my first brew, american style wheat.

hello all, so i brewed my first beer yesterday. i'm aiming for a widmer type wheat.

1/2 lb flaked wheat, steeped at 130-150 for 30 minutes
1 oz. tettanager 60 mins.
6 lbs wheat DME
safale us-05

steeped flaked wheat for 30 mins in a 4x7 hops bag, added 1 cup of DME then boiled hops for 60 mins. added the remaining DME and let boil for 20 mins(took longer to get it all in than i thought it would, i used a small bowl so i could dip it in the pot to get all the DME in there) cooled wort in cold bath water. one screw up on my part was i added 3 gallons of bottle spring water to the carboy befor i put my wort in so i had about a pint of wort left over(oops, now i know better) got the airlock on with some cheap vodka in it, now about 16 hours later i have a steady bubble of about 20 a minute, about a half inch of krausen, and about the same of trub on the bottom.

anyways, i'm excited to see what happens. as long as its drinkable when its all said and done, i'm a happy camper. feel free to post any feedback.

Sorry I'm a noob but why vodka in the airlock? Is it for sanitization?

avi8tor said:

Sorry I'm a noob but why vodka in the airlock? Is it for sanitization?

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you sir are correct

Looks like you've made beer. Although this isn't necessarily an AMERICAN wheat. It's a pretty solid go at a traditional German wheat. I think it's gonna taste great. I think saf-ale also makes a yeast for wheat beers (is it #23?). You might want to try that if you're committed to the dry yeast thing.

so its day three, the krausen got just about to the bottom of the bung but no over flow(lucky me ) the airlock has slowed to under 20 bubbles a minute(not sure on an exact number) and it looks like the beer has actually lightened up alot, like a darker honey golden yellow from a darkish brown. i had planned on leaving it in the primary for like a week and a half, but i'm thinking more like a week now. any thoughts? feedback is welcome.

I like the S-05 for an america wheat. Clean finish is what you want. I would bottle when its done fermenting, dont put a time frame on it. Stable gravity for 3days and bottle that sucka!

Pharmguy said:

I like the S-05 for an america wheat. Clean finish is what you want.

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this was my understanding. to make an American wheat it lacks the banana and clove of a traditional hefeweizen and instead has a clean "bite" taste and a nice malty wheat "base"(i guess, i've had a few)

You got it

so its day seven, it has lighten up nice. airlock activity is almost none, like MAYBE 5 a minute. it looks good smells good, last night i took a sample and it takes great. i want to take a grav. reading but i have no hydrometer jar and don't know what to use in replace of one. i'm useing a better bottle so i can't just drop it in there. anyways its lookin good!!!

bottled yesterday, i'm a little concerned about how much yeast is on the bottom of the bottles. i boiled 3/4 cups corn suger in 2 cups of water for 10mins then cooled and mixed in carboy. just don't want bottle bombs here.

It will be fine, my wheats seem have to have the same issue. Assuming your Fg was stable, you will be drinking a good ass wheat beer in about 3 weeks.

FWIW - I use the tube my hydrometer came in for my gravity samples. I pull the sample from the primary via sterilized turkey baster.

I'm sure that beer will be good - that recipe makes me thirsty.

try this sometime - its really good and super easy and even people who are wary of homebrew will like it

5#s Wheat Spray Extract
1/2 oz Perle at 50 Minutes
safale wb-06