Ned Pepper Cherry Wheat

I'm not fond of wheat beers, but this turned out great. My son-in-lay is an orchardman (we're both bigh John Wayne movie fans) and grows, among other fruit, sweet and sour cherries. On a dare he asked me to brew a cherry wheat. Glad he did.

Brewer:	Bob Klokis		Email:	klokis@pa.net
Beer:	Ned Pepper Cherry Wheat		Style:	American Wheat
Type:	All grain		Size:	5.5 gallons
Color:	5 HCU (~4 SRM)		Bitterness:	29 IBU
OG:	1.050		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	5.2% v/v (4.1% w/w)
Water:	Spring fed tap water. Just hard enouogh.
Grain:	2 lb. American 2-row 6 lb. Wheat malt 1 lb. American crystal 10L 1 lb. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)
Mash:	75% efficiency
	Rest at 122° for 20 minutes. Mashed at 150° for 75 minutes. Raised to 165° for 20 minutes. Sparged with 170° water to get 6.5 Gals.
Boil:	60 minutes	SG 1.043	6.5 gallons
	Added 1 tsp. Irish moss with 10 minutes left in boil.
Hops:	.5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 40 min.) 1 oz. Tettnanger (4.5% AA, 40 min.) .4 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 10 min.) 1 oz. Saaz (3.75% AA, 10 min.)
Yeast:	Good Bavarian yeast.
Log:	Soaked each of 1 1/2 lbs. sour cherries and 1 1/2 lbs. sweet cherries in 1 gallon cold water with one tablet of Campden (Sodium Metabisulphite) added for 24 hours. With sterilized hands, "smushed" cherries, leaving pits in. Froze mixture. Thawed and added to secondary. Left in secondary for 10 days, then racked to bottling bucket. Let stand for 48 hours.
Carbonation:	Added 5 oz. corn sugar before putting into bottle. Let age 2 weeks in bottle.
Tasting:	Nice tart cherry flavor. Light cherry red in colour, no way to get this program to indicate the colour. Good summer beer. Gonna try the same recipe with blackberries and peaches when they're in.

Recipe posted 07/19/01.