India Pale Hefeweizen Recipe

There are a surprising number of beer nerds who avoid “wheat beers.” In general it isn’t the wheat itself that is objectionable (plenty of these same people have no issues eating bread or pasta), but rather the banana and clove notes produced by the hefeweizen strains often associated with wheat beer. I have to admit, even though they are best fresh, I shy away from an average brew pub hefeweizen. Ferment too warm, and the subtle ripe banana aroma turns into banana runts or Now-and-Later: artificial, overpowering, and moving towards bubblegum.

My solution, borrowed from Eric Warner (now brewing  Karbach in Houston Texas) via his Classic Styles: German Wheat Beer, is to ferment cooler than most ale yeasts (he suggests pitching at 60°F and fermenting at 59°F). Jamil Zainasheff advocated this approach as well (62°F fermentation) in Brewing Classic Styles. I usually start fermentation around 58°F ambient, allowing the temperature to rise into the low 60s°F as the yeast slow. Despite the lore that a cold fermentation promotes clove-phenols, I've never seen research to support this. Rather, cooler fermentation reduces ester production allowing the clove to be more apparent. The amount of 4-vinylguaiacol (clove) is the result of the ferulic acid from the malt, and the yeast strain selected. The problem with this batch was that I underestimated the amount of ice needed for my recirculating immersion pump and only was able to bring the wort down to 75°F; I gave the beer six hours at 58°F in the fermentation fridge before pitching to compensate.

While I love a well-made traditional hefeweizen, I’m also a fan of introducing citrusy and tropical hop aromatics! My first attempt was based on New Glarus Crack’d Wheat, with Cascade and Amarillo, and my second was hopped with nearly-impossible-to-source Riwaka. For this batch I opted for the Modern Times Fortunate Islands combo of Citra and Amarillo. The Amarillo helps to temper the aggressiveness that can be a single-hopped Citra beer. The malt bill is reminiscent of Fortunate Islands as well, with Simpsons Golden Naked Oats in place of the CaraVienna. I couldn’t help but get a glass of the original on Monday at the Modern Times event at ChurchKey (and I'll likely have another Tuesday 9/30 at Meridian Pint).

I’m a fan of Commonwealth Brewing Co. Taonga (their New Zealand-hopped imperial hefeweizen) as well. Convenient, as I’ll be down there Labor Day weekend for the release of our collaborative oud bruins (brew day notes)! We re-fermented half the batch on cherries and dates (Penthesilia), and the rest on blackberries and figs (Hippolyta). Richer fruits to stand up to the darker malts. There is a Sour Beer Dinner on Friday 9/2 in their barrel room, and I'll also be at their first anniversary party the following day when bottles will be available!  Can't wait to try the finished beers!

Banana Islands 


Smell – The banana and tropical hop punch have both settled down after some early clashes. The banana is still a little more assertive than in my ideal balance though. I wanted 1a-1b in favor of the Amarillo/Citra, this has it reversed. The hop combo works nicely, providing the fruitiness that a hefeweizen needs without any dankness or pine.

Appearance – Hard to make any argument against that being textbook hefeweizen! Hazy gold body, translucent as it should be. Big, dense, white head, still sitting two fingers high nearly five minutes after pouring. Sticky rings of lace.

Taste – Banana leads with the orange and melon of the hops surging in and then disappearing, leaving a lightly citrusy hefeweizen in the finish with hints of clove. Bitterness is moderate, more than a traditional hefeweizen, but not approaching current American pale ale. Even a hint of vanilla as it warms.

Mouthfeel – The head adds a luscious creamy texture with each sip (reminds me of the substantive foam on cocktails shaken with egg whites). Once that dies down the beer itself is light, but the oats and chloride prevent it from tasting as light as it is.

Drinkability & Notes – If the banana was dialed back 20% it would be a real crusher. As is it is nice, but the hops aren't as showy as I want, and the banana is tiresome by the end of the glass.

Changes for Next Time – Back to my usual method of buying a few bags of ice at the store rather than trying to rely on ice packs...

Banana Islands Recipe

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.25
Anticipated OG: 1.049
Anticipated SRM: 4.9
Anticipated IBU: 31.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73%
Wort Boil Time: 65 Minutes

Grain
-------
43.9% - 4.50 lbs. Rahr Brewers Malt
43.9% - 4.50 lbs. Briess Red Wheat Malt
7.3% - 0.75 lbs. Simpsons Golden Naked Oats
2.4% - 0.25 lbs. Gold Medal All Purpose Flour
2.4% - 0.25 lbs. Weyermann Acidualted Malt

Hops
-------
0.63 oz. Columbus (Pellet, 12.60% AA) @ 60 min.
2.00 oz. Citra (Pellet, 11.00% AA) @ 20 minute Whirlpool
2.00 oz. Amarillo (Pellet, 9.00% AA) @ 20 minute Whirlpool
2.00 oz. Citra (Pellet, 11.00% AA) @ Dry Hop
2.00 oz. Amarillo (Pellet, 9.00% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Citra (Pellet, 11.00% AA) @ Keg Hop
1.00 oz. Amarillo  (Pellet, 9.00% AA) @ Keg Hop

Yeast
-------
Wyeast WY3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington DC, Hoppy

Mash Schedule
------------------
Sacch Rest - 30 min @ 154°F

Extras
--------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 5 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 5 min.

Notes
-------
Split batch: hoppy hefeweizen with WY3068 and Citra/Amarillo, plus a Nelson/Mosaic NE-ish APA with Sacch Trois 644! The grains and hops listed are for this batch alone.

6/30/16 2 L stir-plate starter of 3068.

7/3/16 Minimal sparge with 50% dilution with distilled water 6 g each CaCl and gypsum, plus 2 tsp of phosphoric acid.

Chilled to 75°F with ice-water recirculation. Chilled to 75°F, left at 58°F to cool for 6 hours before pitching mostly decanted starter. Up to 60°F after 48 hours.

7/6/16 Dry hopped with 2014 Citra and Amarillo pellets. Upped temperature to 62°F, then 2°F every other day.

