July
BARBECUES 
FRESH BERRIES BASTILLE DAY FIREWORKS AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN SWIMMING POOLS DOG DAYS
Your July Homebrew
TRADITIONAL BAVARIAN HEFEWEIZEN: Delicate beer with notes of banana and clove
POOR MAN’S PROVENCE LAVENDER WIT: Herbaceous Belgian-style beer with lavender notes
SISTERS OF SUMMER TRIPEL: Biscuit and citrus with notes of white pepper
To Eat
Baby Arugula Summer Salad with Sliced Pears and Crumbled Goat Cheese in a Honey-Hefeweizen Vinaigrette
Ah, the fiery month of July. An abundance of fruits like cherries, apricots, and watermelon are at their best now, and summer recipes using these bright seasonal ingredients are in full swing. June has given way to some serious heat, everyone is stripping down, and nothing tastes better in the hot sun than a nice crisp, clean, and cold beer that demands to be consumed out of doors. What does all this mean to us beer geeks and homebrewers? It means that for this time of year we’re looking for a beer that is effervescent and nuanced.
We have two Wheat Ales that fit the bill of July. The Hefeweizen is one of the most popular styles of beer in the summer and is a fairly easy beer to brew at home. This is a German Wheat style that is all about the yeast character, while the second beer is a Belgian Wheat style that is all about the spices and addition of lavender. We finish with a Tripel, a bigger Belgian style that still fits the desire for light flavors in the summer. It offers a bit more alcohol but refreshing citrus notes. All three are of the same flavor palate, offering elegance and refreshment at the same time.
JULY HOMEBREW 1
Traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen
MAKE THIS BEER IF YOU LIKE: Bananas Foster. Cloves. No bitter flavors. Fruit. Wheat.
PAIRS WELL WITH: Sushi, summer salads, weisswurst, fruit with whipped cream.
STYLE AND BREWING NOTES
Hefeweizens beg for summer. They are the unfiltered Wheat beers that most neophyte beer drinkers are comfortable with. And though many people couldn’t spell or say Hefeweizen correctly if their lives depended on it, they seem more familiar with drinking Hefes than with any other Ale.
Hefes were the first craft beer style that blew our minds. While learning about beer working at Father’s Office, a craft beer bar in Santa Monica, California, we tasted a true Bavarian-style Hefe for the first time and were floored by the big banana and clove flavors and aromas. Most Hefes we had had before were totally overtaken by the addition of a squeeze of lemon, and so that’s what we thought all Hefes tasted like. Oh, how wrong we were! Once we tasted a true Hefe, we couldn’t believe that there was no actual clove or banana added in the brewing process. Thus began our great respect for that single-celled organism called yeast.
Our recipe here is for a classic Bavarian Hefe similar to the one that started us on the road to craft beer geekdom. This is the true southern German style, meaning the only ingredients are water, malt, hops, and yeast (no spice or fruit additions). This follows the Reinheitsgebot law created by the German brewers of old that requires the brewing of beer with only the four basic ingredients.
There are many different choices when it comes to Hefeweizen yeast, all with different ester qualities. Besides the classic banana and clove, Hefe yeasts can offer citrus, bubble gum, or vanilla notes. Hefes, being a Wheat beer, also call for the addition of wheat to your grain bill. Wheat can add a cloudiness to the brew, a nice body on the tongue, a biscuity, bready wheat flavor, and a hint of sour. The wheat will be mixed with barley, usually the percentage of wheat to barley is at least 60% to 40%. The barley used is generally pale Pilsner malts. Hop flavors are fairly low and are usually relegated to drying qualities rather than bittering. We like to stay authentic when making this style and stick with Noble hops like the spicy, mild and earthy Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops.
Please, respect the hardworking yeast and delicate flavor profile: No f’ing lemon!
Makes about 2.5 gallons
PREP
Prepare your yeast (at least 3 hours before you brew): Crack your packet of Weizen yeast and let it warm up to room temperature. You can do this the day before you brew as well.
STEEP/MASH
Heat 3 quarts of water. Attach a thermometer and heat the brew pot until it reaches 160°F. Turn off the heat.
Put the specialty grains (flaked wheat and Caravienne malt) in the grain bag (tying the ends) and place it in the brew pot. Cover with a lid and rest for 30 minutes.
Prepare your sparge water by heating 3 quarts of water to 170°F in a separate small pot.
