Typed Slowly Treatment for Southern Culture Myopia.

Brewed Slowly: #4 American Cherry Wheat

I've been MIA for a while as far as posting new material goes, but I've got some beer to write about. This bitch don't write itself, yo.

About two weeks ago, I cooked up a batch of American Wheat, which was/is to become a Cherry Wheat beer--and hopefully not as overwhelmingly cherry as a certain cherry beer I've publicly berated. This beer has already been bottled and should be primed sufficiently about a week from now. If you want to find out what kinds of frog legs and tennis shoes I tossed in the pot, you know what to do.

The software:

6 lbs Northern Brewer Wheat liquid extract (65-35)

1 lb Weyermann Pale wheat grain

1 oz Cascade pellets

0.5 oz Williamette pellets

Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast

2 oz. cherry extract

(I've been cruising on autopilot with these last few beers, for better or worse, and basically follow the same steps while brewing. This'll read familiar if you've followed any of the last few entries.)

the beginnings of an american wheat

I steeped the pale wheat grain for 30 minutes at a temp. between 150 and 160 F. I started with only 1.5 gallons of water. After that half hour, I added another 1.5 gallons of water and brought it all to a boil. Then the extract and Cascade pellets went in. I let this boil for 90 minutes, which is longer than I usually boil, and to be honest, I don't remember why I let it go this long. There's certainly nothing wrong with cooking it the extra 30 minutes, but I don't remember having a reason for doing so.

After the wort boiled for 90 minutes, I took it off the heat and tossed in the 0.5 oz. of Williamette pellets and let the pot sit in an ice bath. (I still haven't gotten a wort chiller, but if anyone wants to donate one to the cause, it will be accepted.)

This beer was only the second one I got a Wyeast smack pack for (the first time I used a smack pack, I didn't actually pop the nutrient pack on the inside--nonetheless, the yeast worked), and I made damn sure to bust the nutrient pack this time. The yeast pack swelled, so I know I got it. I pitched the yeast when the wort had cooled to about 75 F.

fully proofed smack pack meeting wheat wort

When I bottled this beer I added a little less than half of a 4 oz. bottle of cherry extract.

The starting gravity was 1.050, and when I bottled the beer, it was 1.010. When it's ready to drink I'll update.

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