American Pale Wheat Take IV

I kicked the keg of my last hoppy beer in record time - it is really hard to top drinking a low alcohol hoppy beer I'm finding.  So, it is time for another.  For this one, I'll be going back to a favorite of mine - American Pale Wheat with Citra and Amarillo hops.  This will be my 4th attempt at it (read about the first, second, and third).  Citra and Amarillo are a wonderful combination that produce a really lovely tropical and fruity flavor.  I'm going to go with 8 oz of dry hop this time which is an increase from version III which used 6 oz.

First Dry Hop

I've made several hoppy beers now with my kegging system and am very happy with the results so far.  I am trying to find the optimal process for hopping these beers as I go along.  Oxygen exposure for these hoppy beers is of particular concern.  The theory is that oxygen exposure speeds up the degradation of hop character such that the beer loses it's bold hop flavor faster than it would have otherwise.

I had been putting hops in the serving keg which involves opening the keg that I'd previously purged of oxygen and then adding dry hops to it (inevitably along with some oxygen).  This is under the theory that the beer being in contact with hops the entire serving time will ensure the hop flavor remains fresh.  After adding the hops I have done a quick few rounds of depressurizing the keg and then releasing pressure to try to clear oxygen.  The question with this process is does the contact with the hops benefit the beer more than the opening of the keg might be hurting it.

To start to try to understand that answer, I've decided to try using all my dry hops in the fermenter.  I'll do two doses (a Double Dry hop) - one during the tail end of fermentation (Day 3) and one after fermentation has completed (Day 7).  I'll plan to cold crash and fine in the second week and keg on day 14.  This way I can move the beer into a completely purged keg.  I'll be very interested to see how the hop character lasts with this method (at some point maybe I'll do a true side by side test of two batches and include a triangle tasting).

I'm going with the normal malt bill for this one.  I hope to bring the beer in at around 4% ABV this time.

For yeast, I'll be using a Second Pitch of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale.  I'd previously used this in a Clone of Timothy Taylor's Landlord.  It blended so well into that beer that I couldn't pick out any specific contributions but had imagined it was a strong contributor to the overall pleasing package.  I'm hoping it lends something noticeable to this very hoppy beer.  The yeast also puts up a lingering krausen (lasted for a few weeks last time) - I'm wondering if this might provide a bit of extra O2 protection for the beer for the dry hopping.

Anyhow, very much looking forward to drinking this beer

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 5 lb Wheat
• 4 lb Golden Promise
• 12 oz Caravienne
• 3 oz Acid
• Hops:
• 1 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 3 oz Citra (Leaf, 13.1% AA) Dry Hop at Day 3
• 1 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 8.8% AA) Dry Hop at Day 3
• 3 oz Citra (Leaf, 13.1% AA) Dry Hop at Day 7
• 1 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 8.8% AA) Dry Hop at Day 7
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale (2nd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 3 gal tap water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.5 gal
• Mash:
• 153 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 2 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.045 (Target 1.043)
• Efficiency:
• 68% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 77% (Target 71%)
• ABV:
• 4.59% (Target 4.1%)

Brewing Notes:

• 4/3/21 - Built a starter with 110g of DME and 1 L of water.  Used a half full pint jar with the yeast I'd saved from my Timothy Taylor's Landlord Clone.  Set this up on my stir plate.  The beer was foaming nicely the next morning
• 4/4/21 - Brewday - 10:45 AM to 3:30 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 8 gal to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to it so I wouldn't forget
• Moved 6 gal to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until it had settled out at 163 F
• Stopped the RIMS and added the grain.  Stirred well to eliminate clumps.  Let this settle for 10 min
• Set the RIMS to cycle at 154 F.  Cycled for 50 min

• With 20 min left I added 5 more gal of spring water to the HLT and heated this to 200 F
• Drained the mash tun to the boil kettle.  Added water to the top of the mash as I went to keep the grain bed partially covered.  Started heating the mash after collecting 3 gal.  Had it to  a boil at 4 gal.  I then, stopped the sparge, topped up the mash with another gal and then let it sit for 10 min
• Added the bittering hops at this point
• Did my second batch sparge, topping up as I went, until 8 gal had been collected.  Did this second sparge slowly enough to keep a boil going
• Boiled for 60 min
• Added Irish Moss at 15 min
• With 5 min left I added the wort chiller to sanitize and the flavoring hops
• Chilled the beer down to 185 F and did a 30 min hop stand.  I kept the burner on low during the initial chill to prevent temperature from dropping too far.  By the end of the hop stand the beer was down to 65 F

• Chilled down to 70 F
• Transferred to a SS brew bucket.  Let the beer fall a foot or so to aerate
• Measured the gravity as 1.045.  Collected 5.5 gal.  The yeast is going to get me pretty close to 6 gal so I decided to not top up
• Pitched my yeast - used the whole starter

• Set it up in the fermentation chamber set to 66 F.  I'm using a new pressure seal dome lid on this batch along with a jar to collect CO2
• 4/5/21 - The beer was bubbling pretty vigorously by the next morning
• 4/7/21 - Still bubbling on Day 3 as I add the first round of dry hops.  I quickly take off the input port from the dome lid and drop in my hops.  Hopefully the yeast will take care of any O2 added in this process
• 4/11/21 - Added my second round of dry hops.  I pressurized the fermenter with C02 to 2 PSI once I'd added the dry hops
• 4/14/21 - Chilled the beer down to 35 F while maintaining 2 PSI of pressure with a C02 Tank
• 4/15/21 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 4/16/21 - Kegged today.  Ended up just a bit short of filling the keg.  The hops absorbed a lot of beer.  Measured the gravity as 1.010
• 5/9/21 - Tasting Notes - Nice bold hop aroma and flavor to this beer with a good amount of complexity in the hop character.  I really like drinking this beer - the bitterness and dryness of it really call for me take another sip and to pour another pint.  Also a really easy drinking beer at 4.6% ABV.  I am pleased that the hop character has remained very strong after 3 weeks in the keg