Eureka, its time for yet another recipe from the past. Todays recipe is one I brewed back in 2006 and was influenced by a local Helles I really enjoyed back then. Today, I am not really into lagers anymore. Be as it is, the following recipe is a straight forward Ale recipe and fermented with Wyeast’s #3068 Weihenstephan yeast. I guess this is not really typical for an Ale recipe in the first place. But I had no other yeasts available back then as well…
| Recipe: | European Ale | |
| Numbers: | Volume [L] | 20 (5.3 gal) |
| Original gravity | 12°P | |
| Terminal gravity | 3°P | |
| Color | Around 21 EBC | |
| IBU | 15 IBU | |
| ABV | 4.8 % | |
| Grains: | Pilsner malt (4 EBC) | 3.2 kg |
| Cara Munich 1 (90 EBC) | 0.8 kg | |
| Hops: | Hersbrucker (3.6% AA) | 12 g and boil for 70 min |
| Northern Brewer (9.6% AA) | 8 g and boil for 70 min | |
| Yeast: | #3068 Weihenstephan | |
| Water: | Burgdorf | Mash: 12 L (3.2 gal), sparge: 17 L (4.5 gal) @78°C (172°F) |
| Rest: | Mash in @47°C (117°F), 20 min @ 45°C (113°F), 30 min @ 61°C (142°F), 30 min @ 72°C (162°F), 10 min @ 78°C (172°F) | |
| Boil: | Total 70 min | |
| Fermentation: | Primary | 6 days @ 20°C (68°F) in a plastic fermenter |
| Secondary | None | |
| Maturation: | Carbonation (CO2 vol) | 2 (carbonated with table sugar) |
| Maturation time | 3 weeks | |
08/01/06: The brew day begins. All went as it should. Iodine test was negative and the sparging with the false bottom went well. Then boiled the wort with the hops for 70 min and chilled the wort down with my immersion chiller. Original gravity of 12°P. Then pitched a package of Wyeast’s #3068 Weihenstephan yeast.
08/03/06: Gravity is down to 5°P already. Still some kräusen.
08/06/06: Gravity is down to 3°P. I did a forced fermentation test and the fermentation stopped at 3°P. I do not make any forced fermentation tests anymore. I can’t tell why exactly but I never experienced fermentation problems so far. I always try to pitch enough fresh yeast to ensure a healthy fermentation. Back to the beer, since the gravity was already down to the terminal gravity, I bottled the beer six days after the brew day. I added one tablespoon of sugar to each 0.5 L bottle to ensure an appropriate amount of carbonation. Then left the bottles carbonate for a week and let them mature for three weeks in my refrigerator.
I already mentioned in a previous post that I just brewed beer back then and did no tasting notes as I do them today. And this is no exception here. I noted the following things in my protocol: Very nice taste, extreme head formation. And things to improve: Decrease the amount of the sugars in the bottle… Well, thats all about the tasting. I can’t recall how exactly the beer tasted like. But it seemed to be okay. I would have noted any other experiences for sure. If anyone of you out there gives this recipe a go, please let me know how it tastes like…
Eureka Brewing 
Wow hey dude, The whole recipe looks like a wheat ale… without wheat-grain. Why you using ferulic acid rest and can you explain what “carbonation 2 Co2-vol” means?
Also i can give you the tipp didnt use tablesugar. It gives a whine-similar-aroma. Use pure glucose (corn-sugar) to get a good carbonation.
best regards,
Fabian
Hy there Fabian,
this recipe looks indeed like a wheat ale. But I had no intension to do any kind of wheat beer in the first place here. I just used the 3068 Weihenstephan yeast for a lot of batches back then. Even for Pilsner recipes 😉 I did not care about styles and such back then… Concerning the ferulic acid rest. You are right this is a ferulic rest. I didn’t noticed before 😉 I can’t recall why I chose to do such a rest in the first place…
Carbonation in vol CO2, 1 Vol. = 1 L of dissolved CO2 per liter of beer. But just multiply it by two and you have the carbonation level in g L-1. A carbonation level of 2 vol CO2 = 4 g CO2 per liter of beer. The vol CO2 is commonly used in the English speaking homebrewer community, the g L-1 more common in the German homebrewer community.
And thanks for your tip with the table sugar. In fact, I never experienced anything you describe, and I bottled most of my batches so far. In what beers have you experienced such a wine-like character?
Cheers and thanks for commenting
Sam