Monday, September 10, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Hefeweizen Brew Day
With the temperatures outside remaining under 100 I decided it was time to fire up the brew kettle. I will be doing a lot of tailgating in the upcoming months in Manhattan for some KSU football. I wanted to brew something for the first couple games that is light and easy drinking since the outside temps will proly still be on the hot side. I have been drinking a lot of the Dortmunder and Bitter I have on tap right now so I wanted something different. My wife suggested a Hefeweizen since I hadn't made one this summer. I figured that would be a great beer that would appeal to the other tailgaters in the hot weather.
My recipe for a German style Hefeweizen is fairly simple. I use 50% German Pilsner malt and 50% White Wheat malt. Any German noble hop will do to hit your IBUs. This beer isn't about the hops so it isn't that important which variety you choose. For this batch of Hefeweizen I choose to use Tettnang because I had around 1 pound of these in the freezer. Trying to clean out the freezer of hops before the new crop of hops come in to Hops Direct this fall.
After the boil I hooked up the garden hose to the immersion chiller as usual. The ground water here in Kansas is hotter than normal because of the extremely hot summer we have had. I knew that the ground water with the immersion chiller wasn't going to get my wort down to pitching temperature without some help. I was going to have to break out my pond pump with ice water to assist in the cooling process. I use this setup when I brew lagers to get my wort down to 55*F. I purchased a pond pump from Home Depot that you would use in a small fish pond. I place that at the bottom of a brew bucket and fill the bucket with ice. I put enough water in the bucket to get the pump going and the hot water coming back will melt the ice to keep the pump from running dry. I attached the pump to the immersion chiller and run the ice water through the chiller to help bring the wort down to 60-65*F. I use the hose water to first get the wort down to 80-85*F then I hook up the ice water. This works really well and I only use one 20 lb. bag of ice. If your struggling to get your wort down to pitching temperature with this hot summer weather, give this technique a shot. It is really inexpensive and works extremely well.
I used the Wyeast 3068 yeast. If you like your hefeweizen to have more of the clove flavor ferment this beer in the low 60s or if banana is your thing then ferment in the upper 60s to lower 70s. I like the banana but in lower amounts so I generally ferment this beer around 64-66. I have posted the recipe below if you want to give this beer a shot. Cheers!!
My recipe for a German style Hefeweizen is fairly simple. I use 50% German Pilsner malt and 50% White Wheat malt. Any German noble hop will do to hit your IBUs. This beer isn't about the hops so it isn't that important which variety you choose. For this batch of Hefeweizen I choose to use Tettnang because I had around 1 pound of these in the freezer. Trying to clean out the freezer of hops before the new crop of hops come in to Hops Direct this fall.
After the boil I hooked up the garden hose to the immersion chiller as usual. The ground water here in Kansas is hotter than normal because of the extremely hot summer we have had. I knew that the ground water with the immersion chiller wasn't going to get my wort down to pitching temperature without some help. I was going to have to break out my pond pump with ice water to assist in the cooling process. I use this setup when I brew lagers to get my wort down to 55*F. I purchased a pond pump from Home Depot that you would use in a small fish pond. I place that at the bottom of a brew bucket and fill the bucket with ice. I put enough water in the bucket to get the pump going and the hot water coming back will melt the ice to keep the pump from running dry. I attached the pump to the immersion chiller and run the ice water through the chiller to help bring the wort down to 60-65*F. I use the hose water to first get the wort down to 80-85*F then I hook up the ice water. This works really well and I only use one 20 lb. bag of ice. If your struggling to get your wort down to pitching temperature with this hot summer weather, give this technique a shot. It is really inexpensive and works extremely well.
I used the Wyeast 3068 yeast. If you like your hefeweizen to have more of the clove flavor ferment this beer in the low 60s or if banana is your thing then ferment in the upper 60s to lower 70s. I like the banana but in lower amounts so I generally ferment this beer around 64-66. I have posted the recipe below if you want to give this beer a shot. Cheers!!
Recipe: Weissbier Brewer: Ashley Strube Asst Brewer: Style: Weizen/Weissbier TYPE: All Grain Taste: (35.0) Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Batch Size: 12.00 gal Boil Size: 15.38 gal Estimated OG: 1.053 SG Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM Estimated IBU: 22.2 IBU Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Boil Time: 60 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amount Item Type % or IBU 11 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 50.00 % 11 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 50.00 % 2.50 oz Tettnang [4.40 %] (60 min) Hops 22.2 IBU 2.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 2 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) Yeast-Wheat Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body Total Grain Weight: 22.00 lb ---------------------------- Single Infusion, Light Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp 75 min Mash In Add 7.00 gal of water at 163.4 F 152.0 F 10 min Mash Out Add 4.00 gal of water at 200.0 F 168.0 F
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Belgian Trippel Bottling
I know I know im thinking the same thing, it has been along time since the last post. Well when you brew around 100 gallons of beer in just over a month it tends to wear you out. That's what all the of the Hop Heaven crew did to pull off Maifest 2011. The hot weather here in KC hasn't helped with the brewing schedule either!! It has been in the upper 90s or 100 for what seems like the whole summer.
