American Wheat Beer Gumballhead inspired WPA

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

D_ranged,
I just made my second batch as well and its sitting in my secondary now for almost a week. I did use the Amarillo for both, 3oz in the boil and then another 1 for a week dry hop. Is that similar to your recipe?

I will have to take a look at my notes, but I only used Amarillo for the boil and dry hopping.

The second batch didn't come out as well as the first, but that was due to an error in accounting for DME and adjusting the hop schedule accordingly. It is still a great session beer, but it's not as good as the first batch.

 

[wranglerx16]

I'm starting this tomorrow. They were out of Simcoe hops so I'm trying it with German magnum instead. I'm told it's very similar. Any suggestions ? I couldn't quite find it here but due to the size of my pot I'll prob steep w around 2.5 gal. That sound alright? Thanks for all your help!

 

[DrDale]

2 1/2 gallon steep is no problem. That's what I have been doing and everything seems to turn out OK. The only time it didn't really was when I had a large grain bill, other than that, you should be golden.

 

[wranglerx16]

2 1/2 gallon steep is no problem. That's what I have been doing and everything seems to turn out OK. The only time it didn't really was when I had a large grain bill, other than that, you should be golden.

Thanks , I've never used leaf hops .. I'm Brewing as we speak. Do you siphon them out or ferment w them?

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

I'm starting this tomorrow. They were out of Simcoe hops so I'm trying it with German magnum instead. I'm told it's very similar. Any suggestions ? I couldn't quite find it here but due to the size of my pot I'll prob steep w around 2.5 gal. That sound alright? Thanks for all your help!

There is no issues going this route. I would usually steep on my stove while heating my brewing liquor outside on the propane burner. It seemed to work very well, and it's the same technique used to make this the first time.

Also, on the hops, you can go with simply amarillo. It's a very tasty beer going with a single hop variety. With that being said, the first time this was brewed, I used Citra instead of Simcoe for dry hopping with great results.

That's the best part about this hobby though, having freedom and experimentation to do what pleases you. Good luck.

 

[wranglerx16]

I started my brew on Thursday. The fermentation slowed down and I don't even see bubbles anymore. I'll still wait 9 days and probably transfer to a glass carboy to dry hop. First time w dry hopping as well as this recipe. Any suggestions?

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

I started my brew on Thursday. The fermentation slowed down and I don't even see bubbles anymore. I'll still wait 9 days and probably transfer to a glass carboy to dry hop. First time w dry hopping as well as this recipe. Any suggestions?

Let it sit in your primary for 3 weeks, and then either dry hop in the primary for 5-7 days, or move it to a secondary and dry hop for 5-7 days. Your beer will come out better if you give it an extra week on the yeast cake.

 

[jamissr]

made this just a few weeks ago, almost gone already. grapefruit was a bit strong for the first week, but really mellowed out towards the last 2/3 of the keg. loved it though, great on a nice hot day. Will make again soon, but im new to brewing so i have a few different types i want to get through first. since i have 3 kegs going though it shouldnt take too long to get around to it again.

i let it sit in the primary for 7-8 days and dry hopped for about 6. 2 weeks seems to be the most i can be patient for with all of my beers. after that its getting kegged ready or not!

only difference i had from the original recipe is i lost my last package of amarillo so i had to dry hop with simcoe only. next time ill DH it right, and do it all grain. thanks again for the excellent recipe!

 

[DrDale]

Mine has been in the secondary about 2 1/2 weeks. I tasted it the other day and it seems better than the last time I made this. I am bottling tonight

 

[wranglerx16]

Help!! I started my gmh on 4/19 I had an og of 1.054 like my recipe says I dry hopped on 5/12 and today just finished cleaning bottles and transferring to bottling bucket . My fg is 1.022 it says it should be 1.010. Never had this problem before. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

Help!! I started my gmh on 4/19 I had an og of 1.054 like my recipe says I dry hopped on 5/12 and today just finished cleaning bottles and transferring to bottling bucket . My fg is 1.022 it says it should be 1.010. Never had this problem before. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Extract, PM, or All grain? What temp did you ferment at? And did you take your reading before or after adding priming sugar?

