American Wheat Beer Gumballhead inspired WPA

[drewski459]

Just wanted to post that I made this recipe this past spring. I really enjoyed the flavor and aroma of the hops. Those who tried it all enjoyed it as well, as it's a lot different than store bought pale ales in this area.

 

[Justibone]

I'm going to have to SMaSH some amarillo, thanks for posting this!

(This recipe is waaaaay too hoppy for me, but my bro might like it.)

 

[cuinrearview]

I racked my first attempt at this recipe with all-grain to secondary last night. The gravity readings matched and it's looking and tasting good so far. I'll put up my recipe if it's close in three weeks or so.

Justibone: The hops are really well balanced with the breadiness of the wheat. I've yet to have someone, BMC drinker or otherwise, complain that it's too bitter.

 

[cuinrearview]

Kegged Sunday, force carbed and sampled last night. In the future I'm only going to dry hop for a week because I've noticed no noticeable difference. I've never tried it this young. The hops are over-freaking-powering right now with no noticeable wheat. That being said the hoppiness was quite lovely although very IPAish. I took a sample to SWMBO and she thought is was the peach wheat I made for her two years ago. Peach, grapefruit, and tangerine all come through strong at this young age. My experience is that those flavors settle quite quickly so hopefully in a week or so I'll have a Wpa and not just a glass of hops.

 

[jbrookeiv]

Must. Make. This. Beer.

 

[CAS0311USMC]

I take it you are steeping the 3lbs of grain in the begining? How long? Also When are you putting your DME in?

 

[ndhoffma]

I steeped for ~25 min, then DME immediately following the steeping before bringing to a boil - basically following the normal procedure for extract

 

[CAS0311USMC]

great thanks. dry hop in the secondary of primary

 

[CAS0311USMC]

Sorry I mean; dry hop in the primary or secondary fermentor?

 

[ndhoffma]

I did not do a secondary, but added them in about 8 days after starting fermentation;

 

[CAS0311USMC]

One more question....sorry. What yeast? it's not posted.

 

[CAS0311USMC]

oops nevermind

 

[CAS0311USMC]

Well I brewed it up yesterday and I was surprised to see that the color was quite a bit darker than described. Also my IBU's were down a bit. I could only get amarillo pellets with AAU's of 7.2 Not worried though. Must just be a crop differance. I sampled after i checked the gravity. Pretty tasty. Was close to the gumballhead, however, I still need to dry hop and wait for fermentation to takeover. I truley enjoy the gumballhead version and there is only one bar in my area that I can get it. If this works out I will probably have some on constant reserve. :rockin:

 

[cuinrearview]

Don't worry Marine, it'll come out great!

So, for those interested the all-grain batch is finished and came off very well. This is the grain bill. I got 81% efficiency and 5.75 gallons into my primary so adjust accordingly for your system.

5lbs. Wheat malt
3.5lbs. 2-row
1lb. Caravienne

Mash at 152

OG 1.051
FG 1.012

The rest of the recipe remains the same since I was doing full wort boils when I originally wrote it. The wheat and hops are such a nice marriage. I finally was able to drink this too early having force carbed and drank four days out of secondary. It's a five week grain to glass beer whether you dry-hop for two or one week and let carbonate.

If anyone can help me get this info on post #1 of this thread I'd appreciate it.

 

[kingmatt]

I will definitely be brewing this one in March to have it ready for the spring, looks great!

 

[Yunocallme]

Hey folks,

So tonight is the eve of my first ever "non kit" brew, and this Gumballhead clone is what I'm gonna be going with. I've got all of my ingredients and am for the most part ready to go. But I'm having some doubts about the execution, particularly how to go about the grains. I'm still going to steep the 3 lbs of grain in 2-2.5 gal of water (~155 degrees) for around 30 minutes to start it all off, correct? Or generally speaking, can I take the listed ingredients and apply the typical directions for steeping/boiling that are found in a kit recipe? The concept of 2 cases of Gumballhead excites the hell out of me, so I don't wanna screw anything up!

 

[kingmatt]

Hey folks,

So tonight is the eve of my first ever "non kit" brew, and this Gumballhead clone is what I'm gonna be going with. I've got all of my ingredients and am for the most part ready to go. But I'm having some doubts about the execution, particularly how to go about the grains. I'm still going to steep the 3 lbs of grain in 2-2.5 gal of water (~155 degrees) for around 30 minutes to start it all off, correct? Or generally speaking, can I take the listed ingredients and apply the typical directions for steeping/boiling that are found in a kit recipe? The concept of 2 cases of Gumballhead excites the hell out of me, so I don't wanna screw anything up!

Check out DeathBrewer's picture tutorial on partial mashing...it will really help you out.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/


Good luck

 

[Justibone]

Yes, this is a steep and not a mash, so your plan would work fine.

If you were mashing, you would want less water and (probably) lower temperature, and although I believe using the volume/temps you have there would get you a perfectly fine beer it wouldn't be very close to a gumballhead.

 

[cuinrearview]

Yes, this is a steep and not a mash, so your plan would work fine.

