Chapter 4: Hefeweizen & Root Beer

October 6, 2013

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday, Dizzy & I started up a batch of Hefeweizen. Now, our first two batches were ales… so they apparently required a longer fermentation period of about 6 weeks… but because the yeast involved with a hefeweizen is different, as well as the amount of wheat & malt in the original wort, this beer only takes about four weeks to turn & doesn’t require secondary fermentation. That explains how it’s typically cloudier than standard beer when you try some of the finer craft brew examples out there. One of my personal favorites is the Widmer Brothers version… but most are a bit of a cloudy golden color after it’s ready for drinking… but we found that it’s a little darker in the beginning… behold…

 

Hops are added right here...

Icing it down...

See it's a darker then you might think...

You can see all the cloudy roughage in there...

Oops... looks like the yeast got a little excited...

Now we include the blow-off valve...

After setting up the Hef, we found that there’s a homebrew supply shop about a mile from my house, so we went to check it out. There we found all the usual items that you would expect to find from empty bottles to kits to all kinds of grains & yeast… and the staff was also very helpful as we picked their brains a bit. While there, Dizzy found some root beer extract, read the recipes… and somehow convinced me that it’d be a good idea to make some. Needless to say, it really didn’t take much… so we got the extract & headed home to start up that brew.

 

The recipes for the Root Beer are basically the same for the two versions in the extract… so we thought we’d try both. The quicker method was you mix up about a gallon of root beer (water, extract, a few cups of sugar & some yeast) and put them in two separate two-liter bottles to let them do their fermentation for about 3-4 days, then you can drink it. The other version takes longer… but is supposed to be more flavorful… and it’s the same recipe, but you place the root beer in glass bottles instead of plastic and let them ferment longer (we’re going two weeks). We will let you know the results of the taste test.

 

Dizzy & I are obviously pretty excited about this home brewing thing… and really, what’s not to like? It’s a bit of nerdy mix of Science, cooking, self-sustainment, working together, sharing with our friends & family, and the end result is fantastic BEER!!! Sure, the initial startup capital is a little bit with getting all of the equipment… but now that we’ve got a nice little routine going & turning out batches… that initial cost is being paid for… and soon we will be experimenting with our own ideas on what a great beer should taste like & be composed of. It’s really exciting stuff… and I’m even reading up on how to make beer better.

 

Next week will be a big one… as our first batch of Irish Red Ale will be reading for drinking… that first taste test. We’ll also have that first quick batch of root beer, bottle our Pumpkin Ale for tasting two weeks later, and shortly after that we should have our Hefeweizen bottled & ready as well. Then later will come experimentation… and new recipes & lagering methods… and we intend on just having a LOT of fun with this. It’s like those school science experiments… you know, like the volcano with dry ice… but with sugar, wheat, hops, etc to make delicious concoctions that you can drink.

 

Well, that’ll do it for this chapter in the home brewing legacy. Next update will have a few great movies & some adventures in the Bay Area. Have a great day everybody!!!