Author Archives: Andy Farke

Andy’s Orange Wheat Ale 1.1

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Last year, I designed an orange wheat recipe that turned out pretty phenomenally. In an attempt to replicate that success, I brewed up the next iteration yesterday. It’s essentially the same recipe as before, modified slightly to accommodate ingredient availability.

Andy’s Orange Wheat Ale 1.1

  • 8 oz. 15°L crystal malt
  • 5 lbs. Bavarian Wheat Dry Malt Extract (Briess; 3.0 SRM; 65% wheat, 35% barley)
  • 2 oz. Liberty hops pellets
  • 1 tsp. Irish moss
  • 1 package American Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (White Labs WLP320)
  • 5 fresh Valencia oranges

Directions

  • I heated 3 gallons of water to ~158°, and steeped the crystal malt for one hour. Then, I sparged with a half gallon of water (plus ~2 cups, to bring it up to 3.67 gallons).
  • I heated the brew kettle to a boil and turned off the heat. Then, I added the dry malt extract.
  • Meanwhile, I zested the peel of five medium-sized Valencia oranges (fresh-picked, without the nasty wax coating you get in the grocery store), resulting in 1.35 oz. (wet) of peel. I was very careful not to go down to the white part of the peel, which is too bitter. Then, I peeled and sliced up three of the oranges (the remainder went to make fresh juice – delicious!). I put those oranges and orange peel in a hop sack and placed them in a saucepan with 1/2 gallon of water. I heated this to just boiling, and turned off the heat to let it soak (~45 minutes).
  • Once the wort mixture came to a boil again, I added 1 oz. of the Liberty hops. After 55 total minutes of boil, I added another ounce of Liberty hops. After 60 minutes, I chilled the wort.
  • The Irish moss was added after 45 minutes of boiling.
  • I poured the wort into the primary fermenter and added the hot mixture of orangey water, slices, and peel. I topped the fermenter up with cold water to 5 gallons, and pitched the yeast. The temperature was 78°, and starting gravity was 1.046 (adjusted for temperature).
  • I plan to let this ferment in the primary for 10 days before bottling.

Rainy Day IPA 1.2 bottled

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After nearly three weeks of dry hopping in the secondary fermenter, it was time to bottle my Rainy Day IPA (version 1.2). So, yesterday I added 3/4 cup of priming sugar (boiled in 2 cups of water) and did the bottling thing.

The end yield was 3 22-oz. bottles, 13 18-oz. bottles, and 18 12-oz bottles (a little over 4 gallons of beer total). At time of bottling there was a great hop aroma, and the flavor is clean, smooth, and hoppy. The beer has a great dark copper color (maybe I’ll lighten it up a bit for the next version?). We’ll see how a few weeks of bottling condition play with it. . .because I used hop pellets, there was a fair bit of loose hop sediment. Most of it ended up on the bottom of the carboy, but there was still a little in suspension.

Final gravity was same as before, 1.012 at 70° F, down from 1.060. Thus, the estimated a.b.v. is 6.4%.

Mt. Baldy Bitter Bottled

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After a week, the s.g. for the Mt. Baldy Bitter was 1.007 at 60° (corrected from 1.006 at 70°), down from 1.035. This works out to 3.7% abv, right about at my estimated target of 3.6% (and well within expected measurement error, I presume).

I added 3/4 cup of priming sugar boiled in 2 cups of water, and then bottled. It worked out to 41 12-oz. bottles and 4 22-oz. bottles. Now they’re carbonating and bottle conditioning; I expect to try the first next weekend. The overall flavor in the uncarbonated beer is light and slightly bitter, but so far I don’t get the sense of a lot of “body” in this one. That well may change after some conditioning; if it doesn’t, I’ll probably add some carapils or a similar grain in the next iteration.

45 bottles of Mt. Baldy Bitter

Mt. Baldy Bitter

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In an effort to try out some new styles, particularly those on the simple end, I elected to try an English-style bitter. The grain and malt bill is simple, hops are straight-forward, and it should all be ready to bottle in a week. This recipe is called “Mt. Baldy Bitter,” in honor of one of the 10,000+ ft snow-capped peaks visible from my neighborhood.

Mt. Baldy Bitter
Ingredients

  • 8 oz. biscuit malt
  • 8 oz. 10° crystal malt
  • 3 lbs. light dry malt extract
  • 1 lb. amber dry malt extract
  • 2 oz. Fuggles hops (4.20%)
  • 1 pkg. Danstar Nottingham yeast
  • 1/2 tsp. Irish moss
Steps
  • Heat 3 gallons of water to 158°, steep biscuit and crystal malt at this temperature for 60 minutes. Sparge with 2/3 gallon of water at roughly the same temperature.
  • Heat mixture to boil, turn off heat. Add dry malt. Return to boil, add hops.
  • Boil for 60 minutes total. Add Irish moss for the final 15 minutes of boil.
  • Cool using coiling coil, decant into fermentation bucket. Top up with water to reach just a shade under 5 gallons. Add yeast.
  • Starting gravity was 1.035 at 60° (calibrated from 1.034 at 70°).

The calculations in BeerSmith 2 estimated a starting gravity of 1.036, bitterness of 27.9 IBU, color of 7.1 SRM, and 3.6% a.b.v. The starting gravity is just a touch short, but not by much. Another BeerSmith success!

I plan to let this ferment for one week, and then bottle with 2/3 cup corn sugar. As a good English-style ale, I’m going to let it bottle condition. Conveniently, both of my carboys are in use, so it’s a good time to bottle directly!