Wow talk about a coincidence! I tried this bier for the first time today. For the record it's VERY green, as in 2 weeks old (1 week in primary/bottled sample in bottle for 1 week) In other words it's not nearly as good as it's gonna be. Initial thoughts, pretty dang tasty.
Recipe I brewed and early results below.
6.75# 2-row-Rahr
3# Rye malt
1.5# Light Am. Munich
4 oz. Crystal 20
4 oz. Flaked Wheat
Mash in 17 qts water at 150 - 151.5 for 55 mins.
At 45 mins drained approx 1 gal. wort, raised temp to 195ish added back to MLT raising mash temp to 158.3 for 15 mins. Sparge with 4.25 gals water @ 180 degrees.
90 Min. boil (30 pre hop boil mostly to reduce volume)
.5 oz. Glacier 6.0 AAU @ 60 min
.5 oz. Summit 18.5 AAU @ 17 min
.5 oz. Summit 18.5 AAU @ 2 min
O.G. 1.059
F.G. 1.010 (taken @ 7 days, I think I've gotten another point or so drop as I moved it to secondary B4 I wanted to, but I needed the primary for an APA) Will update when I bottle in a couple weeks.
Yeast: 2 packs US-05
Notes: Obviously with the Summit I wasn't trying to clone the recipe exactly, but I did want something close, just wanted that citrus/tangerine Summit burst of flavor/ aroma at the end. Not looking for it to be overpoweringly hoppy. As the bier is green it was had to make too much of a judgement, but the malt certainly comes through, probably more so than Sun Rye. I tried to keep fermentation between 59-63 (mostly succesful as I use the rubbermaid tub, waterbath, & frozen 2-liter method). It's definatly smooth and malty with a good bit of the grainy 2 row/munich/rye... very bready I suppose. What really really stands out is it's VERY thick. Way thicker than a blonde should be, but I kind of like it. The head & retention were phenominal. Not sure what caused the viscosity/head but I suspect it's caused by the rye. Also it's VERY cloudy, I forgot to add Irish Moss.
I'll post a pic later, or tomorrow. I'll also post a follow-up when it's bottle conditioned and truely ready to be judged.
Schlante,
Phillip
As a side note I siphoned almost 1 gallon into a 1 gal. secondary and added 1 pt of finely chopped and hand crushed strawberries. I'm letting it sit for 2-3 weeks then I'll start the racking process till it clears. Ahh the mini experiments!