Emboldened by the success I had with my Wild Smoked Wheat, I decided to brew up another batch of beer last night with my wild-caught yeast. And this time around, I remembered to double check my IBU calculations.
Wild Biere de Garde
Batch Size: 2.13 gallons
Boil Volume: 3.0 gallons
1 lb 5 oz 2-Row (30.9%)
1 lb Vienna (23.5%)
10 oz Crystal 80L (14.7%)
7 oz Rye Malt (10.3%)
7 oz Flaked Rye (10.3%)
7 oz Turbinado Sugar (10.3%)
.4 oz Willamette (4.8 AA%) @ 60
Eugene, OR Wild Yeast
Estimated Efficiency: 70%
Estimated Attenuation 75%
Estimated OG: 1.054
Estimated FG: 1.014
Estimated ABV: 5.2%
Estimated IBU: 19
Estimated SRM: 15
Mash @ 154(F) for 4 hours
Ferment @ 60-64(F)
I mashed in this beer on my lunch break and left it sitting all afternoon while I was at work. I’ve done this before, but with a much larger grain bill. The amount of headspace in the tun allowed the temperature to drop quite a bit over the 4 hours it sat. My mashout infusion only brought the temperature back up to ~155(F). I went ahead and batch sparged anyway, collecting a little over 3 gallons of wort.
The small volume resulted in a more vigorous boil, and, in turn, more evaporation. When I transferred the wort to the fermentor I was down to about 6 quarts, requiring a top-off with tap water. A hydro sample after filling the tank showed that I hit my target starting gravity, 1.054.
I also added about .1 oz of medium toast oak chips to the fermentor. When I brewed my smoked wheat, I was worried about bacteria getting into the mix. This time around, I decided to embrace spontaneous fermentation, and give the buggers something a place to call home.
When I went to decant and pitch the yeast, I noticed the same tiny champagne-like bubbles in the starter that are in the smoked wheat ale. Perhaps a characteristic of the strain? The yeast also took right off this time instead of lagging for a couple days. When I took a peek in the fermentor this morning (~11 hours after pitching) there was already a full krausen.
I am hoping some of the same lemony notes develop in this beer that I got in the smoked wheat. I have my suspicions it is a hint of lacto, but with such a low starting gravity, the bacteria probably didn’t have a lot to work with once the yeast was done. This beer has about double the sugars, and coupled with a good long primary, any bugs present should have a chance to manifest.
Cheers!
Kevin