American Wheat Ale (For Intermediate Homebrewers) Recipe
Anyone who has completed 3 or 4 batches of extract homebrewing should have enough experience to be successful with the brew-in-a-bag method used here.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Two-Row malt, crushed
- 4 pounds Malted Wheat, crushed
- 0.6 pound Munich malt, crushed
- 1 ounce Magnum hops - 60 minutes
- 1/2 ounce Sorachi Ace hops - 15 minutes
- 1/2 ounce Sorachi Ace hops - 5 minutes
- 1 Liter starter of American Ale yeast, either White Labs WLP051 or Wyeast 1272
Instructions
- 1
Line the 7.5 gallon kettle with the mesh bag, fill with 2.5 gallons of tap water and bring to 165°F (74°C). Remove from heat.
- 2
Mash-in by slowly adding all 7.6 pounds of grain into the water and inside the bag. Stir for 2 minutes to prevent balls of grain from clumping together, creating a consistent mash. The temperature should equalize to about 154°F (68°C).
- 3
Cover the mash, only uncovering to briefly stir every 20 minutes. Heat 3 more gallons of water to 185°F (85°C).
- 4
After 60 minutes, mash-out by carefully pouring the 185°F water into the mash, stirring to equalize temperature to about 170°F (77°C).
- 5
Slowly raise the grain bag out of the liquid, allowing the wort to drain from the grain. Hold the grain bag above the kettle for 5 to 10 minutes as the wort drains. Top the wort off with water to 6 gallons.
- 6
Bring wort to a vigorous boil. When the boil begins, add 1 ounce Magnum hops in a mesh bag.
- 7
After boiling for 45 minutes, add 1/2 ounce Sorachi Ace hops in a mesh bag.
- 8
After boiling a for a total of 55 minutes, add 1/2 ounce Sorachi Ace hops in a mesh bag.
- 9
After total of 60 minutes of boil, remove from heat. Warning: After wort cools below 180°F (82°C) everything that touches it should be sanitary, and exposure to open air should be limited as much as possible.
- 10
Cool wort by placing pot in ice bath or by using a wort chiller until it is below 70°F (21°C). Transfer to sanitized fermentor (either a carboy or a fermentation bucket).
- 11
Use a sanitized auto-siphon racking cane to remove enough wort to take a gravity reading with your hydrometer. Make a note of this number, since you will be using it to calculate the actual alcohol content when it's done fermenting. The reading should be around 1.043.
- 12
Carefully pour yeast into cooled wort (it should be below 70°F), and agitate vigorously. Cover fermentor with a sanitized stopper and airlock. Ferment in dark place, keeping ambient temperature consistent, preferably between 65 and 68°F (18 and 20°C).
- 13
Bottle after 1 to 2 weeks when fermentation is complete, using enough priming sugar for a medium level of carbonation.