Finally I remembered to take pictures of one of my brew days. This time I was trying my hand at a traditional Hefeweizen
The recipe was a simple extract with steeping grains:
OG: 1.057FG: 1.014
IBU: 16
ABV: 5.5%
SRM: 4
6.00lbs Wheat Dry Malt Extract (85.7%)
.5lbs Torrified Wheat (7.1%)
.5lbs Vienna (7.1%)
1.0oz Hallertau Pellets 3.1% Alpha Acid @ 60 mins The best way to document the day is in pictures so here we go.
Here are all the ingredients:
Here is everything ready to go in the pot
Time to start the steeping process. Torrified wheat and Vienna grains are in the bag. I am using the torrified wheat to get a bit more wheat flavor and solid head retention.
I was shooting for right around 155 degrees for a steeping temp. I got a little high but still pretty good.
While the grains were steeping I brought a gallon of sparge water up to temp.
Gratuitous home grown hops shot :) Those little buggers will be in the pot this fall.
Shooting for 170 degrees on the sparge water.
Unfortunately it is impossible to sparge the steeping grains ad take photos at the same time. So use your imagination. I pulled the grains out of the pot and slowly poured the sparge water over the top. This is the aftermath, the spent grains.
This is also my first time using Dry Malt Extract (DME) in a brew.
Yum, hop juice.
The nice thing about making a simple hefe? One hop addition and simple DME additions. So now that the boil is rolling....
Time to relax an have a homebrew. This is my Russian Imperial Stout. It has been in the bottles for about 8 months or so. It has been changing every month recently. Right now I think it is hitting it's stride.
This is the first time I am using my new wort chiller too. Very cool. WAY easier then dumping ice in the sink. Cooled about 3 gallons of wort from just under boiling to 70 degrees in about 15 minutes. Awesome.
I am going to call it 1.062 SG. A few points over my target of 1.057, I think is because I went a bit high on my steeping temperature and extracted a bit more fermentables than I wanted to. Overall pretty good though.
This beer has been in the fermenter for about a week now an has slowed down. It should be ready to go into the keg this week sometime. I will update once I draw the first pint.
Cheers.
