Belgian Pale & Hefeweizen

It's been awhile since my last post, mostly because the weather in my neck of the woods has gotten so nice and the honey-do-list is in full effect. That hasn't stopped me from brewing though. I still managed to fit in several brews in the last couple of months which I'll use for the next couple of posts.

My homebrew club  signed up for club night at this year's NHC (HomebrewCon) in Baltimore (look for the SLAM booth - Western Theme) but there are only four of us going so I felt the need to bring quite a few beers plus fill my own kegerator. I received a bonus day off from work when my fencing contractor called and said he needed to see the yard and the plans so I used the opportunity for a double brew day.

The first beer was 11 gallons of a Belgian Pale Ale I made up on the fly. It's about 70% pilsner, 20% munich, 5% caramunich and 5% crystal 60. I bittered with Warrior and flavored with saaz hops. There is also bitter orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise to Belgianize the beer :). I used White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale which I've used several times and absolutely love.

The second beer was another 11 gallons of a German Hefeweizen that I've brewed before. The recipe is the same but I swapped the Safale Hefe yeast out for White Labs WLP 300 which is supposed to have more banana characteristics. I'm not competing with this beer so rather than balance I wanted it to stand out a bit more. I also added coriander and orange peel to this beer only I bagged it after clogging the kettle valve on the Belgian Pale ;-).

These beers are currently fermenting and both Hefe fermentors exploded on me. One was a bucket and the lid blew clean off. The other oozed all over my hardwood floor. Ahhh the price we pay for good beer.