American Wheat

My big plans to brew for the family this past Sunday was a bust. There was no time to entertain and brew, even though I had thoughts that the brewing would be the entertainment. Instead I jumped into the pool for 10 minutes before jumping back out to cook. I picked up the Sam Adams Summer mix pack from Costco for the party. I had the mix pack this past late winter and it was quite good, so I was willing to try the summer mix. This has their Hefe, Cherry Wheat, Pale and Summer Ale along with their Lager and Light. I agree with reviews I have read that their Hefe is actually an American Wheat, but other than the misnaming, it is a great drink. Their Pale was quite interesting, and even more so after taking a whiff of hops on my Memorial Brew Day.

So onto the brew. Things went pretty good this time with just a few difficulties. The mini-mash was successful, although I did spill some grains into the pot while trying to fill the muslin bag. I used the small size bag and even though this was not a huge grain bill, it barely fit. The next issue I had was with adding the DME. It clumped up and formed a candy like substance. I was quite worried that it wouldn't incorporate, but after stirring for 10-15 minutes it smoothed out. I added the hops and waited my 45 minutes. Kind of a boring recipe compared to the IIPA. Since this time I had a cooler full of ice water, I used this to cool off my wort before tossing it in the primary with water. I also used a 4 gallon bottle of water from Wal-Mart, rather than exhausting my RO supply. I hadn't noticed any signs of fermentation as of last night some 12 hours after pitching, but I understand that these plastic buckets are something less than perfectly sealed, so this isn't unusual. No pictures or even the video that I had planned as I was watching Mary through a par of this brew and I am a father first, brewer second. I'll post the recipe separately as Brewers Connection didn't have this one on their website.

Next up, a Kolsch for Sharon.