Beer 2013.05
Overview
- Style: American Wheat Ale with Chocolate Malt, Cocoa, Raspberry, and Cardamom
- Codename: This Is Your Grain On Chocolate
- Brewmaster: Eric Stein
- Type: All-grain
- Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: ??? - need to run through beersmith
- Expected Original Gravity: ???
- Expected Final Gravity: ???
- Expected ABV: ??? %
- Expected IBU: ???
- Expected Color: ???
- Initial Gravity: ?
- Final Gravity: 1.0.13
- ABV: 4.07%
- Brewed: 3/3/2013
- Racked: ?/?/2013
- Kegged: ?/?/2013
- First served: 4/2/2013
- Last served: ?/?/2013
Brew Participants
The helpers who stuck through thick and thin:
- Eric Stein
- Steve Farkas
- Charlie Stauffer
- Dan Stokes (dstokeometry - yahoo mail)
- Tucker Tomlinson
People during Keg: Eric Stein, James Longfield, Tucker.
Helpers with making extracts: Eric Stein, Steve Finkelman, James Longfield.
It takes a village!
Brewing
Mash
Grain Bill:
- 4.5 lb Organic Canadian 2 Row (Gambrinus)
- 2.5 lb Wheat malt - "imparts a creamy, sweet, malty wheat flavor. Use for 5% head retention in any style. Use for Weizenbier and Weiss beer. Typical color 2-2.3L." Breiss Malting Company.
- 1.0 lb UK Chocolate Malt
Mash Schedule:
- Type: Single step in insulated mash tun, no heating
- 10 qt water at 170F
- Target temp: 160F
- Actual temp: 155F
- Start pH: ?
- Time: 90 mins
- Start Mash: 3:46pm
- End Mash: 5:16pm
- End temp: 145F
- End pH: ?
Sparge
- 5 gal
- Target temp: 168F
Boil
- Boil start: 6:06pm
- ~7.5 gallons at start of boil
- 0.4 oz US cascade from start of boil
- 0.6 oz US cascade from 5 mins to end of boil
- 110 grams cocoa powder at 5 mins to end of boil
- 60 minute boil
- 5 gallons expected at end of boil, approximately correct
- Measured gravity 1.044 after boil
- Boil end: 7:06pm
Fermenting
- Primary ferment: Glass carboy, 5gal
- Oxygenated with stone
- Pitch Wyeast American Ale (1056), smack pouch
- Ferment temp set point: 66F
Kegging
- Kegged on 3/26/2013 into Keg 3 & put on force carb
- 1.013 final gravity.
Flavorant Additions
We used a 250ml soxhlet extractor with ~200ml of vodka per run. We filled the whole body with raspberries for the raspberry extract. We only put in about 125ml by volume of green whole cardamom pods for the cardamom extract, of which we used about ~2/3. We ran the cardamom around 8 cycles, the raspberry around the same. It was somewhat slapshot as far as process for extraction was concerned. It came down to a slight hint of raspberry in the beer, with a fairly strong note of cardamom. So, if you are trying to replicate this do it to taste.
Extraction video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4DLWawtiCs
Flavorants were created & added to the beer on.
The ABV of the beer was probably affected by the extract addition, but we're not sure by how much yet - need some hydrometry and math.
Tasting at Serving
There's a wheat beer texture and hop profile, with a darkness that's partially caramel flavored, a little chocolate, and some coffee hints. The first thing you'll notice is the floral and fruity smell of the raspberries and cardamom, which goes to just cardamom once it hits the palate, that fades after a second and you can taste the dark flavors and the hops & wheat. The aftertaste is chocolatey.
Source
Based on Beer 2013.02, changed some malts and hops, added chocolate and extract, removed secondary vegetable inputs.