Dunkelweizen 2 All Bottled Up

On Monday, March 22, Matt and I bottled up the second attempt at my Dunkelweizen. This beer includes Wheat Malt, 2 Row Pale malt, German Munich Malt, Crystal Malt, Chocolate malt and a bit o' Black Patent Malt, as well as 3 pounds of Malt Extract Powder (partial mashing still!). Oh yeah, I also added 2 pounds of Instant Rice as an experiment and to boost the alcohol content. Safbrew Wheat Beer Yeast (WB-06)was the choice here and I used Amarillo hops because I can.

Looks like we have 5.5 percent ABV brew here. I thought it would be a bit higher, but this will do.

Since I brew 7 gallon batches, I have been using 1 cup of priming sugar. This seems to be not quite enough. My beers need more head! I boosted this batch up to 1 1/8 cup. We will see how much more carbonation this adds.

While bottling, we enjoyed some of my recently bottled wine (as an experiment, since it had been bottled only a few days) some Nut Brown Ales and some Golden Road Ales. Very nice. These two beers had been bottled for 5 weeks and they both seemed as if they were not quite ready. My brew closet stays at 67 to 68 degrees constantly. I go by the 1 month in carboy and 1 month in bottles at 70 degrees rule. Perhaps the few degrees below 70 leads to a bit more time needed in the bottles? Either way, this was a fun and successful experience!