American Pale Wheat

Summer is rearing it's ugly head already here in Phoenix AZ.  We've already breached 100 F and seems like most days are in the 90s now.  The real pain (110+) will be arriving in the next month and it will stick around for the next 4 or 5 months.  With that in mind, I decided it might be time for something citrusy and refreshing.

I think an American Pale Wheat will fit that bill very nicely.  I really enjoy Lagunitas' Little Sumpin' Sumpin. It has a really nice hop character without being all that bitter which, due to the wheat, doesn't leave your mouth feeling so dry.  I'm a big fan of the Mad Fermetationist's blog and decided to brew the recipe he created for the Modern Times Brewery in San Diego - Fortunate Islands.  I have not had the original yet - we've been meaning to take a trip out to SoCal.  It's really awesome that they keep those recipes posted - at this point it's one of the most highly rated American Pale Wheats on Beer Advocate.

The recipe calls for a massive amount of hops (3/4 of a pound).  He used hop extract for bittering and then everything else is post flame out - 3 oz flame-out, 3 oz hop-back, and 5 oz dry hopped split between fermeter and keg.  My LHBS didn't have any hop extract and I don't have a hop rocket.  I am also not kegging so keg hopping isn't an option either.  I've attempted to compensate for those limits but I'm not sure how close I'll actually get to the final product.  Anyway, my wort seems plenty hoppy even without the hop-back.

It is a nice looking and smelling wort - very cloudy at this point though.  With all the hops it was an expensive beer and a labor intensive brew day.  Given the pedigree of this beer and the fact that I hit the numbers well I'm very optimistic that this will be a nice batch.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 5 lbs 8 oz Wheat Malt
• 4 lbs 2 Row
• 12 oz Caravienne Malt
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Amarillo (Pellet, 8.8% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.4% AA) at 15 min
• 1 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 10.4% AA) at 0 min
• 1 oz Citra (Cone, 13.9% AA) at 0 min
• 1 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 10.4% AA) Dry hop
• 4 oz Citra (Cone, 13.9% AA) Dry hop
• Yeast:
• US-05
• Water:
• 9 gal RO water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5 gal
• Mash:
• 155 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 65 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 63 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.048)
• Efficiency:
• 63% (Target 70%)
• FG:
• 1.008 (Target 1.007)
• ABV:
• 5.25% (Target 5.38%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/11/14 Brew Day - 6:45 AM to 11:45 Including setup and cleanup
• Added calcium chloride and gypsum to 5 gal of bottled water
• Heated 4 gal of strike water up to 186 F (assuming a 20 F temp drop to the cooler mash tun and a target strike temp of 166 F to get to 155 F mash temp).  This took 17 min
• Added 13 qt of 188 F (overshot) strike water to mash tun for a 1.25 ratio of water to grain
• Let mash tun settle for 10 min and ended up at 172 F (mash tun takes about 16 F rather than the 20 F I assumed).  Left lid open for a few minutes to get down to 166 F
• Added 10.25 lbs of grain - stirred well to eliminate dough balls

• After 5 min the mash was at ~158 F.  I stirred it again and then 5 min later it was still a little high - 156 F maybe (temps varied from 150 to 160 F through the mash).  I decided to let it be.  Did not attempt a pH reading this time - trusted that the water treatment and acid malt will do their job
• After 50 min I ran a iodine starch conversion test - sample turned a reddish brown (rather than black) which told me conversion was complete

• After 60 min the mash temp was 154 F
• Added 8 qts of 175 F mash out water, stirred, let settle for 5 min, vorlaufed, and then drained the first runnings

• Double batch sparged with 2.5 gal of 175 F water each - stirred, settled for 5 min, vorlaufed, and drained

• Brought the ~8 gal of wort up to a boil - took about 18 min
• Waited for the hot break to clear (took 5 min) before adding the 60 min hop addition

• It was a very windy day so I had the lid partially on the kettle

• At 20 min I added the Irish Moss
• Added the 15 min hops
• Added the flame out hops and did a 20 min hop stand.  As I can't have the lid on the kettle with the chiller in, and with the dust and wind, I decided to sanitize the chiller with starsan rather than putting it in for the boil

