Monday, March 14, 2011

Berliner-gyle

It's been a little while since I've posted. Winter has been cold and brewing has ceased but now things are warming up and it's time to plan some summer beers. I've wanted to brew a Berliner weiss for a while but I'm also planning on having a brew party where we were going to do a parti-gyle. So, I'm thinking about doing a 2 batch parti-gyle and making a doppleweiss and a Berliner weiss.

Here's my thought, 50% malted wheat and 50% pils. I'll do a single decoction starting with a low beta rest then decocting up to 158 or so for a short alpha rest to try and give a little body. I'll add a small amount of German hops in the decoction for a little bitterness. I"ll do a 1/2-1/2 split and shoot for a post boil target on the big beer in the 1.090-1.100 range and a run off target on the small beer of 1.028 or so.

The little beer goes right into a fermenter with either a WLP630 starter (if I can get it at the store) or a good apple juice starter of lacto and some US-05. Throw in a Jolly Pumpkin dregs for a little brett to balance the lacto and start fermenting.

Meanwhile, boil the big beer and add some more bittering hops. That goes in with a heffeweizen or Bavarian wheat yeast (whichever is available at Brewtensils).

The Berliner gets a short primary and a secondary for a couple of months in the bottles. The dobbleweiss get a longer primary to make sure it ferments out completely, then a few weeks in bottles to condition. I'm thinking of dry hopping a couple of bottles of each with some citra as an experiment.

Thoughts?