Brew #3: Dark Wheat

So this last week got crazy and I didn't end up brewing until now (almost a full week late for me). I try to do this at least once a week to keep the new recipes coming. Last week we opened a bottle of the stout to see how it was conditioning in the bottles (bottle conditioning brings the yeast back to life just enough to carbonate it. then you age it as long as it needs for all the flavors to settle in) and it is coming along very, very nicely. Definitely needs a few more weeks, but I'm very pleased with the results so far. I also bottled the amber style ale (I don't know what else to call it really, it doesn't really fit in to any particular category) last saturday and gave it a pre-bottle tasting. It also showed a lot of potential, and I can't wait to try the fully conditioned finished product. Later along in today's brew I may crack open a bottle of the amber to see how it's going after a week in bottles.

So that brings me to today. I'm brewing up a dark wheat beer. It's not so much in the style of the german hefeweizen, but based on that style with a different yeast type. One of the definitive traits of the german weizen beers is the yeast profile with its banana-y/clovey aromas and tastes. I'll once again be using the Irish Ale yeast to see how that type of recipe translates to a completely different yeast. It's also a bit bigger (higher alcohol) and darker than a typical german dunkelweizen. I have actually designed this beer as a base beer for a few experiments I have coming up involving mixing in some fruits and teas in the recipe... but more on that later :)

Here's today's gem:

Dark Wheat
Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.24 %

16.00 oz German Wheat Malt
12.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L
12.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
7.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L

Hops:
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min)

Log notes:
Mash temp: 151 - Mashing at a medium temperature. Mashing higher would make for a sweeter, maltier beer, mashing lower creates a drier, more attenuated beer. I'm looking for something right in the middle.

Update:

Just cracked the "Amber style ale" from two weeks ago. It's one of my traditions to try the previous brew on each new brew day... One of the joys of brewing is that you are never quite 100% sure what you're going to get some of the time. This would be one of those times. I'd actually classify this as more of a brown ale. It came up a bit darker than I had anticipated, and it lacks that red tint I was shooting for. The taste is great. It's very clean, medium bodied, medium/low hop aroma and flavor with very little bitterness. Just what I was going for as far as the drinkability. Can't wait to try another in a few weeks!