Summer/Sommer Ales

Originally designed as an all grain batch inspired by Heavy Seas old Summer Ale (later renamed Sea Nymph) that I enjoyed in the summer of 2011. For the malt bill (and much of the beer) I aimed for this to ride the line between an American blonde ale and an American wheat ale with about 20% wheat and just a small amount of light caramel malt. Sea Nymph appears to have been 4.5% abv which fits the idea of a blonde or American wheat, though other styles could also fit that profile. While Comet is likely not the hop used in that beer I think it’s citrus and tropical character should go well in small amounts to balance the malt. I had originally designed the recipe to be straight forward with 2-row, wheat, and caramel 20 as the ingredients so in changing to an extract version I aimed for something similar but used Carahell in place of the crystal 20 and replaced the 2-row and wheat malts with a blend of extra light and wheat dry malt extracts. Half the batch will be fermented with Omega Lutra kveik, a strain notorious for its lager like character, and the other half on the classic Fermentis SafAle US-05 American ale yeast. This should give me two variations on a Summer (or Sommer in Norwegian) ale.

This along with my previous and next brews that will be on tap this summer are intended to be fairly pale, moderate in alcohol, refreshing, and interesting without being overly strong in any way, allowing for quaffability and cooling off in the heat. The two other beers of summer '22 are a lightly smoked Helles (usually my spring beer) and a Czech Premium Pale Lager (aka Bohemian Pilsner). Most likely these three will be the only beers I have on tap for the upcoming summer months, though summer essentially started weeks ago with temperatures topping 90F here in Maryland. I guess you could say they're "lawn mower" beers, though maybe a bit more complex and interesting than your average one.

Compared to the slightly smoke forward helles and noble hop forward Pils this beer should round out the mix by being a little more fruity due to the yeast and the American hops. If I am able to find some extra time to brew an additional batch to join these it would likely be a saison/grisette or a simple quick sour, since both could be enjoyable light drinkers but also provide something different than these 3 offer. My next brew day following these 3 was used to get some long aged sours started, with some lagers also planned to be brewed later this summer that will likely not be ready until the fall, after The Beers of Summer are gone.

6/8/22

Brewed after work inside on stovetop due to storms outside. This beer is the first time brewing a stovetop batch in this house and first time in a while doing an extract with steeping grains.  Ran into a few unexpected issues, including needing to take the wort outside to chill since my immersion chiller didn't connect to the kitchen sink as it had in my old apartment and the boil off being much lower than on my usual burner leading to more than an extra half gallon of wort that was added to a 1 gallon jug and pitched with dregs from a bottle of Saison DuPont and dregs from a bottle of my homebrewed "Gotlandsdricke" made with Jovaru yeast. The Lutra version was transferred to carboy around 90F while US-05 batch was chilled to ~80F (as far as I could easily get it down to). The two ended up being blended some prior to pitching yeast and pitching was slightly delayed so the Lutra version was probably a little lower than 90 at time of yeast being added and US-05 may have been in the upper 70's. Both were covered with shirts to prevent light and left in basement in low 60F ambient temps.

6/9/22

Despite pouring a decent amount of wort from the carboys to the extra jug in order to give headspace in the carboys the Lutra version fermented so strongly overnight that it blew off its airlock less than 12 hours after pitching. That version was left to open ferment and slowly bubble over the top of the carboy for about 12 hours before seeming to calm down at which point the airlock was re-attached.

US-05 version was also bubbling away after 12 hours but not nearly as intensely, while the farmhouse yeasts version isn’t showing much sign of life even 24 hours later.

6/12/22

Basement has warmed up some along with the outside temps and is now hovering between the mid and upper 60s, which should be good for both versions of this beer as this is around the low end of recommended temperature range for Lutra and the middle of the range for US-05.

Lutra version is barely bubbling, opening the airlock gives smells slightly of yeastiness and the kveik "twang" that people sometimes mention with this strain (milk/yogurt/overripe citrus?). This batch is likely done fermentation but may need a few days to clean up. Gravity sample shows 1.013, sample tastes and smells more fruity, citrusy and refreshing than carboy smells. Not clear or clean so I would not call this very lager like at this point but definitely enjoyable.