SPARGE
After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag from the brew pot. Put a large fine-mesh strainer over the brew pot. Put the grain bag in the strainer, open the grain bag, and slowly run the hot sparge water through it, making sure to cover all of the grains with water. Do not squeeze the grain bag! Remove the grain bag and discard.
Add an additional 2 gallons of room-temperature water to the brew pot.
Reheat your brew pot water to 155°F; turn off the heat and add the Wheat liquid malt extract. Gently stir to make sure the extract doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
THE BOIL
Bring the pot to a boil. As soon as the pot comes to a boil, add the Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops and set your timer for 60 minutes. The hops will dissolve immediately. Stir occasionally, skimming off the big solids with a slotted spoon and looking out for the dreaded boilover!
PITCH THE YEAST
Prepare your ice bath: In your sink or another vessel, prepare an ice bath to cool the beer down in.
Cool your wort: Remove the pot from the heat and place it into your ice bath. Place a sanitized thermometer in the wort and let cool until it reaches 70°F or below.
Clean your stuff: Sanitize anything that will come into contact with your beer.
Transfer your wort: Pour the wort through a sanitized strainer into a 3- or 5-gallon plastic fermenting bucket or through a sanitized strainer and funnel into a 3- or 5-gallon glass carboy.
Pitch your yeast: Shake your packet of prepared yeast, sanitize the outside, tear it open, and throw all of its contents into the cooled wort in the fermenter.
PRIMARY FERMENTATION
Place an airtight lid equipped with your airlock (filled with vodka) and stopper on the plastic bucket or place the airlock and stopper on a glass carboy. Or use the blow-off tube method (see Chapter 2).
Keep the container in a dark and relatively cool place (ideal fermentation temperature for this beer is between 64° and 75°F) for 7 to 10 days if using secondary or for 12 to 14 days if not.
OPTION: SECONDARY
Transfer the beer from the primary fermenter to a 3- to 5-gallon bucket or glass carboy with a sanitized tube siphon. (Make sure to leave the sediment behind.)
Put an airlock on the secondary container and let the beer sit for at least 14 days.
Bottle for 14 days as described in Chapter 2. Then refrigerate and enjoy!
RULE BREAKERS AND TIPS
PROFESSIONAL BEERS TO ASPIRE TO
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen: Paulaner Braurei GmbH & Co., Munich, Germany. Lemon, banana, clove with a nice grain flavor. Though from a large brewery, the quality of this Hefe remains high; 5.5% ABV.
Dancing Man Wheat: New Glarus Brewing Co., New Glarus, Wisconsin. A Bavarian-style Hefe made in the United States, with notes of cinnamon, clove, banana, bubble gum, and grain; 7.2% ABV.
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier: Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany. Nuanced banana and clove with a dry, earthy, tart finish. A perfectly balanced Hefe from a German brewery established in 1040; 5.4% ABV.
JULY HOMEBREW 2
Poor Man’s Provence Lavender Wit
MAKE THIS BEER IF YOU LIKE: Belgium. France. Flowery notes. Complexity. Lack of bitterness. Lavender.
PAIRS WELL WITH: Chicken roasted with herbes de Provence, ricotta cheese, honey gelato.
STYLE AND BREWING NOTES
In July in Provence, French lavender blooms, and the color of the month is a striking purple. We, however, live in Los Angeles. It’s nice, but not exactly the French countryside, and the summer colors tend to come from the brownish gray smog that sits lazily above the city. The closest we may get in July (unless a sweet vacation deal comes our way, wink) is a nice homebrew with a touch of lavender in the recipe.
We find that quite a few people are afraid of using this ingredient in food and drink, complaining that it has a soapy perfumey flavor. Others, like us, are drawn to the unique sweet, flowery notes lavender imparts. In fact, lavender is a crucial part of the herbes de Provence (popularized in the 1970s) used in cooking some French fare. This homebrew recipe is our cheap way of visiting Provence in the summer by way of a glass of beer. And since Bastille Day falls in July, adding a French touch to this patriotic month seems appropriate.
Witbiers are Belgian-style Wheat Ales that allow a homebrewer to flex her creativity. Witbiers traditionally have an addition of spice like coriander and a citrus peel like curaçao or lemon. Witbiers are like renegades compared with the refined Hefeweizen. This is not to say that they require any less care from the brewer, need any less balance of flavors, or contain any less nuance. But the Belgians leave the door open on this style to add different combinations of spices, citrus, herbs, and so on. This style will help you become comfortable with adding specialty ingredients into your homebrew.
