American Wheat Beer Gumballhead inspired WPA

CornyKegs 728
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Just transferred this to the secondary for dry hopping and took a hydro sample at 1.018. Hopefully this will go down another point or two while it's in the secondary for a week. It smells really good and has a light taste with a slight bitterness at the very end. It wasn't really sweet but overall very drinkable for being a 2 week old flat beer!
 
The finish is sweet, so it's the 3rd flavor you taste.

1st flavor: powerful hop aroma (citrus)
2nd flavor: slight breadiness, hop bitterness
3rd flavor: slight caramel sweetness

As I said before, it's a feature, not a bug. :D
 
D_Ranged_Eskimo said:
Just transferred this to the secondary for dry hopping and took a hydro sample at 1.018. Hopefully this will go down another point or two while it's in the secondary for a week.
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1.018 is a bit sweet for a beer... but about right for a late harvest riesling. ;)

Sometimes racking will help it go down a few points in secondary. The Germans have a word for stirring or shaking the fermentor to get those extra few points down, but I can't remember it right now. It's something like "rousing" the yeast or something. :confused:
 
Justibone said:
1.018 is a bit sweet for a beer... but about right for a late harvest riesling. ;)

Sometimes racking will help it go down a few points in secondary. The Germans have a word for stirring or shaking the fermentor to get those extra few points down, but I can't remember it right now. It's something like "rousing" the yeast or something. :confused:
Click to expand...

You know though, the hydro sample wasn't all that sweet and there wasnt a huge bitterness at the beginning or middle, just a slight bitterness that lingered at the end. It was good though, but as is all sampling, the flavors will develop and with the dry hopping, it should give it more aroma and a slighter hint of hop to the taste.

It might be that my initial hop addition boiled over! Oops, in any case, it has alcohol in it, and it is very drinkable!
 
Bottled it yesterday and it tasted great. Had a really good aroma from dry hopping and was sitting at 1.018 after adding the priming sugar. Not sure why it is still so high, but it did taste good.
 
Gonna have to make this. Looks too good to pass up.

Anyone have some advice on any recipe changes from the OP?
 
KCBigDog said:
Gonna have to make this. Looks too good to pass up.

Anyone have some advice on any recipe changes from the OP?
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If you like the flavor/smell of grapefruit, then Citra was a great change.

Although this is third beer I've made, it is the best one brewed so far and it's going to be a staple now. It was also a huge hit at a tailgate this weekend.
 
cuinrearview, just wanted you to know I'm a good ways done the keg already and this is the best beer I've ever made. yay! Now I'm doing all grain, I'll be making this sometime over the winter or spring again.
 
There really isn't a sub for simcoe :( i can't remember what it is but there is a mix of like 3 or 4 different kinds that will get you close
 
KCBigDog said:
Is Citra a good sub for Simcoe? My store of choice doesn't have any Simcoe.
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Yeah, citra is a good sub for Simcoe. You still get that great grapefruit, citrus flavor (hence the name I suppose). Either way, this is what I used for a substitute, and the beer turned out amazing. If anything else, it's a proven choice to make a solid beer if you can't get the simcoes.
 
D_Ranged_Eskimo said:
was sitting at 1.018 after adding the priming sugar. Not sure why it is still so high, but it did taste good.
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Well, you added sugar to it! That's why it was so high. :)

Sometimes carmelization reactions from the boil can cause the sugars to become unfermentable (by beer yeast, anyways), so you can get high gravity because of that. This is especially the case if you do a full length boil with extract. Some recipes (ahem, barleywine!) take advantage of that to get a rich, caramel sweetness in the beer, whereas in others (ahem, pilsners!) it contrasts too much with the style.
 
If I can't get Simcoe, I'll use either Citra (first choice), Amarillo (second choice) or - if I'm desperate - Cascade. I haven't tried Sorachi Ace yet, but I hear it has a citrusy aroma as well, so if you blended it in with the others it might be... interesting. ;)
 
Anyone use Amarillo pellets instead of whole hops? What difference should I expect?
 
Justibone said:
If I can't get Simcoe, I'll use either Citra (first choice), Amarillo (second choice) or - if I'm desperate - Cascade. I haven't tried Sorachi Ace yet, but I hear it has a citrusy aroma as well, so if you blended it in with the others it might be... interesting. ;)
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Hey there Justibone old buddy...do you have any links that discuss hops and what is a good sub for what? I really need to get a better understanding of different hops.

cuinrearview said:
Kudos to you for keeping this around for two months:mug:, mine never make it that long. In hindsight I guess I should have never titled this with the Gumballhead name because everyone brings up how it's different but that is truly the beer that inspired this recipe and after having both I like this better:rockin:. Brew on!!
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Hey CU...When you are doing this AG are you using your recipe, 60/40...5 lbs wheat, 3.5 lbs 2 row, 1 lb caravienne, or are you using what someone else on here came up with after some advice from the brewery...8lbs 2-row, 3lbs red wheat,1lb caravienne?

As you know my first PM was your recipe, and now I'm planning it for AG and was wondering which you think might get you closer to what your "inspired" clone was?
 
natewv said:
Hey there Justibone old buddy...do you have any links that discuss hops and what is a good sub for what? I really need to get a better understanding of different hops.
Click to expand...

