Questions? Not-appropriate-for-the-public comments (let's hope not)? Interest in exchanging homebrews/commercial beers? Feel free to drop me an email at meekbrewingco@gmail.com. I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
I've only used Festa wort but would like to try to make a Hoegaarden clone using their wheat beer. Got any any suggestions on how to add the citrus/corriander flavoring (and when in the process since I'm not boiling any wort).
If you're looking to make a Belgian Wit, you can add cracked coriander seeds and grated citrus fruit peel (orange, tangerine, lemon, whichever you like) in a mesh bag. If you were boiling, you'd want to add them quite late in the boil - no earlier than 3-5 minutes before the end - as more aromatics are retained that way. I suppose since you're NOT boiling you could simply add them when fermenting the wort (as long as they've been sanitized).
Another key is to make sure you use the appropriate yeast to get that Witbier character (such as Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit)... they'll definitely give you a more authentic Witbier than a standard dry yeast.
Hey, maybe you mentioned this earlier but what kind of manifold are you using in your mash tun? I'm using the same cooler but I find that I loose about 0.5 - 1 gallon of wort using my copper manifold.
By the way we met at Greg Delaney's house this summer.
Hey Stephane... I DO remember you from Greg's; surprising, considering all the beer that was consumed...
I use your basic stainless-steel braid in my mashtun. I batch sparge, so didn't feel the copper manifold would be necessary. The SS braid was just extremely easy to install. I DO usually leave some wort behind, but I'm not exactly sure of how much... maybe 1/4 gallon or so? I've put that info into BeerSmith so that it accounts for it in its volume calculations. Any leftover wort that I have I'll try to drain to save for yeast starters.
Sure have, but to be honest, if I do another Maine Beer Co. clone, I think I'd go with MO. That's got to be my all-time favorite American Pale Ale. If I can get my hands on some Falconer's Flight hops in the future, I'll definitely consider going that route.
Sounds like some exciting new varieties to sample! We missed out on the World Series but surely we could find an excuse to have a beer night again soon. What is your schedule like for the rest of the week?
Easy question, I would love to hear how you are filtering your heavily hopped beers. I am currently using a keggle with ball lock and a dip tube and am just heart broken to leave so much beer behind in my heavily hopped beers.
Same question for when you are dry hopping. I feel I get much better hop utilization when dry hopping not using a sack, but when we are talking more than 3oz. of dry hops, again, you are at a pretty big loss.
By filtering, I assume you mean when transferring from my boil kettle to my fermentor, and not actually filtering the final product? It's tough for me, too... I have a large, stainless-steel filter that I set on top of my large funnel, which leads into the fementor. Not ideal, for sure.
What I do is let the wort settle for a bit after chilling, then pick up the kettle and pour the first half through the funnel into the fermentor... this avoids getting a lot of sludge into the fermentor, since it's settling to the bottom of the kettle. I then set the filter on the funnel and pour again. It catches a good amount of sludge; problem is, all the sludge makes it harder for the liquid to get through. For my last beer, the MO clone, I had to scrape off the sludge in the filter before pouring in more wort. Twice. I still end up leaving behind wort in the kettle, and when bottling usually only get 4.5 gallons or thereabouts. A lot of people rack from the kettle to the fermentor, but when I've tried that I either still end up pulling up trub, or leave behind even MORE wort.
In terms of dry hops, I've always just dumped the pellets in. I don't lose TOO much beer to dry-hopping, luckily.
Not sure if my question went through...was using iphone...anyways I was wondering if you used any brewing salts for the Row 2 Hill 56 beer you did a while back?
Hey, no, didn't get that question... just checked the post to make sure, and yes, I wrote in there that I used a small amount: 3 g gypsum and 2 g calcium chloride. Wasn't aiming for any numbers specifically, just wanted to boost my calcium content a little.
Just wanted to say that I appreciate the effort you make in detailing your brewing process as well as your tasting notes. I've used your recipes and notes several times in my recipes. Please keep it up!
Forgot to mention. I'm currently at the dry-hopping stage of my Societe Pupil Clone. Added some table sugar per your suggestion. Hitting all my numbers and had some extra hops for dry hopping. I'm really excited for this beer, and it's the perfect weather for it in Minnesota as spring is has basically arrived!
I saw that you have currently listed "In primary... Witbier (Witbier yeast + Brett Amalgamation)"
Coincidentally, I just bottled my brett wit a week ago. I'm not sure what witbier yeast you used (I did WY3463 Forbidden Fruit) but I also used YB Amalgamation. I did a co-pitch of both yeasts and by 1 month it already had a lot of brett character. I bottled it at about 9 weeks. I basically took my last wit recipe and just switched the yeast. I tried to account for the higher attenuation from brett, but still undershot the FG by a large margin. Its 7%. I also used traditional wit spices
Im curious as to how yours is coming along and what approach you took to making it. I remember I did mine just because I'd never seen or heard of a brett witbier before...