US-05 version is still fermenting moderately with a large krausen, lifting the airlock gives aromas that are citrusy and pleasant, but probably needs at least a week to finish and clean up so I didn't take a gravity sample yet.

Farmhouse version is showing some signs of life with a decent layer of krausen, smell off the airlock is smoky, probably from the Gotlandsdricke dregs. It will be interesting to see whether the smoke persists strongly through to the finish but I have no real plans for this small amount of beer so if it's unenjoyable it will be easy to dump and if it is enjoyable it might get bottled or blended in with something else.

6/17/22

Kegged both versions. Probably should have waited on the US-05 as first pour is tasting yeasty and a bit strange. Lutra version also tastes a bit more yeasty and less lemony and refreshing than the previous sample but that may be due to the yeast getting stirred up and coming out in the first pour here. Kegerator set to 50F with 20 PSI.

6/19/22

Poured a small sample of each. Both have a bit of a pizza aroma: herbal (basil and savory) and bready (dough, yeast, crust). The Lutra version tastes more lemony and nice, not clean but a pleasant character. US-05 is less clear in appearance and the flavor is closer to the nose with herbal and slightly yeasty notes. Both versions are under carbonated at this point. Hoping with some more time they can clean up. Neither is necessarily unpleasant at this point but they don’t quite hit the notes I’m hoping for in a refreshing summer ale where I probably would have liked a little bit less body and more lemony citrus character.

7/16/22

Side by side tasting of both versions with image above. Despite some differences and pros and cons to each I’m not sure I have a preference on either version but am fairly happy with the beer overall and am happy to have a lightly fruity, fairly low ABV, and otherwise fairly unremarkable, beer on tap.

Sommer (Lutra kveik version)

Smell: orange peel, nondescript fruitiness, light honey, cracker, and wheat bread malt notes. Fruitiness and a touch of milk caramel note is more noticeable after a few sips.

Appearance: fairly opaque golden orange with a large white fluffy head with good retention. Not hazy like a NEIPA but very far from clear and even more opaque than the American Ale yeast version.

Taste: similar to the nose with moderate fruity and slightly citrusy notes blending with mild graininess. Finish is again slightly milk caramel with a touch of tropical fruit. Hard to discern yeast from hops. Bitterness is very low but just enough

Mouthfeel: medium low body with medium carbonation and a touch of creaminess. Pretty nice.

Overall: I would definitely not say that this yeast produces anything like a lager as it is advertised, but as a moderately neutral and very fast fermentor it did a solid job. Not the best beer and I may have actually enjoyed it more with more kveik character but it was an easy to produce and easy to drink brew.

Summer (US-05 version)

Smell: similar to Lutra version with fruit, light citrus, and malt but also some doughy and yeasty character and a touch of pine. As I drink it that classic American hop citrus and pine-like character comes out more and more. 

Appearance: fairly cloudy but I can see my fingers through the glass unlike the kveik version. Large white fluffy head with good retention.

Taste: less rounded than the kveik version with the hops coming through more noticeably (though not super strong) with pine and citrus. Bitterness seems higher with less sweet malt character noticeable and none of the milk caramel character.

Mouthfeel: medium low body with medium carbonation. Maybe a touch thinner than the other version but in a nice range for the style and makes for a light summer drinker.

Overall: not quite what I was going for with this beer but certainly enjoyable enough. This version has less fruit/tropical and sweet malt character than the kveik one but still has enough enjoyable notes to go back for more.

Ube Wit

Ube is a type of yam that has a very bright purple color that is often used as a sort of natural coloring, in addition to being used for its flavor, mainly in the Philippines but also in other South East Asian countries and increasingly around the world. It is typically eaten as a dessert in ice cream (including the sundae type dessert halo-halo), halaya (a sort of jam), and many types of pastries including cakes, rolls, cookies, and polvoron (shortbread). The best description I can give for ube is a nuttier, earthier, coconut. In addition to coconut, other descriptors I've seen are pistachio, white chocolate, and sweet potato.

