wanted to say that I think it's awesome that a straight-up, true to style American Wheat was able to take 2nd in such a big competition. All to often, BOS ends up being crazy beers from Category 23, or really amped-up imperials.
Congrats! I might brew this before the summer is out.
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Fermentor(s): Retribution Brown Ale
Lagering: Oktoberfest
Kegged: Test SMaSH
Bottled: Mr. Beer Pale Ale, Brown Sugar Mead
Tapped: Dystopian Saison
Up Next: 100% Wheat Beer, Dopplebock
I made a kolsch a while back using White Labs 029 kolsch yeast and thought the yeast character I got from that would go nice in a wheat. When I compared notes on the Wyeast vs White Labs kolsch yeasts I ended up deciding to go with the Wyeast. The kolsch yeast doesn't produce any of the phenols that you would get from a hefeweizen. It does make some fruity esters, but none of the banana like a hefe, more like a bit of pear and pineapple. This fruitiness is subtle though. The wheatiness came out nice and bready. I might brew it again soon and see how the White Labs kolsch yeast does with it.
It's funny, a week before this contest was judged I decided not to enter this same wheat beer into a "best damn beer" category in a local contest because I thought there's no way an American wheat would have a chance to win going up against other styles.
If you brew it let me know how it turns out for you. I have a feeling I will be brewing this one a couple more times this summer...
Congrats! That has to feel good. I'd love to try that beer. Is it similar to lil sumpin sumpin? Sounds similar to the Can You Brew It recipe that was posted a while back. Man I like that beer.
Ya, that was my first time with the Wyeast kolsch yeast. At 9 days I opened it up to pull a sample and there was still a whole mess of bubbly yeast on top! But a gravity check showed it was fully attenuated and it tasted great (and for the style it didn't matter if it was cloudy) so I decided to crash it and keg it and force carbonate.
I probably would have let it go longer in the primary like i do with most of my beers. But I had only decided to enter this contest the week before entries were due, so that's why I rushed it through.
I've never had Sumpin Sumpin. I had a look at that recipe, it looks fantastic! But it's quite a bit stronger and with all those dry hops I doubt it would be to similar to this one.
We don't many chances to try Lagunitas here in Nebraska, but I'm headed to the NHC in San Diego this June, so I will have to look for it when I'm there. Thanks for the tip!
All-Grain - American Wheat Beer - 2nd place Best of show - 2011 HBT BJCP competition
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