jetgirl
New Member
This is my first beer ever (as well as my first post here). Because I like to run before I walk it's an all-grain brew.
Note: I can't actually consume large volumes of beer and my kitchen is small, so it's a ridiculously small amount. After a few successes I will probably scale up for sharing.
It’s kind of based on the Blood Orange Hefe in Extreme Brewing, but then I sort of went off on my own tangent. I'm one of the few weirdos in the world that really likes Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat, so I was sort of going for that, but with more depth and less... tangerine.
So here's what I did on Sunday, 12/12/10:
1. Brew-in-a-bag technique - I struck the mash at 160 degrees in 2 gallons of water and then did a single temperature infusion at 152 for an hour. I did not sparge.
- 2 lbs of german pilsner malt
- 2 lbs of wheat malt
- 0.50 lbs of honey malt
2. 60 minute boil - 0.2 oz of Amarillo Gold added at the start, at 45 minutes, at 59 minutes, and then I did a knockout hopping while I was chilling the wort. As I boiled I was getting pretty high evaporation rates and thus kept replenishing with boiling water from my tea kettle, attempting to keep the total volume at 1.5 gallons.
3. At the 59 minute mark I added an infusion of citrus peel, coriander, a few citrus leaves, and segmented citrus fruit (1 blood orange, 1 satsuma, 1 tangerine, 1 navel orange, 1 lemon - there was absolutely no pith anywhere in this mix).
4. I chilled the wort down to 80 degrees in about 20 minutes and got an excellent cold break. Poured the wort through a strainer into my fermenter (a 2 gallon bucket) where the nylon bag with the citrus bits that I had used to make the infusion was waiting.
5. The finished volume of wort was about 1.5 gallons. I pitched 2.5 grams of dry yeast in (Fermentis Safbrew WB-06), covered my bucket, and put on my airlock at 8pm Sunday night. My house temps stay about 60-65.
Recommended things that I didn't do out of forgetfulness or ignorance:
- I didn't aerate the wort other than pouring it into the fermenter
- I didn't rehydrate the yeast
- I didn't take an original gravity reading
- I possibly underpitched (Mr. Malty recommended 4 grams)
- The temperature is a bit low in my house
Monday morning I had no bubbling in my airlock but I could see a krausen forming.
Monday afternoon the airlock was bubbling slowly but steadily.
Tuesday afternoon the airlock had stopped and the krausen had fallen. I took a gravity reading and it's already down to 1.019. I'm going to take another reading in a day or two, and then check to see if it's still falling after that.
The sample I pulled tasted pretty good, so I poured it into a bottle of Great White, which I am drinking right now.
I am very much looking forward to bottling and drinking this beer!
Note: I can't actually consume large volumes of beer and my kitchen is small, so it's a ridiculously small amount. After a few successes I will probably scale up for sharing.
It’s kind of based on the Blood Orange Hefe in Extreme Brewing, but then I sort of went off on my own tangent. I'm one of the few weirdos in the world that really likes Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat, so I was sort of going for that, but with more depth and less... tangerine.
So here's what I did on Sunday, 12/12/10:
1. Brew-in-a-bag technique - I struck the mash at 160 degrees in 2 gallons of water and then did a single temperature infusion at 152 for an hour. I did not sparge.
- 2 lbs of german pilsner malt
- 2 lbs of wheat malt
- 0.50 lbs of honey malt
2. 60 minute boil - 0.2 oz of Amarillo Gold added at the start, at 45 minutes, at 59 minutes, and then I did a knockout hopping while I was chilling the wort. As I boiled I was getting pretty high evaporation rates and thus kept replenishing with boiling water from my tea kettle, attempting to keep the total volume at 1.5 gallons.
3. At the 59 minute mark I added an infusion of citrus peel, coriander, a few citrus leaves, and segmented citrus fruit (1 blood orange, 1 satsuma, 1 tangerine, 1 navel orange, 1 lemon - there was absolutely no pith anywhere in this mix).
4. I chilled the wort down to 80 degrees in about 20 minutes and got an excellent cold break. Poured the wort through a strainer into my fermenter (a 2 gallon bucket) where the nylon bag with the citrus bits that I had used to make the infusion was waiting.
5. The finished volume of wort was about 1.5 gallons. I pitched 2.5 grams of dry yeast in (Fermentis Safbrew WB-06), covered my bucket, and put on my airlock at 8pm Sunday night. My house temps stay about 60-65.
Recommended things that I didn't do out of forgetfulness or ignorance:
- I didn't aerate the wort other than pouring it into the fermenter
- I didn't rehydrate the yeast
- I didn't take an original gravity reading
- I possibly underpitched (Mr. Malty recommended 4 grams)
- The temperature is a bit low in my house
Monday morning I had no bubbling in my airlock but I could see a krausen forming.
Monday afternoon the airlock was bubbling slowly but steadily.
Tuesday afternoon the airlock had stopped and the krausen had fallen. I took a gravity reading and it's already down to 1.019. I'm going to take another reading in a day or two, and then check to see if it's still falling after that.
The sample I pulled tasted pretty good, so I poured it into a bottle of Great White, which I am drinking right now.
I am very much looking forward to bottling and drinking this beer!
printed it out for possible later brewing