There are two ways to use lavender in this recipe. You want to make sure to use culinary lavender, not the aromatic kind! The flavors are quite different and aromatic lavender can give off a camphor smell and taste in your beer. Lavender angustifolia, or English lavender, is a popular culinary lavender among brewers, or you can take our title for this beer literately and use Provence French lavender, which is a bit more subtle. This is an impressive addition to beer; adding lavender will definitely impress your craft beer–loving friends and force your non-beer-drinking friends to rethink their position. It’s kind of a shamelessly glamorous ingredient in homebrew.
Makes about 2.5 gallons
PREP
Prepare your yeast (at least 3 hours before you brew): Let the tube of Wit Ale yeast warm up to room temperature.
STEEP/MASH
Heat 3 quarts of water. Attach a thermometer and heat the brew pot until it reaches 160°F. Turn off the heat.
Put the specialty grains (flaked wheat and Caravienne malt) in the grain bag (tying the ends) and place it in the brew pot. Cover with a lid and rest for 30 minutes.
Prepare your sparge water by heating 3 quarts of water to 170°F in a separate small pot.
SPARGE
After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag from the brew pot. Put a large fine-mesh strainer over the brew pot. Put the grain bag in the strainer, open the grain bag, and slowly run the hot sparge water through it, making sure to cover all of the grains with water. Do not squeeze the grain bag! Remove the grain bag and discard.
Add an additional 2 gallons of room-temperature water to the brew pot.
Reheat your brew pot water to 155°F; turn off the heat and add the Wheat liquid extract. Gently stir to make sure the extract doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Add the Extra-Light dry malt extract; be careful it doesn’t clump. Stir in the honey.
THE BOIL
Bring the pot to a boil.
As soon as the pot comes to a boil, add your first hop addition, the Tettnang and 0.2 ounce of the Saaz hop pellets, and set your timer for 60 minutes. The hops will dissolve immediately. Skim off the big solids with a slotted spoon and look out for the dreaded boilover!
At 55 minutes (that is, when there’s 5 minutes left in the boil), add your second hop addition, the remaining 0.2 ounce Saaz hops, along with the coriander, bitter orange peel, and lavender.
PITCH THE YEAST
Prepare your ice bath: In your sink or another vessel, prepare an ice bath to cool the beer down in.
Cool your wort: Remove the pot from the heat and place it into your ice bath. Place a sanitized thermometer in the wort and let cool until it reaches 70°F or below.
Clean your stuff: Sanitize anything that will come into contact with your beer.
Transfer your wort: Pour the wort through a sanitized strainer into a 3- or 5-gallon plastic fermenting bucket or through a sanitized strainer and funnel into a 3- or 5-gallon glass carboy.
Pitch your yeast: Shake your tube of yeast, crack it open, and throw all of its contents into the cooled wort in the fermenter.
PRIMARY FERMENTATION
Place an airtight lid equipped with your airlock (filled with vodka) and stopper on the plastic bucket or place the airlock and stopper on a glass carboy. Or use the blow-off tube method (see Chapter 2).
Keep the container in a dark and relatively cool place (ideal fermentation temperature for this style is between 67° and 74°F) for 7 to 10 days if using secondary or for 12 to 14 days if not.
OPTION: SECONDARY
Transfer the beer from the primary fermenter to a 3- to 5-gallon bucket or glass carboy with a sanitized tube siphon. (Make sure to leave the sediment behind.)
Put an airlock on the secondary container and let the beer sit for at least 14 days.
Bottle for 14 days as described in Chapter 2. Then refrigerate and enjoy!
RULE BREAKERS AND TIPS
PROFESSIONAL BEERS TO ASPIRE TO
Blanche De Bruxelles: Brasserie Lefèbvre, Rebecq-Quenast, Belgium. This Witbier is über-traditional and direct from Belgium with a light body and the addition of coriander and orange peel; 4.5% ABV.
Allagash White: Allagash Brewing Co., Portland, Maine. Though a heavily guarded secret, the specific spices have a unique flavor profile (we put money on cloves); note how the spice profile differs from Blanche De Bruxelles and your homebrew; 5.2% ABV.
Eagle Rock Manifesto Wit: Eagle Rock Brewery, Los Angeles. This well-balanced Belgian-style White Ale is brewed with the traditional coriander and citrus peel, but the brewer gets innovative by adding rose petals; 4.7% ABV.
JULY HOMEBREW 3
Sisters of Summer Tripel
MAKE THIS BEER IF YOU LIKE: High alcohol content. Noble hops. Belgian tradition. Making candy.
PAIRS WELL WITH: Sole meunière, scallops, asparagus, artichokes, and lemon curd.