7/14/16 Kegged (with bagged/weighted hops) and put on gas in the kegerator.

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Riwaka Hefe Weizen Tasting

Wheat beers are supposed to be best fresh, hoppy beers too, right? For some reason the Riwaka Hefe Weizen that I brewed in early August just keeps getting better. Young the beer tasted strongly phenolic and yeasty, but it has cleaned up beautifully in the 6 weeks it has been on tap. That is one of the advantages of kegging, the beer has just been cold conditioning and continuing to pick up hop aromatics from the hops in the keg.

This is the second in my series of Southern Hemisphere hopped beers, the final (Galaxy Double IPA) will be ready for its tasting next week.

Riwaka HoppyWeizen

Appearance – Perfect, almost immobile, sticky, dense, white head. The body would be ugly for any beer other than a hefe weizen (ruddy orange-gold).

Smell – The nose suits the color with a potent citrus character (particularly fresh orange peel) and plenty of banana aroma. The combination of citrus and banana is complementary (smells like a fruit smoothie).

Taste – The aromatics from the nose come through in the flavor as well, but they are joined by a fresh caramel malt and bread. There is some light clove-spice (and maybe some cinnamon), but I think the hops are covering it up a bit. The bitterness is more assertive than a hefe weizen usually is, close to a hoppy pale ale. Rising bread yeasty finish.

Mouthfeel – Medium-light body with prickly carbonation. Right for a fall beer, but it might have been a bit thicker than I wanted if this was a summertime beer.

Drinkability & Notes – It took a few weeks on gas for this one to come together, but I'm really happy with where it is now. Riwaka seems like a good hop for anything you'd usually use Cascade or Centennial anything you want fresh orange aromatics. I didn't miss the decoction that I did for my previous batch of Hoppy Hefe, the hops covering any subtleties gained.

Hoppy (Riwaka) Hefeweizen

I've always been a homebrewer who is inspired to try the next thing (ingredient, technique, combination etc...), the batch I'm most excited about is usually the one I'm about to brew.  As a result, I have tended to avoid rebrewing the same sorts of beers on a regular basis.  However as time goes by I'm starting to get the desire to dial in the recipes for a few of my favorite batches.  The Hoppy Hefeweizen I brewed last summer was so good (the combination of fruity/spicy yeast and citrusy American hops), that I had to brew something similar again this year.

Despite how much I enjoyed that original batch, I still made two major changes for the rebrew (I couldn't help myself).  I simplified the mash to a single infusion; for a regular hefeweizen I'm willing to go through the time/effort of a decoction mash, but with a load of aroma hops I don't think the subtle complexities are worth the additional time and effort (but we shall see).  I also switched the hopping to Columbus (from Perle) for bittering, and Riwaka (from Cascade and Amarillo) for aroma.  Riwaka is a relatively new variety from New Zealand that reportedly has a strong citrus character similar to Cascade (the "tastes like chicken" of the hop world).  Anything in that area should be a good addition to the banana-forward-fruitiness that the the Weihenstephan strain will contribute.

At the moment I have two other beers fermenting/carbonating that feature Southern Hemisphere grown hop varieties as well (a 2.25% "IPA" with Nelson Sauvin, and a double IPA with Galaxy).  The Oceanian varieties are supposed to have a big fruit character including tropical, citrus, and white wine notes (missing the pine that American grown hops tend to contribute). It has been interesting to experiment with new hop varieties, especially with the current scarcity of similar American varieties until the fall harvest.  I ordered the hops from an Australian homebrew shop a couple months ago, with shipping it worked out to just under $4 an ounce.  If I'd waited a few weeks longer many of the same varieties began showing up at some American homebrew shops for half that price (although I got mostly whole hops and I've only seen pellets imported).

I've got high hopes for this beer as a refreshing late-summer drinker.

Riwaka HoppyWeizen

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25   
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.63
Anticipated OG: 1.054 
Anticipated SRM: 6.0
Anticipated IBU: 47.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 48 % (74% including second runnings)
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Grain
------
64.0% - 10.00 lbs. German Wheat Malt                
32.0% - 5.00 lbs. American Pale Malt (2-row)  
4.0% - 0.63 lbs. CaraVienna

Hops
------
1.00 oz. Columbus  (Pellet  12.00% AA) @ 60 min.
3.50 oz. Riwaka (Whole, 5.50% AA) @ 0 min.
3.50 oz. Riwaka  (Whole, 5.50% AA) @ Dry Hop

Extras
-------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Water Profile
--------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
----------------
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 154   
Mash Out - 15 min @ 168

Notes
------
Brewed 8/6/11

Cut filtered tap water with 2 gallons of distilled to lower carbonate, added 4 g of gypsum to boost sulfate.  

Crush didn't look great, but ended up with 6.5 gallons of 1.046 runnings (first runnings only).  Sparged to make a second runnings beer (Nelson Jr. IPA)

Chilled to 65 F and pitched an inflated pack of yeast (no starter), but it was less than a month from manufacture.  Left at 63 F ambient to ferment in a large bucket.  Three days later raised the temp to 65 F.

8/20/11 Racked to a purged keg, put into the fridge at 34 F for a week of cold conditioning before dry hopping.

8/28/11 Moved out of the fridge.

9/3/11 Dry hopped in a mesh bag weighted down with marbles.

11/9/11 Turned out nicely, good balance of citrus hops and banana yeast. Took longer than expected to get here though, too yeasty initially.

Decocted Hefeweizen Tasting

I think I've done enough musing about hefeweizens already the last few months (with the recipe for this beer for example), so I'll keep this brief.   I'm really happy with how this batch turned out (both this part and the Hoppy Wheat), its nice when one of my schemes actually works. At some point I'll have to take a cue from Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam and do a soured version of this recipe...

Decocted Hefeweizen

Appearance – A very fine haze, with no particles floating around. The color is golden, but with a slightly brown tone that makes me think of a dried leaf. The head is dense and thick, but it sinks to a ½ finger after just a few minutes. The extra hops in the hoppy half really boosted the head retention by comparison.

