OneGallonGal
Member
<disclaimer> I'm going more for being inspired by the "wheat" beers than going for something that fits neatly into the "wheat" beer category </disclaimer>
My husband's family is going to be visiting next week and they're interested in brewing. My sister-in-law is a fan of wheat beers with some fruity-ness (she tried a "banana wheat" at a microbrewery she really liked and I suspect the banana came from the yeast more than actual bananas, but I could be mistaken) I've been reading up a bit on brewing and recipe making etc. and this will be my second stab at it. I'm no fan of the bananay-wheat beers but I thought a nice hint of cherries would be nice. I also tend to prefer something a bit maltier than your standard wheat so here's my "wheat beer" abomination recipe that i've come up with so far.
I'm wondering if you guys could do me a favor and point out any glaring errors you see that will leave me with a disaster of a beer or if you see room for improvement without getting too fancy.
here we go
I'm just in the hurry-up-and-buy-everything stage and since I don't anticipate needing more than a pound of any of the malts and an ounce of any of the hops and those are the smallest quantities i can buy, I figure i'll have some time later this week to tweak my recipe if necessary. These are just the very basics for my ingredients.
I'm planning to mash around 153 degrees (based on my reading), boil for an hour, chill chill chill! I'm hoping to get it down to 60 degrees F or less, pitch the yeast and ferment a week or so, aiming to keep it around the mid-60s to avoid that banana flavor. I'll try to my baby growler wrapped in a damp towel with a fan blowing on it to keep it cool. I'll rack over the cherries and age for several weeks (still working on this part but I have time, no?)
Another related but for the near future question: I have a 1 gallon growler in which i plan to do this. I have 3 or 4 5-gallon plastic carboys. I'm afraid i'll have trouble fitting 2lbs of cherries in my 1 gallon growler with 1 gallon of beer. Would it be better for me to borrow another growler and split the beer+cherries between them? Or to rack everything to my 5 gallon plastic guy and try topping it off with some nitrogen to displace any oxygen that would be left in the lots of headspace? I know the concern with plastic is also that the plastic is permeable to air. would that mess me up too?
Thanks guys! Sorry it's so long...again....
My husband's family is going to be visiting next week and they're interested in brewing. My sister-in-law is a fan of wheat beers with some fruity-ness (she tried a "banana wheat" at a microbrewery she really liked and I suspect the banana came from the yeast more than actual bananas, but I could be mistaken) I've been reading up a bit on brewing and recipe making etc. and this will be my second stab at it. I'm no fan of the bananay-wheat beers but I thought a nice hint of cherries would be nice. I also tend to prefer something a bit maltier than your standard wheat so here's my "wheat beer" abomination recipe that i've come up with so far.
I'm wondering if you guys could do me a favor and point out any glaring errors you see that will leave me with a disaster of a beer or if you see room for improvement without getting too fancy.
here we go
- 1 lb wheat malt
- 1/2 lb to 3/4 lb American 2-row
- 1/4 lb to 1/2 lb maris otter (getting weird right?)
- Some amount tbd of galena (I'm told it's somewhat fruity) with 60 minutes left
- some amount tbd of saaz perhaps with 20 left and then again at flameout
- Wyeast Bavarian Wheat Activator yeast (i believe this is 3056)
- 2 lbs of cherries -- presumably frozen, i think that's about all I'll be able to get this time of year
I'm just in the hurry-up-and-buy-everything stage and since I don't anticipate needing more than a pound of any of the malts and an ounce of any of the hops and those are the smallest quantities i can buy, I figure i'll have some time later this week to tweak my recipe if necessary. These are just the very basics for my ingredients.
I'm planning to mash around 153 degrees (based on my reading), boil for an hour, chill chill chill! I'm hoping to get it down to 60 degrees F or less, pitch the yeast and ferment a week or so, aiming to keep it around the mid-60s to avoid that banana flavor. I'll try to my baby growler wrapped in a damp towel with a fan blowing on it to keep it cool. I'll rack over the cherries and age for several weeks (still working on this part but I have time, no?)
Another related but for the near future question: I have a 1 gallon growler in which i plan to do this. I have 3 or 4 5-gallon plastic carboys. I'm afraid i'll have trouble fitting 2lbs of cherries in my 1 gallon growler with 1 gallon of beer. Would it be better for me to borrow another growler and split the beer+cherries between them? Or to rack everything to my 5 gallon plastic guy and try topping it off with some nitrogen to displace any oxygen that would be left in the lots of headspace? I know the concern with plastic is also that the plastic is permeable to air. would that mess me up too?
Thanks guys! Sorry it's so long...again....