STYLE AND BREWING NOTES
Ah, the Tripel, made popular by the monks and nuns of Belgium who have been brewing and perfecting this style for hundreds of years. Who were we to mess around trying to make it in our kitchens? But we love this style, so we decided to take a stab at it. What the hell, it’s just beer, right?
Tripels suffer from many misconceptions. There is a misconception that this beer style must be fermented three times. But actually the name is said to refer to the strength of the beer, not the fermentation. A Tripel is a complex, lighter-colored, full-bodied beer. It’s dominated by fruity and citrusy aromatics and herbaceous hops. Tripels have a relatively high alcohol content due to the use of Belgian candi sugar in the boil, which adds flavor and complexity and kicks the ABV up to running somewhere between 7.5% and 9.5%. Tripels usually linger and then finish dry with some spicy characteristics and sparkling effervescence.
Our Sisters of Summer is an homage (not a clone but an homage) to one of our favorite beers of this style, Tripel Karmeliet, whose production is based on a 1679 recipe developed by Carmelite nuns. We pumped up our extract-based recipe with some homemade Belgian candi sugar to elevate the alcohol content. We also used low- to middle-range alpha acid hops with citrus, spicy, and earthy characteristics, so the malt could shine. For added complexity we threw some white pepper in the boil. And, for the star of this style—the yeast—we used our favorite for strong Belgian beers, the Wyeast Trappist High Gravity yeast.
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BREW IT: SISTERS OF SUMMER TRIPEL DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Devout TYPE OF BREWING: Extract with Specialty Grains SPECIALTY/EXTRA EQUIPMENT: None TARGET OG: 1.079 TARGET FG: 1.009 |
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IBUs: 33.6 TARGET ABV: 9.2% PROPER GLASS: Teardrop or tulip |
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1 packet Wyeast Trappist High Gravity yeast 3787 1 packet Wyeast Belgian Abbey yeast 1214 4 ounces aromatic Belgian malt—milled 4 ounces Caravienne malt—milled 4 pounds Pilsner liquid malt extract 1 pound 2 ounces cane sugar or homemade Belgian candi sugar (see page 86) 1 ounce Tettnanger hop pellets 0.5 ounce Saaz hop pellets 0.5 ounce Saaz hop pellets |
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Makes about 2.5 gallons
PREP
Prepare your yeast (at least 3 hours before you brew): Crack your packets of Trappist High Gravity and Belgian Abbey yeasts and let them warm up to room temperature. You can do this the day before you brew as well.
STEEP/MASH
Heat 3 quarts of water. Attach a thermometer and heat the brew pot until it reaches 160°F. Turn off the heat.
Put the specialty grains (aromatic Belgian and Caravienne malts) in the grain bag (tying the ends) and place it in the brew pot. Cover with a lid and rest for 30 minutes.
Prepare your sparge water by heating 3 quarts of water to 170°F in a separate small pot.
SPARGE
After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag from the brew pot. Put a large fine-mesh strainer over the brew pot. Put the grain bag in the strainer, open the grain bag, and slowly run the hot sparge water through it, making sure to cover all of the grains with water. Do not squeeze the grain bag! Remove the grain bag and discard.
Add an additional 2 gallons of room-temperature water to the brew pot.
Reheat your brew pot water to 155°F; turn off the heat and add the Pilsner liquid malt extract. Gently stir to make sure the extract doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
THE BOIL
Bring the pot to a boil.
As soon as the pot comes to a boil, add your first hop addition, the Tettnanger hop pellets, and set your timer for 60 minutes. The hops will dissolve immediately. Stir occasionally, skimming off the big solids with a slotted spoon and looking out for the dreaded boilover!
At 45 minutes (that is, with 15 minutes left in the boil), add your second hop addition, 0.5 ounce of Saaz hops.
At 55 minutes (that is, with 5 minutes left in the boil), add your third hop addition, the remaining 0.5 ounce Saaz hops. Skim off the big solids with a slotted spoon. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
PITCH THE YEAST
Prepare your ice bath: In your sink or another vessel, prepare an ice bath to cool the beer down in
Cool your wort: Remove the pot from the heat and place it into your ice bath. Place a sanitized thermometer in the wort and let cool until it reaches 70°F or below.
Clean your stuff: Sanitize anything that will come into contact with your beer.
Transfer your wort: Pour the wort through a sanitized strainer into a 3- or 5-gallon plastic fermenting bucket or through a sanitized strainer and funnel into a 3- or 5-gallon glass carboy, aerating as much as possible.
