hagbardceline

Recipes 

Yesterday I brewed a Hefeweizen and used new techniques to hopefully improve my brew but now I am actually more concerned about it. (New to this brew- WLP yeast, DME, aquarium pump, siphon sprayer, whirl pooling, racking into fermenter, blow off tube)

60 minute boil with 3 gallons of Water

I steeped 1 LB of Flaked Wheat starting at 140 degrees and slowing over 25 minutes brought that up to 170 and left it at 170 for 5 minutes (did I need to use munich or something similar to help convert the starches?)

@ 60 minutes added 2 lbs Briess Wheat DME and 1 oz Tettnang hops
@ 20 minutes I started adding in the remianing 4 lbs of Wheat DME stirring in until 15 minutes were left.

Once the boil ended I created a small whirlpool then put the kettle in the sink / ice bath. I cooled down to 110 and racked to the primary fermenter using a auto siphon and siphon sprayer.

Added cold water until I got an original gravity of 1.050

Then I aerated using the aquarium pump and diffusion stone for 30 minutes.

I pitched WLP300 @ 63 degrees. I attached a blow off tube and stuck the other end in my bottling bucket full of sanitizer (left over).

The temp rose throughout the day to 67 even tho I had a wet towel wrapped around it. I was hoping to maintain a fermentation temp of 62. It should be better today as it isn't so warm out. This morning I noticed bubbles in the bottling bucket so fermentation must be underway.

Now a few questions

When I am aerating with the aquarium pump do I need to worry about the top of the fermenter being uncovered for 30 minutes?

I decided to boil with 3 gallons to try to get better color and be closer to a full wort boil. Previously I boiled with 2 gallons. One issue I had is that it took much much longer to cool 3 gallons. So I'm wondering as along as I am doing a partial boil does it make that much of a difference if I use 2 or 3 gallons?

The color is way darker than I want. It looks just as dark as the IPA I brewed last as it is sitting in the carboy. When I pulled to test the OG it actually didn't look too bad but not the creamy yellow I was looking for - but maybe that isn't possible with extract.

Adding the DME it stuck and clumped together horribly. Is this normal with DME or specifically the wheat?

When I poured in the WLP300 it ran down the side of the carboy so I swirled the wort to try to get as much of it into solution as possible. Is that the best way to go about it?

I would really appreciate any critique of my method. For some reason I am really concerned about this brew...

Thanks

polamalu43

Recipes 

The yeast strain you got was for a Weinenstephan-style hefe, right? If so, I might consider going warmer to get more banana. Other than that, it sounds good. Don't be afraid about the temps. Some of my best hefs were done at 72-75.

Aleforge

Recipes 

Just remember the temp strip on the outside of the carboy / bucket whatever is always a few degrees cooler then the inside. As far as Hefeweizens are concerned Polamalu is right, if you want a more banana fruity character ferment a little higher. I am not sure exactly which yeast strain you used, but the WLP300 yeast likes the 68' - 72'F "internal" temp range.

Using an air pump with no top should be ok, you could just put a home made sanatized foil cap around it to stop anything large from falling in. But the air pressure coming back out will keep most anything else small from floating down inside.

In any event it sounds like everything was done right, so you shouldn't worry!