Pic heavy - My Golden American Wheat Ale Beer Recipe

[CrealCritter]

Here is my 5 gallon partial mash / extract beer recipe for American Golden Wheat Ale.
Please note: this is my own creation but you are free to copy or modify it. I may tweak it a little more as time goes on but the way it stands now, it's a solid easy to brew delicious beer recipe. Everyone who drinks it really likes it. Try and brew up a batch and you may like it too.

Over the next fee weeks or so I will be updating this thread periodically to include so basic step by step brewing, fermenting and bottling instructions.

Life is to short to be drinking bad beer

 

[CrealCritter]

I like brewing beer, its so interesting and delicious

 

[CrealCritter]

Brew Day minus 1 - Last night I double checked my recipe and decided to make it easier to understand. I didn't change any of the ingredients or quantities.

Here is a easier to understand recipe including times for all of the ingredients.

 

[CrealCritter]

Brew day / Day 0 -

Assemble ingredients shown in the post above. You'll also need 3 muslin bags, 1 larger for mini mashing malts and 2 for hop additions, muslin bags are super cheap, I buy in bulk but all three bags should be less than .50. Also you'll need 1 lb of pure cane sugar and 6 gallons of distilled water (Walmart .80 a gallon) 5 are pictured, I don't have room on the counter for all 6.

Start by sticking 2 gallons of water into the freezer and 1 gallon into the refrigerator to chill while you brew. We'll use these later to further chill the wort (unfermented beer) in the primarily glass carboy fermenter.

You'll need two stock pots (kettles), with lids a 5 gallon and a 2 gallon, I prefer stainless steel and a thermometer.

In the smaller kettle add 1 gallon of distilled water, the thermometer and set the flame on high. Add all the grains to the muslin bag and tie a loose knot in the end of the muslin bag. Place the muslin bag, with grains in the in stock pot. Stir gently occasionally, while keeping an eye of the temp. You want a target temperature of 155 to 160 degrees NO HOTTER than 170 degrees or you'll release taninis from the malt and your finished beer will have a sour off flavor - yuck!

While the mini mash kettle is coming up to temperature, turn your attention to the larger kettle. Start by adding 2 gallons of distilled water to the kettle and turn the flame on high. Measure out 1 lb of pure cane sugar and s l o w l y stir into the large kettle. The sugar goes right to the bottom of the kettle, since there is flame under the kettle its very easy to burn the sugar, you want no burnt sugar at all so go slow and be careful stir vigorously as you pour very slowly. Continue to stir vigorously until all sugar is completely dissolved.
1 lb cane sugar

Sugar stirred into 2 gallons warming distilled water.

Don't forget about your small mini mash kettle. It needs a gentle stir and what is it temperature? Remember 155 degrees is your target.

Now you need to add the wheat and pilsener dried malt extract (DME) to the large kettle that you just added cane sugar to. There is a trick to this. DME is just that DRY (very dry) and any moisture cases it to clump (including steam). Its not an issue if clumps in the kettle causing dough balls, because stirring and heat will bust up the dough balls. Also DME does not sink to the bottom like sugar does. When DME is added to water it floats on top of the water so use this to your advantage and stir it fairly quickly into the kettle. Don't concern yourself with the dough balls at this point just stir it in well.

3 lbs Wheat & 3 lbs Pilsner DME stirred into the larger kettle.

Place the lid on and leave the flame under the large kettle on high (stirring occasionally).

But now turn your attention to the small mini mash kettle. What's it temperature? Give a gentle stir with a large spoon splashing a little over the muslin bag. Is all the malted grains under water? They should be. Adjust the flame to gently approach your target temperature of 155. Once 155 is achieved note the time. Place the lid on the kettle with the thermometer sticking out so you can monitor the temperature. Adjust the lid and flame to keep the temperature at 155 to 160 and maintain for 20 minutes. Pay absolute attention to not let the temperature hit 170 or you just ruined your mini mash! Tweak the flame and how much opening you give the kettle to maintain 155 ~ 160 degrees. If it approaches 160 remove the lid and stirr vigorously to cool if it drops below 155 adjust the lid to retain more heat.

