Today was brewday. I haven't brewed in ages, I had been holding out to do full mash. I had been culturing some Weisse yeast and I just couldn't put it in the fridge to go dormant, I had to pitch it. So I asked my buddy for his all too popular wheat beer recipe. His recipe is as follows:
6.6 Pounds of Munich Wheat LME
1.5 Pounds of Honey
1 oz Mt. Hood Bittering hops
.5 oz Mt Hood Finishing hops
Zest of 3 lemons.
6.6 Pounds of Munich Wheat LME
1.5 Pounds of Honey
1 oz Mt. Hood Bittering hops
.5 oz Mt Hood Finishing hops
Zest of 3 lemons.
You are supposed to put half the malt extract in after forty minutes, and the honey at the beginning. I did not follow the recipe, I am not very good at following other peoples directions. But it was a great place to start. I used an ounce of Amarillo and half an ounce of Mt. Hood for bittering, I boiled the malt extract for a full hour and added the honey in the last fifteen minutes. I also added the lemon zest at the end which my buddy does and that made sense to be. Boiling for a full hour it's bound to loose something. I used a little yeast nutrient and Irish moss as well. Many commercial breweries add yeast nutrient, and with honey in the mix it seemed like a good plan. I also steeped some wheat grains for added body and head retention. Then I did a fast cold break, (under ten minutes) this gives you a nice clean brew without a lot of floating crap in it. If you bottle condition it also helps keep the sediment at the bottom of the bottle to a minimum. So we'll see how it turns out. His is very drinkable and light. Mine should be just a little more bitter and have some more complex notes from the yeast - I hope - it could make it all go south, we'll have to see. I saved some unpitched wort for priming should I end up bottle or cask conditioning some of the brew. I don't like priming with corn sugar, it really messes with your brew and gives you a goofy head with big bubbles compared to saving the wort. The basic rule of thumb is to divide 60 by the O.G., this will give you the volume in quarts that you should be saving. This came out around 1.055. Since I had no homebrew I had to Relax, and not worry with a Bell's Hopslam.
