My first Wheat Beer

[kinjiru]

Hello all,

Last Sunday I tried to make my very first all grain wheat beer :rockin:

Thankfully, I faced only a couple of problems.

1º -The enormous amount of hops floating freely on the cooking pan (yeah, next time I'll use the bags ). I still have to solve that problem btw...

2º - Cooling the beer after the hops. I didn't want to transport 33L pan trough the apartment into the bathroom, so I tried to freeze a few plastic bottles with water and than poor them on the hot pan. I didn't work that well because I needed a lot more bottles. I had to cool the rest on the balcony...and it took a hole night...(I'm already building a wort chiller)

Here are the pictures

Grind, grind...gym time

Temp checking

Iodine testing

Sweet

Even with a bottom filter, there was some sediment that I had to remove afterwards

The fugitive hops

Bye, bye pan

It bubbles!

The mighty fermenter!

Now its time to wait. After the fermentation, when I pass the beer into another bucket, I will try to filter a little more the hops. Wish me luck

Please feel free to comment or throw me a few bottles

Regards,

Rui

 

[RM-MN]

Don't worry about getting some hops in the fermenter. I dump the whole works in, then dump the wort back to the boiling pot, then back to the fermenter. That adds oxygen to the wort which is needed for the yeast to propagate. When the ferment slows down, the hops settle to the bottom, then the yeast settles on top of that. When the beer is done, I carefully rack it off the yeast and hops into the bottling bucket and bottle it up. Be sure to keep the siphon above the yeast layer and if a little gets into the bottling bucket it will settle out pretty quickly.

 

[kinjiru]

Hi RM,

Thanks for the tip Instead of using the bottom fermenter tap, I'll siphon from the top to avoid any settlement.

Cheers,

Rui

 

[kinjiru]

Hello!

I've just bottled the beer!

And now, we just wait 3 weeks for the first test.

I'm reading the "How to Brew" book and I've found that my fermentations are always out of the standard temp. This one is a lager and the fermentation temperature occurred between 24º C (75.2ºF) - 27º C (80.6ºF).

OG: 1050
FG: 1012
(measured at 22ºC - 71.6ºF)

Fermenting on an off chart temperature will affect the taste, correct?

Cheers,

Rui

 

[smyrnaquince]

Hi RM,

Thanks for the tip Instead of using the bottom fermenter tap, I'll siphon from the top to avoid any settlement.

Cheers,

Rui

I have a spigot on my fermenting bucket that is above the trub layer. Works well for me. I never siphon from fermenting bucket to bottling bucket, I attach a hose and use the spigot.

Hello!

I've just bottled the beer!

And now, we just wait 3 weeks for the first test.

I'm reading the "How to Brew" book and I've found that my fermentations are always out of the standard temp. This one is a lager and the fermentation temperature occurred between 24º C (75.2ºF) - 27º C (80.6ºF).

OG: 1050
FG: 1012
(measured at 22ºC - 71.6ºF)

Fermenting on an off chart temperature will affect the taste, correct?

Cheers,

Rui

Yes. But that doesn't say that it will be bad.

 

[johnp]

Unfortunately fermenting a lager at 75-80F will probably effect the flavor negatively.... Also lagers tend to be 'lagered' for a couple months before consuming.

On another note: beautiful photography.

 

[kinjiru]

I have a spigot on my fermenting bucket that is above the trub layer. Works well for me. I never siphon from fermenting bucket to bottling bucket, I attach a hose and use the spigot.


Yes. But that doesn't say that it will be bad.

Thanks for the comment

I also have a spigot and ended by using it. The hops layer was bellow it so I used the spigot instead.

 

[kinjiru]

Unfortunately fermenting a lager at 75-80F will probably effect the flavor negatively.... Also lagers tend to be 'lagered' for a couple months before consuming.

On another note: beautiful photography.

Thanks for the comment

I'll have to find a way to ferment lagers. The problem is the fact that I'm lacking on space for an extra refrigerator...I really need to change the apartment...in the meanwhile, I'll be making Ale's. The next one will be a Duvel recipe

Regarding the pictures. It's another passion of mine but there is space for a lot of improvement since I took these in a bit of a hurry

Cheers to you all!

 

[Rohlk]

The temps your at are high even for ales(except belgians). Simple way of keeping temps down is a swamp bucket. I've never done it with a lager but I've had great success with ales. Get a plastic tub, fill it with water, put your fermenter in, add ice as needed. Can you get lager temps this way, possibly, but not likely(unless you use lots of ice).

 

[Rohlk]

Also, I cap each beer as I fill them. Less chance of something getting in them.
I fermented a Black IPA at 72 and its undrinkable. Fusels. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=7211.0

 

[fmr_army]

I don't bother doing lagers - primarily because I don't have a place to keep the fermenter cool enough. Ales are good enough for me, and a whole lot easier. But that's my own personal laziness and opinion...

 

[kinjiru]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your comments.

I agree with you, I'll stick with the Ale's for now. The hot summer in Portugal is great, but not really for fermenting I'm measuring the temps around the apartment to check if I can try to do this process in a cooler division.

My next recipe will be a Duvel look a like, suiting perfectly for this kind of weather.

Cheers!

Rui