Month: June 2015

Weissenberg wheat

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As we are coming into summer, I need to have a beer that’s just for swilling out in the heat. 

One of the best beers I’ve had for that was Horney Goat wheat. I wasn’t even a fan of wheat beers when I first had this. But since then it’s been one of my goto beers when the Mercury hits 90.
I didn’t look for a clone, I just took my old American wheat and changed the hops. Wanted to get a little german feel to it. 
Weissenberg wheat. 5 gallon
4 lb 2 row
4 lb wheat
4 oz 20L
.25 oz magnum 60
1 oz Spalt 15
1 oz Spalt flame out
Muntons yeast. (Boycotting 05)
Mashed at 150
Just to try something new I put my biab bag into the mashtun instead of wrapping the manifold. 
Worked quite well I must say. I was expecting some stuckage with the wheat. But i had no problems running wide open. If it ain’t sticking with 50/50 wheat,,, it ain’t gonna stick in a normal batch. 
I believe I will be doing this from now on. 
These wheats are quick turn around beers, so should be ready for that first heatwave. 

 

Bag o Kraut

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Time for another kraut post. 

The hardest part of making kraut is cutting or shredding the cabbage. So I tried using that pre-shredded coleslaw in a bag. 
Just a two pound bag. Hard to tell how much you get just by looking at it. 
Works great! But a couple of notes. 
The coleslaw mix contains carrots. A lot of carrots. Which is perfectly fine. They ferment just as good
But between the high amount of carrots, and the seemingly slightly dried cabbage it’s was hard to get a good amount of juice. 
Next time I will use a brine to cover it. I’ll have to look it up, but iirc it’s 4 1/2 tsp salt to 4 cups water. 
Oh and that 2 lb bag gets you 3 pint jars