Fermentation: Summer Wheat with Coriander
by Jim Vondracek on 05/14/11
Just as with bread baking, in brewing, yeast health and vitality are critical to the process. I manage my yeast carefully, including the temperatures at which the beer ferments. Here is a photo of the summer wheat beer with coriander as it ferments:
The beer is an a carboy made of special food grade plastics specifically for fermenting beverages. The carboy is inside a large plastic tub filled with water. In the water, I keep a floating thermometer (one of the cheapest and best tools I have - I use it to monitor the mash temperatures, the fermementation temperatures, and its essential for when I pasteurize bottled cider) and swap out, as needed, 1/2 gallon bottles of ice.
For this beer and yeast (Safale US-05, a basic american ale yeast), I kept the fermentation temps at 60 - 62 degrees. The tube running from the carboy to the jar with sanitized water in it is a 'blow-off tube' - it allows the carbon dioxide that the yeast produce during fermentation to escape. The foam is called 'krausen' and when fermentation is finished, it falls back down into the beer.