I still haven't typed up the post on that one yet (I'm behind, as you may have guessed!), mainly because I haven't packaged the beer yet. It's been in primary for over 4 months now, which is longer than I originally planned on having it in there. It's a split batch; the first half was a plain Witbier (long gone, now), the other half I pitched the Amalgamation with the Wit yeast - Wyeast 3944, Belgian Witbier.
So, haven't really tried it too much yet, although I tasted it a month or so ago and noticed a lot of Brett character. I'm about ready to bottle, just not sure yet if I want to add some fresh orange peel for a week or so, to boost up what has likely faded with age. Did you find any deterioration in fruit/spice?
Lost it when I saw a Mimosa clone in primary. Brewed one myself about a year and a half ago and it ended up delicious but nothing like the original. Excited to see what you came up with.
I plan on brewing a "blonde" of sorts this weekend. I've been getting inspired by Aldi's "Produce Picks of the Week", and they have cantaloupe for $0.99 each. I just got done brewing a Cantaloupe Strawberry Kiwi Wheat beer (along with that Coffee Milk Stout), for my wedding, and I liked what it did so I want to use this fruit again. I'm thinking a Cucumber Melon Blonde Ale.
For this recipe, I purchased the following ingredients..shooting for around a 5.5% ABV beer after fruit addition:
6.5 lbs Two-Row-Pale Brewer's Malt 1.5 lbs Munich Malt 1.0 lbs Carapils Malt 0.50 Wheat Malt Hallertauer 3.5% AA, 2.0 oz, T=30 mins left, est. IBUs of 20 Yeast: WLP008 East Coast Ale..doing a 1.5L starter. Began last night, cold crashing before bed this evening or early morning tomorrow before brew day commences Saturday AM
I was going to follow it up with between 6-7 lbs of cubed, frozen, thawed, mashed, and campden steeped Cantaloupe, along with 1.5-2 lbs of Cucumber in the secondary.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Anything that I may be missing?
Oops, am I too late? I guess not, since you won't be adding the fruit until after fermentation.
Recipe looks sound to me. Personally, I've never brewed with cantaloupe or cucumber... sounds interesting! I think it's smart adding less cucumber than cantaloupe; I don't think that's a flavor you'd want TOO high in a beer.
I've only used Festa wort but would like to try to make a Hoegaarden clone using their wheat beer. Got any any suggestions on how to add the citrus/corriander flavoring (and when in the process since I'm not boiling any wort).
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking to make a Belgian Wit, you can add cracked coriander seeds and grated citrus fruit peel (orange, tangerine, lemon, whichever you like) in a mesh bag. If you were boiling, you'd want to add them quite late in the boil - no earlier than 3-5 minutes before the end - as more aromatics are retained that way. I suppose since you're NOT boiling you could simply add them when fermenting the wort (as long as they've been sanitized).
DeleteAnother key is to make sure you use the appropriate yeast to get that Witbier character (such as Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit)... they'll definitely give you a more authentic Witbier than a standard dry yeast.
Good luck!
Hey, maybe you mentioned this earlier but what kind of manifold are you using in your mash tun? I'm using the same cooler but I find that I loose about 0.5 - 1 gallon of wort using my copper manifold.
ReplyDeleteBy the way we met at Greg Delaney's house this summer.
Hey Stephane... I DO remember you from Greg's; surprising, considering all the beer that was consumed...
DeleteI use your basic stainless-steel braid in my mashtun. I batch sparge, so didn't feel the copper manifold would be necessary. The SS braid was just extremely easy to install. I DO usually leave some wort behind, but I'm not exactly sure of how much... maybe 1/4 gallon or so? I've put that info into BeerSmith so that it accounts for it in its volume calculations. Any leftover wort that I have I'll try to drain to save for yeast starters.
Ever had a look at doing a Maine Brewing Lunch Clone?
ReplyDeleteSure have, but to be honest, if I do another Maine Beer Co. clone, I think I'd go with MO. That's got to be my all-time favorite American Pale Ale. If I can get my hands on some Falconer's Flight hops in the future, I'll definitely consider going that route.
DeleteGot anything thrown together for a recipe yet? I'm planning to make some sort of attempt tommorow at brewing something.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to get a Belgian Dubbel brewed in a couple of days, but to be honest, I don't have a recipe decided on yet!
DeleteI meant to reply to my earlier post about the Lunch clone, thats what I meant.
DeleteSounds like some exciting new varieties to sample! We missed out on the World Series but surely we could find an excuse to have a beer night again soon. What is your schedule like for the rest of the week?
ReplyDeleteBrad
Easy question, I would love to hear how you are filtering your heavily hopped beers. I am currently using a keggle with ball lock and a dip tube and am just heart broken to leave so much beer behind in my heavily hopped beers.
ReplyDeleteSame question for when you are dry hopping. I feel I get much better hop utilization when dry hopping not using a sack, but when we are talking more than 3oz. of dry hops, again, you are at a pretty big loss.
Just curious here on some of your techniques.
Thanks,
By filtering, I assume you mean when transferring from my boil kettle to my fermentor, and not actually filtering the final product? It's tough for me, too... I have a large, stainless-steel filter that I set on top of my large funnel, which leads into the fementor. Not ideal, for sure.
