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I tried one of these today. It is by far the best bitter yet. It reminds me of a cross between Sam Adams and Red Hook ESB…. except better.

The Dunkel is happliy fermenting away. The odd thing about this batch vs other batches of beer, is that even though I filled the carboy to the 6 gallon mark it did not blow out of the blow off tube. The Krausen has fallen back down, almost to nothing. I hope that this batch does ok with foam stability.

I used the following Recipe

1 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Wheat Malt
1 lbs Weyermann CaraMunich I
6.6 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat Liquid Extract
1 oz Hallertau boiled 60 min
.25 oz Cascade boiled 15 mins
Wyeast yeast nutrients 15 mins
.5 oz Hallertau boiled 10 min

I pitched the yeast and currently the wort is aerating in the carboy with the airstone and hepa filter. I will top off the carboy with water Take a SG measurment, then place the carboy in the freezer. There is nothing special to note about this brew so far except I was expecting it to be a bit more foamy. I hope the final product has a decent head. On another note, I did had a boil over because I was watching Dr. Who on DVD and lost track of time.

I mashed the grains as Normal. Single step infusion. I added 4 quarts of 175 F water which brought the temp up slightly too high at 159. I added a little cold water to bring it down to 155. I mashed for 1 hour, Ran off the wort, and batch sparged with 6 quarts of 175 F water. (Nope.. no starch test.. I know.. I’m bad) The FG of the mash was 1.029 @ 90F (1.033 Corrected) Roughly 67% efficiency.

The yeast starter turned out OK. Miftik told me that the krausen in the 2L container peaked today around 12:00 pm. This batch should be just fine.

Side note. Upon topping up the fermenter, and takng a SG reading, There was a lot of foam that just stayed there and took forever to fade. I should have no trouble with head retention. SG is 1.048 @ 67 F ( 1.048 corrected)

I have a few of these left. They taste very much like they have a Lacto infection. It is that or this one just didn’t age well. It tastes citrusy and a little sour. Similar to a lambic. If I remember correctly I did not sanitize my bottles well with this one.

I made a starter tonight. I have about 1.75L After boiling for 15 mins with a few cascade hops flowers. I remembered to add a teaspoon of Yeast nutrient with this starter. As usual, I am using my air pump with the 2 micron airstone and the Hepa filter as I did with Bitter V.

I will have to remember to smack the yeast pack a little better next time. The inner nutrient pack on was only slightly ruptured and quite a lot of the nutrient was still inside of it.

1 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Wheat Malt
1 lbs Weyermann CaraMunich I
6.6 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat Liquid Extract
1 oz Hallertau boiled 60 min
1 oz Hallertau boiled 10 min

I decided to brew a Dunkelweizen. I activated a Wyeast Propagator pack of 3333 German Wheat Yeast. Lot # is 1423197. MFG: July 24 2007. I will make a starter tomorrow evening. I am still sorting out the recipe. I have all the malt, and malt extract.

I bottled bitter V this evening. FG was 1.009@74F (1.010 Corrected). Used 6.5 oz of corn sugar for bottling. The flavor reminds me of bitter IV and bitter II. It has the same fruity flavors, but there is not the slight sulfury odor that accompanies the Wyeast 1028. This brew is slightly less sharp in flavor with the Wyeast 1098, but still with a nice fruity flavor. I did lower the fermentation temperature 2 Deg F to 65F, which is the low end of the working range for the 1098. The bitterness is at just the right spot. I hope is does not fade much. The flavor from the Cascade really adds a nice touch, and the earthy aroma and subtle flavor from the Goldings is just right. I can definately taste the warmth from the raw sugar addition. It tastes plesant even at room temperature. I am pleased. ABV calculates to 5.8%. Yeild was 56 bottles (I broke one while capping)