American Wheat Beer Gumballhead inspired WPA

No, I don't have special insight, and I think it's fine. Most people know that cloning takes a lot of work and is rarely perfect -- look how hard commercial breweries have to work just to keep their own beer consistent.

I think you're fine, but I do think you need to go for a "crisper" (opposite of "maltier") mash if you want to get in the neighborhood of gumballhead.

Wow, plenty of feedback! I appreciate it. So I went ahead and did the partial mash as described in the link last week. Mashed the 2.5 lbs of grain (I went with 1/4 lb caravienne, 1/4 lb carapils as described earlier in the thread) in 3 qts of water at ~150 for 60 minutes. Then sparged in 3 gals for 10 mins at 165. Everything went fine, OG ended up at 1.056, so just a touch off from the original recipe. It was fermenting the next day, and all appears to be going well 6 days later. I'll be sure to let you guys all know how it turns out.

And out of curiosity has anyone else done this recipe as a partial mash (besides, I'm assuming, kingmatt)? I've been looking around trying to find what the differences between steeping and partial mash will be and I haven't been able to conclude a whole lot. I know the beer will probably be delicious either way, but I'm curious what the differences might be.

Difference between steeping and partial mash is the difference between warming up pre-cooked bacon (steeping) and actually cooking bacon (mash). In a mash you are actually causing a chemical reaction to change the ingredients, whereas in a steep you are just getting the proteins and sugars into solution without actually enzymatically changing them.

Justibone said:

Difference between steeping and partial mash is the difference between warming up pre-cooked bacon (steeping) and actually cooking bacon (mash). In a mash you are actually causing a chemical reaction to change the ingredients, whereas in a steep you are just getting the proteins and sugars into solution without actually enzymatically changing them.

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Just took care of this Justin. Added instructions for Extract, PM, and AG. You are right that a cooler mash would add to the drinkability but in all actuallity this beer is better than GBH, which I found a bit thin. YMMV

Brewing this on Saturday, I'll tell you how it comes out!

Sadly, I'm sharing the brew with a friend, so we are bottle-conditioning. If SWMBO likes it, then it will get a keg-spot.

I just cracked my first bottle after 1 1/2 weeks (I couldn't wait) and it is awesome!

I primed it as a pale so it is a little overcarbed for my taste but not too bad.

The nose on this is unbelievable! HUGE tangerine coming through from all the Amarillo hops (I let SWMBO smell it and she thought it smelled like tang!).

Big hop burst up front and then mellows and is nice and crisp thanks to the Safale 05.

I will definitely be brewing this again and can't wait to let some lucky friends have a pint :rockin:


FYI: I brewed this with all Amarillo so I am not getting the grapefruit notes others have mentioned.

Good to hear that, kingmatt! Me and my brew-buddy just did the same thing, all amarillo as well. It's still in the bucket and hasn't been dry-hopped yet, but it's good to hear it's so good!

Great looking recipe, thanks! I live in Canada so I don't care if it's cloned or not, I've been looking for some more complexity in my Pale Ales, and sounds like the wheat will do the trick. My pipeline has a large hole in it, so this sounds like a great quick turnaround.

I prefer Centennial over Amarillo, so I might use that instead.

Thanks again!

I made a close copy of the AG version a while back & just opened a few. I subbed in centennial for the simcoe & added a little extra in the boil on the hops, turned out great. A little dark for guballhead, but still an excellent beer.

Whipping up batch #2 of this as we speak! I'm pretty new to homebrewing, but I've got 5 drinkable beers right now that I've been giving out to co-workers and friends and this beer has by far been the favorite for pretty much everyone. Hopefully round 2 goes as well as the first!

I just had a bottle of GBH yesterday, and I've been thinking about the flavor. I think there's a very faint note of caramel in there. I think if my version doesn't come out exactly right, I'll try a bit more Crystal 10L next time.

I'm looking forward to drinking this beer... been a long time since I was impatient about a brew!

Justibone said:

I just had a bottle of GBH yesterday, and I've been thinking about the flavor. I think there's a very faint note of caramel in there. I think if my version doesn't come out exactly right, I'll try a bit more Crystal 10L next time.

I'm looking forward to drinking this beer... been a long time since I was impatient about a brew!

