Amazing Daze American Wheat Ale

Kentucky Breakfast Stout in hand, I thought I would try to brew something up for the Hereford & Hops homebrew competition coming up. Based on what grains I have on hand aside from the ones I have set aside for a batch of wedding brews for my friend Jason, I decided to brew a hybrid American Wheat Beer. Hell, it's summer. The recipe is based on the one by the same name as my title in "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher. Great Book. I tweaked the recipe a bit. I am adding Coriander Seed at the end of the boil and I upped the grain bill just a few pounds to compensate for my efficiency. I also don't have rice hulls to aid in filtration so I through in a pound of pale malt (unground) to help prevent a stuck sparge which can happen easily when using a lot of Wheat Malt.

VORLAUF UNTIL IT RUNS CLEAR
I USE A VEGGIE STEAMER TO RETURN MY CLOUDY WORT BACK TO THE MASH TUN TO AVOID STIRRING UP THE GRAIN BED
I COLLECT MY CLEAR WORT IN A PITCHER FIRST SO I DON'T SPLASH IT IN THE BOTTOM OF MY BREW POT. HOT SIDE AERATION ISN'T GOOD FOR YOUR BEER ALTHOUGH IN AN EXPERIMENT ON HOTSIDE AERATION, X-BREWER COMPLETELY ABUSED THE WORT WITH AERATION AND IT WAS HARDLY NOTICABLE FROM THE CONTROL BATCH. GOOD IDEA TO TAKE PRECAUTION ANYWAY.
ONCE THE PITCHER STARTS TO GET FULL,GENTLY POUR IT INTO THE BOTTOM UNTIL ALL THE WORT IS DRAINED. IF YOU ARE BATCH SPARGING, FILL UP YOUR LAUTER TUN AND DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN UNTIL YOU HAVE YOUR DESIRED AMOUNT OF WORT.



I got a yeast starter going of California Ale Yeast WLP 001 in the big 2000ml flask for the Wheat Beer. That was the deciding factor in what beer I decided to brew today, was the yeast. I didn't have any Weiss Yeast and this recipe didn't call for it so it was perfect. I am curious to see how this turns out with a highly attenuative American Ale strain. Most wheat beers that I really enjoy have that spiciness to them from the yeast that was used. My guess is that this will be a cleaner flavor which might let the Coriander Seed shine through a little more.



I had checked my mash pH about a half hour in and it was at 5.8. I checked the pH of the wort after the sparge and it was exactly 5.2 so I am good to go. I highly recommend picking up some pH strips. There don't break and they are very cheap. Cut them in half and you have twice as many. I've been using this same little tube of them since I started brewing about 5 years ago.

CAN YOU SAY BOIL OVER?

Being a dad and brewing beer don't always jive. I stepped away for a second from, what I thought, was a nice steady rolling boil that didn't look like it was gonna rise. Nope. The hot wort actually removed some of the other stuff that I had been trying to get off my stove for some time now. My stove is cleaner now that before I started brewing. That last beer that I had a boil over with turned out really good so maybe this one will too.