Google is your friend. ;)

Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Comparing and Selecting Hops

Hop Guide - BeerAdvocate

List of hop varieties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The best guide to hop aromas, though, is your nose. If you can smell them, you will know what aroma they will impart to your beer... with the possible exception of spicy. I can never smell "spicy", but others say that they can. :tank:
 
Weakest fermentation I've experienced so far with US05. Hopefully it picks up soon, or I'll start thinking I did something wrong!
 
I brewed this using all Amarillo and it is excellent. This is only my second batch of homebrew and everyone who has tried it liked it. I will definitely make this again, thanks for the great recipe!
 
Hey CU...When you are doing this AG are you using your recipe, 60/40...5 lbs wheat, 3.5 lbs 2 row, 1 lb caravienne, or are you using what someone else on here came up with after some advice from the brewery...8lbs 2-row, 3lbs red wheat,1lb caravienne?

As you know my first PM was your recipe, and now I'm planning it for AG and was wondering which you think might get you closer to what your "inspired" clone was?[/QUOTE]

It is not Gumballhead. If you want gumballhead follow the advice of others. This is sweeter with more body and a different hop note. It was only inspired by the thought of an Amarillo hopped American Wheat Ale. With my efficiency a 12lb. grain bill would be a pretty big beer! It's your money and your brewery so make whichever recipe you want. I'm sure once the Amarillo and Simcoe hit the pot it'll all be good:ban:
 
Brewed this past weekend. Fermenting now around 62-63 degrees. Using the grain bill from the first page I was a little low on my sugar extraction. I hit 1.046, which was spot on with what my brewing software said. Depending how it tastes I will add a bit more grain next time.
 
I just dry-hopped this carelessly wit the 2oz of Simarillo! I just dumped it into the carboy! That's how I do it!

So, how long are most of you letting it dry hop?
 
My bro and I are relatively new to home brewing (made three batches - all IPA's) and HBT. We wanted to do something a little different for our next batch and this recipe really caught our eye. We brewed it up last Sunday during the Super Bowl. It was our first partial mash. Overall it went OK; a few bumps in the road (mostly temp issues) but to be expected for first time I guess. Gonna move beer to secondary in a few days and dry hop then. Anxious to try this out.
 
I made this a few weeks ago using all Amarillo, and it's all kegged and ready to go. I compared it to the real Gumball Head
2dtcgu1.jpg


The one on the right is the home brew. The photo sucks, but basically the colors were very similar with the real GBH being way clearer. The home brew was slightly darker.

As for flavor, they were both EXTREMELY similar. I think mine was a bit more bitter and had a lot more of the Amarillo flavor and aroma, but I'm guessing it has a lot to do with how fresh it was compared to the real GBH. I also think the real GBH has a candy-like sweet flavor that makes it addicting as hell, and my brew was lacking that. Overall, though, they were very close.

I had to change the AG recipe around because of my normal efficiency. Here it is:

Size: 5.25 gal
Efficiency: 63%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 165.22 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.040 - 1.055)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.008 - 1.013)
Color: 11.22 (3.0 - 6.0)
Alcohol: 4.88% (4.0% - 5.5%)
Bitterness: 25.5 (15.0 - 30.0)

Ingredients:
5.75 lb White Wheat Malt
4.25 lb American 2-row
1.75 lb Belgian Caravienne
0.5 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
0.5 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
0.5 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 m
0.5 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 m
2.0 oz Amarillo® (8.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05



I think my thermometer is off - it ended up finishing at 1.007! The OG was 1.051, so this beer is 5.9%. Even with all the extra alcohol, I was pleased with how close it was to the real thing.


It's disappearing fast!
 
MaxSpang said:
I also think the real GBH has a candy-like sweet flavor that makes it addicting as hell, and my brew was lacking that. Overall, though, they were very close.
Click to expand...

Did your bitterness (hops) kill your sweetness (caravienne)? :confused:

If you want more sweetness next time, crystal malts?
 
Max- Definately sounds like a thermometer issue, especially with nearly two lbs of Cara!! A rouge pack of us-05 could be to blame as well. After having the real deal there is definately a higher percentage of wheat in my recipe unless FFF filters. For the candy flavor I think the sim-arillo combo brings it to the table. I remember it being less hoppy and more clear at the brewery as well. Either way I don't care as I like this recipe better. It may be a teeny bit too sweet for a 90 degree day but if it's 89 degrees I'm good with it:D.

Eskimo- I'd hesitate to mash that high as it's pretty full on the palate for the "style" as is. With more hops though who knows?

For me, I'd be hesitant to add more heft to this beer. About the only thing that I'd change with the AG recipe would be to add some breadiness with a decoction. For some reason the PM version is like a hoppy cookie to me and I didn't pull that off with AG.

I'm glad that this recipe is still getting some run and even though I haven't brewed in over a year I'm still checking this thread from time to time. Once the weather breaks here I'm hoping to climb back into the saddle.
 
I took this beer to a party this weekend, and someone happened to bring two bottles of Gumballhead. We did a side by side blind taste test:

Nose was very similar. So close, that a few people said exact. The commercial beer was a little lighter in color. They tasted very close. I think the commercial version was a little sweeter.

Everyone loved this recipe, and all but one person (out of 7) said they liked the homebrew better. :D
 
I just pulled a sample off the primary after 7 days to take a gravity reading and it's down to 1.010 and tastes freaking amazing! I am going to dry hop it for 7 days and keg. This batch is going to go fast.
 
Whoa. My go-to retailer just got some Amarillo in stock. Ordering up everything to hopefully make this soon.

Man, do I got an awesome summer lined up. :)
 

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