American Wheat Ale: Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' clone

[Shawn]

5.5 gallons into fermenter, based on 75% efficiency.

3.11 kg Canadian 2-row
2.2 kg Wheat malt
908 g Torrified wheat
227 g Rice hulls

Mash at 150 F for 60 minutes.

90 minute boil, 7.25 gallons pre-boil.

15 g Nugget pellet hops (11.2% AA) (90 min)
8 g Willamette pellet hops (5.5% AA) (45 min)
28 g Tettnang pellet hops (4.7% AA) (15 min)
9 g Willamette (15 min)

1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (15 min)
1/2 tab Irish Moss (5 min)

Wyeast 1968 London ESB
Ferment at 65 F for 36 hours, then increase to 68 F for 36 hours, then up to 70 F.

Dry-hop schedule (7 days):
24 g Cascade, 24 g Chinook, 24 g Centennial, 21 g Simcoe, 15 g Columbus, 18 g Amarillo

OG 1.070, FG ~1.015, IBU 33, SRM 4.6, ABV 7.2%

Carbonate to 2.5 vol CO2.

[Richard]

Do all those dry-hops go in at once? This recipe looks... immense.

Also: does your mashing get you 75% with that much grain?

[Shawn]

Yeah, all at once. It's quite a beer... the commercial one, I mean. Definitely can't be pigeonholed into any one style.

I have gotten 75% with that much grain before, but today it turned out horrible... my OG came in at 1.062; I've never missed the target that much. Oddly enough, my gravity before the boil was only 2 points below target, and I ended up with my calculated final volume. I have no idea what went wrong here.

[Richard]

Potentially your hydrometer temperature corrections either pre-boil or post-boil were off? I find the temperature of the wort drops real fast once you put it in a thief and transfer it to the flask... Could be if you were using the temperature from the mash tun or boil tun to correct, it was in fact lower by the time the hydro reading happened?

I offer this because it screwed with my head before until I noticed the temperature delta between taking the temperature, and taking the hydrometer reading.

And I've yet to get above 65% with above 15lbs/7kg of grain. I'm beginning to think it's just the price you pay to jack things above the 1.060-1.070 mark. Been considering sub'ing a small portion of malt extract for the 'last mile', rather than dumping in more base grain to deal with lack of efficiency.

[Shawn]

I took the temperature into account.... I took the temp of the wort before the reading, then used the "hydrometer adjust" in BeerSmith to find the diff.

I really don't know what went wrong this time, especially since the SG reading into the kettle wasn't that bad, and the volume was where it should have been. It's almost like someone dumped in some water when I wasn't looking.

[Shawn]

Results...  a yellow, extremely hazy/cloudy beer that has a moderate-sized, white head that sticks around for quite awhile. The aroma is very fruity/citrusy/floral from all the dry-hopping. Ditto on the flavor, with a bit of tartness from the wheat, and a moderate hop bitterness in the finish. Medium-bodied, creamy, with moderate carbonation.

Overall, a very hoppy American Wheat Ale without a ton of bitterness... a really nice summer brew.