Smell – Big ripe banana from the first whiff, with general fruitiness that follows. A light bready malt backs up the fruit. There is some spice as well, but it is too light to say if it is clove or cardamom.

Taste – Banana, but it isn't overwhelming like it can be in some versions. Some apple fruitiness is nice as well, and it doesn't have any of the bubblegum that plagues batches that are fermented too warm (in my opinion...). The yeasty/wheaty dough character is nice, but it could be a bit more like baked bread with a touch of toast. The clove really comes out when the beer warms a few degrees.

Mouthfeel – The wheat adds some substance to the body that you just don't get in a 5% beer with just barley. Carbonation is firm without being fizzy.

Drinkability & Notes – Other than the worse-than-expected head retention, this is spot on for the style. I may even like this batch more than the original batch (which had a nicer head, but not the rich mouthfeel), it's close either way.

Hoppy Wheat Tasting (American Hopped Hefeweizen)

The two types of beers that benefit the most from being drunk fresh are German wheat beers and hoppy American beers (in my humble opinion).  So after just a month in the keg I didn't want to wait any longer to do a tasting of my Hoppy Hefe.  Incidentally a friend of mine just had a pour of Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse (close to two years old now) at a local bar, apparently not surprisingly it was a poor choice of beers to age.

The wonderful cloudy appearance of my beer despite being on tap made me think of a claim I've heard several times recently, that protein rests don't do anything (much?) because the protease enzyme is denatured during the malting process (Michael Lewis is often cited as the source, Brewing p.199).  Brewing with Wheat on the other hand suggests that many German breweries do a protein rest to break the proteins down enough that they won't clump together and fall out of solution quickly in the bottle.  I haven't done a side-by-side experiment, but I'm not sure that this beer would have stayed so cloudy after 10 days close to freezing and another month in the kegerator at 40 without the rest at 125 F.

Hoppy Hefe

Appearance – Beautiful fluffy whipped egg-white head. The beer beneath the head is perfectly cloudy/hazy without looking muddy (although there are some small hop bits floating around in there).  The hops along with the small amount of crystal really help the head.

Smell – The aroma has a beautiful combination of bright/resiny citrus hops and a light peppery-fruity yeast. A few weeks ago the yeast character was dominant, then the hops took over as the dry hops went to work, now that they have faded slightly the balance is just about right for my taste.

Taste – Nice clean, crisp bitterness that lingers for a moment. Similar to the aroma the yeast and hop flavors mingle nicely with the IPA qualities outshining the hefeweizen slightly. Sadly the hops cover up most of the bready/malty components, but for the big citrus it's worth it.

Mouthfeel – Light and crisp, moderate-high carbonation.  Refreshing indeed.

Drinkability & Notes – As much as I hate that its getting towards the middle of September and still 90 F, it certainly makes me appreciate this beer. While I like the base hefeweizen (which I'll post the review for next week) this beer is so unique and drinkable that I've been reaching for it much more often.

Hoppy German-American Wheat Recipe

Why are American homebrewers so obsessed with brewing to style? Who cares that a schwarzbier shouldn't be too roasty? That milds have to be low in alcohol? Or that hefeweizens are brewed with almost no hops? The only question that should matter when you are formulating a beer recipe is "Will I enjoy drinking this?"

I won't say that beer styles are worthless.  They are a fine way to start brewing (giving you a target to aim for) and for commercial breweries to quickly communicate what kind of beer they are selling (calling a beer a porter is much easier than saying "A dark ale that is roasty, but not as roasty as a stout, with moderate alcohol content and bitterness"). However, styles don't lead to brewing the best or most interesting beer because they confine creativity and prevent brewers from experimenting with the huge range of malts, hops, and yeast that are available. 

American homebrewers sparked the most substantial change the brewing landscape in the last 150 years, since lager brewing generally and Pilsners specifically altered the way beer was brewed and consumed. The revolution homebrewers started 35 years ago has lead not only to the creation of a thriving American craft brewing industry but also similarly booming craft beer production in areas as disparate as Japan, Sweden, and Italy.  The rise of homebrewing has also created better educated consumers that have been able to sustain some of the more esoteric breweries in countries like Belgium that wouldn't stay in business without lucrative exports to American beer nerds.

American craft brewers certainly deserve some of the credit (although most of them are former, or even current, homebrewers), but there is little they have popularized that a homebrewer didn't try first (the first bourbon barrel aged beer was made by Chicago area homebrewers according to Radical Brewing). American homebrewers should still be pushing the creative envelope, not ceding creative control of brewing to the professionals.

So I say don't waste your time brewing to style, or copying someone else's recipes (take inspiration and go in your own direction). Try combining flavors and techniques that you think will work to see what happens.

To further this ideal I brewed a "German" wheat beer hopped like an American IPA, blending the complex citrus character of American hops (Amarillo and Cascade) with the fruity/spicy character of German wheat beer yeast. This is a combination a few breweries have played with (New Glarus Crack'd Wheat and Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse) but it is a concept that has yet to gain much traction. My version is intended to have a bolder hop aroma than the commercial versions, letting the hops take center stage while pushing the yeast character towards the background. 

The wort was collected from the same mash as the Decocted Hefeweizen, so read that post for more details on the process. I steeped a small amount of CaraVienna in the wort for a bit of extra body to balance the aggressive hopping schedule. The fermentation started cool and slowly ramped up to ensure complete attenuation without creating too much banana flavor. After primary fermentation I'll give it a short period of cold conditioning before kegging the beer with two more ounces of hops.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this anti-style post and the previous pro-style one, like many homebrewers I feel the tug both to create/innovate and to refine my attempts at styles that have been slowly built and refined by brewers around the world. I'd certainly love to see more homebrewers experimenting (and I'm not just talking just dumping weird ingredients into your beer), but without having the foundation of classic styles the beer world would be a much blander place.

