Mixed Fermentation

I am attempting to brew a Hefewiezen with a friend. We know we want the beer to have a nice banana aroma but the only yeast that was at the brew store was wyeast 1010 American Wheat.

Are plan is to ferment the beer with two strains of yeast, I have used saison yeast in the past and during fermentation I remember a lot of banana aroma. I am hoping that if we use both yeast in the fermentation that we can get the best attributes of both yeast.

The recipe is fairly simple, for a 3 gallon bath we are using

3.5 pounds american 2-row
3.5 pounds german red wheat

1/2 oz of Hallertau hops

Single step  infusion mash at 154 F
Added hops to when wort started to boil, boiled 55 minutes.

Cooled beer to 80 F and added 1 packet Wyeast 1010 and a small starter of Wyeast Belgian Saison yeast ( The sample came from a plated in my fridge)

Placed beer in a fridge with a temp control set at 64F

Christmas Cherry Ale Update

11/23

Cracked one of these open yesterday while brewing. They have been bottled for a month and a half now. I had some around christmas time and it was rather disappointing. The beer had a very earthy taste to it and had not carbonated very well.

I can gladly report that that has all changed! The one I had yesterday was a completely different beer.

Appearance, a hazy dark red color with a good two fingers of head that turn into a nice lace skirt around the bottle.

Aroma, cherry, dark malt, and a that funky aroma that comes from sour beers.

Taste, an almost lip puckering cherry pie taste mixed with malt and a hint of caramel.

Overall, I was sure that I needed to just pour out all of these because they were so lack luster. I am pleasantly surprised that they are now sour! It turned into an awesome beer.

NOTE: I will provide a more detailed tasting when I open the next beer. It is hard to review a beer accurately while you are brewing and the air is filled with other smells.

Flanders Red

1/9/2012

Brewed a Flanders Red today. I am aiming for a well balanced sour profile that is not to harsh.


Recipe Adapted from WildBREWS

Ingredients

6 Pounds Vienna Malt
2 Pounds Flaked Maze
1 Pound CaraHell
1 Pound Aromatic Malt
1 Pound CaraVienna
1/3 Pound Special "B"

All the Grain Ready to Go

12 IBUs of US Kent Golding

Yeast is Wyeast 3763 that has been grown up with a 500mL 1.040 DME starter
Also present are bugs from Supplication Dregs grown up in a starter
I plan on adding more bugs in the form of wood chips that are soaking in part of the 3763 starter

My Starter

Mash Schedule
12 quarts water
Hold 120F 20 minutes, Added 6 quarts boiling water
Hold 145F 40 minutes, Added 9 quarts boiling water
Hold 162F 30 minutes, Added 6.5 quarts boiling water
Hold 169F 10 minutes, Mash out and sparge with 176F water

Trying to boil off some water

Collected ~8 gallons of water and began a monster 3 hour boil. I added 3/8 of an ounce of US Kent Goldings 6.3% Alpha Acid at 90 minutes.

Cooled and placed in 6 gallon Fermentation Bucket

1/9 Air Lock Bubbling nicely

1/15/12

Update: Gravity is at 1.020
Moved the beer into a 5 gallon glass carboy. Added an oak dowel that had been toasted, drilled with holes to increase the surface area, and soaked in a starter full of brett and lactic acid bacteria. Hopefully this will provide a nice home for the brett as well as add a very slight oak taste/aroma to the beer.

3/5/2012

A pellicile has suddenly formed on top of the beer. I look at the beer at least every other day and have been disappointed to not see anything taking place. However, I looked at the beer today and a pellicile has formed almost overnight. There are also small bubbles rising in the beer now. It might be the warm temperature (outside air temp has been at 60) or maybe the microbes were just taking there sweet time.

3/13

Not sure if it is the increased air temp or what, but beer is bubbling again. It is going slowly but it is bubbling again.