High Country and Homebrew

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Geoff Spakes. Geoff is a longtime homebrewer trying to balance his love of craft beer with his passion for distance running and CrossFit. If you would like to contribute a guest post to BlogAboutBeer.com, please contact me.

Nothing goes together quite like a tasty brew and the great outdoors, even better if it’s your own painstakingly crafted concoction. Trying to escape the heat wave that’s hit the Colorado Front Range my homebrew buddy and I packed up the families and headed to the high country for some cooler air. Besides all the typical camping gear that is required we also loaded a cooler full of our favorite homebrew.

Two of our newer brews were tucked away in the coolers awaiting their appointed time of drinking…two radically different recipes meant to be drunk under very different conditions. The first, Meyer Lemon Hefeweizen, is designed to go down easy on a hot summer day. After a painfully long two hour drive, we arrived, setup camp and hit the trail for a quick hike…it was the perfect activity to get a quick blast of mountain fun and relax after the hectic unpacking.

Of course back at camp we eagerly dug into the cooler, pulled out a liter bottle and filled two glasses. We were greeted by a white fluffy head and a cloudy pale liquid; raising the glass to take a drink the tangy aroma of the Meyer lemons rose out of the glass. The first sip was just as expected, cool and refreshing…a light summer wheat beer with just enough citrus to make things interesting.

Meyer Lemon Hefeweizen

Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.74 gal
Estimated OG: 1.058 SG
Estimated Color: 4.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.3 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients
20.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
2.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1.00 oz Summit [17.00 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min)
12.00 items Meyer Lemon (Primary 7.0 days)
1 Pkgs American Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP32)

Mash Schedule: *Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 24.00 lb
*Single Infusion, Medium Body

60 min Mash In Add 30.00 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F (Step Temp)
20 min Mash Out Add 16.80 qt of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F (Step Temp)

Notes:
Zest and juice lemons; boil juice, rinds and zest for 15 minutes. Add rinds to boiling wort for 60 minutes and add juice and zest to primary fermenter.