 

[wranglerx16]

It was the extract recipe I got from the database. Og 1.054 temp was 67-68 . I haven't added priming sugar yet I just have it in my bottling bucket on airlock now

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

Looks like you hit the 1.02 extract issue. You may want someone else with more experience to offer advice, but to be honest, possibly bottling as is with a smaller amount of sugar may jumpstart the yeast and finish out in the bottle.

It's a gamble, but it's possible it could restart the yeast to go back to work.

Someone else with more experience will be able to offer better advice though. Good luck!

 

[cuinrearview]

I have never experienced an under-attenuated batch of beer with this low of O.G. so my advice should be taken with a grain of salt. If you truly fermented in the mid to high sixties ambient if anything you should have experienced higher attenuation with a few more esters in the finished beer. The beer itself would be in the low 70s at peak fermentation.

So, there should only be a handful of possibilities why this happened:

1) Your hydrometer is no longer calibrated. Easy to test. 60 degree distilled water should read 1.000
2) Too high of a temp during the mini-mash possibly due to a poorly calibrated thermometer. I doubt this would cause this big of a swing in F.G. though and your spot on O.G. suggests this was probably not the case.
3) Old extract. Sometimes old extract will attenuate poorly.
4) A bad batch of yeast. I have never had a bad sachet of US-05 but it could happen. Also if it got too hot either during fermentation or when pitched the population could have been killed(unlikely but I don't know your process).

Some things to consider. You can also post your recipe and process in the extract forum and I'm sure some other possibilities will surface. There are a lot of combined batches worth of experience on this site and I'm sure you'll get help getting to the bottom of it. Don't think there's much you can do for this batch but I assure you when you get it right you'll be glad you tried this recipe again if you choose to do so.

 

[uniTTy]

when you're fermenting @ 62, is that ambient or wort temp? thanks, going to try this one today.

 

[smellgoats]

I've bought these ingredients, but with a pound of flaked wheat, I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[smellgoats]

I'm brewing this right now. First attempt at a mini mash!

 

[cuinrearview]

when you're fermenting @ 62, is that ambient or wort temp? thanks, going to try this one today.

I use an ice water bath to keep my adhesive thermometer on the side of the fermenter at 62-64. Sometimes I get agressive adding ice bottles during peak fermentation and it reads 58-60. The key is to wait until you see a wee bit of activity to start slamming it down that low. I have had really good, clean results doing this with US-05 including a very nice psudeo-Marzen. Once fermentation starts you'd have to get it pretty cold to stop it. I've read that the temperature in the middle is hotter but with all of that swirling/convection I have a hard time believing it can be much more than a couple of degrees difference from what it reads from through a 1/4" glass or even less plastic. I treat my US-05 like my slave and it always does my bidding.

 

[wowbeeryum]

thinking of making this as my next beer. what are the IBUs? also, i'm considering changing the hop bill slightly. i'm a new brewer and want to avoid reusing hops in order to learn as quickly as possible what certain hops taste/smell like. i've already used simcoe, summit, columbus, rakau, opal, and cascade.

could i successfully substitute for the simcoe dry hop? i realize it will change the beer a bit, but as long as it's still good i'm fine with it. my initial thoughts were citra, centennial, nelson sauvin, or sorachi ace. thoughts?

also, i have .5 oz of rakau sitting in the freezer that i would love to use up before it goes bad (i know this contradicts not using hops i've used before, but these are extras and not a new purchase). how about using this at flameout (instead of or in addition to amarillo)?

thanks in advance for your help.

 

[wowbeeryum]

additionally, are there any other yeasts that might be fun/interesting to use? in my 4 batches i've only used 1056 and 3711, so trying something else would be cool. maybe american ale II? something else?

 

[cuinrearview]

Shoot for an IBU count in the mid-twenties, just enough to balance the sweetness. It's all about the hop flavor and aroma with this one. As for hop subs. I really feel the Simarillo dry hop combo is what makes this beer. Other hops would work and probably result in good beers but I would be hesitant to suggest anything. YMMV

 

[lawnboybrew]

It seems there are 3 variations in this thread. Could someone put them in one post? And, explain the major differences. I want to brew this next weekend; however, i want it closest to GBH. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[JonGrafto]

It seems there are 3 variations in this thread. Could someone put them in one post? And, explain the major differences. I want to brew this next weekend; however, i want it closest to GBH. Any help would be appreciated.