Pitch your yeast: Shake your packets of prepared yeast, sanitize the outside of both, tear them open, and throw all of their contents into the cooled wort in the fermenter.
Place an airtight lid equipped with your airlock (filled with vodka) and stopper on the plastic bucket or place the airlock and stopper on a glass carboy. Or use the blow-off tube method (see Chapter 2).
Keep the container in a dark place and, if you can, try to keep the fermentation temperature around 75°F for 7 to 10 days.
RECOMMENDED: SECONDARY
Transfer the beer from the primary fermenter to a 3- to 5-gallon bucket or glass carboy with a sanitized tube siphon. (Make sure to leave the sediment behind.)
Put an airlock on the secondary container and let the beer sit for at least 14 days.
Bottle for 14 days as described in Chapter 2. Then refrigerate and enjoy!
RULE BREAKERS AND TIPS
PROFESSIONAL BEERS TO ASPIRE TO
Tripel Karmeliet: Brouwerij Bosteels, Buggenhout, Belgium. A delightful tripel. Smooth, malty character, sweet but not cloying. Nice sharp bitterness that moves quickly to caramel malts and fruity yeasty nose. Alcohol nicely hidden behind the delicious malts. An excellent sipper; 9% ABV.
Westmalle Trappist Tripel: Brouwerij Westmalle, Malle, Belgium. The Tripel that started all Tripels. This is an amazing beer with a great balance; lemon on the lips, sweet and dry with floral and fruity esters, and a lovely lingering finish; 9.5% ABV.
Allagash Tripel Ale: Allgash Brewing Co., Portland, Maine. This strong Golden Ale is marked by passion fruit and herbal notes in the aroma, with suggestions of banana and honey in the complex palate. The Tripel has a remarkably long and smooth finish; 9% ABV.
Make Your Own Belgian Candi Sugar
Belgian candi sugar is refined from sugar beets and is a fermentable sugar that can help bump up the alcohol content of a beer without making the beer overly sweet. It’s a perfect addition to any Belgian Strong Ale and is especially good for using in Tripels. It also happens to be relatively pricey when it comes to beer-brewing ingredients. But the cool thing is that it’s pretty easy to make yourself.
Candi sugar is what is called an “invert sugar,” meaning that some of its constituents are broken down by inversion (actually splitting its atoms). Whoa. We don’t necessarily understand that, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to make your own invert sugar or candi sugar. Basically it’s like making toffee without the butter.
Homemade Belgian Candi Sugar
500 grams of white sugar
Pinch of citric acid
Water
Add the sugar to a small saucepan or pot with a candy thermometer attached. Add enough water to make a thick syrup. Add a pinch of citric acid (available at your local homebrewing store), say 1⁄8 teaspoon, to the pot. Now slowly bring the mixture to a boil and keep the temperature between what in candy terms are called the hard ball and soft crack stages, which is between 260° and 275°F. Because evaporation will cause the temperature to rise, have a small amount of water on hand and add 1 tablespoon every now and then.
The color will gradually change from clear to light amber to deep red as the boil proceeds. Light candy sugar is a very light beige/yellow color. Dark candy sugar is a very deep red. Once you are at the color you desire (and a lot of that is personal preference; for instance, for the Sisters of Summer Tripel we would stop the browning process at the beige/yellow stage for a light-colored, bright Tripel), raise the temperature to 300°F (hard crack). Once it hits hard crack, turn off the heat and pour the mixture into a rimmed baking sheet lined with some greaseproof paper. As it cools it will go rock hard. Crack it up into pieces and keep it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.
TO EAT
Baby Arugula Summer Salad with Sliced Pears and Crumbled Goat Cheese in a Honey-Hefeweizen Vinaigrette
VINAIGRETTE
1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar
1⁄2 tablespoon honey
1 garlic clove, minced
1⁄2 tablespoon lemon zest
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3⁄4 cup Traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen
Salt (sea or kosher), to taste
SALAD
1 (5-ounce) bag baby arugula
2 seasonal pears, cored and sliced
Plain goat cheese, crumbled, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Serves 4
Make the vinaigrette: In a medium bowl, mix together the vinegar, honey, garlic, shallot, and lemon zest. Drizzle in the olive oil, whisking continuously. Add the Hefeweizen, stirring slowly. Season with salt to taste.
Make the salad by tossing the arugula, pears, and goat cheese. Lightly dress with vinaigrette; toss gently to combine and season with pepper.
Serve with a glass of Traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen!
