Well, it's been over 10 years since I've posted - mostly because I brewed only a handful of times in those ten years. But it looks like I'm back in the saddle so hopefully with my new brew crew the brewing will be more consistent...
I’ve had a several year hiatus from brewing, but was at a Kentucky Derby party in our new neighborhood and it came up that I am a home brewer (once a brewer, always a brewer, right?). One of my new friends also used to brew. He recently retired and was looking for an excuse to brew again. I have another longtime friend that has also moved to our neighborhood and also wanted to get in on the action. Over the next few weeks we discussed our brew day and it became clear that we had three very different tastes in beer. I cautioned that we wanted to make an easy beer first to get our feet wet. Everyone ended up compromising a little and we decided on an American Wheat Beer. I based it off my previously brewed Amarillo American Wheat recipes, however those were basically session White IPAs and one of my co-brewers is not a fan of bitter beers, so I was trying to keep the bittering in check targeting 30 IBUs.
I have pounds and pounds of hops (that have been kept properly sealed and stored at sub-zero temperatures) in my freezer. Although I’ve kept them stored properly, you have to assume some degree of degradation of the alpha acids. I think I over estimated that degradation because this beer is much more bitter than 30 IBUs – it drinks likes it’s in the 50 range. I’d brew it again in a second because it is a perfect White Session IPA, but it just wasn’t what I was aiming for (I guess I’m out of practice).
It was a pretty long evening of brewing, but honestly it went fairly smooth for not brewing for several years. It was nice to have friends to brew with. I had never brewed with others before and I think I could get used to it.
Brew Date: 6/7/2026
Beer Number: B54
Beer Name: Greenfield Brew Crew Wheat
Type: American Wheat
Primary Fermenter(s): Eric’s 6 gal. glass carboy (12 days); 3 gal. glass
carboy(12 days); 3 gal. PET carboy (12 days)
Secondary Fermenter: none
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.010
Expected IBU: 30 (actually drinks like 50+)
Expected SRM: 4
Alcohol %: 5.4%
Ingredients:
9.25 lbs. American 2-row malt
9.5 lbs. white wheat
4 oz. acid malt
25g Warrior pellet hops (x.x%AA) 60 min.
56g Amarillo pellet hops (x.x%AA)
15 min.
28g Liberty pellet hops (x.x%AA) 15
min.
56g. Amarillo pellet hops (x.x%AA) 5 min.
28g. Liberty pellet hops (x.x% AA) 5 min.
56g. Amarillo pellet hops (x.x%AA) 1 min.
28g. Liberty pellet hops (x.x% AA) 5 min.
Safeale US-05 – 2 packets in 2L starter
Yeast Starter (2026-06-04):
- Boiled 200ml in 2L of filtered water in
Erlenmeyer flask;
- Covered with sanitized foil and allowed
to cool ~2 hours;
- Boiled 1c. filtered water and
transferred to coffee cup to cool;
- Once cooled, added 2 packets US-05
(dated 2025-03) to coffee cup to rehydrate;
- Placed starter flask in refrigerator and
until temperature dropped cool to touch (75F estimate);
- Pitched wort from coffee cup into flask
and placed on stir plate at ~2PM;
- Plate was intermittently throwing the
stir bar; Until 2026-06-05 at 7AM, estimate starter was stirred roughly ½
the time;
- At this time, adjusted stir bar and
speed to better handle the spin;
- Approximately 8AM, high kreusen and
“yeast over”
- Left on stir plate until 6/7 ~8AM
at which point it was placed in the refrigerator to cold crash.
- While
bringing wort to a boil, collected approximately 1L of wort from grain bag
in separate pan and boiled for ~5 minutes.
Cooled in an ice bath(allowed it to get down into the 40s by
mistake) and then transferred to the starter flask, swirling regularly to
wake up the yeast;
- Morning
of brew day, collected 14 gallons of soft Reedville water and treated with
1 camden tablet;
- Double-crushed
grain in Barley Crusher;
- Heated
48 qts. strike water to @155F;
- Added
grains to grain basket (in gain bag) and stirred – temp. settled at @149F,
added heat periodically to keep temp between 149 and 151;
- mashed
@ 60 min;
- Took a
refractometer reading which showed preboil gravity to be ~1.049;
- Added
~2 gallons of pre-collected/treated water to bring refractometer reading
to ~1.045;
- Pulled
grain basket and allowed to drip into kettle while bringing up to a boil;
- Had a
small boil over before adding hops;
- Boiled
for 60 minutes, following the hopping schedule above;
- Using
wort chiller, cooled to 80F in @ 30 min.;
- Kettle
drain clogged and used sanitized pitcher to transfer wort split into 3
fermenters;
- Pitched
yeast from starter;
- Placed
into kegerator set to 63F (fermenters were 76F when placed into the
fermentation chamber);
- At
approximately 12 hours, first visible signs of fermentation seen in the 6
gal. fermenter, followed by the two 3 gal. fermenters within 3 hours;
- On day
5, ramped temperature control to 65F;
- On day
7, ramped temperature control to 68F.
·
On Day 12, transferred contents of all three
carboys to 2 sanitized kegs – Approximate yield 9.5 gallons;
·
Set CO2 to 30 psi for 1 week and then bled
pressure and reduced to 12 psi;
·
24 days after kegging; filled numerous bottles
for my co-brewers (due to foaming I have concern about oxidation in some of the
filled bottles.
And the beer is fantastic.
We took a keg to a 4th of July party and it was the hit of
the night. The keg was over carbonated
and not using my kegerator for many years, it’ll take a while for me to dial in
my system, but practice makes perfect, right?
The beer itself is a light straw color (it is 50% wheat after all). It pours hazy but clears nicely in the
glass. The nose is incredible. I love the Amarillo-Liberty combination –
great citrus notes with a little bit of spice from the Liberty to make it
interesting. The flavor follows the aroma
exactly. It’s highly carbonated with a
light mouthfeel. It’s easy to drink
several pints of this beer. The wheat
definitely brings a bready note. We used
a clean yeast at a low fermentation temperature, so I wasn’t expecting any
yeast character and it is definitely as expected. Although the beer wasn’t
exactly what I was targeting, it is definitely a winner and I’m going to be
disappointed when the keg kicks (although it will allow the kegerator to be a
fermentation chamber for the next beer.
My brew team is already planning our next beer. Since we’ll be brewing at the beginning of
September, it’s looking like a quick turn-around Marzen for Octoberfest.
