Berliner Weisse/Gose Split Batch

I’ve been waiting to brew this again since I got such good feedback after Dr. Homebrew. I’m doing another 3 gallon batch and hope to split it 3 ways. Two gallons onto fruit (probably pineapple and passionfruit) and with the other gallon add salt  and coriander and do a gose.

Berliner Weisse/Gose

6/20/2014

3 gallons

3 lb Pilsner

3 lb White Wheat

0.25 oz Hallertau

Mash at 148F for 60 minutes.

US-04 cold around 62-64F.

OG: 1.042

FG:1.007

IBU: ~4

The brew day for this is easy because it’s split in half. I mashed in and hit most of my numbers and volumes. After letting it cool to 110F I threw in a handful of crushed grain, wrapped my souring bucket in a heating pad and then in a towel and let it sour.

6/22/2014: Very lightly sour, mostly sweet. No off aromas. Held around 90-100F.

6/23/2014: Tart but not quite sour enough. Temperature still around 90F.

6/24/2014: Split the batch into Berliner Weisse and Gose.  For 1 gallon of gose, boiled 15 minutes to kill lacto and add hops.  Added 4.2 g sea salt and 4 g crushed coriander seed.  For rest of beer (~2.5 gallons), boiled for 15 minutes to kill lacto. Pitched US-04 into both batches.
7/10/2014: Bottled 8 bottles of Gose.
712/2014: Split 1 gallon of berliner onto 10 oz of Rhubarb and 10 oz of Strawberries and another gallon onto 1 whole chunked and frozen pineapple.  Bottled 3 straight.
7/18/2014: Bottled Strawberry Rhubarb and Pineapple batches.

Citra Pale Ale

I’m back!! I stocked up on ingredients for 3 beers on my final day in Gainesville and I’m ready to bust out my propane system and brew on my new deck. First up was a Citra pale ale with the hops I got from Sierra Nevada. A little old, for sure, but when you have 7 oz of Citra begging to be used, you don’t throw them away. I’m envisioning a lighter beer, with a malt backbone that is only there to let the hops shine. I chose to use a lot of pilsner malt out of curiosity and to hopefully achieve that.

Citra Pale Ale

6/18/2014

3.5 gallons

5 lb Pilsner

3 lb 2 Row

0.5 lb C20

1 oz Citra (15 min)

1 oz Citra (Flameout)

1 oz Citra (Whirlpool, <120F)

1 oz Citra (Dry hop)

Mash at 154F for 60 mins.

OG: 1.057

FG 1.015

IBU: 31.7

The Yeast Bay Vermont Ale Yeast (1.5 L starter split in half)

The Brew Day:

So it’s been around a year and a half since I have mashed in a cooler and boiled outside. I didn’t have tubing to go from my mash tun to collect wort so I had to hold that. I was also rusty on sparging and recirculating wort, my boil off rate was way too low and I had two dogs who wanted nothing more than to drink all the wort I was dripping. Needless to say I missed almost all of my numbers even after adding a half a gallon of water to lower my gravity before boiling and the brew day was really stressful.

By the end of it, I could only get the wort to ~80F and half of that was on the floor. I put it in my new temperature controlled freezer and let it cool down overnight. In the morning I pitched my yeast, dropped ambient to 62F and left.

Actual OG: 1.068

Actual Volume: ~2.5

6/19/2014: Bumped ambient up to 65F

6/20/2014: Bumped ambient up to 68F

6/23/2014: Checked gravity 1.034. I went to The Yeast Bay’s site and saw that this yeast needs to ferment higher around the 65-68F range, then finish out even higher around 70-72F. Crap. I sanitized a spoon and stirred up the yeast while bumping the ambient up to 72F.

6/24/2013: Gravity was 1.034 still.  Pitched an extra vial of yeast taken from initial large starter.  Ambient set to 68F.

Grandma's Closet is Here!

My beer finally got cleared, distributed and hit the taps at my local watering hole, Tall Paul’s Brew House. I got the first pour off the tap and I have to say that I thought the beer was really nice. It is a little old so there’s not a huge hop bite, but the hoppy backbone definitely holds up to the huge cedar presence. I had quite a few pints (probably too many) and was really pleased. Some friends came out, I got to pour a pint myself and had a great time.