Monday, April 25, 2011

Pootie Tang American Wheat


UPDATE!

Kraft Foods no longer makes Sugar Free Tang!  I am forced to use Crystal Light, but I'm for sure not calling this Pooty Crystal Light Ale.

Why not?  I'm thinking Heritage Brewers Festival needs this.

5 lbs. 2-row
5 lbs. wheat malt
.33 lb. Caravienna

.35 oz. Summit hops @ 60 min

S-05 yeast

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.013
ABV: 6.0%
IBU: 26
SRM: 6

Sugar-free Tang added at kegging!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Black Dragon Wit


What makes a Belgian Wit into a Black Dragon Wit?  The answer is Oolong tea.  For the upcominng National Homebrew Day, one of the recipes is called Season of the Wit.  The recommendation is to include locally available herbs, flowers, etc. to make the Wit your own.  I don't care about adding dandelions and other yard weeds to my beer, but I am fascinated with adding tea.

Here is the original recipe:

O.G.: 1.053
F.G.: 1.013
IBU: 13
SRM: 4.5

Fermentables:
5 lb (2.3 kg) 2-Row Pale Malt (50%), 3 SRM
2 lb (0.91 kg) Wheat Malt (20%), 2 SRM
3 lb (1.4 kg) Flaked Soft White Wheat (30%), 2 SRM

Hops:
0.7 oz (20 g) Mt. Hood whole hop, (6.5% AA), @ 60 minutes

Extras:
1.0 to 1.5 oz (28 to 43 g) fresh orange zest (1 or 2 oranges), added at 5 minutes left in boil
0.5 to 6.25 oz (14 to 184 g) fresh crushed/ground coriander seeds, added at 5 minutes left
Local Flower:
Local Herb:
Local Spice:
Local Fruit:

Yeast:
Two (2) packages Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier; or two (2) packages White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale yeast, or make an appropriate size yeast starter

In addition to this, I'll also be adding a few cups of fine grade Oolong.  I'll be doing some tasting before this to get the right concentration.