American Wheat Beer American Wheat Beer - 2nd place Best of show - 2011 HBT BJCP competition

[thunderworm]

Hey Krenshaw, Congrats on the 1st all grain batch! You'll have to let us know how it turns out!

 

[krenshaw]

thanks.. it's bubbling like crazy in my basement as we speak.. i didn't get the full 6 gallons that was in the recipe.. probably a little over 5.. will that make it stronger/hazier or something like that? as it being my first all grain i'll just be happy if it tastes like beer

 

[krenshaw]

i've always done a secondary with my previous brews, at first for clarity, then i guess just out of habit.. with wheat beers it seems the majority say to just rack directly from the primary into keg/bottles.. i plan on doing both, if i prime the half in the bottles, and force carb in the keg for the other half, any suggestions for doing anything differently that i may have done in the past as this is the first wheat and all grain i've ever brewed??

 

[hoboscratch]

I am about a week removed from brewing this recipe. I'm very anxious to see how it will taste. It already smells awesome, and my pre-fermentation sample gave me a very positive outlook. Thanks for the recipe.

 

[krenshaw]

just finishing the up the last of the bottles from this.. they got much better with age, overall turned out to be a great recipe! thanks everybody.. also have a RIS, irish red, and apfewein (sp?) also going!

 

[Mr_Pear]

Did you ever brew this with the white labs kolsch yeast?

 

[thunderworm]

Nope, I haven't tried the White Labs yeast in this yet.

 

[hoboscratch]

I agree that this just got better as time went on. This is my new house Am Wheat recipe. Thanks again!

 

[kingjarrod]

Just finished brewing this today, and can't wait to taste it!!!!!!

 

[Justillinround]

I brewed this on Tuesday Sydney Australia time. Its Thursday and its bubbling like mad....

 

[Justillinround]

Well bubbling has slowed down. So I opened the lid to have a smell. It took my breath away really strong alco smell. When i took a big smell my nostrils burned... This is my first ferment in a plastic fermenter. I normally ferment in glass. Although you really cant get your whole face in glass carboys, but the plastic fermenter has a lid. Freaked me out.

 

[HollywoodMX]

Well bubbling has slowed down. So I opened the lid to have a smell. It took my breath away really strong alco smell. When i took a big smell my nostrils burned... This is my first ferment in a plastic fermenter. I normally ferment in glass. Although you really cant get your whole face in glass carboys, but the plastic fermenter has a lid. Freaked me out.

That's CO2 burn. The CO2 layer created by the yeast is what burned your nostrils. Sinff a charged corney keg and it will do the same thing.

 

[Justillinround]

Thanks for telling me that...

 

[Justillinround]

Im going to cold crash for the day and carb tomorrow. I got an FG of 1.010. Sample tasted nice too. Ive never brewed with 029. I might try that yeast again if I like the beer...

 

[Justillinround]

Nice beer. I put 12g of Galaxy instead of Magnum...

 

[MrNic]

I brewed this on the 6th of January with US-05 instead of the Kolsch yeast. My efficiency was pretty bad for some reason so I only got an SG of 1.040 and the IBU's were a little higher.

I took a gravity reading today (4 days after pitching) and it's already at 1.009. I tasted the sample and it's amazing. The nose has a hop presence like a pale ale, but the flavor tastes very smooth like an american wheat. I think the Munich gives it a great flavor.

I'm planning on bottling next Monday (10 days after pitching). If it tastes as good when it's carbonated as it does now, I'll be very happy. Thanks for the awesome recipe!

 

[thunderworm]

I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying the recipe!

I might also have to try it with US-05 since I usually have a few packs of that on hand. I really like what the Wyeast Kolsch yeast does for it, but it does change in character somewhat as the beer ages. I imagine US-05 would give a more steady character while also giving a fast turnaround, which is one of the things I really like about this recipe.