If you were mashing, you would want less water and (probably) lower temperature, and although I believe using the volume/temps you have there would get you a perfectly fine beer it wouldn't be very close to a gumballhead.

Actually it's a kind of in between PM and extract, easily accomplished by all. The grains should be mashed but most households have a pot big enough to accomplish this in. PM me if you need direction.

And as you've noted, not a clone of GBH hence the "inspired" tag. I really never intended it to be but have noted revisions that, IMO, would make something close to the real thing. Should I change the title of the thread? Although this recipe doesn't make a beer that's spot on to the real deal I've tried to offer my opinion for making the real deal and added my AG poke on my original recipe with notes.

I see you're in IN, do you have any insight to cloning this beer? Am I close in my suggestions outside of my original recipe on this thread? I like this beer better than GBH(at least when I had it fresh at 3F's) but I know there's some out there that see this recipe and think it's gonna be close. Maybe I screwed up and should just call it "better than Gumballhead"?

 

[cuinrearview]

Hey folks,

So tonight is the eve of my first ever "non kit" brew, and this Gumballhead clone is what I'm gonna be going with. I've got all of my ingredients and am for the most part ready to go. But I'm having some doubts about the execution, particularly how to go about the grains. I'm still going to steep the 3 lbs of grain in 2-2.5 gal of water (~155 degrees) for around 30 minutes to start it all off, correct? Or generally speaking, can I take the listed ingredients and apply the typical directions for steeping/boiling that are found in a kit recipe? The concept of 2 cases of Gumballhead excites the hell out of me, so I don't wanna screw anything up!

If you held the grains at that temp for 30 I bet it came out fine. What were your gravity readings?

 

[Justibone]

No, I don't have special insight, and I think it's fine. Most people know that cloning takes a lot of work and is rarely perfect -- look how hard commercial breweries have to work just to keep their own beer consistent.

I think you're fine, but I do think you need to go for a "crisper" (opposite of "maltier") mash if you want to get in the neighborhood of gumballhead.

 

[Yunocallme]

Wow, plenty of feedback! I appreciate it. So I went ahead and did the partial mash as described in the link last week. Mashed the 2.5 lbs of grain (I went with 1/4 lb caravienne, 1/4 lb carapils as described earlier in the thread) in 3 qts of water at ~150 for 60 minutes. Then sparged in 3 gals for 10 mins at 165. Everything went fine, OG ended up at 1.056, so just a touch off from the original recipe. It was fermenting the next day, and all appears to be going well 6 days later. I'll be sure to let you guys all know how it turns out.

And out of curiosity has anyone else done this recipe as a partial mash (besides, I'm assuming, kingmatt)? I've been looking around trying to find what the differences between steeping and partial mash will be and I haven't been able to conclude a whole lot. I know the beer will probably be delicious either way, but I'm curious what the differences might be.

 

[Justibone]

Difference between steeping and partial mash is the difference between warming up pre-cooked bacon (steeping) and actually cooking bacon (mash). In a mash you are actually causing a chemical reaction to change the ingredients, whereas in a steep you are just getting the proteins and sugars into solution without actually enzymatically changing them.

 

[cuinrearview]

Difference between steeping and partial mash is the difference between warming up pre-cooked bacon (steeping) and actually cooking bacon (mash). In a mash you are actually causing a chemical reaction to change the ingredients, whereas in a steep you are just getting the proteins and sugars into solution without actually enzymatically changing them.

Just took care of this Justin. Added instructions for Extract, PM, and AG. You are right that a cooler mash would add to the drinkability but in all actuallity this beer is better than GBH, which I found a bit thin. YMMV

 

[Justibone]

 

[Justibone]

Brewing this on Saturday, I'll tell you how it comes out!

Sadly, I'm sharing the brew with a friend, so we are bottle-conditioning. If SWMBO likes it, then it will get a keg-spot.

 

[kingmatt]

I just cracked my first bottle after 1 1/2 weeks (I couldn't wait) and it is awesome!

I primed it as a pale so it is a little overcarbed for my taste but not too bad.

The nose on this is unbelievable! HUGE tangerine coming through from all the Amarillo hops (I let SWMBO smell it and she thought it smelled like tang!).

Big hop burst up front and then mellows and is nice and crisp thanks to the Safale 05.

I will definitely be brewing this again and can't wait to let some lucky friends have a pint :rockin:


FYI: I brewed this with all Amarillo so I am not getting the grapefruit notes others have mentioned.

 

[Justibone]

Good to hear that, kingmatt! Me and my brew-buddy just did the same thing, all amarillo as well. It's still in the bucket and hasn't been dry-hopped yet, but it's good to hear it's so good!

 

[elproducto]

Great looking recipe, thanks! I live in Canada so I don't care if it's cloned or not, I've been looking for some more complexity in my Pale Ales, and sounds like the wheat will do the trick. My pipeline has a large hole in it, so this sounds like a great quick turnaround.

I prefer Centennial over Amarillo, so I might use that instead.

Thanks again!

 

[ndhoffma]

I made a close copy of the AG version a while back & just opened a few. I subbed in centennial for the simcoe & added a little extra in the boil on the hops, turned out great. A little dark for guballhead, but still an excellent beer.