Hoppy German-American Wheat

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.88
Anticipated OG: 1.056
Anticipated SRM: 4.6
Anticipated IBU: 39.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
------
47.9% - 4.25 lbs. French Pilsener
47.9% - 4.25 lbs. German Wheat Malt
4.2% - 0.38 lbs. CaraVienne (steeped)

Hops
-----
1.25 oz. Perle (Whole, 7.00% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo (Whole, 9.40% AA) @ 5 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade (Whole, 3.50% AA) @ 5 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo (Whole, 9.40% AA) @ 0 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade (Whole, 3.50% AA) @ 0 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo (Whole, 9.40% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Cascade (Whole, 3.50% AA) @ Dry Hop

Extras
-------
0.40 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 12 min.

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Carbon Filtered Washington DC

Mash Schedule
----------------
Clove 15 min @ 114 (Infuse)
Protein 10 min @ 125 (Direct)
Sacch I 40 min @ 144 (Direct)
Sacch II 20 min @ 161 (Decoction)

Notes
-----
Brewed 7/18/10 by myself

The remainder of the no-sparge runnings from the Hefeweizen mash, plus a gallon of the first runnings transferred over since I didn't leave enough for this half. Added 4 g of gypsum to the wort for the hops. Steeped the CaraVienna in the wort for 30 minutes, then sieved out. Started heating to a boil inside while the hefe finished. 

Added aroma hops as I started the chill. Racked onto the extra ~1/2 gallon of wort from the hefeweizen half of the batch.

Chilled to ~85, moved to fridge set to 55. Added 1 cup of wort to the starter and put it in the fridge so it would be the same temp at pitching.

6 hours later I pitched 2 cups of the starter and gave 45 seconds of pure oxygen, returned to the fridge @ 55 degrees.

Good fermentation after 18 hours.

7/22/10 Upped temp to 62 to help fermentation finish out.

7/29/10 Fermentation seems to be complete, krausen has fallen almost completely.

8/1/10 Dropped temp to 34 to drop excess yeast/protein out of solution.

8/12/10 Put into keg, added dry hops, and put into the kegerator to carb.

9/8/10 Turned out very nicely, perfect combo of hops and yeast.  I'll have to get my hands on a bottle of Crack'd Wheat to see how mine stacks up.

All Grain Decocted Hefeweizen Recipe

There are more than 100 recognized styles of beer being made today.  For the most part I'm happy to ignore all of them and just brew what I want.  I think ingredient combinations and techniques should be based on hitting the flavors and characteristics you like, not some mostly arbitrary target that someone else (BJCP, World Beer Cup, Brewers Association etc...) came up with.

So it is with great sadness that admit that I recently brewed one of my favorite beers, a completely by the numbers, no-nonsense German Hefe Weisse.  The recipe I used for this batch was very close to another one I brewed in the fall of 2008 that was just about perfect, banana (but not too much), bread, clove, light, spritzy, and delicious (I did up the alcohol a bit this time to 5% ABV).  I tried to brew a batch with extract last fall, but the bready malt depth and balance just weren't there.

I went with a simple grist of 50% pilsner and 50% wheat malt.  For the mash I did a single decoction on my stove with four rests:

1.  Mashed in at 114 F for ferulic acid (a precursor for the molecule that gives the spicy clove character) using 2 qrts of water per pound of grain.

2.  After 15 minutes I turned on the burner and brought the mash up to 125 F for a protein rest, stirring regularly to prevent the grain at the bottom from scorching.

3.  10 minutes later I turned the heat back on and took the mash up to 144 F to start the conversion of starches into sugar.

4. 10 minutes into the Saccharification rest I pulled about 1/3 of the mash (thicker than the mash, but still with plenty of liquid on the advice of Kai's excellent decoction guide on German brewing and more) and heated it to a boil over 30 minutes.

5.After boiling the decoction for 10 minute I added the decoction back to the main mash for a second, warmer, Saccharification rest at 161 F to finish off conversion.  I let the mash rest here for 20 minutes before proceeding with the brew.

I added the mash along with all the 180 degree sparge water to my mash tun, stirred, recirculated and ran off the wort.  Once I collected enough wort I boiled it with a single addition of really low alpha acid Spalt hops at 75 minutes for bittering.

The ground water at my house is around 82 F this time of year, so after getting the wort under 90 F I moved it to my fermentation fridge to cool to pitching temps.

I had great luck pitching and fermenting Wyeast 3068 at 55 F ambient last time, so I did the same this time.  After 4 days I increased the ambient temp to 62 to make sure the yeast doesn't stall out as fermentation nears completion.  After two weeks, assuming fermentation is finished, I'll drop the temperature close to 32 F for 7-10 days of cold conditioning before bottling the beer.

Hefeweizen is one style I just don't think should be tampered with, the combination of banana, clove, rich malt, and moderate hopping is in perfect balance... 


By the Book Hefeweizen

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.50
Anticipated OG: 1.050
Anticipated SRM: 3.1
Anticipated IBU: 11.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 115 Minutes

Grain
------
50.0% - 4.75 lbs. German Wheat Malt
50.0% - 4.75 lbs. French Pilsener

Hops
------
2.00 oz. Spalter Spalt (Pellet, 1.50% AA) @ 75 min.

Extras
-------
0.40 Tsp Yeast Nutrient 10 min.

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Carbon Filtered Washington DC

Mash Schedule
----------------
Ferulic Acid 15 min @ 114 (Infuse)
Protein 10 min @ 125 (Direct)
Sacch I 40 min @ 144 (Direct)
Sacch II 20 min @ 161 (Decoction)

Notes
------
Made a 1 qrt starter the night before to split between this one and the other wheat beer I am brewing.

Brewed 7/18/10 By myself

Mashed 18 lbs of malt, 50% each Weyermann Wheat and French Pils. Added all the sparge water before running off the mash, stirred and waited a few minutes then ran off 8 gallons @ 1.040 for this beer. Took 1 gallon of the runnings to add to the other half of the batch, added 1 gallon of boiling water to this to replace the volume.  The other half of the wort went to the Hoppy Hefe.

8 month old hops adjusted down from 2% AA.

Chilled to ~85, racked to a bucket, moved to fridge set to 55. Added 1 cup of wort to the starter and put it in the fridge so it would be active and the same temp at pitching.

6hours later I pitched 3 cups of the starter and gave 45 seconds of pure oxygen, returned to the fridge @ 55 degrees.

