As well as eight recipes in great detail, “Brewing with Wheat” also includes information about the formulation of dozens of specific beers.
Because of the way books are assembled sometimes things get cut. Unfortunately that included the “specs” for Dark-n-Curvy, the beer from Piece Brewery & Pizzeria in Chicago that grabbed still another medal in the 2010 World Beer Cup.
Like Top Heavy Hefeweizen this beer medals regularly in the WBC and at the Great American Beer Festival. Here are the basics:
Original Gravity: 1.053 (13 °P)
Alcohol by Volume: 5.5%
Apparent Degree of Attenuation: 79%
IBU: 14
Malts: Wheat, dark wheat, Pilsener, dark Munich, Caramalt
Hops: Vary, Halltertau common
Yeast: Weihenstephan yeast from BSI
Primary Fermentation: Yeast pitched in mid-70s (about 24° C), 3 to 4 days
Secondary Fermentation: 3 to 4 days
From the book: Brewmaster Jonathan Cutler manages a single-step infusion by starting very dry for the protein rest, in the 118 to 122° F (48 to 50° C) range. Lautering takes a little longer, up to 2½ hours compared to 1½ for other beers. “Our hope is the protein rest breaks things up a little,” he said. He’ll cut an “X” in the mash and has had to rouse it and stir to get it to lauter evenly.
What is BSI?
Jason – Sorry I missed this before. BSI is Brewing Science Institute in Colorado, which banks about 300 yeast strains. Probably more by now.
[...] any event, when I saw Cutler in the past I thought first of weiss bier and then about the delicious Piece [...]