DeleteWhat I do is let the wort settle for a bit after chilling, then pick up the kettle and pour the first half through the funnel into the fermentor... this avoids getting a lot of sludge into the fermentor, since it's settling to the bottom of the kettle. I then set the filter on the funnel and pour again. It catches a good amount of sludge; problem is, all the sludge makes it harder for the liquid to get through. For my last beer, the MO clone, I had to scrape off the sludge in the filter before pouring in more wort. Twice. I still end up leaving behind wort in the kettle, and when bottling usually only get 4.5 gallons or thereabouts. A lot of people rack from the kettle to the fermentor, but when I've tried that I either still end up pulling up trub, or leave behind even MORE wort.
In terms of dry hops, I've always just dumped the pellets in. I don't lose TOO much beer to dry-hopping, luckily.
Not sure if my question went through...was using iphone...anyways I was wondering if you used any brewing salts for the Row 2 Hill 56 beer you did a while back?
ReplyDeleteHey, no, didn't get that question... just checked the post to make sure, and yes, I wrote in there that I used a small amount: 3 g gypsum and 2 g calcium chloride. Wasn't aiming for any numbers specifically, just wanted to boost my calcium content a little.
DeleteJust wanted to say that I appreciate the effort you make in detailing your brewing process as well as your tasting notes. I've used your recipes and notes several times in my recipes. Please keep it up!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoy the blog, and thanks for the kind words! Let me know how your Pupil clone turns out; that's one I've been meaning to brew again!
DeleteForgot to mention. I'm currently at the dry-hopping stage of my Societe Pupil Clone. Added some table sugar per your suggestion. Hitting all my numbers and had some extra hops for dry hopping. I'm really excited for this beer, and it's the perfect weather for it in Minnesota as spring is has basically arrived!
ReplyDeleteI saw that you have currently listed "In primary... Witbier (Witbier yeast + Brett Amalgamation)"
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, I just bottled my brett wit a week ago. I'm not sure what witbier yeast you used (I did WY3463 Forbidden Fruit) but I also used YB Amalgamation. I did a co-pitch of both yeasts and by 1 month it already had a lot of brett character. I bottled it at about 9 weeks. I basically took my last wit recipe and just switched the yeast. I tried to account for the higher attenuation from brett, but still undershot the FG by a large margin. Its 7%. I also used traditional wit spices
Im curious as to how yours is coming along and what approach you took to making it. I remember I did mine just because I'd never seen or heard of a brett witbier before...
Hey Bryan,
DeleteI still haven't typed up the post on that one yet (I'm behind, as you may have guessed!), mainly because I haven't packaged the beer yet. It's been in primary for over 4 months now, which is longer than I originally planned on having it in there. It's a split batch; the first half was a plain Witbier (long gone, now), the other half I pitched the Amalgamation with the Wit yeast - Wyeast 3944, Belgian Witbier.
So, haven't really tried it too much yet, although I tasted it a month or so ago and noticed a lot of Brett character. I'm about ready to bottle, just not sure yet if I want to add some fresh orange peel for a week or so, to boost up what has likely faded with age. Did you find any deterioration in fruit/spice?
Lost it when I saw a Mimosa clone in primary. Brewed one myself about a year and a half ago and it ended up delicious but nothing like the original. Excited to see what you came up with.
ReplyDeleteHi Shawn,
ReplyDeleteI plan on brewing a "blonde" of sorts this weekend. I've been getting inspired by Aldi's "Produce Picks of the Week", and they have cantaloupe for $0.99 each. I just got done brewing a Cantaloupe Strawberry Kiwi Wheat beer (along with that Coffee Milk Stout), for my wedding, and I liked what it did so I want to use this fruit again. I'm thinking a Cucumber Melon Blonde Ale.
For this recipe, I purchased the following ingredients..shooting for around a 5.5% ABV beer after fruit addition:
6.5 lbs Two-Row-Pale Brewer's Malt
1.5 lbs Munich Malt
1.0 lbs Carapils Malt
0.50 Wheat Malt
Hallertauer 3.5% AA, 2.0 oz, T=30 mins left, est. IBUs of 20
Yeast: WLP008 East Coast Ale..doing a 1.5L starter. Began last night, cold crashing before bed this evening or early morning tomorrow before brew day commences Saturday AM
I was going to follow it up with between 6-7 lbs of cubed, frozen, thawed, mashed, and campden steeped Cantaloupe, along with 1.5-2 lbs of Cucumber in the secondary.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Anything that I may be missing?
Thanks for your help,
Ryan
Oops, am I too late? I guess not, since you won't be adding the fruit until after fermentation.
DeleteRecipe looks sound to me. Personally, I've never brewed with cantaloupe or cucumber... sounds interesting! I think it's smart adding less cucumber than cantaloupe; I don't think that's a flavor you'd want TOO high in a beer.
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.
Shawn
have any suggestions on Maine's mean Old Tom
ReplyDeleteLarry