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I got some help from three floyds on this one. For your grain bill try 25% wheat, 5-10% aromatic, and the rest 2 row.

Thanks!

I'm going to brewing the recipe the OP posted this weekend.

I have partial boil equipment only. I noticed in beersmith the IBU on the OP's recipe is a little high (27) vs normal gumballhead (19). According beersmith I should just about hit it on the head at 20 IBU if I switch a 3.5 gal boil which is my default anyway. Good idea / bad idea, we'll see. Depending on the AA of the hops that I get (they're shipping) this might change. The recipe is getting rave reviews so maybe I'll just do a late DME addition to get the IBU up to snuff.

Also this is my first foray into partial mash, so wish me luck.

Thanks for the recipe!

You will enjoy this beer, it's excellent.

Cool! Brewed last night and it's bubbling away now. I overshot the mash temp by 3 degrees and it sunk about 4 under at the lowest point. Otherwise I was spot on at 152. It was pretty experimental--I used a small stockpot for the mash since I heard headroom == heatloss, and it was so close to full once the grain was in that a little ring of foam appeared around the edge when I put on the lid.

I also had quite a few modifications for my equipment. Boil volume was 3G, the Amarillo hops were 10.9% AA and I left their amounts the same, doing a 15 minute addition with half the DME to keep boil gravity down. According to beersmith this should get close to the standard recipe IBU (30).

I also pitched way, way too warm and I'm trying to ice the whole thing down to 64, which is going to be hard. Ah well. Finally, Simcoe hops appear to be out of stock everywhere including LHBS. I guess I'll just be doing an extra ounce of Amarillo unless someone has a better recommendation for substitute. Thanks again for the recipe!

You can do all Amarillo hops, it will be good regardless.

As for your mash temps, I don't think you'll notice the difference from very brief changes in temperatures of just a few degrees.

Pitching warm could be an issue, but as long as the yeast survive I never re-boil and re-pitch, personally.

It ended up being no problem. I put it in a water bath with a little ice and it was down at 68 by the time fermentation was kicking off. It's been at 62-62 through high Krausen now and it looks amazing. Not worrying--going to be delicious.

http://i.imgur.com/BspvS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/H7VLs.jpg

Just keep it cool and the hops and breadiness will shine. I'm glad that everyone is enjoying the beers original recipe, suggested changes, or what have you. Amarillo, Simcoe, and wheat seem like such a great marriage. Please keep the feedback coming!!

ddemaagd said:

I got some help from three floyds on this one. For your grain bill try 25% wheat, 5-10% aromatic, and the rest 2 row.

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ok, i'm going to try this advice and brew this (hopefully this weekend)...

8lbs 2-row 66.7%
3lbs red wheat 25%
1lb caravienne 8.3%

same hop schedule, leaving out simcoe, because I can't find it.

My bottles are about 10 days old. It's a little sweet up front, but the hop aroma is great and the middle-finish has a nice balanced wheat flavor. If I made again I would probably up the bittering slightly and tone down the caramel malts slightly--but then again I had weird temperatures and poor attenuation (was pretty drunk when I brewed it TBH).

Overall I'm really pleased and hope that with another week or two in the bottle it will get a bit puffier and the head retention will increase. Maybe even the sweetness will meld in a bit more. I don't want it to sit too long with those nice hop aromas in the batch.

Thanks for the recipe. A++++ will brew again.

I think that the sweetness is the number one thing that distinguishes it from an IPA. That and the mouthfeel just make this taste/feel so original, whereas I'm actually not that impressed by IPAs anymore.

To each his own!

Just kegged mine tuesday. It tastes pretty good flat. It's cold crashing in the keezer right now, and carbing up. I'll be getting a 6er of gumballhead in a couple weeks, so i'll do some comparing then.

It's definitely not as sweet as the original recipe, and obviously not as wheaty since I did used 8lbs 2-row 66.7%, 3lbs red wheat 25%, and 1lb caravienne 8.3%. I dry hopped for 7 days with 2 oz of Amarillo.

Mine was a little sweeter, but it was in the finish.

The first thing to hit was hop aroma, then hop bitterness, and the finish was caramel-sweet. Good move putting it in a keg -- if the aroma fades you can dry hop it.