Once the 20 minutes mini mash has been reached. Lift the muslin bag out of the wort and suspend it to allow it to drain back into the small kettle. Set the flame on high under the kettle while its draining. Now take one of the gallons of distilled water out of the freezer and pour about a quart over the muslin bag and into the small kettle. Cap and set whats left of the gallon of distilled on the counter to warm to room temp. By doing this your rinsing the malt to get the most you can out of them. Now that the malt in the muslin bag is cool, gently squeeze the bag to get a little more liquid out of the malt, I stress gently, nothing like wringing out a towel, do this gently you don't want to mush the malt. Now cut the flame off and carefully add your mini mash wort, to your large kettle. Move the muslin bag of malt and suspend over the large kettle to drip. I try and get every last drop of goodness out of the muslin bag of malts

Combining mini mash wort to large kettle wort.

Congratulations, you have reached your first milestone. You have successfully combined your speciality malts to your base malts in one kettle now on to the next milestone. The flame under the large kettle should be on high, if not open it up to full blast. Add some more distilled water to reach 3 gallons. Even though you started with 3 gallons you lost some, due to steam and and the speciality malts absorbed some. I have a punch mark on my kettle to designate 3 gallons. Continue to heat, stiring occasionally until approx 200 degrees is reached. This is called the "hot break" you'll notice the foam on the top disappears right around 200 degrees and this is where you start your boil time and add your bittering hops, set your 50 minute timer to alert you to add your second hop addition (aroma hops). From here on out, you add all other ingredients above the hot break temperature of approx 200 degrees.

Place 1/2 ounce of bitter hops in one of the hop muslin bags, tie a knot in the end of the bag and drop it in the kettle. Remember stir occasionally all the way down to the bottom of the kettle, you don't want to scorch the wort. By now your muslin bag of malted grains has stopped dripping. Remove the bag and empty into something - Turkeys love me for this special treat.

First hop addition (bittering) @ 200 degrees, this is the start of the 60 minute gentle boil. Notice how the foam on top of the wort is just about gone. I have 2 thermometers, a floating mercury, and a dial. I like the mercury one better but it's slow to so accuracy.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have got to try this. When I retire I'll add all the supplies to my Christmas list! Hey - whatcha want for Christmas - BEEEER!

 

[CrealCritter]

Part 2 (10 file limit per post)

From here until flame out (60 mins), you want to maintain a gentle rolling boil with the lid on, you will want to stir back and forth, side to side (not in a circle) with a slotted long handled spoon, be careful and not burn yourself, the wort is hot and sticky.

A special note about boiling. Maintain a nice peaceful rolling boil for this style of beer. Other styles may require a much more violent boil and for longer periods to caramelize some of the malts but this brew is not one of those. For this style, you don't want some kind of violent boil, blow steam in your face, coming over the top if the kettle boil. So adjust your flame accordingly.
Also... Many home brewers assume, given that wort is mostly water, that it also boils at 212. This isn't the case, wort boils well above 212. The exact boiling temperature depends on the gravity of the wort. Most thermometers only go up to 220 (mine included) so they are pretty much useless at this point. This is where your experience and judgment come in to play. The boil is nessessary to boil off bad unwanted chemical compounds and convert starches into simple sugars for the yeast to digest and produce alcohol and other delicious compounds.

This is about a vigorous as I let the wort boil, so you can kind of get a sense of the boil.

OK now when your 50 minute boil has been reached, add your second hop addition the same way you did for the first hop addition. Add hops to muslin bag, tie a knot in the top and toss it into the boiling wort. Be wary though you may experience what seems to be a boil over of foam. If this happens stir vigorously until the hop addition has hot broke (about 30 seconds - if it occurs at all).

Second hop addition (aroma) @50 minutes added to the boil. Note little to no foam from the hop addition, the hops broke almost immediately.

