My first winning beer!
 

I just have to brag a little. My buddy Will & I brew our own beer. We both belong to a homebrew club and we have a monthly meeting, usually with a cometition. This month the competition was for a German Wheat beer, and we entered a Bavarian Dunkelweizen and a Bavarian Hefeweizen and they took first and second place! Yeeeeeehaw!

Now I get to send a couple of bottles off to the AHA (American Homebrewer's association) for the national competition.

I'll post the winning recipe when I find it. For now, though, the runner up:

<B>Weisse Squad Drei</b>
4&frac12; lbs Wheat DME
1&frac14; Pilsner Malt
1 1/8 lb Wheat Malt
1&frac12; oz Saaz Pellets, divided
1 Vial White Labs weizen Yeast
6 Gallons, 1 qt soft water.

Bring 3 qts water to 160º
Crack malt and add unbagged to water
Stabilize @ 152º and allow to sit for up to 45 minutes, making sure temp stays above 146º and stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, bring 2 ½ gallons of water to 170º and hold.
Line a colander with a sparging bag and place over brew kettle.
Spoon grains into colander and pour remaining liquid over them.
Slowly ladle the 170º water over the grains until all there is 2 ½ gallons in the kettle.
Discard grains.
Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Stir in 4 ¼ lbs DME and test OG. Adjust to 1.083 with more DME.
Return to a boil. Time for 60 minutes.
Add 1 oz hops at 60 and &frac12; oz at 10 minutes from end of boil.
Add 2.5 gallons cold water to the fermenter.
Strain wort in.
Top to 5 gallons
Chill to 75º and pitch yeast.
Ferment for a week to 10 days at room temperature, then rack to a glass carboy.
Ferment for 2 weeks at cellar temperatures (~ 50&deg;)
Bottle with 1 &frac14; cup extra light DME for priming.

Congrats! Beer is good, good beer is great!

Very cool! Congrats!

Could you please specify what kind of equipment you use making the beer? I'm very curious...... maybe i'll just try to brew something myself!

Interesting use of Saaz. Isn't that the same hops used in Pilsner Urquel?

Congrats, Top!

Peetster,
Saaz is the classic Pilsner hop, probably because it is the only hop in Pilsner Urquell (the classic Pilsner). I got a couple of comments back that there might have been too much hop taste for the style, so next time I made this I might cut it back to &frac14; oz at 10 minutes or &frac12; oz at 5.

Causus Belli (I hear that too much beer causus belli :) )
Equipment: (You don't need all of this, but it all helps.)
24 qt brew kettle (Bigass aluminum or steel pot.)
11 lb kitchen scale (I want to get a scientific scale at some point so I don't have to keep eyeballing the hops)
Corona flour mill (for cracking the grain)
Large Strainer.
Sparging bags (Big, fine mesh bags one gets at your friendly neighborhood home brewing supply establishment. Very good for straining beer.)
Iodophor (Iodine based sanitizing solution. Like bleach, but you can let it dry away rather than rinsing, if you have the patience,)
5 to 7 gallon food grade plastic buckets with a single hole in the lid fitted with a rubber gasket.
3 piece airlocks
3 to 7 gallon glass carboys. (with single hole stoppers) for secondary fermentation.
Bottle Capper (I have a bench capper and an Emily capper.)
Stainless Steel Racking Cane (Sure, it costs six times as much as the plastic, but I've broken at least 10 plastic ones)
3/8 inch vinyl tubing. (and some hose clamps).
Immersion Chiller (30' of coiled copper tubing that hooks to the sink or the hose and sucks the heat out of the warm beer. Does an overnight process in 20 minutes.)
Bottling Bucket: 5 gallon food grade bucket with a tap installed about half an inch from the bottom.
Bottle Filler (Phil's Filler - Fills the bottles from the bottom and keeps the beer from splashing which keeps it from oxidizing.)
Spare Fridge with a Temperature controller. (For Lagers, German Ales, and Wheat Beers.)
Hydrometer (For measuring the sugar content of the beer)
A couple of thremometers (hook on the side of the pot probe and dial type.)
Assorted Spoons and scoops

awesome :)

Very cool; I'm just getting in to the realm of home brewing (got a complete home brewing kit and a couple of books for free), so I may be back to pick up some recipes after I make a batch or two of stout or dopplebock from the recipes in the books.