Summer Ale!

So a friend is having a going away party and finally decided on what he wanted me to brew. He likes Sam Adams Summer Ale. I found a recipe somewhere else, so this is based on that with a couple of tweaks due to availability of items:

7 lbs 2-row
2 lbs white wheat malt
0.5 lbs Carapils
0.5 lbs Flaked wheat
0.25 lbs C-60
2.5 oz acid malt

0.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker at 30 min (2% AA)
0.5 oz Saaz at 15 min (3.8% AA)

2 oz of lemon zest at 10 min
2 g of Paradise Seed (crushed) at 10 min

Fermenting with WLP008 (East Coast Ale)

OG at 65% efficiency (conservative) is 1.050, IBU’s 7.

Seems to be just about right where Sam Adams has their stats at. My WLP008 is in a starter now, but the guy at my LHBS said Wyeast 2565 might be interesting. I’m pretty sure I want to go with WLP008 but thinking of buying a bit more grain and doing a double batch, fermenting each yeast. Thoughts?

I’d drink it.

Looks good. Only change I’d make would be to use the zest and grains of paradise at flame out, and consider using a lighter crystal malt than c60.

Hi Templar,

That looks tasty! I recently did a wit with 2 oz of citrus peel (lemon and lime) at 5 minutes and it was potent at first taste. I had to let it sit for about two weeks to condition out and mellow. I am not quite certain which citrus was the culprit, but it was very noticeable.

I also found by experience that white wheat works well with Wyeast 2565.

:cheers:

[quote=“andymag”]Hi Templar,

That looks tasty! I recently did a wit with 2 oz of citrus peel (lemon and lime) at 5 minutes and it was potent at first taste. I had to let it sit for about two weeks to condition out and mellow. I am not quite certain which citrus was the culprit, but it was very noticeable.

I also found by experience that white wheat works well with Wyeast 2565.

:cheers: [/quote]

I’d put my money on the lime. I would stick to lemon for a beer like this-

Thanks Pietro. I remember we had a conversation about a month ago and you directed me to the brewing network episode regarding wits and what works. I think going forward, I’ll let the guys at Anheuser Busch Inbev figure out the lime angle in beer.

Well brewed this today. Waiting for my yeast to kick in. Decided to stick with the WLP008 and changed the lemon peel and paradise seeds to flameout. Everything else went pretty well, and hit my OG right on. The lemon/citrus smell was spectacular. Looking forward to drinking this one!

Just posting an update. Wow did this thing fly.

I maintained the fermentation with WLP008 at about 63-65 degrees in my fridge for the first few days. It initially started just great and had a nice foamy krausen. After a couple days, the foam subsided to this cheesy looking substance. Kind of concerned me at first so I looked around and found a bunch of people had this experience with WLP008. I let it go. Activity seemed to slow to almost nothing after 5 days. I warmed it up to 68-70, as it’s been a little fast for my taste and I was worried it might stall out on me before I hit my FG.

Here we are at one week. The cheesy substance is still there but very thin now and I can see yeasties sinking from the top. I decided to take a sample against my better judgement; I usually wait two weeks, but I was concerned that this had stalled on me. I was wrong. Went from 1.048 to 1.006 in a week. No noticeable off flavors. Nice citrus/peppery and lemon flavors with a good wheat backbone. As mentioned above, the C-60 might have been a bit too dark, but the color still seems OK. I’m impressed with my attenuation on this yeast. Still a very cloudy beer though, although I’ve read this is supposed to be a medium to low flocculator.

I’m going out of town until Tuesday so it’s going to sit in the fridge until next week. Should have plenty more time to clean up. I’ll take another sample to make sure it’s not going even lower, although I don’t see it going any more! The sample tasted very good and wasn’t too overpowering with the lemon/citrus. I’m excited to keg this and serve it at the party!