Today, I brewed a 1-gallon batch of Summer Wheat, from Brooklyn Brew Shop. As with all of my "Tips and Advice" threads, this will be a running account of the experience and the things that I learn during the process.

As usual, I'll start with the particulars:

Informational link: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/be...ummer-wheat-beer-mix

Instructions: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/di...t%20Instructions.pdf

Awesome, must-see video: https://vimeo.com/40614450

This is Brooklyn Brew Shop's go-to wheat beer, made with American wheat and brewed with Styrian Golding hops. Brooklyn Brew Shop describes it as a light, crisp and slightly spicy ale that promises a refreshing taste of summer any time of the year. After brewing this mix and encountering the aromas of the grains and hops, I am inclined to agree.

This brew went well without any complications, following the instructions above and referring to BBS's "How to Brew" video:

https://vimeo.com/11354805

The wort is tucked away in my closet, with a space heater keeping temperatures in the optimum zone, and with luck, the fermentation and bottling will go off without a hitch. One thing that I did differently during the mash was to keep the lid on my pot (an enameled, cast-iron Dutch oven); this was a big help in keeping temperatures steady and constant, and I had little trouble staying with in the desired temperature range of 144-152 degrees.

One interesting aspect about this variety is that it lends itself extremely well to experimentation. BBS offers 7 suggestions here:

http://brooklynbrewshop.com/th...er-wheat-seven-ways/

Each of them looks interesting, and of course, one could try a limitless number of other ideas; however, for this first time making Summer Wheat, I kept it simple and simply brewed it "by the book."

I'll update the thread as the progress continues, and will try to design a label this week, as well. If anyone has any experience with this particular recipe, or has been considering giving it a try, please feel free to follow along and post comments, feedback or other replies any time.

Ron

I looked in on my beer this morning, and things seem to be going great so far. The ambient temperature is holding fairly steady at 68 degrees, give or take a couple of degrees, and there were definite signs of active fermentation. The colour of the beer was looking very nice, somewhere between light caramel and butterscotch.

Brooklyn Brew Shop's instructions advise to allow fermentation to continue for two weeks before bottling, but I have found that three weeks seems to be necessary for full fermentation, and four or six weeks will not hurt the final product at all. I am not sure if this has to do with temperature variations or other factors, but my beers has been consistently good to very good, so I don't fight it. With this in mind, I will switch over from the blow-off tube to an airlock on Wednesday and then try to forget about it for a while, until it is time to bottle.

More as it happens, etc. &c....

I swapped out the blow-off tube for an airlock when I got home from work today. The beer looked great - just a bare shade darker than I expected, but in a beautiful way, as described in my post above. It also had a really nice aroma, which I am assuming is coming from the combination of the malts and the Styrian Golding hops, with a nice earthiness coming from the wheat, too.

Ambient temps are holding nicely right about 68 degrees, and and conditions seem just fine.

So far, so good ~

I've been peeking in on my beer each morning and occasionally in the evenings. Things seem to be progressing in fine fashion and I am seeing signs of active, though slowed, fermentation, which follows the exact same experience on previous brews.

When I looked in this morning, ambient temperatures had crept up a bit, just a hair over 70 degrees. My guess is that my youngest son was trying to be "helpful," and bumped up the space heater a bit. No worries, I put it down to the previous setting, and things are fine, I'm sure.

From here on out, I will be leaving the beer alone until it is time to bottle it, most likely 3 weeks after brew day, maybe 4 or 5 depending on my schedule. I have not noticed that a little extended time in the fermenter has been detrimental, and it actually seems that my best brews are the ones that are bottled after 6 weeks, or even a bit longer. I'm reasonably confident that we're going to have a really nice ale when this is over, and I'm looking forward to sampling it.

Here is the label that I came up with....

After the first 4 or 5 days, fermentation slowed down considerably with this beer; this is normal, but for a while it looked like it had actually stopped. For several days, it looked as though absolutely nothing was taking place - not even any tiny bubbles up around the top level of wort. I figured that might be all that this one had to give, but over the weekend, I did notice a few of those tiny bubbles, so it looks as though things are moving along. It is smelling like a really nice beer, and I think that we've got a good one here.

BBS's instructions say to allow the fermentation to continue for two weeks before bottling; however, I tend to wait at least three weeks or longer, depending on the conditions. With this one, I'll give it an extra week, just to be sure.