Good fermentation after 18 hours, small amount of blow off.

7/22/10 Upped temp to 62 to help fermentation finish out.

7/26/10 Upped to 65 as the beer still has a big krausen on it.

8/1/10 Racked to keg. Dropped temp to 34 to drop excess yeast/protein out of solution.

8/12/10 Bottled with 5 oz of cane sugar in 1 pint of water, aiming for ~3.5 volumes of CO2.

9/16/10 Turned out really well, good balance of fruit/spice/dough.  Not much I would change next time around, but the head retention was mediocre.

Weizenbock Tasting

This batch of Weizenbock was brewed just over four months ago using a yeast cake from a batch of hefeweizen (easy way to get enough yeast cells). I wasn't too happy with the hefe because the yeast character was too restrained, but in a big beer the same yeast strain had more character since it had more sugar to eat. The grain bill was pretty standard (malted wheat, Munich etc...), but it got its great caramel and dark fruit character from a half pound of Simpson's Extra Dark Crystal which I have fallen in love with for dark German beers.

Weizenator

Appearance – Deep reddish brown, pretty clear. Beautiful tannish head that just won't go away, some lacing. Good carbonation evident streaming through the beer.

Smell – Faint banana, caramel, dates, and light coffee. Nice complex blend of aromas, this yeast was very light on the banana, which I don't mind for a weizenbock. There is a whiff of alcohol as well, not too surprising for an 8% beer, but some more age might help as well.

Taste – Many of the same elements from the aroma, caramel, dark fruit, banana, and a faint toasty/bready roasted malt aroma. Balanced to the sweet side, due to the low IBUs, but it isn't syrupy or overly sugary. There is also some of that clove spice that is a classic part of the style, but it is restrained.  There is some alcohol in the finish, but nothing that is unpleasant.

Mouthfeel – Solid carbonation, bordering on being spritzy. The body is medium full, very nice. The finish is clean, the alcohol and carbonation help make up for the lack of bitterness.
 
Drinkability & Notes – Really solid, this is about perfect for my taste in Weizenbocks. I might add a bit of melanoidin malt next time just to drive home the bready malt, and back down on the crystal a hair to make way for some fresher fruit character. I would also go with the Wyeast 3068 in place of the White Labs 300 to boost the banana and clove. I'll be entering this one in a competition or two to see how it does.

Weizenbock Recipe

With a yeast cake of White Labs 300, Hefeweizen Ale Yeast, left over from my Extract Hefeweizen sitting in my fridge I wanted to brew something with it. I considered doing a Dunkleweizen (Dark German Wheat) or a Roggenbier (German Rye), but with cold winter weather approaching I decided to step it up and do to my first Weizenbock. This is a rich, generally dark, wheat ale typified by Schneider Aventinus. Rather than having the big banana character of a Hefeweizen, Weizenbock has a more complex fruit character with banana mingled with dark fruit and a firm Bock-ish Munich maltiness.

I decided to go with a pretty moderate gravity for this batch (1.075), I wanted it to be big and flavorful, but not so big that I couldn't enjoy a pint on a weeknight. In general I like beers in this middle range (6.5%-8.5% ABV) sitting between session ales and the big monster alcohol bombs.

For most of the malt I went with a pretty standard mix of dark Munich, Vienna, and wheat malt. Instead of adding pilsener malt for the rest of the base I added some Marris Otter, which will add a bit more depth of maltiness that I don't get from pils in such a rich beer. I also added some Simpsons Extra Dark Crystal which added a wonderful character to the lagered Wheat Triplebock I brewed last fall. It adds a nice combination of dark fruit with just a hint of coffee, as well as some nice color. I went a bit lighter on it than I did in the Triplebock because this is a lighter beer that I want to be easier drinking.

I kept the fermentation pretty cool (58-60 ambient) to ensure that this beer turns out pretty moderate in terms of alcohol and ester character. After fermentation finished I gave the beer some time at 45 to allow the yeast to drop out and the flavors to meld.

Weizenator

Recipe Specifics (All-Grain)
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.63
Anticipated OG: 1.075
Anticipated SRM: 17.2
Anticipated IBU: 20.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
------
6.00 lbs. German Wheat Malt
3.00 lbs. German Dark Munich Malt
1.50 lbs. Maris Otter
0.63 lbs. German Vienna Malt
0.50 lbs. Simpsons Extra Dark Crystal (~155L)

Hops
-----
1.75 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet @ 3.10% AA) 45 min.

Extras
-------
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 13 Min.
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 13 Min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
-----
Yeast cake saved from extract weizen when it was racked to the keg 9/25/09

Brewed 10/03/09 By myself.

Fly sparge. Collected 6 gallons of 1.055 wort. Added 1/4 tsp of CaCl to the runoff to drop the pH and ensure a good hot break.

1 Year old hop pellets reduced from 3.5% AA.

Cooled down to ~70, put into 58 degree fridge.


Pitched after ~4 hours with 60 seconds of pure O2. Good fermentation by 8 hours.

Good hard fermentation, a bit of blowoff after 2-3 days.

10/05/09 Upped temp to 60 to help it finish.

10/14/09 Dropped temp to 45 to help clear.

10/25/09 Still pretty hazy, balanced fruit character, some caramel. Down to 1.016 (79% AA, 7.8% ABV)

10/27/09 Racked to a three gallon secondary. Took out of fridge, left at basement temp.  Extra beer racked into a growler and primed.

11/29/09 Bottled with 2 5/8 cane sugar. The growler was very tasty a few weeks back shared with a few friends, so I have high hopes for this one.

2/7/10 First tasting, turned out very well, good complex blend of flavors and aromas and solid drinkability.

4/28/10 Scored a 32.5 at the 2010 NHC.  Judges thought it was old/oxidized, a character I don't really get.

Extract Weizen and Single Tasting

After a few weeks under pressure in the kegs my first two "return to extract brewing" experiments are ready to taste. Both of them turned out well, clean (no mythical extract twang) and surprisingly pale.

