Wheat Summer Ale - With a twist - UPDATE

UPDATE Part 2:
The lemon basil wheat is in secondary conditioning.  It has cleared well.  When I took a sample for a gravity reading and to see where the flavors were at it tasted pretty good.  The lemon was there in the background but I could not taste the basil at all.  I have since soaked the zest of 4 lemons in 4 oz of vodka, I also soaked about 20-30 basil leaves in vodka as well. I let that sit for a few days and added some of the lemon and basil extracts and that will sit until next week at some point.  I will then batch prime it and give it a taste and add more extract as appropriate to get the taste that I am hoping for.  I am not expecting that this beer will win over everyone, but this was a really fun experiment and it seems that so far it has gone well.  I will do a full tasting and let you know.  Cheers!

UPDATE:
The Lemon Basil wheat has been brewed.  This is the first time that I felt like I actually got everything done with ease!  I steeped the grains for 45 min in 1.5 gallons of water on the stove while the other 4 gallons was heating up on the propane burner outside.  I mixed in the extract and brought it to a boil and added the 1 oz of palisades hops.  Boiled for 45 min, added the chiller and also added the zest of two lemons along with 20 or so basil leaves and let that boil for about 10 min and then added the aroma hops and steeped for another 10 or so.  Chilled the wort down to 75, racked into a 6 gallon better bottle and pitched some US-05.  Fermentation started about 12 hours later and I now have a nice 2 inch and growing krausen.  A side note here is that I was intending to pitch a smack pack of Wyeast 1010 American Wheat, but after giving it more thought and consideration, I went with US-05.  The 1010 is a voracious fermenter and I didn't feel like cleaning up a mess also I was concerned with the flavor profile.  I know that 1010 is a really clean wheat yeast, but it does have a tendency to get sulfur and also can impart the faint wit flavor.  I was thinking that I want the lemon and basil to come through but not be overpowering so I went for the clean and neutral US-05.  I am planning on making an infusion with more lemon and basil via the vodka method and add some in secondary and also add some at bottling.  I want to be careful to not over do it, bit I also want to be able to detect both flavors in the background.  I hit my OG right on and tasted the hydgrometer sample and I didn't pick up the lemon or basil, but I think it was because the hops were so prominent.  I will add the tasting to this post in about 3-5 weeks!


I have always loved to cook.  There are many new food trends every summer.  This summer it seems that it is all about infusions or herbs in drinks.  This made me think, what about beer.  Summer has inspired me to try something a little out of left field.  I am going to be brewing a wheat summer ale with basil and lemon.  If you have ever had basil lemonade then you know what I am shooting for.  I am going to steep about 20-30 basil leaves at 5 min until the wort is cool.  I am also going to add the zest of 1.5 lemons to that steep.  Then in secondary I am going to add the same amount of basil and lemon after a nice soak in some vodka to kill anything that may give me trouble in secondary.  There will be a full report of brew day/night and a full report on the tasting.  Cheers to different beer!

Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA Review

I picked up a Sam's sampler that I had while up north over the 4th.  I remembered having a new IPA called Latitude 48.  I decided to buy the sampler again since Sam's is a pretty decent beer and I really wanted to try this IPA again.  Here goes the review with pics:

Pour:  Nice amber/copper pour with a nice two and a half finger head. Medium carbonation.

Aroma:  A hint of malty sweetness with some nice hop notes.  Not an overly hoppy smell but really nice hop aroma, a little grass and citrus.

Taste:  A nice malt backbone with a hint of sweetness, then the hops come and it is a nice bitterness but not super hoppy.  If you are a hop head you will be somewhat disappointed, but this is defiantly got a nice hop kick, just not overwhelming.  The finish is kinda sweet/tart and is a little odd, but it kept drawing me back for more so that is a good thing. 

The head retention on this beer is fantastic, the lacing was great as well, here are some shots of that:

My over all impression is that this a a good IPA, not great.  It is balanced very nicely and in the east coast style.  This is not a beer to avoid, but also not a beer to go out of the way for.  I would definitely suggest grabbing one if you have to opportunity, but don't go searching high and low for it.  On an A to F scale I would give this beer a B+/A-.  On a side note, I tried a bomber of Languita's Hop Stoopid.  Reading the bottle I was intrigued, mostly hopped with Hop Extract, it was certainly bitter and hop forward @ 102 IBU's but the malt base was weak and this really hurt it.  At 8% ABV it was easy to drink but it did not leave me coming back from more.  Cheers and here's to good beer!

Celebration Beer

I have been tasked with putting together a celebration ale for my brother in law.  A beer that needs some time to age.  I asked him what he wanted and this is a direct quote "how about a chocolate banana brown."  I said that sounds a little odd but I am up to the challenge.  I am taking a chance and hopefully this one will turn out to be a really good experiential beer.  Here is the bill for the banana chocolate brown:

 8oz of Biscuit Malt

 8oz of Coco Powder

 4oz of Flaked Barley


1 lb Chocolate Malt (Briess)

6 lbs of Dark LME

1 Lb Wheat DME

1 oz Crystal Hops Pellet

1 oz Mt Hood Hops Pellet

Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068

Start fermentation around 68-70 and gradually raise the temps to get the banana esters out of the yeast.  Should be interesting, I will be sure to let you know how this turns out, it should be in the fermenter in the next month or two.

Sweetworts DIPA on deck!

So I love hop bombs, and I love complex beers.  I am already getting tired of kit beers, even when changing them up.  So I have decided to concoct my own recipe for an imperial IPA.  Here is the bill (and yes I haven't switched to all grain...yet):

6lbs Briess Gold LME
3lbs Briess Amber LME
1lbs Briess Amber DME <--Late addition
1lbs British Crystal 50-60L
8oz Amber Malt

Hop Schedule:
1 OZ Magnum @ 60
.5 OZ Warrior @ 60
.5 OZ Amarillo @ 30
.5 OZ Ahtanum @ 30
.5 OZ Ahtanum @ 1
.5 OZ Amarillo @ 1
.5 OZ Warrior @ 1

Wyeast American Ale II (1272) info


ale yeast in liquid form with high flocculation

Original Gravity


1.079

(1.070 to 1.082)

Expected Final Gravity

1.020

(1.018 to 1.022)

Color

12° SRM / 23° EBC

(Copper to Red/Lt. Brown)
 
Bitterness


84.8 IBU / 22 HBU


Looks tasty and I want one ASAP!  More to come on the first sweetwort recipe!