Last spring I was at a party and tried ube ice cream for the first time. I'm typically not a big dessert person and have disliked seemingly savory foods that are used in desserts in the past (taro and red bean come to mind) so I had always passed on ube dishes but decided to give the ice cream a try. After a small scoop I wanted to eat the entire container because the flavor was so delicious, new, and interesting. Since that day I've consumed ube in just about every format I can find and taking my honeymoon in the Philippines and Bali meant there were a lot of opportunities!

Since the first time I tried ube I've wondered if the flavors would come through in a beer. While I've seen a few examples of ube beers they certainly aren't very common and I haven't found a recipe. I decided to make up my own using a Belgian Witbier as the base style due to it's dessert like creaminess and citrus characters that should meld well with the ube's flavors. 

Wit is also a style with a light enough color that (may) give the ube a chance to show up. Like many blue/purple colored fruits and vegetable ube gets its color from anthrocyanins. Unfortunately, anthrocyanins degrade with pH, which tends to cause beers with these fruits and vegetables to turn red or pink, not vibrant purple and blue.

The recipe was roughly an amalgamation of potato beer recipes I've found and some recipes I've seen for Allagash White. I used three pounds of pre-cooked frozen ube (I would have liked to have found fresh ube it seems to be hard to come by in the US) which seemed like a decent but not overwhelming amount. I also added a pound of basmati rice that I boiled prior to the mash. Other than that the beer was a pretty typical wit with half of the rest of the ingredients being malted wheat and the other half being 2-row. I went on the low end of hops and spices with just one ounce of saaz and a quarter ounce each of bitter orange peel and Indian coriander added at flameout.

1/23/18 Brewday

I had intended to brew this beer earlier but suddenly had to work over the weekend and postponed it to today. Mash had a slight purple hue but gave a beautiful medium purple color during runoff and after the boil the beer still showed a light violet tone. This was my first time using my new mantis chiller from Jaded Brewing and I was able to chill to pitching temps in about 15 minutes just using a kitchen sink for the water supply, so I'm very happy with it so far. OG measured at 1.043, about what I expected despite not knowing what to expect for the ube's gravity contribution. 

2/5/18

This beer has gone through a bit of a strange fermentation, with a quick and aggressive first krausen that quickly faded with the beer only down to 1.030. After a few days with slight fermentation it suddenly burst back to life, blowing off the blowoff tube on multiple occasions before slowing after another couple days. It's now down to 1.010 which is hopefully as far as it falls but I will give it a few more days given the previous resurgence. Taste is pretty good, citrusy and on the sweet side, but the ube is subtle and the color has faded to the point of being a red color in the carboy but just a pale magenta in the hydrometer tube.

3/3/18
I've been sitting on this one for a while, making slight alterations in hopes of bringing it to where I want but at this point I'm going to call it what it is: a fine beer but nothing special. After kegging the beer was a bit lacking in both ube and wit character. I made a few different extracts (trying both vodka based and hot water "teas") of coriander, orange peel, and ube powder. Despite adding what seemed to be large amounts of each of these extracts the beer only had very minor increases in perceived flavor and color. In the end, adding a little of a vodka based ube tincture to the glass seems to give the best combination of flavor and color.

3/11/18
Tasting:

Forgot to take a picture until halfway through the tasting. d'oh!

Appearance: Moderately hazy with the slightest of pink/orange hues that seems to come from the ube, though I might just be biased. The color, haziness, and a medium sized white head with good retention make for an appealing beer

Smell: There's an earthy and potato smell that leads the way, mixing with some more complex vegetable, herbal, and floral components to give the impression of a fresh tilled vegetable garden. That said, the smell is fairly soft and subtle and the classic wit citrus aromas don't stand out as intended.

Taste: Less earthy than the smell, the flavor leads off moderate sweet with some light dough and spice. The ube seems more hidden in the background with just a little earth and vanilla/coconut noticeable on the swallow. The finish is semi-sweet with just a light lingering bitterness and tough to describe herbal characters.