If you are an all-grain brewer I'd suggest giving an extract batch a shot if you are short on time some day. You may not have quite as much control as you are used to, and it may cost a bit extract, but it can certainly produce excellent results.

Extract Hefeweizen

Appearance – Slightly hazy golden-orange body. Certainly lighter in color than most people think an extract beer can be, and certainly no darker than my decocted all-grain hefeweizen (if anything it might be a bit lighter). Nice looking creamy white head, with good retention, but not much lacing.

Smell – Pretty mellow aroma, a slight hint of banana and some spice. It is lacking the bready/yeasty character that great hefes have, but that may be more a result of the kegging (and the lack of yeast) rather than the extract. As the beer warms it begins to show a hint of sulfur, hopefully that will pass with a bit more age.

Taste – The flavor is similar to the aroma, very subdued. The ester character is only banana and a pretty restrained one at that. It is supported by some classic clove notes (not as much as I like though, the ferulic acid rest certainly seems to have boosted the clove in the all-grain compared to this). Pretty dry with just a touch of hop character to balance the slight sweetness. It has a slight carbonic bite to it from the high carbonation, which adds a touch of acidity to the beer.

Mouthfeel – Moderate-thin body with a nice firm carbonation. As it warms and the carbonation beings to wane it comes across as thin, but fresh out of the tap it is just refreshing.

Drinkability & Notes – A solid beer, but it doesn't have the complexity that my all-grain version did. I would like to try this recipe again to a bit higher gravity and with Wyeast 3068 (rather than White Labs 300) which seemed to give me a more complex ester profile.

Extract Single

Appearance – Another really great creamy head with great retention, and nice coating lacing. The body is a shade darker (probably due to the liquid extract) and a bit hazier (probably because it is a week younger than the hefe).

Smell – Great complex nose with notes of pepper, and lemon. There is even some breadiness from the malt, or maybe that is just a bit of suspended yeast.

Taste – Great complex phenol character, clove, cinnamon, and pepper. Almost saison like, but not quite that dry. There are some esters as well, pear with a light touch of banana, but the low fermentation temperature kept them moderate. Good balance with just a touch of herbal hop, not as much as I expected from an ounce of hallertau at 5 minutes. It could be a bit drier, but I wouldn't call it sweet.

Mouthfeel – A bit fuller than the hefe, with moderate carbonation. Could be a touch thinner/crisper, but it is very drinkable as is.

Drinkability & Notes – One of the better non-sour Belgian beers I have made, good balance with plenty of complexity. I'll be interested to see where this one goes with a bit more age, hopefully it doesn't clean up too much in the keg. I'll certainly be brewing this one again, although I might boost the sugar to help it finish a bit drier.

Extract Hefeweizen Recipe

After brewing pretty much nothing but all-grain beers for the last four years (with a few one gallon experimental extract and partial mash batches sprinkled in), I thought it was time for a full on extract batch. When I first started brewing in college I made two extract with steeping grains recipes before making the leap to all-grain. The first (a brown ale) was pretty tasty, and the second (a vanilla cream ale) was pretty blah. They followed the "classic" homebrew method (partial boil, low pitching rate, poor temp control, lackluster sanitation etc...) so I wanted to see how all the improvements to my general beer making technique/equipment might improve the results of an extract batch.

Another reason for brewing with malt extract was to test out my new 210k BTU Banjo Cooker. I wanted to see how it ran without having to worry about mashing/sparging. This was also my first batch at my new house, so I wanted to make sure all the connections worked for my chiller, and everything ran smoothly. This will also be my first kegged batch, so I wanted something that would be ready quickly to test it out.

There are a whole range of brewers out there, so if reading tips on extract brewing doesn't really interest you feel free to go back in the archives and read something a bit more Mad (like my Cuvee Tomme clone which I will be rebrewing later this fall), for the rest of you here are my thoughts on brewing with extract.

Dealing with water is very different for extract beers is very different than all-grain because when extract is condensed all of the minerals that were in the water used to make it get condensed along with the sugars/proteins. As a result when you add tap/spring water the beer is getting a double dose of minerals. This isn't a big deal, but it is something to think about if your water is hard already or if you are doing any water adjustments. For this batch I used distilled water from the supermarket to reconstitute the extract, this avoids getting the second dose of minerals. I gave the beer a healthy dose of yeast nutrient which is especially important for extract beers because they can be low in things yeast need like free amino nitrogen (due to the storage and processing of the extract).

A full boil is important because it reduces the formation of Maillard reaction byproducts (which darken the beer and add flavor). A full boil also improves hop utilization, not too important when brewing a 12 IBU hefeweizen, but critical for any beer that you want to have a good bitterness. iso-alpha acids saturate wort at around 100 IBUs, so if you have 2 gallons of wort at the end of the boil, even if it is saturated with bitterness after you dilute it to 5 gallons at most it will only have 40 IBUs.

The fermentation and yeast handling is just as important in extract beers as it is in all-grain. I made a starter with my vial of yeast and didn't pitch it until the temperature of the wort got down to my target fermentation temp of 60 degrees. Pitching warm (as many beginning brewers do) is a bad idea because fermentation will create heat, pushing the temperature even higher which creates excess esters and fusel alcohol.

I really enjoyed the batch of hefeweizen I brewed last fall and I had heard that wheat extract (which is a blend of wheat and barley) does a pretty good job without any steeping grains. Amazingly the 2009 Best of Show at the Spirit of Free Beer (my local homebrew club's annual contest) was an extract hefe brewed with an old kit, so it seemed worth a try (with a fresh kit).

The recipe for this one was pretty similar to the one I brewed last year. I kept the low starting gravity (1.042) and IBUs (12). The yeast strain I used this time was WLP300 instead of the Wyeast 3068 I used last year, but they are supposed to be from the same source. This grain bill is more wheat heavy due to the fact that the extract is 65/35 and I had gone 50/50 on the all-grain batch.

The beer pretty much fermented out at an ambient temp of 58 degrees. I then bumped up the temperature to 64 to ensure that the yeast finish their job, then I will drop the temperature near freezing for about 10 days to help get some of the yeast out of suspension. Finally I'll rack it over to a keg, skipping secondary. Not sure if I will do forced or natural carbonation, but either way I will be aiming for ~3 volumes of CO2.

