I brewed on Friday October 17. I found this recipe on, “Electric Brewery”. It was for a 12 gal batch and I cut it down to a 5 gal batch;
9# - maris otter
1/4 # pale ale
1/4 # amber malt
1/4 # caramel 90
1/4 # caramel 60
hop;
1 oz combination of williamette and galena for 1 oz 60
1 1/2 oz friggle 10
1 1/2 oz UK EG
1 1/2 dry hop the last three days
yeast;
lallemand munch classic
153 for 90 mins
168 mash and sparge for 20 min
I think my ph was around 4.8 OG 1.052
Nice! It looks like some kind of English bitter or ESB? Except the yeast had me confused. Isn’t that a wheat beer yeast?
yes it is a wheat yeast. When I got home , I noticed it was a wheat yeast. English bitter.
Well that could be weird
I’d ferment it on the cold side and try to knock those esters back IMO
I was smelling from the air lock from the activation process , and it smelled hoppy.
The hop aroma has left the fermenter!!
Try dry hopping AFTER the yeast has about stopped.
Sneezles
That is the plan ; UKEG 1 1/2 oz last 3 days.
Using a wheat beer yeast is pretty bold. Let us know how it turns out!
I checked the gravity and it is at 1.01 on Tuesday. I gave it a until the weekend to make sure and it has not changed. I never throw out the test and taste and enjoy. After reading the screw up with the yeast , it tasted like a bitter, with no after taste so far.I even checked the temperature of fermentation and it was 75. I could very easily not dry hop, but I am. A question I do have is, can I do a ph test?
Sure, you can do a pH test. I’m not sure what benefit you would get from that, other than knowing in case you brew it again.
Do you have a way to control your fermentation temps? 75° is awful high. In addition to off flavors you get a lot of fusel alcohols which create a hot, solvent type burn in your final product.
I did dry hop with 1 1/2 oz of UKEG. I did bottling on Wednesday. Ending up with 3 bottles short of 2 cases. I did use my new PH tester. It also does the temp. It was at 67.6 and a PH of 45. I never throw away the beer after testing for gravity. I think the favor from the yeast starting to come out compare to last time. I have to wait and see, but I know I am making this again with the right yeast.
Do you have testing solutions to verify your tester is within range?
Sounds like the pH, 4.5, is close for the finished product. Check the pH on some store boughten ones.
Sneezles
I bought the tester on line. I followed the directions and dipped the tester in a 7.0 solution for calibration.
I would encourage you to calibrate at both 4.0 and 7.0. pH of 4.5 is normal for a finished beer. Although dry hops contain acids, they can actually cause an increase of pH, so the beer likely finished a little lower.
If you enjoy this beer, I would encourage you to brew it again with a proper ESB strain so you can compare. You could very well like this one better!
Funny that you say that , I was going to calibrate with the 4.0 with the 7.0. My plan is to do just that for my first brew time of next spring or summer which ever comes first……..hahaha.
Just so you know, I have been drinking this beer, When I first tried it, I wanted to dump it all.I had an expectation of what I thought it was going to taste like. I waited a few days and tried it again and I enjoyed it. The taste of the wheat yeast and a strong bitter is like hefeweizen bitter. The color is hazy and a little darker than a pale ale. Brian from ONCO Fermations said that it needed more malt flavor , I agree. Not sure if I am going to decrease the hops or change the grain bill. Might change to 9/12lbs maris otter 1/2lbs pale ale. Or adding biscuit flavor malt. Right now I am thinking out loud… I might take out the carmal 60&90 and crystal malt 1/2lb or cut back on the 1/2 oz on fruggle and UK. Change the yeast for sure.
Caramel/crystal are the same malts, depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean yer on.
When brewing a wheat, I didn’t add any “flavorful” malts. I d have to look, but I thought pretty close to half light malt/wheat, maybe substitute one pound of light malt with marris otter.
Sneezles
Thank you for the suggestion. I am trying to get more malt flavor. This beer was not to be a wheat beer, wrong yeast. I would like to get more of a biscuit or malty flavors to the party.
Have you used melanoidin malt? Might be what you’re looking for. Use is at your discretion. I find it very powerful and keep it below 5%.
I will give it a try thank you
