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Chamomile

Today, I tried my hand at all grain brewing for the first time. I screwed up good and proper, which is exactly what I was supposed to do. Here’s what happened.

I set out to make a chamomile honey wheat beer. In the end, the recipe I went with is not entirely unlike the one I posted a month ago, but it isn’t entirely like it either. Into my mashing/lautering tun I put;

4.75# Pale Wheat Malt
5# Two Row Pale Malt

Cracked and ready to go. To this, I added around 3 gallons of hot water. The temp of the water I added was around 160 degrees F. The mash ended up being 140 degrees F. This seemed too cool, so I shut it up for about half an hour while I researched how much more hot water to add to make the final temp closer to 160. Ooh. Here’s the problem; I misremembered the appropriate temp for mashing grains. It’s 145 - 155, not 165 - 175. Here’s a helpful chart that I will use next time.

So, what happened when I mashed at 160 degrees for an hour is; mostly nothing. I ended up with a much lower gravity wort than I had anticipated, because the enzyme that does the most, best work (beta amylase) I killed after half an hour of mashing. Instead of my target 1.050 Original Gravity I hit 1.029. Blech. But, not to worry. I was going to add 1.5# of honey at the end of the boil, which would bump the gravity up by about a point overall (to 1.04, give or take). I had some extra honey around, so I doubled it and added three pounds.

The place where I hope this beer really stands out is the chamomile included in place of hops. I used about two ounces of chamomile and a half ounce of saaz hops boiled for 60 minutes, and another two ounces of chamomile and half ounce of saaz boiled for ten minutes give or take. When I transfer to the secondary, I’m going to do a little taste test and maybe add some more chamomile for aroma at that time depending on how much the flavor comes through.

Rather than a weitzen yeast, which has a lot of character of its own that I didn’t want, I’m using the Wyeast American Ale, which is pretty good and neutral especially if I keep the fermentation temp cool, which I’m doing.

As always, updates to follow.

Lately I’m drinking the India Amber Ale. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, despite some small mishaps. It’s got a unique flavor for sure, but not a bad one. I’m not much of one for flavor reviews like they do on the beer sites; it seems haughty. I like drinking my beer. It tastes good. Come over and I’ll offer you one, and you can see for your own self.