Ok I said never again. But...

I tasted a raspberry wheat beer last night.  I forced a 1 liter in a sanitized coke bottle (PET).

I know I said never again, but Wow.  This may be the best raspberry wheat beer I have ever tried.   And I made it.   In my kitchen.

So the old adage, "never say never"  holds true.   Because this morning I find my self already planning my next raspberry wheat beer.   But I think Ill make some changes.    I'm going to try both extract and (fresh puree).

Easy Texas Two Step Raspberry Wheat Beer: Extract with Grains with Raspberry Extract.
(a raspberry wheat you can make in your kitchen or counter top)

1 lbs  Flaked Wheat
1 lbs  Honey Malt
3.3 lbs Liquid Malt Extract Preferably Wheat  I like Briess
2  lbs Dry Malt Extract Wheat
1 oz Cluster hops (7 AAU) at 30
1 oz Hersbrucker (4 AAU) at 5 Minutes
1 satchel of Fermentis US-05
1 tsp of yeast nutrient

• Steep Grains at around 155-158 for 30 Minutes in 1 Gallon of Water
• Rinse Grains with .5 Gallon of Water.
• Add Dry Malt Extract with heat off and stir to mix it all in to the wort
• Separate the Wort into two 4 Gallon or larger pots
• Add Near Boiling Water to bring boil up to 6 Gallons
• Bring both pots to a boil
• with 30 minutes left add Cluster Hops in a bag
• with 5 minutes left add Hersbrucker Hops in a bag
• with 4.9 minutes left add the Liquid Malt Extract (heat off ) stir in, heat back on.
• with 4.9 minutes left add yeast nutrient.
• At the end of boil you should have around 5 gallons of wort.
• Chill wort (or don't chill, you can just put the lid on at flame out, let it cool for an hour or two, wrap the top of the pot, where the lid sits with plastic wrap and let it cool slowly, when I do this I let it sit all night.) 
• Pitch entire satchel of US-05
• Ferment at 65-68F 14 days in Primary
• Right before you transfer to 2ndary, Create a raspberry puree of 3 lbs of frozen raspberries. 
• Add to pot, bring to 160 F for 10 Minutes
• Mash with a potato masher.
• Run through a fine sieve with cheese cloth. to remove all seeds and skins
• Rack beer onto Puree. 
• A slight new fermentation will start. leave it alone for 2 weeks.
• On bottling day add bottling sugar and 1-2 oz of Raspberry Extract to bottling Bucket.  The amount will depend on the flavor provided by the puree.   So taste it and decide.   The extract has better aroma, the puree better flavor. 
• Condition for 1 Week, or longer it gets better with age. 

This will work for any fruit wheat beer.  Try it with apricot...yum

Real Fruit in a Wheat beer... Never again!

So Tuesday Night I bottled a Raspberry Wheat beer.   For the first time ever I used Frozen Raspberries.   I had become convinced, like many of you, that real fruit was the key to explosive flavor.   I pasteurized my frozen fruit and added them to secondary, then racked the beer on top of them.   It was a 3.5 gallon batch that I made on my stove top.  

Never again.  Even with bagging the fruit, I have never had that much Trub.   I managed to bottle 2.5 gallons of cloudy, all be it delicious, raz wheat.

From now on it is extract for me, or creating my own extract by completely mashing down the fruit and straining out all solids.   Should be a tasty brew but there is a good chance I'm the only one who will drink it.

Safale US 05 ... always a slow start, always good finish

US05  the workhorse of the home brew world.  You can make darn near any clean ale with the stuff.   I use it a lot.   I wash it, I use it again.  The washed yeasts are always great starters, and great clean finishers.  But every time I pitch a new sachet, even if i re hydrate, it takes 24 hours to really get going.  

Hey, I'm not complaining, the chico strain is great, but I think it is important to put it out there.  Dry US05 is a slow starter.  So there is your public service announcement for the morning.  

Risen APA 16 hours after pitch. 5.5 G in a 7.5 Glass Carboy

 

Risen APA 28 hours after pitch.

