lookin' good

It has been a few weeks since brewing my Sunset Wheat clone, so last night I bottled it up (which means I shall be brewing tonight). I got everything all cleaned up and ready, prepared my priming sugar and racked the beer into the bottling bucket. 

Since Melissa was here, I volunteered her to help me get the "last little bit" (about two beers-worth) that was setting on top of the trub. I had her hold the hose in the bucket while I gently tilted the carboy so I could rack that last little bit. Klutzy as I am (you knew this was coming), it slipped and stirred up all that slurry trub into the beer. GAH!

I decided to wait and let everything settle and try it again. About 20 minutes later I did just that. No matter how hard I tried I was unable to extricate that last little bit without bringing some of the trub with it. 

Oh well, not a big loss, but frustrating to be sure! The beer itself was crystal clear and there was no way I wanted to pollute it with yeast by-products. 

Honestly, it looked professional quality as if it had been filtered it was so clear. I was pretty happy with that. However, looks ain't everything. It had a sweet smell that I have read about that usually is indicative of too high a ferment temperature for the yeast. 

I didn't do anything different than usual and have used this yeast strain a few times before and have found its "sweet spot" (no pun intended). Now, granted this is the first wheat beer I have attempted, and a wheat beer is going to have a certain amount of sweetness to it, so that may well be what I noticed. 

Time will tell! That is the biggest problem I have with this hobby. There's no instant validation. If you make a mistake you could well repeat it a couple times before you *know* it. 

Anyway I took a gravity reading and got 1.012, which was the target number, so I hit that. It had a 1.060  starting gravity, so that equates to a 6.2 ABV. 

The sample was too sweet. All I could taste was the extract that was added to the priming sugar that came with the kit. Like my stout (and going back to having to wait to find out), I am hopeful that wanes a bit as it bottle conditions. 

Well, if it turns out too sweet, at least it will look good!   ; )