Brewed a Hefe or Dunkelweizen

This weekend I brewed a very wheaty wheat beer. I think it's too dark to be called a Hefe, but too light to be a Dunkel. It's my first use of my new turkey fryer (my wife wanted me out of the kitchen and it allows me to do full boils). Here's the recipe...

.5 lbs of Briess Dextrine grains
.5 lbs of cracked wheat
Steeped and brought 6.5 gallons of water to 155F and set at 155 for 30 minutes
Brought water to a boil and removed steeping bag
3.3 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat LME
1 cup of corn sugar
1/4 cup of malto dextrine
1 tsp of Irish moss
1 oz of Tradition hops (A.A. 5.8%)
Boiled for 30 minutes
3.3 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat LME
3 lbs Muntons Wheat DME (55% Wheat/45% Barley)
.5 oz of Willamette hops (A.A. 4.5%)
Boiled for 15 minutes
.5 oz of Willamette hops (A.A. 4.5%)
Boiled for 15 minutes and cooled

Here's the interesting/experimental part... I'm fermenting 5 gallons in my carboy with Munton's Gold Ale dry yeast, and then I'm fermenting 1 gallon in couple half-gallon growlers. In the growlers I've tried my first attempt at yeast harvesting (from a Schlafly Hefe). The original gravity is 1.070. I'll let you know how it turns out.

St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival 2008

This past weekend I went to the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival (well, in St. Louis, obviously). There were 8 breweries (Alandale Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, Schlafly, GriesedieckBros. Brewing, Augusta Brewing Co., O'Fallon Brewery, Square One Brewery, and Morgan Street Brewery), with over 60 beers to sample. Unfortunately, I was only able to try about half of the beers. I'm only disappointed that I was not able to sample beers from Alandale, Square One, or Griesedieck (in all fairness, Griesedieck only had 1 beer to sample). One interesting thing about the festival is that the brewers did not give the "brand name" of their beers, only the brewer and the style. That's why I made fun of my wife, since the first beer she "tried" was A-B's "American Light Lager" (Bud Light).

I did enjoy the Schlafly beers alot, in particular the Bavarian Style Dark Wheat (which my friend who went with us tells me is their "#15") and their Kolsch (for a winter day, I'd go for the Schwarzbier). I only tried two of Morgan Street's beers, and one was good (the Dusseldorf Altbier) and one was terrible (Vienna Lager). Although each brewer brewed a St. Louis Dark Lager (with the same ingredients) and I have to say that my favorite there was Anheuser-Busch's version. In the Witbier/Wheat Beer category, I enjoyed Schlafly's (#15) and Augusta's Blegian Witbier (A-B's version was a little too lemon-orangy for me, and O'Fallon's was a little bland). In the "alternative" (fruit beer) category, I still like Schlafly's Pumpkin Beer. Although the version they had at the festival seemed to have more spices than the one i had at "The Tap Room" (their restaurant) last October. As far as "hoppy beers" I'd have to go with O'Fallon's American IPA (I think it's their "3-Day IPA") which kicked in a minute or two after I drank it - followed closely by Augusta's American IPA which had a little bit of grassy taste. The surprise of the day for me was A-B's Sorghum Beer. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't bad - quite barleyey. Overall, if I had to choose a "Best of Show" I'd have to go with Augusta's German Pilsner... but only because it was a Pilsner kind of day. Each beer was pretty good on it's own and it was a pretty good day... and props to the staff at the festival for handing out huge soft pretzels and bottles of water as we left. I hope we'll be able to go again next year.