Brewed: Grass Cutter American Wheat Ale

By scot in Beer, Beer Recipes, Home Brewing on Sunday, April 5th, 2020

It has been some time since I wrote up a home brewing session on Grass Cutter American Wheat Ale. Grass Cutter has been brewed a few times since but it is the same old, there didn’t seem to be a reason.

This time around, I really changed it up and I was going more for a straight up American Wheat Ale: ~50/50 barley and wheat with a touch of hops for balance and interest. I decided to drop the coriander and the orange peel as well. Really a different beer and I was going to name it Easy Peasy but decided against it. The recipe below outlines this version of Grass Cutter.

First Time Conical Use

The highlight of brewing this beer is the first time use of the new Spike Brewing conical that I purchased used. It made racking very easy as I used a pump to move the wort from the brew kettle to the conical. It made the amount of supplies I had to bring upstairs from the basement a lot less.

But, there were was one major issue: the heat blanket didn’t work when it was set to go on (the temperature fell more than 1*F below the set temperature). I plugged it into the wall outlet directly, thinking the controller might be damaged: no dice. I couldn’t control the low end of fermentation but the fermentation should allow me to not drop too far but I couldn’t ramp up to make sure it finished. More on this in another entry…Enjoy!

Recipe for Grass Cutter American Wheat Ale

General Information:
Brew Date: Sunday, April 05, 2020
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-05, not hydrated
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.045
Finishing Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 27.9
Color: 3.8 SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Brewhouse Efficiency: N/A
Alcohol by Volume: 4.73%
Calories per ounce: N/A
Primary Fermentation: start @66*F, slow rise for 3 days @70*F

Grain Bill:
4.00 pounds American 2-Row
4.00 pounds Red Wheat
1.00 pounds Munich

Mash:
Saccharification @150.8*F

Hop Bill:
0.50 ounces 2018 Apollo @20 minutes
0.50 ounces 2018 Apollo @10 minutes
1.00 ounces 2017 Citra @5 minutes

Extras:
1.0 tsp Irish Moss @15 minutes
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient @15 minutes
4.0 quarts of rice hulls

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