Deutschland Dunkelweizen Act Three

Act Three: Hypothesis

This act takes place once again in a Chicagoland apartment. 

8oz of chocolate malt gives the beer this color.

After a week of delicious smells coming out of the 5 gallon bucket Toby and Casey had been keeping their beer in, it was time to transfer the beer into secondary fermentation. This process is normally very easy. Since this beer was not dry hopped the straining process has been removed but since the experiment calls for as little aeration as possible that will make it slightly trickier. The first step, like in every brew day, is to santatize (sanitize) everything. This makes sure that absolutely no bacteria starts partying with the yeast. To minimize aeration the two siphon the beer from their fermentation bucket to their bottling bucket. Make sure that the bottling nozzle is attached or beer will end up on the ground. The goal is to make sure that when the beer is hitting the bottom of the second bucket that it is not foaming at all. In the first transfer this was rather difficult and there happened to be some foam but not enough to be detrimental to the beer. Also, by adding the bottling nozzle the transfer back into the fermentation bucket is easier since you won't have to siphon it. Just attach the bottling tube directly to the nozzle and let gravity do its job.

Yeast coagulation (coalesce). 

At this stage the beer is not carbonated, its' flavors will be minimal, barely any undertones, yet it is still very drinkable. This was the first time the two had ever used this yeast before and they found that the yeast coalesce in a rather fascinating way. Normally, the yeast creates a flat surface caking the bottom of the bucket but with this it was lumpy and very textured. The hypothesis is that the lack of oxygen getting to the yeast is affecting the way in which it coagulates with itself. However, it could be very likely that it's just the strain of yeast being used, none the less it is very interesting. Over the next week, the couple hopes that the clove and banana esters start to stick out more rounding out the full bodied flavor given off by the malt-hop combinations. Until then, their the lovely Chicago apartment shall be filled with sweet smells of beer.

Casey/Toby-isms:
santatizer-means to sanitize the beer
on the ground- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAYL5H46QnQ