• Chilled down to tap water temps - took about 20 min
• Transferred to fermentor - not an easy task with all those flame out hops.  Got about 5 gal of wort - I probably left 0.5 gal of wort in the hops and cold break

• Moved to the 63 F fermentation chamber
• Rehydrated dry yeast in 2/3 cup of 80 F RO water and then moved into the fermentation chamber to chill with the beer
• Pitched into the beer once it got down to 70 F
• Aerated the wort by shaking the fermenter
• Measured OG as 1.042 at 81 F - per my hydrometer calibration this measurement is 6 points under so my actual OG is 1.048 - right on target
• 5/12/14 - 18 hrs later - no airlock activity yet
• 5/13/14 - Still no airlock activity but there is a strong carbon dioxide smell (burn) in the fermentation chamber which tells me that fermentation is well under way
• 5/15/14 - Allowed temperature to rise to 70 F in the fermentation chamber to help fermentation finish out
• 5/18/14 - Pulled a sample which measured 1.004 at 71 F - per my hydrometer calibration this is under measuring by 4 points so it's really at 1.008 (right about on target).  Sample has a strong smell of citra and nice fruity/tropical/citrusy hop flavor on the finish.  Bitterness is pretty subdued.  I don't detect any off-flavors at this point - I think it was a good clean fermentation.  I would like to get this into bottles a bit sooner than my normal 4 week cycle to have more benefit from the large flame out hop addition which may fade quickly.  I will check the gravity again in a few days, when I start the cold crashing process for my English Bitter.  If it has finished fermentation I will crash it as well and then transfer it over to secondary for 1 week of dry-hopping.
• 5/21/14 - Measured another sample at 1.004 at 71 F.  Based on this I believe fermentation is complete.  Cold crashed down to 33 F.
• 5/22/14 - Added gelatin for fining
• 5/25/14 - Transferred to secondary onto 5 oz of dry hops and moved the fermenter into the fermentation chamber set to 63 F where it will stay for the next week.  The hops are in a mesh bag with stainless steel bolts to weigh it down.  I underestimated the buoyancy of the dry hops so it's actually floating at the top of the fermenter.  I dunked it a few time to make sure all the hops were wet - I hope I didn't cause excessive oxidation in the process.  At this point I only have 4.5 gal of beer - I am sure the hops will soak up quite a bit more - need to compensate for this next time.  The beer and hops smell amazing.

• 5/31/14 - Bottled with 4 oz of priming sugar.  Ended up with 4.25 gal which got got me 42 12 oz bottles.  Measured the gravity at 1.004 at 70 F which is 1.008 per my hydrometer calibration.  The dry hops had a major impact on this beer - the hop flavor and aroma, which were very good after primary fermentation, are so much more pronounced now.  The beer has such a prominent tropical/citrus (orange and grapefruit) flavor that it's almost like there's real juice in it.  It is very nice at this point.  I think I'm going to have to start drinking this beer in the first week of bottle conditioning to get the most out of the hops that I can.
• 6/10/14 - Tasting - Intense aroma and great hop flavor - strong citrus flavor.  It's a very nice sessionable hoppy beer.  I am very happy with how this beer turned out.
• 6/22/14 - I have been drinking this one pretty quickly.  I've noticed that the aroma has faded quite a bit.  The citrus flavor/aroma has subsided the most so now the more dank flavors have come to the forefront.  Still a nice beer but not quite as good as it was for the initial tasting.
• 7/2/14 - Finished the last bottle of this.  It was a very good beer.  The hops did fade noticeably but it still had a very nice hop character.
• 9/10/17 - Re-brewed with Citra and Galaxy hops.

Lessons Learned:

1. I think my efficiency was below 70% due to the loss of wort in the hops.  I think I left at least 0.5 gal behind.  A strainer bag of some sort to get the liquid but leave the hops probably could have helped.
2. Seemed to get good mash behavior without checking the pH.  I think the combination of water additions and the acid malt worked for me.