 

[thunderworm]

Hey MrNic, I just noticed your location is Laramie. I've been enjoying visiting Laramie over the last couple years since my brother has been in school there! Had some real cheap Sierra Nevada on tap at the Buckhorn, and two Thanksgivings ago we had a great time at the Ranger playing shuffleboard and drinking Ranger all Thanksgiving day!

 

[MrNic]

Hey MrNic, I just noticed your location is Laramie. I've been enjoying visiting Laramie over the last couple years since my brother has been in school there! Had some real cheap Sierra Nevada on tap at the Buckhorn, and two Thanksgivings ago we had a great time at the Ranger playing shuffleboard and drinking Ranger all Thanksgiving day!

Laramie's okay, but I'm ready to get out of here after I graduate in May. I try to avoid the Buckhorn...their bathrooms are nasty and they don't clean their tap lines.

 

[thunderworm]

Laramie's okay, but I'm ready to get out of here after I graduate in May. I try to avoid the Buckhorn...their bathrooms are nasty and they don't clean their tap lines.

But their urinals at the Buckhorn are HUGE! :cross:

I must have been lucky with the draft SN at the Buckhorn. Not much worse than infected tap lines. Good luck with graduation and beyond!

 

[JasontheBeaver]

thunderworm, your American Wheat will be my next brew.
Couple of questions:
Which wheat malt do you use (SRM?)
For the munich did you use 10L or 20L?

Also, I noticed you cold crashed it, but didn't use any Irish moss or whirlfloc for clarity. Care to expand on this?

 

[thunderworm]

thunderworm, your American Wheat will be my next brew.
Couple of questions:
Which wheat malt do you use (SRM?)
For the munich did you use 10L or 20L?

Also, I noticed you cold crashed it, but didn't use any Irish moss or whirlfloc for clarity. Care to expand on this?

I used pale white wheat malt, 1.5L I believe.
The munich malt is 10L.

Irish moss/whirlfloc helps remove proteins and compounds that cause haze during the boil. I wanted a nice hazy wheat beer so I did not use any Irish moss. After fermentation I didn't want to transfer too much yeast, so I cold crashed to help the yeast settle out (Kolsch yeast has low flocculation). I probably crashed out a bit of haze proteins in the process, but the beer still had a nice haze to it after kegging without having too much suspended yeast.

I hope you enjoy the recipe!

 

[JasontheBeaver]

Thanks for the feedback!
It will be brewed within the next couple weeks.

 

[MrNic]

So I bottled this on Monday. I was just sitting around doing nothing today so I decided to pop a bottle in the freezer to get it cold and try it. It's only been 2 days since I bottled this beer and it is THE MOST drinkable beer I've brewed! Thanks again for the recipe!

 

[MrNic]

Delicious

 

[JasontheBeaver]

I brewed this on Saturday, by Sunday morning it was aggressively fermenting. On Monday morning I experienced my first blowout!
I had it in a 6 gall Better Bottle carboy with an orange cap and 3 piece airlock. It blew the cap to the other side of the room and now everything is splattered with dried crud.
Ah lessons learned! I cleaned and sanitized the cap and put it back on. Now the real cleaning starts.
I need to look into how to prevent blow-offs.

 

[krenshaw]

sounds like all you need is a blowoff tube and you'll be set.. i always have a tube on for the first 2 or 3 days, then i switch to an airlock.. no problems since then

 

[JasontheBeaver]

I'm going to cold crash my batch in a few days (13 days total in primary) then rack to keg.
I've had an issue calculating how much wort boils off and for this batch I had too much water initially.
My pre-boil gravity was 1.036 but my post-boil was only 1.042 because it didn't boil off as much as I had anticipated.
Hoping this doesn't result in a watered-down low-flavor beer.

 

[idigg]

What batch size and gravity is this? I might brew this tomorrow. Thanks

 

[MrNic]

What batch size and gravity is this? I might brew this tomorrow. Thanks

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