Lawnboy... I would say this recipe is dead nuts on... I compared mine to a bottle of GBH that I had and I highly doubt anyone could tell the difference. My best brew to date.

Here is the recipe that I used:

All Grain Recipe - Gumball Head Wheat ::: 1.052/1.012 (6 Gal)
Grain Bill (70% Efficiency assumed)
6 lbs. - Wheat Malt
5 lbs. - 2-Row Pale Malt
1 lb. - Caravienne Malt

Hop Schedule (27 IBU)
1/4 oz. - Amarillo - First Wort Hop
1/4 oz. - Amarillo - 60 min.
1/2 oz. - Amarillo - 15 min.
1.25 oz. - Amarillo - 5 min.
1 oz. - Amarillo - 1 min.
1.5 oz. - Amarillo - Dry Hop

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale - 1800 ml starter

Mash/Sparge/Boil
Mash at 153° for 60 min.
Sparge as usual
Cool and ferment at 68° to 70°

Notes
Wait til fermentation is finished and then add dry-hop additions for 7 days.
Rack and bottle or keg as normal.

 

[cuinrearview]

It seems there are 3 variations in this thread. Could someone put them in one post? And, explain the major differences. I want to brew this next weekend; however, i want it closest to GBH. Any help would be appreciated.

I guess it depends on what you are trying to make. If you want to attempt to clone GBH you may want to use suggestions posted in this thread to guide you there but you'll have to use your senses and experience to make changes to the recipes listed as your equipment and process is different from others who have commented here. I don't feel that any of the full recipes listed here (including mine) are for an attempt at a clone. I actually had some fresh GBH this weekend and my original partial mash recipe, which I like much better, isn't really close. Hence the "inspired" tag.

If you want to make a really good, hoppy american wheat, see post one.

If you want to make a really good, hoppy american wheat with the all grain process, see post one or the post just before this depending on your efficiency. They are very similar.

If you want to clone Gumballhead, you should read the entire thread and see what I and others have to say. The hops are really predominant in the original. Mine is more balanced with wheaty-breadiness. I honestly can't see more than 35% wheat or a really low temp mash in the real GBH but that's just my $.02:rockin:

Good luck!!

 

[lawnboybrew]

I ended up using the first recipe. Finished primary and hit the final gravity in the first post. In secondary dry hop now--can't wait until it's done. Tastes good from the samples I have had. What pressure should I use for the keg? Thanks!

 

[cuinrearview]

You know, that's an excellent question!! When I made it I wasnt kegging. I would go the standard 11-12 psi depending on your draft system. Gas it as you would any American pale or IPA. If you have any tricks to get it carbed up quickly definitely employ them as in my experience this beer loses something every day it sits. YMMV.

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

I ended up using the first recipe. Finished primary and hit the final gravity in the first post. In secondary dry hop now--can't wait until it's done. Tastes good from the samples I have had. What pressure should I use for the keg? Thanks!

As CUInRearView said, go with the standard 10-12. My second attempt was kegged and had good carbonation, similar to my original try that was bottled, although my second attempt wasn't as tasty (my own fault, was shy a pound of DME when it was brewed).

If you can, dial it up to 30 PSI for 24 hours (if it is cold going into the keg by crash cooling) or 36 hours (if it is room temp), after initial overpressure, degas the keg, dial down the C02 to serving pressure (10-12) and let it sit for a few days (3-5). It will continue to improve over the next 2 weeks, but by that time, it should have pretty solid carbination.

If you have never force carbed, it will have a perceived "carb bite" the first few days, but it will mellow out in less than a week.

Good luck and post your results if you get a chance.

 

[lawnboybrew]

Made it and kegged it. Fourth day in keg. Bit of a bready flavor at the end. Still too young? Will it mellow out? Followed CUs original recipe. Color is great and the aroma makes me want to jump in the glass.

 

[lawnboybrew]

Made it and kegged it. Fourth day in keg. Bit of a bready flavor at the end. Still too young? Will it mellow out? Followed CUs original recipe. Color is great and the aroma makes me want to jump in the glass.

 

[cuinrearview]

I'm sure I mentioned the sweet breadiness somewhere when describing this beer. Bottles never stayed around long enough for me to see if it faded. It is a desired character in the beer and IMO compliments the hops. Sounds like it came out as intended.