Mizzle Belgian Wheat

So I got this Wyeast 3942. Time to try something with it. Homemade recipe, and it turned out really well.

Recipe

Batch size: 5 gallons

Grain bill:

• 7 lb organic wheat malt
• 3 lb organic Pilsener malt

Hops:

• .75 oz Hallertau (4.8%) pellets @ 60
• .25 oz Hallertau (4.8%) pellets @ 5

Yeast: Wyeast 3942

Additional ingredients:

• 0.75 oz coriander seeds @ 5

Prep

May 28, 2011: Forgot to get starter ready in advance, so I settled for hitting the smack pack. Brought 7.5 gallons of water to 75 C, hoping it would drop 9 C to 66 C at mash-in; instead, it came to 69 C / 156 F. Oh well. Left it overnight.

Brew Day

May 29, 2011: Took 45 minutes to bring to boil. The coriander smells delicious. Got the kids to help pitch the yeast. Didn't aerate as much as I should have.

Four hours later there's a thin foam on top. Is this just the wheat talking, or is it kreusen? Twelve hours later it's bubbling away. 24 C fermentation temp...that might explain it.

Fermentation

This one fermented warm -- 21 to 24C. Perhaps that explains the skunky/sulfury smell. I'm sure hoping it isn't actually skunked.

Bottling

June 12, 2011: Not skunked! Pre thinks it smells like Pilsener, so perhaps it's the malt. 100g dextrose. 1.006 gravity, so about 4.9% ABV (according to Radical Brewing.) Tried the hydro sample, and yum! Thin and crisp; some banana/Belgian character; very light bitterness, of course; cloudy. Pre doesn't like it as much as I do. Should be lovely chilled. I think I can smell the coriander.

Tasting

June 17, 2011: Not long in the bottle and wow! Very nice and definitely not skunked. Lovely straw yellow color. Some herb/coriander.

My dad liked it!

July 3, 2011: This just keeps getting better and better. The Belgian character is there, and I like it.

September 3, 2011: Took this to VanBrewers and I got a lot of compliments on it. Nice!