Bottled American Wheat.

Well after a week in the primary and a week in cold conditioning I kegged and bottled the American Wheat beer tonight. It is crisp and refreshing, with a nice malt profile that is balanced with the Warrior hops for bitterness. The Citra hop that this is finished with adds a good clean tang to the aftertaste of this beer. I think Citra does itself proud as an understated finishing hop and I look forward to seeing what other people will do with it.

My only disappointment with this beer is the lack of haze: I was hoping for more cloudiness. I think that to remedy this the next time I brew this beer I will use German wheat instead of Australian as this has a different protein content that can lend a nice cloudiness when used in certain ways.

Will be drinking this beer in mid-February once it has come to condition. This will also help the EKG pale ale a chance to develop to it's potential by being drunk second!

Who would be king?

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
[In regione caecorum rex est luscus.]
Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia (III, IV, 96)
Dutch author, philosopher, & scholar (1466 - 1536)



I am not quite sure what this has to do with brewing but I like the quote so it got a guernsey. On a brewing related note The EKG Pale Ale is conditioning nicely, had a bottle today and it tasted great hope it is around by the time it is at it's best. The American Wheat is fermenting away as well.

American Wheat

Just before Christmas last year a new hop called Citra became available in Australia, which is the headline hop in Serra Nevada Torpedo. It is quite a distinctive hop which is like all the C hops rolled into one, with many citrus like aromas and surprisingly lychee. It also reminds me of Australian Galaxy. We have sold allot of this already and from what I have heard a lot of people are doing APA's with them. I have been drinking a lot of Murray's Wale Ale which is an American style wheat beer that is available on tap at a few pubs around Newcastle, Australia and in bottles* as well nationally. Anyhow I digress from what this post is about and that is inspired by Murray's and the hop Citra I have decided to brew an American style wheat beer.

Hear is the Bill

OG - 1.040
ABV - 4.5%
BU - 20

Wheat Malt 35%
Unmalted Wheat 15%
Pale Malt Ale 40%
Cara Pills 10%

Mashed at 65 Deg for 90min

Bittered with Warrior to 18 BU for 90 min.
Finised with Citra .35g per liter 10 min.

Will ferment with US-05.

Thanks
Rurik

Ps I stuffed my calcs up when I fist did up my grain bill so I have ended up with an OG of 1.035 which will give be an ABV of around 3.5% which I will make up to 4% at the time of bottling and kegging. I do not mind this stuff up though, it will make this beer very easy to drink.

* Skip the bottles it does not travel well.

Brew Day

Photo of Angus, Wolf and AD at a brew day at AD's house in mid Dec. We made an stout and an ESb that day.

This is the EKG pale ale fermenting away. I airated it for 12 hours with an airstone and small fish pump after piching yeast. It went off like a bomb.

East Kent Golding - Pale Ale

The Other day I was at work and opened a new pack of EKG. They smelt 100% yum. So I was inspried to do an 100% EKG pale ale. The recipe is below.

55l Batch
OG - 1.055
Yeast Wyeast 1098 London ESB
Baird Pale Malt 10kg
Pale Crystal .1kg
Crystal .2kg
Dark Crystal .1kg

Bittered to 30 IBU with EKG
Flavoured with 24g EKG for 10min
Aroma 24g EKG at flame out


When I was doing the boil on this wort the gas bottle ran out after about an hour. When working with English malts (and with any malt in my opinion) you should always do a minimum 90 minute boil. Having achieved a 10% boil off of liquid and in theroy should have had 90%+ of the hop isomirasation I was going to get any way and the fact that it was 1am in the morning I decided to finish off and go to bed. Any how fast forward to the end of fermentation and the beer is not what you would consider to be clear in any way at all. So what have I learnt from this experience 1. Do a 90 minute boil to make shore I achieve clarity. 2. Whirl Flock is you friend.

Will have to do this beer again but will probably do it in the American Pale Ale style for the hopping and keep the grain bill the same. Just so I am drinking something different.

Planing on drinking this one mid to late Febuary.