Mouthfeel: Fairly full bodied and creamy with low carbonation. These levels don't help the spice/yam characters pop but make the beer super easy drinking and go well with the subtle characteristics of the flavorings. The mouthfeel is probably the best part of this beer.

Overall: I haven't given up hope for an ube beer but this one doesn't quite do what I had hoped for. Using ube extract, adding vanilla, and/or moving the ube to a later addition than the mash all seem like possible ways to increase the flavor and potential of this unique ingredient and using fresher coriander and orange peel, and maybe adding some chamomile, should increase the wit character. I went fairly subtle in a lot of aspects of this beer thinking that I would be able to correct post-fermentation but that may not have been the case in this case. There's nothing bad about this beer but with a few other pale, subtle, moderately interesting beers on tap (kveik blondes and my latest maisonette) it doesn't do anything to call me to it.

Wheat Beer Split Batch Tastings

I had originally planned to do separate tastings of the two beers that came out of my wheat beer split batch but life has gotten in the way recently and after a few attempts to write about each in half asleep states that ended with half legible notes I decided to use a day off to taste each and get a full description down.

Pink Dream Hibiscus Wit:
Appearance - Medium red in color with great clarity, probably the best I've had in a beer without finings. The head is the palest shade of pink, just off white, and has decent retention for a sour but fades to a small ring after a few minutes. More red than the pink I was aiming for but part of that is the base beers darkness and it's still a really pretty beer. Redder and clearer than the picture above would indicate.

Smell - Fruit (cherry, lychee, mixed berries) with some lower floral character. Light toasty and caramel malt in the presence.

Taste - Moderate tartness washes into sweet raspberry and passionfruit juice character that finishes with just enough sourness to balance the sweetness. Not noticeably salty but with a slight lingering note that might be the sodium.

Mouthfeel - Low to moderate body and carbonation, not as carbonated as I would like. The sweetness could probably be cut by more carbonation but it's not offensive.

Overall - A refreshing beer with no off flavors and plenty of fruitiness but not quite as sour or salty as I would like from a gose. The Lychee and Passionfruit extracts came across extremely strong and artificial in the first few pours but haven't been noticeable in the mix since. Were I to label the beer as having those elements I would need to use more, but with the hibiscus as the focus the subtle fruit approach worked. If I were to brew this again I would probably up the salt by 50-100% and give the lacto another day. I would also like to use a more subtle base (no caravienne) to cut some of the sweetness.



Green Spree Hoppy American Wheat:
Appearance - Deep coppery gold. Moderately cloudy, though some pours are fairly clear. Changing CO2 tanks and re-carbonating seems to have shaken up some hops. White head is small but steady with lots of lacing and small bubbles.

Smell - Green apple, pine, and lime lead the aroma with caramel and toasted malt.

Taste - Leads with citrus and apple that lead to a pine needle, citrus peel, and sweet caramel sugary middle before finishing with peach, pine, and a strange mix of lingering bitterness and sweetness.

Mouthfeel - Medium heavy in body and medium low in carbonation. Could use more carbonation and a lighter body but works okay as is.

Overall - This one doesn't quite work. While each of the elements seem to have given what I had looked for the blend just doesn't come together as well as I anticipated, with the sweetness of the malt and the strong apple and pine characters seeming to drown out the other elements. I can see why this base would work better with more citrus and tropical character of Fortunate Islands. With some time the hop flavors have harmonized some with the citrus coming more into focus but the sweetness of the malt and orchard fruit of the yeast still leave it a little candy like and strange. Not a bad beer but one that I won't brew again without significant adjustments.

Wheat Beer Split Batch (Green Spree Hoppy Wheat and Pink Dream Fruited Gose)

I love doing split batches when I homebrew. It allows me to double (or more than double) the number of beers I'm able to create with almost no increase in effort or time. Another proponent of splitting batches is Michael Tonsmeire who spoke about this very topic on the Experimental Brew's Brew Files podcast. This was perfect timing given that I was making a similar split batch (1/2 hoppy, 1/2 sour) and using the grain bill from one of Mike's recipes (Fortunate Islands) to do it.