Next up I will be brewing an extract Belgian Single as a warm up for the next beer going into our red wine barrel in a month or so.

Extract Weizen

Recipe Specifics (Extract)
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.60
Total Extract (Lbs): 5.25
Anticipated OG: 1.042
Anticipated SRM: 5.9
Anticipated IBU: 11.4
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Extract
--------
5.25 lbs. Briess DME- Weizen

Hops
-----
2.00 oz. Spalter Spalt (Pellet 1.65% AA) First Wort

Extras
-------
0.40 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @15 Min.
0.50 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 Min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Distilled Water

Notes
-----
Brewed 9/02/09

Took 6 oz of the DME and made a starter with .25 tsp of nutrient and 1.5 qrts of water. Placed into the freezer set to 60 degrees once it cooled.

Heated the rest of the 6 gallons of distilled water to a boil on my new burner. Added the DME when the water was ~160, added the hops once all of the DME was dissolved. AA% adjusted down from 2%.

Overshot the volume and undershot the gravity slightly despite only using 6 gallons of water total between the starter and the beer.

Only able to chill to ~80, Put into the freezer at 60 overnight to chill the rest of the way. 8 hours later pitched the now active starter.

Good fermentation after 24 hours. Sometime over the long weekend the krausen pushed off the aluminum foil top, it was in my chest freezer so I am not too worried about infection.

9/8/09 Turned ambient temp up to 64 degrees to help fermentation finish out.

9/13/09 Down to 1.010, fermentation is just about complete.

9/15/09 Put into a fridge to cold condition for a week before I keg it.

9/25/09 Racked to the keg, set to 14 PSI at 45 degrees.

10/14/09 1st tasting, doing well, could use a bit more yeast character.

Book Review: Brewing Wheat Beers

German Wheat Beers (Classic Style Series #7) is the oldest book I have reviewed up to this point, published way back in 1992. Thankfully not much changes in twenty years when you are talking about German brewing, so the information is still very applicable. Eric Warner, the author, studied brewing in Germany and worked at a couple German breweries, so he clearly had the right resume for writing this book. The most recent info I can find on him is that he was brewing for Flying Dog last year, not sure if he moved with them to Maryland after they closed shop in Denver (too bad -->they don't do a hefe their hefe doesn't live up to his reputation).

German Wheat Beers focuses on the most popular styles, hefeweizen, dunkleweizen, and weizenbock in good depth, and also briefly mentions a few more obscure styles. Weisse (German for white) and is the preferred term over there for wheat beers (much as Belgian wheats are called wits), while Americans tend to use weizen (German for wheat). So either one can be used, but for this review I'll stick with the American usage.

Content: I really enjoyed the anecdote he starts off the introduction with about his first day brewing professionally in Germany. The short version is that during the morning break of his first day on the job he ordered a coffee to the embarrassment of his coworkers, who ordered weissebier and pretzel (I can tell you I would be a lot happier at my job if I got to do that every morning). The first chapter covers the history/popularity of using wheat in German brewing as well as some nutritional information. There is nothing too exciting here, but it paints a picture of wheat brewing as both a long standing pillar of German brewing and of its outsider status against the more common lager styles. The second chapter gives an overview of the wide variety of wheat beers made in Germany. It covers all of the standard beers that most people have heard of, but also talks pretty extensively about BerlinerWeisse and Kristall Weizen, as well as brief mentions of other more obscure styles (Leichtes/light Weissbier, Bremer Weisse ). There is both a general discussion of flavors as well as some much more technical analysis of the various styles. This chapter is very similar to the BJCP guidelines, but includes several styles which the BJCP does not. The next chapter covers the science behind the more common wheat beers. Issues of bitterness (low), carbonation (high), color, pH, and alcohol are touched on, but the focus is on the two classic flavor components banana (isoamyl-acetate) and clove (4-vinyl-guaiacol). Adding a low temperature rest can enhance the clove phenol by freeing up extra ferulic acid, while banana is a result of the yeast selection and the fermentation temperature. The author suggests a pretty low pitching and fermentation temperatures, advice that many brewpubs could use for their Hefes if the banana/bubblegum bombs I tend to get are any indication. The fourth chapter covers the various brewing techniques that are employed. This focuses a good deal on the mash, but also water, boiling, and similar pre-fermentation topics are also examined. A decoction mash is emphasized and I think is important if you are going with a simple pils/wheat grain bill. That said I have tasted many fine weizens that get some extra maltiness from Munich or melanodin malt. A decoction also helps if you are planning to do a multi-step mash and do not have a heated mash tun. Chapter five is all about fermentation. There is a lot of focus on yeast handling, pitching rates, repitching yeast, He has a brief mention of many breweries giving their weizens a short lagering period. This is something that I really like, but is not popular in the homebrewing community (where the mantra tends to be drink weizens as young as possible). This chapter finishes with a discussion of bottle conditioning. Chapter six covers such topics as how to pour a wheat beer (including the "flashy nightclub pour"), glassware, and other related topics. There is a short section on food pairing, but nothing too in depth. There are some really funny pictures circa 1990 of Germans enjoying beer.

Recipes:The actual malt/hop bills all make sense to me (they are simple and look well constructed), but the instructions on how to brew them are severely outdated. Just the way the recipes are written goes against "modern" homebrew convention, hops are given as grams of alpha acid (with the HBUs tacked on), and hop timing is given as minutes from the start of the boil (not from the end). The recipes also suggest bottling many of the beers right after attenuation finishes (2-3 days after pitching), which certainly risks bottle bombs and is odd given that the time line he relates for commercial brewers is much more relaxed. Yeast choice is not mentioned in any of the recipes because (I assume) there was not much in the way of commercial weizen yeasts available back then. In the source list for yeast at the end of the book he simply lists German breweries. I used many of the general suggestions given by the book when I brew a hefe last fall. That said I certainly modified the techniques in the recipe chapter to match the advances in homebrewing since then. I went with a very simple grain bill, easy on the hops, a decoction mash, and fermented on the cool end of the spectrum. It was such a great batch that I don't think I will change a single thing when I brew it again (something I have never done). The recipe section includes both extract and all-grain recipes, not as conversions of the same recipes, but as completely separate recipes. There are only two extract recipes and the book itself focuses on all-grain techniques, so this may not be a great buy for an extract brewer.