Now stir the hop addition in real well, put the lid back on the kettle and continue to boil another 10 minutes. Then cut the flame off from under the kettle. This is called flame out and you have reached your second milestone. Hopefully nothing is burned to the bottom of the kettle and you have a nice sweet spicy STERILE wort. Caution... DO NOT OPEN THE LID TO YOUR KETTLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, YOUR WORT, KETTLE & LID ARE STERILE, AND A HAVEN FOR ANY TYPE OF BACTERIA TO RAPIDLY REPRODUCE. Anything and everything from here, until you have your first glass of finished beer must without any exceptions be clean and sterile.

A HAVEN FOR ANY TYPE OF BACTERIA TO RAPIDLY REPRODUCE. I laughed at myself when I typed that. I mean duh... isn't that the whole point? Yes it is. but for only one type of bacteria, yeast to make BEER!

Next - cool this flaming hot kettle of wort as quickly as possible. I'm lacking one piece of brewery gear, a wort chiller either infusion or plate or counterflow, so I have to resort to the only option I have available, a sink of cold water. Make sure the sink your going to use is clean (more on cleaning later) plug it up so the water will not drain out. Then carefully carry your HOT kettle and place it in the sink (remember do not lift the lid). Then position the faucet to full the sink to where the water will not hit the top of the kettle but fill only the sink. Fill it as high as you can without danger of it leaking out of the sink or getting under the lid of the kettle (if you have a deep kitchen sink, I do not).

I like to place the end of my thermometer in the sink water just to get a sense of how the heat is transferring from the lidded kettle to the sink water and heating up the sink water. The water in the sink and the wort in the kettle temperatures will equalize over a period of time. That's when you want to lift the kettle out of the sink water, drain the sink water and replace it with new cold water. Repeat several times until you reach between 80 ~ 85 degrees on the thermometer. Adding ice to the sink water seems to mess up the thermometer, so I dont add Ice to the sink water any more. Remember keep that lid closed!

It also helps to spray around the side of the kettle with cold water. Just be very careful, lid closed and no water getting under the lid at all. Working on this kettle it took me about 1/2 hour to bring the wort from fire hot to 85 degrees. A wort chiller would do it in 10 mins.

Awesome you reached milestone 3, you cooled your wort to a reasonable temperature to pitch ale yeast and you didn't infect it with unwanted evil bacteria(s) it's still sterile. Now you can place the lidded kettle on the counter, you didn't open the lid did you? I hope not!

Now we can move on to the most important step of the while process of brewing, cleaning and sanitizing. Let me begin by saying I can not emphasis enough about cleaning and sanitizing. Remember I said everything that touches this wort must be clean and sanitized? Well my college professor who taught me how to brew 30 plus years said to me , "you can't sanitize dirt" and he was right... If you "think" it "might" be dirty clean it once. If it "is" dirty clean it twice.

OK enough said about that... So how and what do clean and sanitize? Anything that touches your wort (including your hands).

Products to use:

Easy Clean from LD Carlson is a mildly caustic powdered no rinse cleaner. You mix with regular tap water as per the directions, use on everything from plastics, glass, stainless steel, copper, etc. It will clean and dry out your hands also don't say I didn't warn you. Cleaning plastics with easy clean, never use a scrubby pad on plastics, it scratches to easy, scratches harbor bacteria. Instead soak plastics in a bucket of easy clean 10 to 15 minutes, then wipe clean with a soft cloth soaked in easy clean and your done. Its clean, its easy and its cheap, $16.00 for a 5 gallon tub. Which at the rate I brew, it's enough for three years of cleaning. I also mop the kitchen floor with easy clean, clean the stove, counters and even add it to the dish washer for washing bottles, kettles and any other brewery gear that will fit in there. Easy Clean rocks!

Some swear by PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) I've never used it, because it's very expensive and besides I like Easy Clean, so why bother?

Oxy Clean, yes it's great for mild cleaning of glass gear like the inside of carboys and its great for removing labels from bottles. Just make sure its the non bleach / chlorine kind and doesn't have any scent stuff added. It does leave a slick residue that you must wash off in hot water. But in a pinch its pretty good for mild cleaning. Just make sure you rinse will with very hot water to remove the slick film it produces.

