Follow up to Brew Day

It has been two weeks since I reported to you on brewing a Weiss (wheat beer). In that time the wort (pronounced wert) which is the mashed liquid before fermentation, has been transferred from the fermentor to secondary storage containers. Since I brew 11½ gallons at a time, of which only 10½ gallons are fermented, I use either two five-gallon soda canisters or one 10 gallon canister. These canisters are the kind you see soda being dispensed from at fairs. Of the remaining gallon, three quarts of wort are used for food for the next yeast starter and the remainder is lost to spillage.

Once the beer is transferred to the secondary containers, it is placed in a cold area for further conditioning. Conditioning beer is similar to conditioning wine in that it removes the rough edges in the taste department. Some lagers benefit from being conditioned (lagered) for several months. Also, cold conditioning allows the trub, all of that gunk from the used yeast and other proteins to settle to the bottom of the canister. This process helps make the beer crystal clear without filtering. Of course, with Weiss bier, cloudiness is acceptable.

One of the dominant aromas with Weiss is bananas and/or cloves. I believe that the particular brand of yeast for Weiss fermentation leads to this distinctive aroma. Many if not most strains of yeast have traveled across the great ponds over the centuries into yeast banks in the US. There are both liquid and dry yeasts available to the home brewer. If a home brewer lives in the vicinity of a regional brewery, he/she could get a small amount of spent yeast from the regional brewery for personal use. Each strain of yeast has its own distinctive flavor profile. One of the joys of home brewing is the ease of changing the flavor of the beer by changing any one of the four ingredients - water, grain, hops and yeast.

Today I will take the final step on this wondrous journey and carbonate my new batch of beer. Since home brewers find filtering to be unnecessary, a small amount of yeast remains in the beer. This yeast is used along with a liquid batch of corn sugar placed into a container of beer like the canisters or a bottle. In either case, both must be sealed otherwise the carbon dioxide will escape. The process takes several days, perhaps as long as week. It also leaves some trub in the bottle/canister from the spent yeast. Not a big deal but still visible especially in a bottle.

I have a 20 pound bottle of carbon dioxide used to dispense my beer. So it is a simple process for me to force carbonate my beer to whatever level I desire. Some of the liquid engineer types in the homebrew area have calculated the amount of carbon dioxide (pressure) needed to properly carbonate the beer. Crank up the pressure, rock the canister until the there is no longer a noise of bubbles. Best to do this with chilled beer. And now . . . enjoy.