CCHBS News for May 2003
- May Recipe Specials
- Name That Beer Contest!
- All Wheat on Sale!
- CO2 Tanks and Regulators in Stock
- Grain Spotlight - Roasted Wheat and Carawheat
May Recipe Specials
The weather's getting warmer and since there's no club style of the month for July, we decided to spotlight wheat beers. If you count variations, we've got no less than 5 recipes on sale this month, so let's get started. The recipes we're featuring are Westside Wheat, Wit's End Belgian White and Weizenbock. The first two are on sale for $22.00, and the third will cost you $30.00.
Westside Wheat is really 3 recipes in one. Ferment it with an ale yeast and you've got an American-style wheat beer. If you want a Hefeweizen, use one of the many German wheat beer yeasts. Add some fruit extract and you've got a fruit beer. Just let us know the style you want and we'll package it for you. (Fruit extracts not included in the kit price.)
Our second summer recipe is the Wit's End Belgian White. Also known as Witbier, the best known commercial example is Hoegaarden Wit. The addition of coriander and orange peel makes this a refreshing, but still interesting beer for hot summer days.
Finally, we have a beer for people who might not usually drink wheat beers: Wizard of Oz Weizenbock. This is not the usual wimpy wheat beer. This is a big beer with all the flavor and alcohol that 9 pounds of extract can give it. If you've ever hung around the club meetings late enough to try a taste of Aventinus, you know what we're talking about. If you haven't, but don't think summer has to be all about lawnmower beers, this is the beer for you!
Name That Beer Contest!
Wizard of Oz Weizenbock is also notable for being the first of our beers with names saluting the significant role Culver City has played in movie history. We'll be renaming a number of our recipes in honor of famous movies over the next few months, and we're giving you a chance to take part. If you submit the best new movie-theme recipe name we receive during the month of May, we'll award you the recipe kit (or all-grain equivalent) for the beer you named! If we get more than 20 entries, 2nd place will be a 6 lb. jar of extract (or 10 lbs of base malt). If there are more than 30 entries, we'll award a 3rd place too! To be fair, we want to let you know that every recipe is not eligible for renaming: King Kong Porter, Santa Monica Pale Ale, Burton Pale Ale, Brown Derby Brown Ale, Lynch's Kiltlifting Scotch Ale and a few others just can't be improved on, so we're not even going to try.
All Wheat on Sale!
That's right, all of our non-extract wheat products are on sale this month for only $1 per pound. It could be malted, unmalted, flaked, Carawheat or roasted and you can get it for the same low price.
CO2 Tanks and Regulators in Stock
If you tried to buy CO2 tanks or regulators last month, you know that our supplier goofed up and sent the wrong parts. We've got the right ones in stock now and we even had a couple of the CO2 tanks filled so you can start dispensing your homebrew right away!
Grain Spotlight - Roasted Wheat and Carawheat
Most homebrew recipes for Dunkelweizens and Weizenbocks call for crystal and roasted and/or chocolate malt. Why? Simply because most homebrew stores don't carry the more authentic Carawheat and Roasted Wheat. Carawheat is malted wheat which has been kilned while damp to give it the sweetness typical of crystal malts. The variety we stock is in the 50-60 SRM range and can be substituted directly for crystal. Roasted Wheat is malted wheat which has been roasted at high temperature to give it a color comparable to roasted or chocolate malt. Again, it's a direct subsitution for either in wheat beer recipes. On a side note, while researching this, we found the following statement by one of the Cargill maltsters: "(Roasted Wheat) is one of the coolest malts I have to work with. In terms of flavor profile and brew house efficiency it is similar to the DWC Biscuit. I highly encourage anyone that reads this posting to search this malt out and give it a try." He also indicated that he'd used these malts to brew a Wheat Wine and a Wheat Porter, either of which would be great beers for the Specialty/Experimental category. At only $1/pound, why not give them a try?