Green Spree is inspired by both Mike/Modern Time's Fortunate Islands recipe and Mike's business partner Scott Janish's flavor descriptors for El Dorado hops as tasting like "Green Spree" candy. To up the green (in my mind this means sour apple but also lime, grass, and pine) character I added Warrior (which I found to have pine, grass and lime) and Centennial (resinous and citrusy) hops to the bill. The goal for this recipe is to sit somewhere between the light-to-moderate bitterness and hop character of my Pilsner and the heavily hopped West Coast NEIPA I have on tap, while still giving a chance to explore some new hops that I've been holding onto for a long time.

Pink Dream is a take on the classic Leipziger style featuring salt and a lactobacillus driven sourness but with the twist of orange peel instead of coriander plus an increased sweetness and darker color from the Caravienne malt. I also plan to add a hibiscus tea and possibly lychee or passionfruit to the beer to up the fruitiness and quenchability. The gose formulation (especially in terms of salt levels) and hibiscus addition (in terms of dosing and method) were inspired by Mike's Gose and Hibiscus Wit.

Not surprisingly the two beers appeared very different in the fermenters with the Green Spree half being hazier and having a more vigorous krausen while the Pink Dream half had little foaming even during the peak of fermentation and was much clearer and looked darker due to this.

Green Spree (Hoppy Half):
12/14/17 Brew Day
Expected OG: 1.045
Actual OG: 1.053
Expected Efficiency: 75%
Actual Efficientcy: 85%
Expected FG: 1.012
Actual FG: 1.015

12/18/17
Added dry hops to Green Spree. Gravity down to 1.015 (7.5 Plato refractometer reading). Tastes fairly sweet but also moderately hoppy and tasty.

12/22/17
Transferred to 3 gallon keg. Tasting hoppy but a bit grassier and harsher than expected.


Pink Dream (Gose Half):
12/14/17 Brew Day
Expected OG: 1.045
Actual OG: 1.042
Expected Efficiency: 75%
Actual Efficientcy: 70%
Expected FG: 1.013
Actual FG: 1.010

I pulled off 3 gallons for this half just after the combined wort hit a boil. This was then cooled to 100F and Lactobacillus Delbrueckii was added. Prior to pitching the Lacto I pre-acidified the wort with 3 tablespoons of 10% phosphoric acid in hopes to minimize the protein denaturing. After 12 hours I pitched a GoodBelly Straightshot due to concerns with the Lacto Del's souring capacity. 24 hours later I pitched a pack of S-04. I left my pH meter in Maryland so I had to just use taste of the sour wort and other people's experience to determine timing.

12/18/17
Pink Dream half down to 1.010 (5 Plato refractometer reading). Moderately sour with a noticeable but not overwhelming saltiness and some sweetness.

1/2/18
Added hibiscus by adding 1.5 cups of nearly boiling water to 1 oz. hibiscus poured into carboy. 1/2 oz each Amoretti Lychee Compound and Passionfruit Swirl added to keg with the beer then racked on top. Has good color, strong fruitiness, but it comes off slightly artificial. Hopefully the first pour just had more of the extracts than the rest of the batch and with some time the flavor will meld more.

1/16/18
Brought a swing top bottle of this to a San Francisco Homebrewers Guild meeting. Mostly positive response with several noting low salt levels (intended but below style requirements) and a mixed response to the hibiscus levels (some saying too high, others thinking it was a subtle enough touch to not overpower the beer).

5 Way Berliner (and My First Competition Ribbon)

Not strictly a "split batch" or formal experiment (or should I say ExBEERiment) I nonetheless wanted to taste test 5 variations on sour wheat beers side by side to see which method I liked the most.  While 3 of the beers were started at the same time and used identical worts, the other two were made earlier and one used a very different wort (the extra runnings from my Hefeweizen).  The breakdown of each beer is listed below.  Each batch was a little less than 1 gallon.

