WHEAT! Second Beer on the Way

[Clint Yeastwood]

This is an exciting day. My second post-layoff beer is sparging itself on top of the Braumeister. This time is different from my first comeback session two weeks ago, because today I haven't done anything truly stupid while trying to master the machine.

I'm making a beer with a huge amount of wheat in it; 74%. All the other kings said I was daft to make a beer with lots of wheat, but I brewed it all the same, just to show 'em.

I don't know why the beer has so much wheat. I wrote the recipe in 2004. Who knows what I was thinking? I loved the result, though.

I plan to dump the fermenter in the pool, pitch dry yeast for the first time in my life, and ferment at 68.

Still haven't gotten the keezer together. It froze here, so I could not finish painting the wood till today. Tomorrow, I plan to start putting the collar together. I have never used a Kreg jig, but I bought one for the occasion.

Up next: stout! My recipe is somewhere in the Guinness/Murphy's region, but I use 1056 or the equivalent, and the beer tastes kind of fruity until it settles down.

I was beside myself when I got to drink my first beer last week. Having two beers on tap in a new keezer may be too much for me.

 

[Beekeeper]

No problem with a high percentage wheat recipe.
You should move on toward heavy Rye inclusions next. (Roggenbier.) Quite similar to wheat, yet distinctly different.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I was thinking about rye today. I have never tried it, and in my past experience, I don't recall hearing about it.

I feel like I need to be adventurous. I wonder what an all-corn beer would be like.

 

[Beekeeper]

I haven

I wonder what an all-corn beer would be like.

Now your starting to scare me!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I got the beer into the fermenting freezer.

The weather here has big swings, so I had to put a heater outside the freezer. During the night, it will keep the garage warmer than 68° so the freezer will work to keep the beer below that temperature.

I'm the king of environmentalists.

 

[day_trippr]

You should move on toward heavy Rye inclusions next.

Hahahaha! Sounds like a trap! You trying to glue his brew rig together?

Cheers!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

It's blerping away this morning. That dry yeast is really something. I will never use wet yeast again except when there is no choice.

 

[Yorkshire lad]

I was thinking about rye today. I have never tried it, and in my past experience, I don't recall hearing about it.

I feel like I need to be adventurous. I wonder what an all-corn beer would be like.

An all corn beer would be a "Wash". A distilling term for moonshiners who make you know what from that.
Been there, done that.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

You made beer and drank it, or you made moonshine?

 

[Yorkshire lad]

You made beer and drank it, or you made moonshine?

I make beer and drink it. It's illegal to make moonshine in the USA.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

There go my Sunday plans.

Actually, I have had moonshine, but it was a stupid idea. Moonshine killed my grandfather.

 

[Yorkshire lad]

There go my Sunday plans.

Actually, I have had moonshine, but it was a stupid idea. Moonshine killed my grandfather.

Sorry to hear about your grandfather. He was probably given "Foreshots", the first batch of distillate containing Acetone and Methane.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

His symptoms were consisted with methanol poisoning, but it was 80 years ago, and he was treated by rural doctors. No one did any real testing.

He didn't die from long-term consumption. It was one dose.

I appreciate the sympathy, but I never knew him.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I didn't use an airlock on my last beer. I can't remember why. This time, I'm using a bubbler that came with my yeast starter kit. Now I remember what I liked about airlocks. They show you the CO2 production.

I think I'll get a couple more of these so I'll be prepared for breakage.

 

[kartracer2]

I have never used a Kreg jig, but I bought one for the occasion.

I hope the beer turns out great! As far as the Kreg Jig, it's a good investment. It revolutionized the cabinet building biz. Also it can be used in so many other ways, don't be afraid to think outside the box with it.
Cheers,
Joel B.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I just tested the SG, or tried. The hydrometer reads 1.014 at 71 degrees, and Brewer's Friend calls that 1.015. Trouble is, there is junk floating in the beer. I am giving it time to settle.

Interesting thing: the pressure at a given level in a fluid that isn't homogeneous isn't just a function of depth. When I was in grad school, one of my profs told me about it as a way of illustrating how smart people can be fooled. I was a physics student, and he was a hotshot physicist. He said someone spoke in front of a roomful of physicists and asked them how to find the pressure at a given level in a container of milk that had been shaken but was not homogenized. No one in the room got the answer right. The contribution to the pressure, and therefore buoyancy, from the levels where there is less cream will be higher than the contribution from the levels that have more cream, so it's not simple. A cylinder full of beer with suspended stuff that hasn't totally settled will act the same way.

So, does it average out when you use a hydrometer, which occupies most of the column of liquid, or what? I would think it would be pretty close.

Anyway, Beersmith predicted 1.015. Whether Beersmith's predictions are any good, someone else may chime in and say.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I tasted the sample. Very nice. Sour and sweet. The hops are a little overpowering right now, but I dry-hopped today. Maybe that's way.

I've seen people online claiming there is a difference between tartness and sourness. Whatever. It's acidity, no matter how you dress it up.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Got it kegged. Unfortunately, the tube sucked air at the spigot at first, so some aeration occurred at the start. I closed off the air for most of the transfer.

I get 1.0105 for an FG, so I am somewhere between 1.011 and 1.012 when correction is applied.

The beer is nice. Sweet, a little sour, moderately hopped, and lemony with maybe a little green apple.

I stuck it in a Corny at 40 psi.

 

[Zambezi Special]

I've brewed a 100% wheat beer and I liked it
(Small scale biab, so no stuck sparges or whatever)

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I tell you what. I keep finding new ways to cause problems.

I cranked the pressure up to 40 yesterday, and tonight I tried to draw off some beer. No joy. After a lot of fiddling around, I learned that the dip tube was plugged with hops and yeast. I pulled it and cleaned it out, trying my best to hose everything with Star San. Now the beer is moving.

Of course, I am still getting sharpness from the crud at the bottom of the keg, but I think this will be a neat beer. It's like beer lemonade. Shoots right down your throat. I know I loved it back when I used to make it, but my recall is not great.

I might even drink it with pizza. I never drink beer with pizza because I think it clashes with the sweetness of the tomato sauce and crust, but this stuff might work.

Brewer's Friend puts the ABV at around 5.8%. Don't know how accurate that is.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I am now drinking this stuff in spite of the problems. Even though I'm drinking a lot of trub, I love it.

Seems weaker than the ale I brewed a few weeks back, even though the numbers say it should be stronger. Total lawnmower beer.

Because I keep having to clean the junk out of the post and faucet, the head is nearly absent. It was great when I was drawing the first couple of glasses to get rid of sediment, but opening up the system has taken its toll temporarily.

I was going to use a floating dip tube, but things kept delaying me while I was trying to get this beer kegged, and I wanted to get moving instead of fiddling with a new contraption. Now I pay the price with a clogging faucet and beverage post. Beats waiting till midnight to get the yeast pitched.