This is my basic Dirty Blonde wheat beer recipe.  This specific yeast foams a lot, so I use a 6.5 gallon carboy for the initial fermentation, then rack it into a 5 gallon carboy.  Be sure and sanitize all your equipment before beginning.

 

Ingredients:

 

7#   Wheat Extract (60% Wheat Malt/40% Base Malt premixed)

1 oz   German Hallertauer hops pellets 4.1 alpha / 4.3 beta

1 package   Wyeast Weihenstephan Weizen 3068XL wheat beer yeast

1 pellet   Whirlfloc T® Kettle Coagulant Irish Moss

 

Bring your water to a boil in your favorite brew pot.  While the water is heating, you can activate the yeast.  Follow the instructions on the packaging, but do not open the package until you pitch the yeast later in the process.

 

After bringing the water to a boil, turn off the heat and then add the wheat malt.  This keeps your malt from scorching on the bottom of your brew pot.  After the malt is mixed well with the hot water, turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.  Add 1/2 oz of the hops and set your timer for 45 minutes.

 

When the time expires, add the other 1/2 oz of hops and the Irish Moss pellet.  Set your timer for 15 minutes.

 

When the time expires, take the pot off the heat.  If you are using hops socks, remove them from the wort.  If no hops socks, then strain the beer to get the hops out of it.  You want to minimize hops interaction at this point.  By straining your beer, you will also be aerating it, which is good for it in this phase.

 

After removing the hops, cool your wort.  I put my pot in an ice water bath until it cools down, around room temperature.  You do not want to cool the beer lower than about 70 degrees.  Then I rack it to the carboy using a siphon hose and add enough water to fill the carboy as desired.  Pitch the yeast and take a hydrometer reading.  Affix your blow tube appropriately and wait.

 

There will be a lot of activity within 24 hours of pitching the yeast.  The initial fermentation will take 3-5 days.  After the foaming subsides (3-5 days) I rack into a 5 gallon carboy.  Be careful not to splash the beer around at this stage.  Aeration is not good at this point.  You want to minimize your beers exposure to oxygen. Siphon the beer, trying not to get much of the sediment  from the bottom of the initial carboy.  After racking into second carboy, put your fermentation lock on and wait.  The total time from when you pitch the yeast till when you can bottle is 10-14 days.  Your beer will start to clarify in the carboy, changing from a dirty yellowish color to a darker brown color as the yeast falls out of the beer.  If you racked your beer into a secondary carboy, there is no need to bottle it quickly, other than wanting to taste it!  You can wait months, if needed, before bottling it.  I usually bottle after 12-14 days and have waited up to 28 days.  Before bottling, take another hydrometer reading and write it down.  Keep good notes, so you can refer to them in the future.

 

Initial Hydrometer Reading:  1.05

Bottling Hydrometer Reading:  1.013

 

Here is a video showing the process.