1. "B" Hefeweizen 2nd Runnings w/ Lactobacillus Delbrueckii followed by British ale yeast
• The 1st version was fermented on the Lacto Del for 3 days before being moved to secondary with the British ale yeast.
• OG ~1.040, FG 1.003
2. "C" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii only
• Pitched on the lacto cake from version 1.
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.002
3. "X" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii, British ale yeast, and Brettanomyces (BKYeast C2)
• Pitched with the final slurry from Version 1 with Brett added 5 days later.
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.002
4. "Y" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii and wild microbes (my Sunroom blend)
• 1 pint pitched with my Sunroom blend (of wild microbes harvested from my Sunroom) before receiving a small amount of the Lacto slurry while being stepped up from an to 1 gallon.
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.003
5. "Z" Wheat Extract w/Lactobacillus Delbrueckii and Brettanomyces (BKYeast C2)
• Given a pitch from the Lacto slurry before being given Brett 5 days later
• OG ~1.030, FG 1.005

Appearance:

B- cloudiest, light pale color, short lived white head

C- darkest by far, longest lasting head, most carbonated, fairly clear

X- 2nd cloudiest, almost no head

Y- 3rd cloudiest, 2nd biggest head

Z- clearest, smallest head

Smell

B- fruity, light citrus,

C- medicinal off smelling, especially as it warms

X- lots of Brett funk, fruity citrus

Y- lightly fruity, vanilla, maybe a touch of butter, very interesting

Z- light fruit, berries, light Brett

Taste:

B- fruity and tart, sourness is moderately high

C- lightly medicinal, just lightly tart

X- funky, light to moderate sourness

Y- moderately sour, some definite diacetyl butteriness, a little fruit

Z- light grain, lightly tart, fairly restrained

Mouthfeel:

B-Super dry, lightly carbonated

C- medium body with medium carbonation

X- dry with low to medium carbonation

Y- a slightly slicker mouthfeel (diacetyl?) medium low carbonation

Z- medium low in body (the Brett and lacto don't seem to have attenuated as well as the lacto and yeast combos) medium carbonation

Overall:

B- my favorite of the bunch, moderately sour but with some nice banana, lemon, and wheat in the mix

C- my least favorite by far, just using the lactobacillus is clearly not an advisable option as it surprisingly is under sour and very medicinal

X- my second favorite, and the second most sour. Brett character is a little too high and sourness a little too low

Y- while it was cold this one was really interesting and enjoyable, as it warmed it seems that diacetyl is the most dominant character and the sourness isn't quite high enough

Z- an alright beer, this sort of feels like a bland saison with a light Brett touch. The sourness of the lactobacillus and Brett alone isn't high enough.

Thoughts:

This small test has made me think that lactobacillus followed by saccharomyces is the best option for quickly fermented sour beers. I'm a little disappointed in how buttery the wild fermented beer came out and learned to never do lacto only beers, but otherwise the results weren't overly surprising.

Updates
3/8/2015
Spoke to a brewer at Tired Hands in Ardmore Pennsylvania and was told that they use a very similar process as version "B" for their sours: lacto for 3 days followed by British ale yeast.

3/23/2015
Happy to say version "B" received a score of 35 and third place in the Sour Ales category at the DC Homebrewer's Club Cherry Blossom Competition.  Sure, it was only out of 6 beers in the category but for a beer not brewed to style and with no expectations it still did well enough to receive a ribbon.

"To Style" Hefeweizen Recipe and Tasting

When I decided that I wanted to brew a "to-style" beer for this year's DC Homebrewers Cherry Blossom Competition I was tossing around a few different ideas: British Bitter, American Pale Ale (the category I entered last year), Berliner Weisse, or a Witbier.  I was going through my inventory of hops, spices, and washed yeast and going back and forth when I decided to ask my girlfriend Alyssa for a recommendation.  Her answer: make a Hefeweizen.

There are a few beers that I accredit my love for the craft to. Allagash White and Duvel were two of the first Craft/Import beers which truly opened my eyes to the range of beer flavors and styles when I had both on my 21st birthday.  St. Bernardus Abt. 12 made me say "Oh my God this is the best beer" a few years before the similar Trappist Westvleteren 12 overtook that place on my list. Then there is Weihenstaphaner Hefeweissbier.

