Beer night

My sister is getting married in June, and when her beau found out I make home brew, he wanted me to bring some down. Sunday Vickie and I made a trip to Bloomington so I could pick up the stuff I needed from Friar Tuck's. I decided on a honey wheat beer. I bought 2 plastic jars of Breiss Bavarian Wheat unhopped malt.

I also bought some Liberty hop pellets and Cascade hop pellets. They didn't actually have what I was looking for. Liberty is supposed to be somewhat spicy, and Cascade has citrus over tones.


I bought Munich brewer's yeast. I thought with a Bavarian malt that would work nicely. A couple days before brewing I made a yeast starter. I put some malt, honey and sterilized water in a sterilized canning jar and dumped the yeast in. Here's the yeast starter.

I also picked up these Cooper priming tablets for bottling. I've always wanted to try these. It seems like it would be easier to drop one in the bottle when you fill and cap it than it is to try and get the priming sugar mixed evenly through the whole 5 gallon batch.

Another thing I tried this time around was to sterilize small plastic food containers and fill them with sterilized water and froze them. The object is to get the wort cooled down as quickly as possible when you're done with the boil.
Basically I started with 3 gallons of water and 1 can of the malt. I dumped in 1/2 ounce of the liberty hops and turned on the heat. The water was actually boiling when I dumped in the malt. After 20 minutes I added the other 1/2 ounce of liberty hops. Once it got back to a boil I dumped in 1/2 ounce of the cascade and let it boil for 20 minutes. I then dumped in the other 1/2 ounce of cascade and let it boil for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes I added the other can of malt and 1 1/2 jars of honey. I let that heat for 5 minutes. I dumped the blocks of sanitized ice in and stirred until they were melted. I topped off the fermenter with previously sterilized water to just a little over the 5 gallon line. When the wort cooled down below 90 degrees I pitched the yeast in it and sealed it with an air lock. I then put it someplace where my grandson wouldn't find it. I'll let you know how it turns out in about a month.

I use to love beer more than anything and now it is hard for me to even drink, i sure wish i liked it yet as i would love to try something like this yep keep us informed how it goes buddy.

Well I racked my beer into the secondary fermenter today and added another 26 ounces of honey. I'll let it ferment in the secondary until the end of the month, then I'll bottle it.

Looking good and dark buddy, should be a strong ale or will it get lighter in color.

Send me a case or 2

I don't think it will get any lighter. It may appear a little dark because of the blue tint to the jug. Salt come on up and pick it up. The only way I know to ship it safely is by using the spray foam like you seal around windows. But if I did that it would be a pain to chip it away from the bottles in order to drink it.

Stic a tap in the jug,it'll come right on out.

I plan on a road trip in a couple of years....I'll give some warning if I head that way.