After reading through this whole thread, I brewed a batch of this last Friday. I have been having some mash tun issues, so I followed the ingredient list from Midwest's extract kit. I thought I had read that someone had entered the extract version into their brewing software and said the OG would be low, and a suggestion was made to increase both the wheat and light DME by a pound to compensate. So I did. I also did a partial mash of the crystal malts and flaked barley with two pounds of pale malt. I had a half pound of flaked barley I wanted to get used up so I substituted for the flaked wheat. When I got the wort chilled and in the fermenter I had an OG of 1.080.
I see Midwest had T-58 listed as the dry yeast option, which what I was planning on using anyway. So I pitched the yeast dry, hooked up a 3/8 inch hose to the center post of the airlock and waited to see what would happen. I didn't get any krausen, but I am glad I used a blowoff tube. Within three hours I was starting to get bubbles out of the tube, and by the time I got home from work in the morning there was a nonstop stream of bubbles coming out of the blowoff tube. It looked like someone was blowing into the other end of the tube. It kept up like this for 24 hours before starting to slow down. The temperature got up in the mid 70's. If I wouldn't have had the hose on there I think it would have blown the sanitizer right out of the airlock. That T-58 seems to be pretty aggressive.
I took a gravity reading this morning, it is at 1.028. The sample had no hop bitterness at all, it was very fruity. For all the banana smell coming out of the blowoff, there was no banana flavor, more like plum or peach. It probably could have used a more vigorous aeration, but all my carboys are full and my plastic pail is also my bottling bucket, so I'm using the plastic fermentor I usually use for wine. The lid doesn't fit as tight and it is a little harder to handle, I sloshed it around as good as I could but probably not enough.
If nothing else, it is turning into an interesting experiment. My original plan was to dump in about six pounds of strawberries and make a strawberry blonde. But I think I have enough fermentables there already. The gravity has a ways to go to get to 1.008 that is listed as the FG. Not sure if it is going to get that low, I may be lucky to get it into the low teens. When it finishes out if there is still no bitterness from the hops, I may dry hop with another oz of Willamette, or maybe Saaz? Nothing too aggressive, I'll just have to wait and see.
Not sure who this one is going to slay, but if it ferments out probably anyone who drinks it!
I see Midwest had T-58 listed as the dry yeast option, which what I was planning on using anyway. So I pitched the yeast dry, hooked up a 3/8 inch hose to the center post of the airlock and waited to see what would happen. I didn't get any krausen, but I am glad I used a blowoff tube. Within three hours I was starting to get bubbles out of the tube, and by the time I got home from work in the morning there was a nonstop stream of bubbles coming out of the blowoff tube. It looked like someone was blowing into the other end of the tube. It kept up like this for 24 hours before starting to slow down. The temperature got up in the mid 70's. If I wouldn't have had the hose on there I think it would have blown the sanitizer right out of the airlock. That T-58 seems to be pretty aggressive.
I took a gravity reading this morning, it is at 1.028. The sample had no hop bitterness at all, it was very fruity. For all the banana smell coming out of the blowoff, there was no banana flavor, more like plum or peach. It probably could have used a more vigorous aeration, but all my carboys are full and my plastic pail is also my bottling bucket, so I'm using the plastic fermentor I usually use for wine. The lid doesn't fit as tight and it is a little harder to handle, I sloshed it around as good as I could but probably not enough.
If nothing else, it is turning into an interesting experiment. My original plan was to dump in about six pounds of strawberries and make a strawberry blonde. But I think I have enough fermentables there already. The gravity has a ways to go to get to 1.008 that is listed as the FG. Not sure if it is going to get that low, I may be lucky to get it into the low teens. When it finishes out if there is still no bitterness from the hops, I may dry hop with another oz of Willamette, or maybe Saaz? Nothing too aggressive, I'll just have to wait and see.
Not sure who this one is going to slay, but if it ferments out probably anyone who drinks it!
