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Recently, I brewed my first beer using a recipe that I had developed from scratch. I'm sure it won't be perfect, but we'll see what happens. Here are the particulars: Das OtterWeizen ABV - 5.61% IBU - 23.36 Batch size - 1 gallon 1 pound Maris Otter 1 pound wheat 60-minute mash between 144 and 152 degrees 60-minute boil Hops: 0.10 oz Mandarina Bavaria at beginning of boil 0.10 oz East Kent Golding at 30 minutes 0.10 oz Saaz with 5 minutes left in the boil Yeast - 5.5g of DanStar Munich The brew went off with no trouble at all; in fact, it almost seemed too easy. Mash temperatures effortlessly stayed well within the range described above, the sparge went very quickly, and the boil was without incident. After cooling the wort down below 70 degrees, I pitched the yeast with no trouble, and the fermenter is now sitting in my closet with ambient temperatures in the high 60s. I'm considering bumping that up a bit, in order to promote some of the banana and clove highlights that German wheat beers are famous for. I went back and forth over which hops to use and finally settled on an English hop, a German hop and a noble hop, added in descending order according to alpha acids. This is all a little more elaborate than my usual usage of hops, but I figured it couldn't hurt, and my hope is that it will produce a beer with mild bitterness and a fair amount of aroma. I considered throwing the peel from one orange into the boil with 2 minutes left, but elected not to. This is definitely something to consider in the future, as it would add a little bitterness and, of course, flavour. After a few days of healthy fermentation, things settled down a bit and the yeast was free to do its job at leisure. Also interesting is that as the beer settled down, the colour really took on a nice hue; sort of between butterscotch and caramel. I'm not sure how it will end up looking in the end, but I'm liking what I see so far. I also caught a whiff of the aroma that is developing; it's really nice! at first, I was concerned that the hops here might be a bit on the subtle side, but I am happy to wait and see the final result before passing judgment. In any case, as time passed, it sure took on a really nice aroma, making what I think will be an interesting companion to the unique qualities of the Maris Otter. This hop combination/schedule is something that I just knocked together, but it might prove to be a good one - time will tell. Here is a label that I put together for this beer - I usually allow 3 weeks total for fermentation; we're about halfway through that time period now, and I expect to bottle this beer the weekend after this one. I checked on it this morning and it is looking good; smelling good and hopefully turning into something really special. More as it happens, etc. &c.... Ron | ||
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Last night, 8 June, I put this brew in to cold-crash. I'll bottle it sometime this weekend. It looked and smelled pretty good, so we'll see what we end up with! | |||
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I bottled my OtterWeizen today, 12 June. For this 1-gallon batch, I got 9 bottles, which seems to be about the norm. I had just enough left over for a very small sample, and I was eager to see how this experimental recipe would taste. Keeping in mind that this is not the final flavour of the beer (time in the bottle does change it, as it carbonates, develops and matures), I found it to be very good and certainly interesting. The Maris Otter has a lot of character of its own, and the wheat was a good match for it. The hops might have been just a tad bitter, but we'll see how it turns out after a few weeks and carbonation. I didn't catch any of the citrus notes that the Mandarina Bavaria hop is famous for, but that might be my fault; I had intended to dry-hop for a few days with a little of the Mandarina Bavaria, but forgot to do so. The Saaz and East Kent Golding seemed to play well together, and I am reasonably certain that this combination was a good choice. Conclusion: at this early stage, it seems like I've got a nice thing going here - we'll see in a couple of weeks! | |||
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I sampled this beer last night; it's still pretty young - perhaps the youngest that I've ever sampled a beer - but I was impressed, and this beer definitely deserves some consideration in the future. I'll have more to say later, but here are a few first impressions. Appearance - on the lighter side, but with an obvious hue contributed by the Maris Otter - maybe like light butterscotch or straw...or a light honey. I'm not good at descriptions like this but will try to get a photo next time. It was mostly clear with a little bit of cloudiness, presumably due to the "weizen heritage." The beer poured with a very nice, white head that I think will get creamier as it develops in the bottle over time. The thing that I liked about this was that it was one of the few where I got some definite, undeniable lacing on the mug that lasted throughout the time that the beer was in there. Aroma - this was a but muddled; having said that, it was good. It is probably just wishful thinking on my part, but I believe there was some nuttiness in there as well, once again from the Maris Otter. This (or something) did seem to compete a bit with the hops, but I can't say for sure as I am in relatively uncharted territory, at least for my experience. Taste - Very good indeed, with some room for improvement, I am sure. Carbonation was good, maybe just a bit high, but nothing terrible. Considering my method ("guesstimating" with honey, maple syrup, agave etc., using about 2 tablespoons per gallon as an average), I can't complain at all. The beer itself had a honey-like quality, along with this nuttiness from the Maris Otter - if I throw some oats in this in the future, maybe I have the potential for some sort of Honey-Nut Cheerios thing - I'm not sure. As noted above, the hops seem a bit muddled. It was just a slight hair too bitter, I think, with no real flavour contribution that was immediately discernible, except for just a hint from the Saaz. I didn't immediately detect any of the banana, clove or bubble gum that I expected from the Bavarian yeast; but then again, there was something in the background that could have been it. I'm not sure. The finish was good, and kept me reaching for the mug. There was something there that I couldn't exactly identify - not good or bad, but different. I shared this beer with my dad, who is a fan of beers at the lighter end of the spectrum. He was much less wordy than I am above, and kept it simple: "this looks like beer and states good." Conclusion - a little more bottle conditioning will definitely improve this beer, but it really was bloody good to begin with, considering that the entire recipe was a complete guess on my part, every step of the way. I do think that some modification of the hops schedule is warranted for the future; the first thing that came to mind was to switch the Mandarina Bavaria and East Kent Golding hops, using the former for flavor and the latter for bittering. As for the Saaz; I'm thinking that I might want to perhaps double it, next time - or at least add it at knock-out, rather than at 5 minutes. Another possible tweak might be in adding some form of oats, as mentioned above. I may also add some honey at knock-out, in order to develop this unexpected characteristic that cropped up in the results. I will go over these ideas a bit in my head and come up with a plan. For now, the recipe will stay as-is, pending development. Any thoughts would definitely be appreciated, and I'll try to get a photo posted the next time I open one up. | |||
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