The first version I made, last year, was according to the original recipe, and it really had a candied like sweetness, which I thought was great. This latest attempt was to get it a little closer to the actual Gumballhead. I think it's close, but i'll have to wait another couple weeks before I have bottles to compare it to.

This recipe is going to be my next brew. I'm going to go try this for my first Partial Mash based on the techniques from this article.
http://***********/component/resource/article/511-countertop-partial-mashing

Some questions, thoughts, ramblings (please feel free to comment)

I'm wanting to shoot for a clone so I will back down the caravienne to 8oz. I'm going to go all Amarillo, no secondary I will dry hop in the keg.

I read on one of the other forums that some of the guys were using red wheat, anyone try that in place of the white wheat, or use both?

Thinking of doing a late addition on the extract and also using DME so the brew is lighter in color keeping it closer to GBH.

Thoughts on this malt build?
1lb Pale 2row
1lb White Wheat
1lb Red Wheat
8oz CaraVienne
4lbs DME Wheat

At over 6 lbs. of final fermentables (assuming 70% efficiency), your beer is going to be 6%+ ABV. I'd say 3 lbs. of DME is plenty, if you have decent efficiency in your mash.

Justibone said:

At over 6 lbs. of final fermentables (assuming 70% efficiency), your beer is going to be 6%+ ABV. I'd say 3 lbs. of DME is plenty, if you have decent efficiency in your mash.

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Ah good point. I was putting the recipe in beersmith but wasn't paying attention to the gravity.

Justibone said:

I think that the sweetness is the number one thing that distinguishes it from an IPA. That and the mouthfeel just make this taste/feel so original, whereas I'm actually not that impressed by IPAs anymore.

To each his own!

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Bingo. This is why I love this recipe. It's so damn easy drinking and appeals to many a beer drinker. It has the hoppiness to draw in a craft beer drinker but it's light in color and balanced by the sweetness to make your average BMCer happy. Maybe it's a bit heavy for the lawnmower or your other summer projects but it's nice in a kayak on the river, taking in a baseball game, or sitting around a campfire.

After almost two months in the bottle this beer is really shining. Although the hop nose has faded a little bit, the bitterness and flavor is still assertive on a strong and delicious wheat backing. It's fantastically balanced and most of the mouthfeel is spot on (it's kind of weirdly dry on the finish, but no biggy). I must say fantastic recipe and A++ will brew again when it's getting hot next year.

Yes, the bitterness against the caramelly sweetness was a great balance.

It was *loads* better with the hop nose, though, when I made my batch.

vitrael said:

After almost two months in the bottle this beer is really shining. Although the hop nose has faded a little bit, the bitterness and flavor is still assertive on a strong and delicious wheat backing. It's fantastically balanced and most of the mouthfeel is spot on (it's kind of weirdly dry on the finish, but no biggy). I must say fantastic recipe and A++ will brew again when it's getting hot next year.

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Kudos to you for keeping this around for two months, 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!!

cuinrearview said:

Kudos to you for keeping this around for two months, 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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I'm glad that you did, because I'm not sure it would have caught my attention in the list if you hadn't. I'm gonna try this for my first non premeasured out kit AND first partial mash all at once. Haha if I find a fridge it will prolly be my first kegged beer too. What could go wrong?!

jarod7736 said:

ok, i'm going to try this advice and brew this (hopefully this weekend)...

8lbs 2-row 66.7%
3lbs red wheat 25%
1lb caravienne 8.3%

same hop schedule, leaving out simcoe, because I can't find it.

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I plan on trying this for my first brew and wondered how it turned out. I will get points from the wife if I can get close to Gumballhead.

it was as close as i've gotten so far. it's gone now unfortunately. Mine was clearer than Gumballhead, but that was probably because I used gelatin in the keg. Here's a pic...

Brewed this up tonight and accidently read the post wrong and added an extra pound instead of just a half a pound. My OG ended up being 1.064 but the color looks just like the pictures. It tastes good, but it is very sweet tasting the hydro sample.

The final beer ends up a bit sweet, but it's a sweet finish and not at all cloying. It's a feature, not a bug.

Glad to hear it ends up sweet, but I hope the yeast can go to town on that extra .010 of gravity, otherwise it will be carbonated sugar water!

Not sure if I missed this in the thread, but did you do a week of dry hopping, or 2 as soon as you transfered to the secondary?