aaron c beals

A few weeks ago, in an effort to kick the summer blues (heat is very bad for brewing), Matt and I decided to brew up a quick-n-easy hefeweizen, named the Hyde Park Hefeweizen in honor of our travels that day. We started out the day trying to get to the Boston Brewing Company in time for a tour, but failed due to JP’s confusing roads and lack of parking. Following that, we headed for home via Washington Street — which turned out to be the wrong Washington Street (there are 3 in Boston) — and ended up cruising around Hyde Park for a while. Good times.

Anyhow, now that it’s been fermenting for about 2 weeks, it smells like a good brew, which is a far cry from how it started out. The yeast profile said something about some sulphur production, but I didn’t figure that translated to our living room smelling like a rotten-egg/banana smoothie. Let me tell you: it wasn’t pleasant. But now that most of the yeast has gone to sleep and dropped out of suspension, those aromas have gone away (as they should) and all that’s left is a spicy-fresh phenolic scent.

This week, we’re going to be bottling the hefeweizen and pitching a Dunkelweizen on top of the yeast cake from the prior beer. Temperature control is going to be (and has been) an issue, but I’ve been able to work around it by wrapping wet towels around the fermenter bucket. Just have to watch out for the mildew.