American Wheat Beer (Yummy Success)

[CrealCritter]

Ingredients:
2) 3.3 lbs wheat liquid extract
1 lb white table sugar
1 oz Palisade hoops
5 gallons spring water
2) packets brewing yeast (Ale)

Directions:
Bring 2 1/2 gallons spring water to a gentle boil. Stir in 1 lb white table sugar, 3.3 lbs wheat liquid extract & 1 oz Palisade hoops. Bring back to a gentle boil, and boil for 40 minutes. Turn off flame and add another 3.3 lbs wheat liquid extract. Add flame and bring back to a gentle boil. Boil for an additional 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, cover and place in sink of cold water to cool. You may have to replace the sink water several times to cool the wart or add ice to the sink water but not the wart.

Once cool to 70 degrees or less, pour into carboy add 2 1/2 more gallons of spring water to the carboy. Airrate by rocking the carboy back and forth for a minute or a little longer. Add two packets of brewing yeast (Ale) to the carboy. Bung and airlock the carboy. Set carboy in a dark cool place to ferment.

Original Gravity = 1052ish, potential alcohol content = 6.7%ish

 

[CrealCritter]

One active brew, had to install a blow off tube. The water in the bucket is gurgling.

Duct tape to the rescue... With all this CO2 don't show AOC, she might want to outlaw beer production

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Geeze Louise! That's some active stuff there!

 

[CrealCritter]

Plum Nutty... But I avoided beer on the ceiling, by installing the blow off tube and securing it all with duct tape. Duct tape is like one of the greatest inventions ever.

I'm just glad I caught it in time. I'm going to have so much fun cleaning the inside of this carboy, but its better than cleaning it off the ceiling any day

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 1 - gurgling has been reduced to a fast burping. What a mess inside the carboy. I'm so glad that's where the mess stayed though. That's 5 gallons of beer in a 6 1/2 gallon carboy.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 2 - I think this rocket fuel is done fermenting and ready to rack into a secondary to clear out. I need to take a hydrometer reading to be sure its done, but fermentation has came to pretty much a stop. I'm getting a bubble about once a minute through the air lock. Its not all that uncommon to have the initial ferment complete in a couple of days with beer like this, with dehydrated yeast especially if the yeast is fresh, which mine was.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 3 - primary fermentation is done. Golden American Wheat looks so delicious in there. It needs to get off the yeast bed and be racked into a secondary for about 2 weeks to clear and settle, I'm debating with myself on adding gelatin in the secondary to speed up settling or not.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 4 - now that i got it up on the kitchen counter so I could get a good look at it. It's most definitely ready to rack into secondary fermenter. It's very cloudy, I know the hipsters don't clarify their beer but I'm not a hipster. I like a clear beer, so it looks like I'll need to add some unflavored gelatin to help clarify this batch. I'll rack it tomorrow to allow it to settle more from moving it around.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 5 - racked into a 5 gallon secondary to clear out. I calculated the alcohol content of 6.5%ish, it will increase to around 7%ish once bottled and fully carbonated.

This is what I call a yeast bed, glad to get it off the yeast.

Its actually quite delicious coming right out of the primary, lightly hopped and full of wheat flavor, just how I like a summer beer.

Letting my cleaner / sanitizer do its work on the krausen crusted carboy. The less I have to brush the better

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 5 - really surprised how its clearing in such a short amount of time. I went to my fiends brew store today, to pick up a few things. I showed him this picture of it racked in the secondary and he talked me out of adding gelatin to speed the settling. It'll most likely be ready to bottle by next weekend. It looks a bit darker than it really is because the carboy is blue glass.

1 day in the secondary and its about 1/2 settled already.