Cajun Injector worked like a charm

All these guys online talk about the need for massive BTU systems.  They tell you you can never get a quality boil with an electric Turkey Fryer.  I'm here to tell you, they're wrong.

We brewed this weekend with the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer.   IT HAD NO PROBLEM BOILING 6.5 GALLONS OF WORT.   Boiling Full Volumes of Wort is a real key to brewing better beer.

Now in fairness we did a partial mash, and heated our sparge water on the stove.   Then we did a near boiling water addition to bring our wort to volume and to temperature.  But once we were at a boil the Fryer did fine.  We left the lid on, but ajar.  This created a very large gap for ventilation of Steam and the dreaded DMS.

You can see for yourself in the video at the left.  It is boiling away.  The brew in the pot is our "Risen APA"

Even the guys who are the most scared of DMS would have to agree that is more than enough ventilation to allow for steam and DMS to escape.

Here is another video of the boil with the lid off.  Not quite as vigorous but still just fine for brewing beer.  This affordable kettle should be a tool that any brewer who wants to step up to BIAB or Partial Mash should consider.   There is just no reason to spend thousands of dollars on your brewing system.   Use your head, buy stuff that makes sense.  

The electric turkey fryer came...

My Brew Partner just received the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer.  7.5 Gallon Capacity.  It only has a 1650 Watt heating element which will produce roughly 5600 BTUs of heat.  So once it's boiling it should be fine.  It will certainly produce more BTUs than we are losing.  But we may need to add a 1300 watt immersion heater to get to a boil quickly.  That would take us to around 10000 BTUs.  It takes about 7200 BTUs to boil 6.5 gallons in an hour.  So we should reach boil from 170 (mash out) in under 30 minutes.  I can live with that.  We may also insulate the side walls.  Either way, it is a counter top BIAB system capable of 5 gallon batches, and easily capable of full volume partial mash and extract.

update:  the turkey fryer was awesome for Partial Mash.  It should be just as great for Partial Mash and Extract.   Im Sold

Let the awesome brewing begin.  Our focus will be on accessible American Style Ales, and Pale Ales.  For the Fall we will brew some festbier, and some porters.

Can't wait to try this thing out.

An Electric Turkey Fryer... dang near my dream rig.

Very excited that my brew partner just used a sales bonus to get us a 30 quart electric turkey fryer.   These things are awesome, and cost way less than a fancy E BIAB system.

There is only one problem with them.   They only have a 1650 Watt heating element.  They take a long time to heat up and struggle to create a rolling boil.   But I remember a professor in college proving to us that if the kettle was well insulated enough... a single candle could bring a gallon of water to a boil.

So we are thinking we are going to fill the void between the wall of the fryer and the pot with either high temperature mineral wool or 1 part Portland cement, and 5 parts per lite.  That should make this thing rock and roll.  Haven't completed the calculations yet.  But the bottom line is the unit can boil water right now, and with some basic modifications a rolling boil should be easily achieved.   This thing should be a beast for extract and partial mash as well.  update:  no insulation needed, the thing worked like a charm.   It's a beast for BIAB, Partial Mash, and extract. 

The slow heating is actually good for the mash, we'll start doughing in at about 130 and set the temp to 150.  That should be the equivalent of a brief protein rest, and should really help with lighter beers where we want perfect clarity.

This idea was inspired by this youtube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYOBc36r73o

The guy who made the video, Karl,  owns homebrew depot in Wasau WI.   if you live in the area patronize this guy.  He is loaded with common sense about home brewing.   Just go there and ask for Karl.  He'll set you straight.

Common Sense Brewery Spending

Today's post:   Is dedicated to the guys who have spend 5-10K on their home brewing set up.

Did you know you could buy a 1-3 BBL Professional set up for less money?

Just think about that...

5-10K  for a 5-10 Gallon rig.  That is what some home brewers are spending more on their rigs, which have 1/8th of the capacity of a commercial set up.  The kind that brewpubs and small craft brewers use.