These early stages of my brewing history are incredibly exciting from my initial immersion in the culture to buying equipment that would look at home in a chemistry department and very much nurturing the beginning of an aspect of my identity. I was so entranced in having a new, culinary-esque avenue to express creativity that ultimately both educated me and introduced me to all that beer can be. At this point, my first brew was bottled, carbonated, and being inhaled by me as fast as I could. Everything about this early point in my brewing career was exciting. Except the first couple recipes. And with that, welcome to the Honey Weizen.
Grains
8oz Carapils
Hops
1oz Styrian Golding (?%AA) @ 60min
1oz Styrian Golding (?%AA) @3min
Malt
6lbs Wheat LME
Yeast
Munich/Lallemand Wheat dry yeast (w/o rehyration)
Additions
2lbs Clover Honey @ 20min
*I added an extra 1/3 tsp of bottling sugar when bottling. (I think on top of 5oz, cant remember)
SG: 1.060 (YES! Actually remembered to take SG & with reading the right numbers!!!)
1wk: 1.010
FG(2wk): 1.010
I don’t mean to say this was a bad beer by any means. I say the recipes in the beginning of my brewing were dull in the sense that my first recipe was a partial clone, the second and third kits, and the fourth a local brewery’s recipe. I understand that likely many people in that same situation are merely beginning to understand the brewing process and not immediately crafting their own original recipes, however I felt like the most ignorant of consumer simply pouring premeasured ingredients that were shipped to my house into a pot and boiling them. I was so strongly attracted to the freedom of being creative that I felt I was caging myself by using these kit recipes. In the future, I know now because I’m from there, I will at least be assembling the ingredients even when using not my own recipes. That’s how you can tell it’s craft.
Now for the Honey Weizen. I brewed this beer on 3/31/2012. One of Midwest’s offerings and it was a good beer. I didn’t feel it was overly weizen-y or honey-y, but really enjoyed the little fruity, citrusy taste. If I would brew this again, I would rack the beer onto the honey in secondary to try and get more of the honey flavor into it rather than just a beer that was brewed with some honey (I always think of nearly that mead taste of recipes with honey boiled in). I felt this beer took about a month to be ready in bottles and then was a great beer to enjoy once the weather started turning warmer. This recipe has some potential and could easily be tailored to greatness.