Batch #5 - Banana Wheat Ale

I am going after that always tricky banana flavor again today with our Banana Wheat Ale.  This time we are using the Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin recipe as the base Wheat Ale recipe, however we are using a different yeast, and will not dry hop the batch.  Below is today's recipe:

3.68kg US 2-row 50%

2.77kg wheat malt 37.6%

90g home toasted wheat malt 1.2%

830g torrified wheat 11.2%

Boil for 90min

11g Nugget 9%AA at 90min

2g Horizon 12%AA at 90min

2g Summit 17.5%AA at 90min

8g Willamete 5.2%AA at 45min

27g Santiam 5.6%AA at 15min

9g Willamete at 15min

WYeast 3333

Mash at 150F for 45 minutes

Ph at 5.5

Pitch at 72F for 7 days

Rack at 72F for 4 days

Cold Crash at 36F for 3 days

Keg and Carbonate

The brew day today went very smooth except for one part, trying to set the ph for the sparge.  For some reason I keep overshooting the level with lactic acid.  I will add 1ml and let the water circulate in the HLT for 10 min and take a reading, it was showing 6.6.  I added 1ml more, let it circulate, took another reading, 6.4.  I added 1ml more, did the same circulation for 10 min, took another reading and it was showing 4.8!  No idea why the big jump, or if it was correct.  I need to read more on my ph meter and see if there is something I'm doing wrong.

Other than that part, everything else went great.  I have the beer fermenting right now, can't wait to see it tomorrow doing its magic!

Today I also took a moment to do a quick video of the brew day to show how the mash process works on this brew system.  Enjoy!