Feb18

Perfecting 6 ~ American Wheat

by Jeff on February 18, 2015 at 9:17 pm
Posted In: Perfecting the 6

Today I am getting the starters ready for the American Wheat.  This will be the first brew of 2015 as well as the first time the brew room is in operation  other than being used for something storage related.

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I’ll be brewing 12 gallons instead of the normal 6 because my friend Ted Saxe will be joining me.  I figured it was easier to break it into two 1 liter starters.

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I’ll post notes in the comments of this blog post to document the steps for comparison with the next brewing session of the American Wheat!

STAY TUNED!

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Feb16

Perfecting 6…

by Jeff on February 16, 2015 at 5:09 pm
Posted In: Perfecting the 6

A few posts back I was planning on brewing all 80 recipes from JZ’s book Brewing Classic Styles. However, I couldn’t figure out where to start let alone how many fermenters I would need or how I was going to consume all that beer. Then the boys at Homebrewchatter.com were talking about getting back to the basics and picking 5 beers and perfecting them. After a couple days of reading JZ’s book I found 6 recipes that I wanted to brew but couldn’t slim it down to the final 5 so I decided to leave it at 6.  Those 6 are Blonde Ale, American Wheat, American Pilsner, Irish Ale, Bier De Garde, and a Dry Stout.

I’ll post as I brew them and then add brewing notes to the comments.  This Saturday I will be brewing with Ted Saxe.  We’ll be brewing the American Wheat.


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: American Wheat
Brewer: Jeff Mitchell
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 13.79 gal
Post Boil Volume: 12.74 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 11.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 3.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 83.5 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 50.0 %
10 lbs Wheat - Red Malt (Briess) (2.3 SRM) Grain 2 50.0 %
2.00 oz Willamette [5.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 16.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [11.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 4 3.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Willamette [5.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 5 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Wheat Ale (Wyeast Labs #1010) [ Yeast 6 -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 20 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 25.00 qt of water at 159.1 F 148.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.05gal, 6.90gal) of 168.0 F water

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Nov04

Water Profiles

by Jeff on November 4, 2014 at 4:19 pm
Posted In: Brewing Matters

As anyone in the brewing world will tell you, your water profile is a major key and ingredient for getting the beers you want to taste as they should. In March of 2011 I sent water samples out to Ward Labs in Kearney, Nebraska to get my water tested. It didn’t take that long for the results and wasn’t all that expensive either, I think I paid about $20 for the test in 2011. Once I received the B-and-E water profile I was able to put it into Beersmith but really didn’t know what to do with it. So it just sat idle and I continued to brew beer without any adjustment to my water.

The ‘Water Profile’ conversation was recently resurrected at my online watering hole HomeBrewChatter which got me to thinking about it all over again. I dug out the water analysis and along with this EZ Water Calculator was able to figure out what I needed to modify my mash profile to hopefully make better beer.

The question that comes up though is how much can a water profile change in 3.5 years. If your water is like mine and is piped in from the City of Milwaukee it could change a lot or not at all. One would hope that it doesn’t change at all. Well, we are going to find out. I’ll post the results of the test here once I get them. I also think I am going to do a test with and without modifying the water profile just to see how important the water profile really is.

If you would like to order a Homebrew water test use this link. All you really need is the W-6 Household test.

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Jul13

Brewing Classic Styles “Project”

by Jeff on July 13, 2014 at 12:19 am
Posted In: Brew Sessions, Brewing Matters, Perfecting the 6
Just some of the supplies I'll be using today.

Just some of the supplies I’ll be using today.

Back in January, January 6th to be exact, I said I was going to start a brewing challenge and that challenge was to use this blog more as well as to brew all the recipes in the Brewing Classic Styles book by Jamil Zainasheff.  That time has finally come.  It also comes on a one year hiatus from brewing anything.  I did reach out to Jamil and his publisher for permission to post recipes and I can do so. However, I just can’t post all of them.  Once I have brewed several of them I will be allowed to share my favorites.

For this brew session I am going to brew #20 Blonde Ale and #35 Scottish 60/- Caramelized.  The cool part of the 60/- recipe is the removal of 1 gallon of wort from 1st running’s of the mash to be boiled off to give the caramelized flavor which will keep this recipe close to the traditional way this beer was brewed.  The bad part is that it also needs to be cold conditioned at 40° for “several months”.  I’ll get to try this beer sometime in late September. 🙁  Which is why I am brewing the Blonde Ale as well.  This beer can be aged also but because I really want something on tap on the Keg bar I am going to take this one grain to glass in about 14 days.

As I said in my original post I will be sending some of these beers out for tasting to a few brewing buds over at HomeBrewChatter.com so they can give me some feedback on the recipes.  More to come…

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Jan20

T25 – Week 2 – Day 8

by Jeff on January 20, 2014 at 7:45 pm
Posted In: Exercise

Just finished Week #2 Cardio – I have to say even for just 25 minutes it does feel like a good workout.  Still drinking lots of water and staying away from all Fast Food.  #stayfocused

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