Lake Erie Steam-dampfbier

[unionrdr]

This is version two of the recipe I worked up for this German peasant wheat beer. Wheat was expensive to brew with for the average German centuries ago. so they used barley malt & begged some wheat ale yeast from local brewers, or so the story goes. Surprisingly good balance of flavors. An early steam beer, as the name implies. It was said to look as if it were steaming (boiling) while fermenting, hence the name. A good session beer with sausages, chicken & the like.
This is a pb/pm biab beer (partial boil, partial mash brew in a bag)
2lbs, 8ozs bohemian pilsner malt
3lbs munich 10L
.8oz carared (20L)
3lbs, 2.4ozs pilsen LME, 3 SRM
1oz hallertauer mittelfrueh, 45 minutes
.5oz hallertauer mittelfrueh, 15 minutes
.5oz hallertauer mittelfrueh, 5 minutes
1 package Bavarian wheat yeast, Wyeast 3638
OG 1.052
FG 1.012
18.8 IBU
6.6 SRM
5.86% ABV
Single infusion, medium body, batch sparge
Ale, single stage
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Mash the crushed grains in 2 1/2 gallons spring water @ 154F 1 hour. Heat sparge water in smaller kettle. Drain bag well. Batch sparge in 1 1/2 gallons spring water @ 166F for 10 minutes, stirring well before covering & timing the ten minutes. This gave me 4 to 4 1/2 gallons boil volume. When the boil actually started, I set the timer for 60 minutes, waiting until the 45 minute mark to add the bittering addition. Follow hop additions as listed. Make sure you chill some 3 gallons of spring water in the fridge a day or two before brew day for topping off.
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I put the hot brew kettle in a cold water bath in the kitchen sink to knock off a few degrees. Then drained that & packed ice around the brew kettle, topping that off with cold water. Add ice as needed to get the wort down to 75F or so. Strain chilled wort into clean/sanitized fermenter. A fine mesh strainer gets a lot of hop, etc gunk out & aerates it as well. Less compacted trub later means more beer in the bottles. Top off to 5 gallons recipe volume with the chilled spring water.
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I pitched the Wyeast packet after it had time to swell/proof for a few hours during brew day. Wort temp at pitch was 68F, as I could only get the wort chilled down to 84F that time. But chilling to 75F & top off to 65F would be my usual M.O.. Fermented that time 3 weeks & one day to FG. Your results may vary. After FG is reached, allow beer 3-7 days to clean up any by-products of fermentation & settle out clear or slightly misty before packaging.
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Rack to bottling bucket, pouring in priming solution of 3.90zs dextrose dissolved in 2C of boiled water that I covered & allowed to cool a bit before pouring into the swirling column of beer in the bottling bucket. Sanitize the bottles, fill & cap. Allow to sit in covered boxes at room temp 3-4 weeks, then chill in fridge for two weeks at least. This allows a bit of lagering that I think improves the flavor.