Hi everyone,
I've been coming to this site for a while now, and have posted a few messages here and there.
Up until this point, I had only brewed using kits (both beer and wine). After gathering much information, and a lot of it from this site, I went AG last weekend with two of my friends.
I ordered all the ingredients for our Weizen and we were ready to go. The recipe I used was based on a Papazian one (NoopleTucker Weizen) which ended up being modified quite a bit due to rookie mistakes. The first being ordering the grain (in KGs rather than pounds because, well, it's Canada) and telling the guy that "Sure, you can mill it and toss it in the same bag." That would have been fine if I ordered exact quantities, but I had to order more than I needed, so the ratio ended up being a little off (2:1 pale malt/wheat instead of about 2.33:1 pale male/wheat). Oh well.
Our second big mistake was in the sparge. Whoa. I'm sure you guys all know that for a first-timer, it can be a bit overwhelming because there's so much information to keep track of (SG readings, water temperature, step temperature, step duration, etc). Anyway, I had mostly forgotten what I had read on sparging... so our sparge ended up being complete in about 15 minutes which I later found out was WAY too quick. Nevertheless, the wort was pretty clear, and I ended up with 1.039 OG. Quite low, I know, but not bad for a rookie who sparged very poorly.
Bottom line, it's in the primary and down to 1.012 now with a bit more fermentation to go. I should end up with about 4-4.5% abv, which is a decent light beer, I guess.
I did taste it last night while taking an SG reading, and I must say, it is very drinkable. The first drink had relatively strong hints of the wheat, but subsequent drinks were quite mellower. I'm sure the flavour will mellow somewhat, will it not?
Anyway, I will let the yeasties do their thing and probably transfer to secondary by end of next week. Can't wait to bottle carb and try out the real deal.
Thanks to everyone for contributing to a great site with a wealth of information.
I look forward to being more active here in the future. Our next batch is already planned in a few weeks: a cream ale.
Cheers!
Brelic
I've been coming to this site for a while now, and have posted a few messages here and there.
Up until this point, I had only brewed using kits (both beer and wine). After gathering much information, and a lot of it from this site, I went AG last weekend with two of my friends.
I ordered all the ingredients for our Weizen and we were ready to go. The recipe I used was based on a Papazian one (NoopleTucker Weizen) which ended up being modified quite a bit due to rookie mistakes. The first being ordering the grain (in KGs rather than pounds because, well, it's Canada) and telling the guy that "Sure, you can mill it and toss it in the same bag." That would have been fine if I ordered exact quantities, but I had to order more than I needed, so the ratio ended up being a little off (2:1 pale malt/wheat instead of about 2.33:1 pale male/wheat). Oh well.
Our second big mistake was in the sparge. Whoa. I'm sure you guys all know that for a first-timer, it can be a bit overwhelming because there's so much information to keep track of (SG readings, water temperature, step temperature, step duration, etc). Anyway, I had mostly forgotten what I had read on sparging... so our sparge ended up being complete in about 15 minutes which I later found out was WAY too quick. Nevertheless, the wort was pretty clear, and I ended up with 1.039 OG. Quite low, I know, but not bad for a rookie who sparged very poorly.
Bottom line, it's in the primary and down to 1.012 now with a bit more fermentation to go. I should end up with about 4-4.5% abv, which is a decent light beer, I guess.
I did taste it last night while taking an SG reading, and I must say, it is very drinkable. The first drink had relatively strong hints of the wheat, but subsequent drinks were quite mellower. I'm sure the flavour will mellow somewhat, will it not?
Anyway, I will let the yeasties do their thing and probably transfer to secondary by end of next week. Can't wait to bottle carb and try out the real deal.
Thanks to everyone for contributing to a great site with a wealth of information.
I look forward to being more active here in the future. Our next batch is already planned in a few weeks: a cream ale.
Cheers!
Brelic