Now that you know what to use to clean, go and clean every think that will touch your wort you worked hard to produce.

Sanitizer. Hands down there is really only one product that absolutely rocks for sanitizing for just about anything that you would use to brew and that's a product called Star-San. Its a acid based liquid no rinse concentrate that you mix with regular tap water hot or cold. 1/4 ounce per gallon of water. It foams to get into every little nook and cranny. The best part about Star-San is it decomposes into a yeast nutrient, talk about sanitizer that is awesome for the brewery that would be Star-San. I keep a 6 1/2 gallon bucket mixed up to store all my small brewery gear in, they say as long as it doesn't dry out its good forever in the specified mixed ratio. Just dip whatever is clean that you want to sanitize in mixed star-san, pull it out and its sanitized - rockin' easy!

Mixing 1/4oz of Star-San in 1 gallon of cold water to sanitize the inside of my 6 1/2 gallon clean glass carboy.

OK back at it while all this is still fresh in my mind.

Now that you have cleaned all your brew gear that will touch your hard earned wort. Let's move on to sterilization and loading the wort into the the carboy. I like to lay an old beach towel down on the kitchen floor and pour 1 gallon of star-san/water mix into the carboy. Bung the carboy and stuff a wadded up paper towel soaked in sanitizer into the bung, then roll it back and forth on the towel so the sanitizer coats all of the insides. Of course anything paw paw does Junebug (my granddaughter wants to help). She thinks rolling the 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy around is fun

Dump out what sanitizer you can out of the carboy into a bucket, I don't waste it I keep about 6 gallons in a bucket in which all my brewing gear that will fit in the bucket stays in there, sterilized and ready to use when I need it. You can see the bucket here and the carboy with sterilized funnel ready for distilled water and wort.

Next remove the gallon of distilled water from the freezer and clean outside of the jug well with a rag soaked in easy clean. Then turn it upside down and dunk it in the bucket of steriler. I buy my water from Walmart because its cheapest and easy to access in the store. But coming from Walmart, who knows what could be on the outside of the jug. Next remove the lid and wipe the top with a rag soaked in sanitizer. Now pour the icy cold water into the carboy via the previously cleaned and sanitized funnel. Don't worry much if the water has ice chunks just pour in as much water as you can. Dip the water jug cap in sanitizer and put it back on the jug. Place the jug on the counter.

Dipping cleaned water jug in sanitizer before opening and pouring into the carboy.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

This is awesome information - thanks so much for going to the effort of typing this all out.

 

[CrealCritter]

This is awesome information - thanks so much for going to the effort of typing this all out.

Brewing is so enjoyable to me, I'm more than happy to spend time to type up some of the basics.

BTW - I inoculated this batch with washed yeast I harvested from a prior batch. I made a starter out of some of the wort to get it going and poured it into the carboy and wham not more than 2 hours later we have ignition, the airlock is like a constant stream of C02

 

[CrealCritter]

I have got to try this. When I retire I'll add all the supplies to my Christmas list! Hey - whatcha want for Christmas - BEEEER!

Brewing is very enjoyable and addicting. Not only can you brew up some awesome tasting beers from boxed recipe kits, you can put your own little spin on them to make them unique. Then you can even craft your own recipes, like I did here to brew up something totally unique and delicious.

So much has changed since I brewed 30 plus years ago. We didn't have thousands of homebrew internet stores to purchase from. Whatever they had at the local brick and mortar store is what we had to work with, which wasn't much in comparison to what we have available now via internet stores.

My favorite homebrew stores are:

https://www.hobbyhomebrew.com
(local to me, not open to the public but I am friends with the owner and the absolute best prices anywhere)

http://www.ritebrew.com/Default.asp
(Very competitive prices, no taxes and inexpensive shipping via Speedee for my location)

https://www.northernbrewer.com
(No taxes and free shipping for orders over $30.00)

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 1 - ferment begin about 2 hours after pitching. It's developed into a nice peaceful ferment bubbles through the airlock are constant. Color has changed a lot already also.