SWMBO #HomeBrew Brew-Day

I brewed yesterday.

So far, since the first day of Summer, this is only the third batch of beer I've brewed. Things have been busy. It was good to get a brew day in.

I have decided to call the beer I brewed yesterday "She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat". The SheppyBrew Beer Model (my wife) needs something in the keggerator, but when I asked her what she would like, she basically told me just make something she would like. Not much help. I considered some of the beers that have traditionally been her favorites, but nothing really jumped out at me as ones I necessarily wanted to brew at this time.

So, I came up with a new recipe, which as always you can review at the SheppyBrew Website (see She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat). The recipe borrowed elements from several of the Beer Model's recent favorites. It is a wheat beer like so many of her favorites ( Summer Lovin' Wheat, Whisky Wife Wit, Apricot Lovin' American Wheat, Boo Berry American Wheat, etc ... ). The rest of the base is Marris Otter like Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. It gets its specialty grain character from Biscuit and Caramunich like Buckwheat's BPA. It uses Tettnang hops  Ello Poppet.


Basically, I am thinking it will be a lighter version of Buckwheat's BPA with slightly different hop character.

Early Morning Start

 I got started before sunrise Sunday morning. Getting the strike water / mash-in where I wanted it went very smoothly (which is not always the case). I didn't have to adjust the temperature at all. I let the mash go about an hour and a half, starting at 150 and ending up at 148ish
.

The sun is up for the batch sparge

This time, I did my batch sparge before church, letting the wort sit in the brew-kettle for another hour and a half while we were gone. I suppose some conversion probably continued to happen while the wort was sitting there. The pre-boil gravity, though, was a little high, but really not that much.

Yummy wort

Starting to get the boil going

The boil went nice and smooth. I added the hops and yeast nutrient at the appropriate times. I used my usual chilling technique, bring the wort down to the mid-60's before pitching the yeast from the starter I had made. The OG came out at 1.048, which is about a point low from planned. This is obviously close enough for me.

Getting ready to add the hops

After starting the water through the wort chiller, I celebrated with a Gnasty the Gnome ESB. It is a delicious beer. Nice, rich, and caramelly at the beginning, finishing off with enough bitterness to cut through the sweetness of the malts. It really has ridiculous head formation, and is probably over-carbonated for the style. It is also probably too dark in color. Probably would get lots of  "out of style" comments on it, but it sure is good.

Gnasty ESB to celebrate the end of the boil

She Who Must Be Obeyed Wheat is bubbling away at 60 degrees today, and in fact I think I am about to add a blow-off tube. The carboy is filled a bit high.

Bubbling away today.

Now that the fermentation is well underway, I'll take the cooling ice away and let the temperature go up to 68 or so. I am thinking this will ferment out fast, and I can hoping get this in the keggerator within 2 weeks from now. We will see how it goes.

I'm sure the Beer Model will appreciate it. She has been resorting to Blue-Moon seasonals over the past few days.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Just want to say "hi"? Leave a comment below.