I brewed a Belgian Trippel back in November and just got around to bottling it. I normally keg all my brews but I like my Belgian styles bottle conditioned. I think it brings out something in the beer that kegging eliminates. I normally bottle in 750ml bottles, 22oz bombers or 16oz flip top bottles. The 16oz flip tops are bottles that I bought from a WWII veteran that lives in Leavenworth. I was scouring Ebay one day looking for some cheap flip top bottles when I stumbled across these bottles. There were (4) cases of bottles he brought back from Germany during WWII. They are in the plastic cases and they had the original labels on them when I received them. He was planning to brew his own beer and bottle them in these bottles. He never actually used them once he returned and they have been in his basement every since. I bottled some of the beer in a case of the German flip tops and the rest in a case of 1 liter flip tops. Here is the recipe below if your interested in brewing this for yourself. It is a simple recipe as far as the grain bill goes but you wouldn't know it from tasting it. The recipe is posted below for your enjoyment!! Cheers!!
I brewed a Belgian Trippel back in November and just got around to bottling it. I normally keg all my brews but I like my Belgian styles bottle conditioned. I think it brings out something in the beer that kegging eliminates. I normally bottle in 750ml bottles, 22oz bombers or 16oz flip top bottles. The 16oz flip tops are bottles that I bought from a WWII veteran that lives in Leavenworth. I was scouring Ebay one day looking for some cheap flip top bottles when I stumbled across these bottles. There were (4) cases of bottles he brought back from Germany during WWII. They are in the plastic cases and they had the original labels on them when I received them. He was planning to brew his own beer and bottle them in these bottles. He never actually used them once he returned and they have been in his basement every since. I bottled some of the beer in a case of the German flip tops and the rest in a case of 1 liter flip tops. Here is the recipe below if your interested in brewing this for yourself. It is a simple recipe as far as the grain bill goes but you wouldn't know it from tasting it. The recipe is posted below for your enjoyment!! Cheers!!
Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Batch Size: 12.00 gal Boil Size: 15.38 gal Estimated OG: 1.075 SG Estimated Color: 4.6 SRM Estimated IBU: 34.8 IBU Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Boil Time: 60 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amount Item Type % or IBU 24 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 81.36 % 8.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 1.69 % 1.00 oz Tradition [6.90 %] (60 min) Hops 11.9 IBU 1.50 oz Tradition [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 19.5 IBU 1.50 oz Glacier [6.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.4 IBU 5 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 16.95 % 2 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) Yeast-Wheat Mash Schedule: Single Infusion Total Grain Weight: 24.50 lb ---------------------------- Single Infusion, Light Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp 75 min Mash In Add 8.17 gal of water at 160.7 F 150.0 F 10 min Mash Out Add 3.95 gal of water at 210.3 F 168.0 F
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Maifest 2011
This past Saturday, the KCHopHeaven crew hosted the 2nd annual Maifest. It turned out to be a beautiful day to be outside with family and friends drinking exceptional beer. We could not have asked for a better turnout. We saw all the usual suspects from last year and lots of new faces that came out to enjoy the beer and food. The beer flowed all afternoon and the crowd stayed until the end when we gave out a few prizes.
We drew (4) beer review sheets out of hundreds submitted. The lucky four won these great prizes:
- Grand Prize: (5) gallons of custom homebrew (48 – 12oz bottles)
- First Prize: 1.5 Liter of Champagne Beer (Belgian Strong Golden Ale) and (4) Maifest 2011 pint glasses
- Second Prize: 60 count bottle of LIFE= focus+energy and a Life= shirt of your choice
- Third Prize: (3) pack sampler from Oddly Correct Coffee Roasters
We would like to thank Oddly Correct for donating the coffee for our Coffee Club to pour the Porter through. It made the beer outstanding!! The crowd definitely agreed because the beer didn’t last long. Life= also participated in the Maifest activities. We would like to thank them as well for donating a prize package.
Last but not least, we would like to thank all the people that helped make this event possible. If anyone is interested in learning how to homebrew let us know. We are always brewing so you could stop by and check out the process. We are always willing to help new brewers get started in the hobby. Below are some pictures taken during the event. Cheers!!
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