While craft beer (and to some extent even the imported beer) industry is constantly changing, with some hot new thing getting all of the hype, this Hefeweizen, from the oldest continuously functioning brewery in the world, never goes out of style and currently holds the highest rating of any Hefeweizen style beer and the 138th overall position on Beer Advocate.  While at any time a new IPA or Russian stout could be better than the last greatest thing, this beer is simply perfection that all other Hefeweizens should attempt to follow.

Frankly, I don't remember when I had the beer for the first time.  My very first homebrew was a hefeweizen and used the Wyeast 3068 Weihenstaphen Weizen yeast strain.  That beer turned out remarkably well and I searched down the source of the famed yeast.  While I don't remember when or where it was, I do remember thinking: this is a perfect hefeweizen.  While I have only brewed one other Hefeweizen influenced beer (my tasty but unfortunately explodingly carbonated LimeWeizen) the hefeweizen style has been one of the most influential in my brewing experience.

As my tastes have changed over time, hefeweizen has faded from a favorite style to more of a situational/seasonal beer for me.  I haven't made a light, refreshing, low hopped wheat beer in a long time and I had much better success with my to-style weizen than my to style wit, so, very long story short: I went with Alyssa's choice.

In order to attempt an award winning hefeweizen (also known as Weissbeer) I went with Mino Choi's recipe featured on Chop and Brew.  I did decide however to not go with the traditional decoction (or in this case triple decoction) and instead did a step infusion and added a half pound of Vienna malt to up the malt character.  The recipe ended up being exceedingly simple:

6 lbs. Wheat Malt
4 lbs. 2-Row
.45 lbs. Vienna
1 oz. Tettnanger hops
WLP 300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast


2/6/2015
With the gravity down to a stable 1.008 for a week now I decided the beer was done.  Flavor is underwhelming and there seems to be a strange clumpiness to the yeast.  I decided to keg 3 gallons as a krystallweizen and bottle the rest.  Bottled portion received 1.30 oz. of sugar blended in 1 cup of filtered water, ended up with only a little more than a gallon of bottles (11), a little worried about over carbonation.

Bottled "hefe" version on the left and kegged "krystal" version on the right.

2/26/2015
Side by Side Tasting
Appearance-
Bottle: Cloudy, almost no head.  Looks like a hefeweizen except for the lack of carbonation.
Keg: Mostly clear but with some small specks floating throughout.  A much nicer head of a couple inches that fades to a thin layer.

Smell-
Bottle: Bananas, butterscotch, vanilla, light spice, apple.  Pretty classic hefeweizen aromas but fairly low on the clove.
Keg: Much cleaner/lighter without the proteins and yeast added. Banana, light grain, fairly clean.

Taste-
Bottle: Some light banana and spice followed by a light snappy tart apple character.
Taste: Cleaner and brighter than the bottled version.  Light banana and spice, but almost Pilsner like in its cleanness.

Mouthfeel-
Bottle: Moderate to high body with very low carbonation.  Hopefully the bottles continue to carb up some, I was actually worried it would be too high so I'm surprise it's so low at this point.
Keg: More moderate to light in body with a much higher, but still only medium, carbonation level. Seems to be better in both categories, though this doesn't save the low level of yeast derived character.

Overall-
Both: All around this is a fairly disappointing though not offensive attempt at the style.  The low fermentation temperatures (~68F) didn't produce enough yeast character.  The bottle conditioned version with all of the extra bottle dregs poured in definitely had a small increase in flavor, but also didn't have as nice of a carbonation or look.  Were I to make this again I would increase the fermentation temperature slightly and likely do a decoction.