Accuracy: I thought the accuracy overall was very good, although (as I said above) some of the suggestions on how to replicate the commercial practices at home are a bit outdated. It is more a book about what the pros do, so that information can always be adapted to the current homebrew "best practices."

Readability: It is not a particularly snappy read, it has lots of technical information and is clearly aimed just as much at microbrewers as it is at homebrewers. The charts are a bit dense, it would have been nice if they were simplified to highlight the important comparisons. It could use more summary sections that pull out the key tips rather than forcing you to dig through the technical justification to find the applicable sections.

Overall: German Wheat Beers must have been a revelation when it came out 17 years ago. Even today I am not sure there is a better reference for most of these styles, although Designing Great Beers comes close on all but Berliner weisse. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in brewing German wheat beers. It would have been nice to hear more details about the more obscure German beers, styles like Gose (contains wheat), Roggenbier (a dunkle weizen with rye malt instead of wheat), and Dampfbier (a hefeweizen without the wheat) would also have been worth mentioning at a minimum. This is still the definitive look at brewing wheat beers... at least until Stan (BLAM) Hieronymus' Brewing with Wheat is published. A bit late on this review, but with the nice weather here it has been getting harder to find time to write these. After next week's Microbrewed Adventures review I'll be done with my initial set of reviews. I've got an Amazon order in for Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer as well as Drew Beechum's The Everything Homebrewing Book, so there will be more reviews coming sporadically. It seems like there are lots of other brewing books out there, any suggestions for other books I haven't covered (particularly new titles)?

Traditional Hefeweizen

Here is a recipe and tasting of a pretty low gravity hefeweizen I brewed a month ago. It is one of the fasted beer styles from mash tun to glass so I thought it was a good one to brew near the start of the brewing season (even though it isn't exactly a classic cold weather beer because it is so light and drinkable).

I decided to taste it very young because hefeweizens are supposed to be best as fresh as possible (because of the low alcohol and hopping). After tasting it I think it may still be a bit too young, but I will revisit it again sooner than I would for most of my big/funky beers.

The recipe is very simple just two malts (wheat and pilsener) and one hop (spalt). The main character of the beer, classically a combination of banana and clove, comes from the yeast. For this beer I lowered the fermentation temperature to 62, this is below what many people suggest, but I wanted to make sure the isoamyl acetate (an ester that not only smells like banana, but is actually found in bananas) didn't get out of control. I also added a short mash rest at 113 to free more ferulic acid which the yeast then turns into clove flavor/aroma (4-vinyl guaiacol).

The grain bill and mash were very similar to the no-boil Berliner Weiss I did about a year ago, but you can see how much darker this one is as a result of the boil. The massive flavor differences are a result of the yeast (and bacteria) selection.

Tasting 11/18/08

Appearance – Beautiful stark-white meringue head, great retention, and nice lacing. The beer itself is golden and appropriately cloudy. The higher than average level of carbonation is visible. It certainly looks the part of a German hefeweizen.

Smell – Big spicy clove aroma with a hint of overripe banana. Relatively clean with just a hint of sulfur. There are also some fresh bready background notes.

Taste – Yeasty rising bread is the first thing that comes to mind. The clove is certainly there, as is the banana, but neither is assertive as I expected. Almost no bitterness or really any hop contribution, as expected. This has only been in the bottle for 10 days, so the yeast may just need a bit more time to fully clean up.

Mouthfeel – Light spritzy body. Not much else to say except that the thick head helps trick my tongue into thinking the beer is fuller/creamier than it is.

Drinkability & Notes – Very balanced and easy to drink. I think the banana is a bit too subdued at this point though, a slightly higher fermentation temperature would not be a bad idea, but only a touch.

SessionWeizen

Recipe Specifics (All-Grain)
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.00
Anticipated OG: 1.043
Anticipated SRM: 2.9
Anticipated IBU: 12.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71 %
Wort Boil Time: 115 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
----------------------
3.50 lbs. Germany Wheat Malt
3.50 lbs. Germany Pilsener

Hops
-----
1.75 oz. Spalter Spalt @ 65 min.

Extras
-------
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 20 Min.

Yeast
------
WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC
Profile known for: Where I live

Calcium(Ca): 45.6 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 9.9 ppm
Sodium(Na): 16.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 54.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 32.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 89.9 ppm

Mash Schedule
---------------
4 vinyl guaiacol 15 min @ 113 (Infusion)
Protein 10 min @ 126 (Direct)
Sacch Rest 1 40 min @ 144 (Direct)
Sacch Rest 2 40 min @ 161 (Decoction boiled for 20 minutes)

Notes
-----
10/19/08 Brewed by myself

Based loosely on Live Oak Hefeweizen.

Direct heated to Sacch II rest, decoted about a gallon, transferred the rest of the mash from the pot to the cooler, by the time the decoction was added back the main mash had lost enough heat to keep the temp near 160.

2.5 gallons of first runnings. Batch sparged. Collected 6.25 gallons of 1.033 wort. Diluted down to 7 gallons because efficiency was better than expected.

Started a 1 pint starter the night before brewing.

Hops adjusted down from 2% AA because they are a year old.

Chilled down to 71, strained out hops, put into chest freezer at 55 at 4:30 PM. Added some of the wort from the beer to the starter to help the yeast.

At 9:00 PM I pitched the now very happy/active quart of starter.

Full krausen after 20 hours.

Very active fermentation for 72 hours.

10/23/08 Raised ambient temp to 62 to help it finish up.

10/26/08 Down to ~1.012 (hard to read through foam). Slight sulfur aroma, and overall a bit subdued.

10/31/08 Dropped temp to 45, then 38 to get it to clear up a bit.

11/07/08 Bottled with 4 oz of cane sugar aiming for 3.2 volumes of CO2.