Bannana Wheat

I decided to try out my first all-grain wheat recipe last weekend. It's really not all the different from all-barley, except you need to remember to include rice hulls so that the sparge doesn't stick.

I'd been wanting to use a bunch of VERY ripe bananas that my wife had sitting around in a beer. I had also recently had a "Banana Bread Ale", so I knew I wanted to throw them in. My wife hates banana smell or taste that's not from real bananas (like artificial flavor or esters from yeast), so I was hoping to get some of the type that she likes in there.

Recently, when visiting my LHBS, I sampled a wheat made with a London Ale yeast, which left it very clear and with a really nice taste. I had wanted to use that yeat on my beer, but they were out when I went to pick up ingredients. So, I got the Wyeast 1098 British Ale instead (London is part of Britain, right?). We'll see what this turns out like.

The recipe I found came from HomeBrewTalk.com (which I recently joined - I'm antiteam):

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.50 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 5.00 %
5.50 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.00 %
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.00 %
1.15 oz Hallertauer [3.00 %] (90 min) Hops 13.8 IBU
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 90.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Safbrew WB-06 (Fermentis #WB-06) Yeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Mash In Add 4 gallons of water at 172 F 154.0 F


Notes:

My typical mash schedule of 10 pounds of grain, 4 gallons of 172 degree strike water and two 2-gallon sparges of nearly boiling water.

Sorry, this is probably the least expensive and most simple recipe to win. The two things that make this good, in my opinion, are the higher mash temperature and lower fermentation temperature. Many of my Hefes have been a bit thin, even watery when I mashed at the standard 149/150. After reading many of Biemuncher’s posts and recipes I noticed some higher mash temps and fuller bodied beers. I now mash most of my beers at 154 or higher for a full 90 minutes.

Total price per 5 gallon batch is probably less than $15 and even less with bulk grains and by salvaging a quart of US-06 slurry. It’s a simple single infusion mash at a slightly high temp and whatever you do- don’t forget the rice hulls.

The only deviation that I took from this recipe (aside form the yeast) was to limit the Hallertauer to 1 oz, since I wasn't goign to buy another ounce of hops just for the additional 0.15 ounces.

I mashed at 156 F, which fell to 154 F by the end of 90 minutes.  I put the bananas in at 15 minutes, along with the Irish Moss.  My original gravity was 1.052, and I only got 4 gallons at that.  I really need to figure out my efficiency issues.  I'm thinking it might have to do with my sparging technique.  I think I'm going to go back to a batch sparge next time and see if that helps.  It's in the primary right now.

Brewferm Framboise (Raspberry No Boil Kit)

I received a Brewferm Framboise no-boil kit for my birthday a few months ago but never got a chance to make it back then. I finally had an opportunity to make it in between other recipes a couple of weeks ago, while my carboys were all tied up with other, longer secondary, projects.

Rather than using sugar as the recipe calls for, I followed conventional wisdom and substituted light DME. I had wanted to replace the yeast as well but I didn't have any on hand, so I had to use the pack that came with the kit.

The supplied yeast isn't very good. It imparted an almost chalky taste that seems to be subsiding over time. I think I would have preferred to use a California Ale to let the raspberry flavor come through a bit better.

Despite the fact that this kit was no-boil, I chose to boil it for about 15 minutes. This was for two reasons. First, it made the DME easier to dissolve. Second, when I looked at the can, which had been in my possession for 6 months (so it was likely much older than that), the ends of the can were visibly bulging. That indicates that the contents could have the start of an infection. When I opened the can, there was no bad smell or look but I chose to boil it to sanitize just to be sure. The alternative on a no-boil kit is to just throw it in the fermenter, which is dangerous if you suspect an infection, lest an infection run rampant. However, the trade off is that when boiling fruit the pectin will set, leaving a haze that will not clear. This is a purely visual issue and doesn't affect flavor at all. Needless to say, this beer is cloudy, but it's better safe than sorry.

The kit makes about 3 gallons in total. I bottled 6 to give to my sister, who bought it for me, and kegged the rest. I force carbed and upon pouring from the tap this beer has a red tinted, creamy, foamy head. There is definitely a raspberry taste present as well.

Overall, this isn't bad for a no-boil kit and would be a great choice for a beginning brewer. I highly recommend using DME instead of sugar and replacing the yeast (try a packet of Safale US-05).

Here you can see the creamy head, red color, and cloudiness of the beer.

Fruity Pebbles Ale

I had heard on a podcast recently about an Iron Chef style hombrew competition where the competitors had a "secret ingredient" unveiled on them at the last minute.  One of the ingredients was Fruity Pebbles.  I'd heard of using cereals in the mash before, but never a sugary cereal.  So, I had to try it out.

I just did a small 1 gallon batch.  I made up a basic recipe to use up some of the ingredients I had around.

2 lbs 6 oz  2-row Pale
5 oz Fruity Pebbles

6.0% AA Cascade:
1/2 oz @ 60 minutes
1/4 oz @ 15 minutes
1/4 oz @ flameout

Irish Moss at 15 minutes

Mashed starting at 158 F for 90 minutes.  Finished at 153 F.

O.G. is 1.040

I didn't realize until after that I didn't have any yeast and the local homebrew store isn't open on Sunday.  I decided to just pitch the dregs from one of the bottles of Peanut Butter Ale and one of the bottles of Sour Raspberry.  I also threw in some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer to help, since I was underpitching.  It took two days to start, but it seems to have finished out just fine.

The most surprising part of it all is that after I sparged the mash, the wort was a little bit oily.  Not to the point that it was with the Peanut Butter Ale, but you could definitely see and feel a bit of oil on the surface.  Must be from the cereal.  I'm not expecting any head retention on this beer.

In the primary