Other Variants:
Second runnings were turned into a sour (Berliner Weisse? too high gravity and wheat content. Gose? no salt or coriander. So I don't know). WLP677 Lactobacillus Delbrueckii added for 3 days prior to pitching a British ale yeast.  Bottled with 0.60 oz of sugar for 9 bottles (and a half bottle that I drank). Wheat Extract wort pitched on top of straight Lacto and fermented fully, bottled with 0.40 oz of sugar for 7 bottles.  The beer fermented with both lacto and ale yeast was much tastier with a much stronger lemony sourness and a nice wheaty and malty backbone while the purely WLP 677 version is pretty mild and bland, not bad but nothing exciting, probably similar to Mike Tonsmeire's experience with a 100% lacto fermented beer with this same strain.

#29 - Simple Lambic (Funky Kast #4)

Not sure what took me so long to post this but I'll finally publish...

After bottling half of my sour brown I was ready to crank out another sour. Taking half of the yeast/bacteria cake from the sour brown and adding it to an extract lambic seemed a simple, effective method.  I used just under an ounce of saaz hops for 35 minutes to keep the ibus down and also boiled half a pound each of flaked wheat and Maltodextrin combined with 6 lbs of Wheat LME. In addition to the sour blend I also added American ale yeast to ensure full fermentation and 1 oz of Hungarian medium toast oak for the full barrel flavor of a classic lambic. I plan to add dregs of various sours as this one progresses.

Updates:
7/14/2013
A little over a month in the carboy and this beer is already down to 1.002.  Light sourness but also pretty young and sweet.  Added dregs of Cantillon Geuze.

8/25/2013
A very bad outhouse smell began to develop.  Pulled a sample and it doesn't seem to be the beer, maybe mold around the top of the carboy?  Beer smells and tastes about the same as a month ago, light lemony sourness and some grainy sweetness despite the extremely low gravity.

10/04/13

Wasn't able to taste/test gravity but the outhouse smell is gone. This beer might be ready for at least some to be bottled. I will have to taste in about a month and make some determinations but it is beginning to smell fairly sour and funky and I don't want this to go nearly as sour/acetic as the Flanders red.

11/02/13

Gravity down to 1.000. Taste is tart and refreshing. It might be about time to bottle at least some of this.

11/29/13

Racked 3 gallons onto .5 oz of previously used oak and bottled the rest. Still moderately sour but not overly complex.

5-28-14

Received some positive comments on this beer from a brother and his friends.  Might be time to do a full tasting write up.

11-18-15

Beer is over 2 years old with half the batch kegged.  Decent flavors, moderate acidity, no noticeable acetic acid or other off flavors.

12-13-15

14.5 oz. Oregon Fruit Red Tart Cherries pitted in water added to the keg with about 2 gallons beer remaining. Sweet Cherry puree and juice reserved for a later addition.

In Grodz We Trust, #26 Tasting

About a month back I brewed my second smoked beer, a Gratzer (or Grodziskie in Polish) and American Wheat hybrid I call in Grodz we trust.  Classically using entirely or near entirely oak smoked wheat malt, Grodziskie has disappeared and made a bit of a resurgence with American craft versions popping up every now and then.  In my attempt I wanted only a slight bit of smokiness to blend in with a dry, dry hopped wheat beer base.

A- Pours a clear pretty yellow color which I chose to add the yeast to, giving a nice Hoegaarden like Wit color with constant carbonation bubble movement throughout.  Small head fades to a thin layer and leaves some lacing.

S- Similar to many of my other dry hopped beers as the Strisselspalt really shows up with light earth, spice, vegetal and fruity black currant aroma, just a touch of smoke mixed in.

T- The smoke takes center stage with a woody chargrilled character that is followed with earthy and spicy hops and a finish that is lightly bitter and still phenol smokey.

M- Very light, dry and thin with moderate carbonation.  This one is right where I was aiming for in terms of the mouthfeel.

O- This is a strange beer that is hard to pin down.  It's impossible for me to say how close it comes to a traditional Gratzer but I could see it being a popular beer among those who like smoked beers.  That said the moderate bitterness and hop aroma combined with the moderate smoke give a strange impression.  If I were to brew again I would likely cut the smoke in half to allow the hops to be more at the front or cut the smoke entirely and add more ginger to let the spice notes really play.  A drinkable, sessionable summer beer that will probably go great with grilling but certainly won't please most.