1st authentic AG Hefe - recipe help needed

Take a look atthis recipe and let me know what you think, esp when it comes to the amount/use of the flaked wheat and the rice hulls - not sure how much to use. Also unclear on what strike temp to go with and the total water volume i'll need to use to end up with about 5.5 gals of brew. any help would be appreciated..

5lbs white wheat
4lbs pils
.5lb flaked wheat ?
.5 rice hulls ?

strike temp?
total water volume?

1oz Halleurto hops 60 mins (sp?)

1 tsp flour 45 mins into the boil

60 min boil

3068 yeast with starter

14 day ferment

165 strike temp should be good for 153 mash. I usually go a bit higher then stir until I hit the temp I want.

Mash with 13-15 qts of water (10lbs grain x 1.25-1.5 qts/lb)
You'll probably lose 5 qts to absportion (I lose ~1 pint per pound of grain)
So to get to 6.5g (26 qts) preboil volume, you'll need to sparge with ~16 qts, or 4 gallons (= 26 qts preboil + 5 qts absorption - 15 qts mash)
Total water used = 15 qts mash + 16 qts sparge = 7.75 gallons

Recipe looks fine. I'd consider adding ~4oz of melanoidin malt to simulate a decoction mash.

great stuff. thanks for the advice.

One question, at the end you suggested to possibly add 4oz of melanoidin malt to simulate a decoction mash. what is the benefit a decoction mash? I am not familiar..

Wheatmeister said:

One question, at the end you suggested to possibly add 4oz of melanoidin malt to simulate a decoction mash. what is the benefit a decoction mash? I am not familiar..

Click to expand...

In short, you get a unique malty/bready character. A decoction is removing a portion of the mash, boiling it, and adding it back in to raise the main mash temp. The boiling increases Maillard reactions (which create melanoidins) to give it that unique character. It's very easy to do, just takes more time. Adding 2-3% of melanoidin malt creates a reasonable facsimile with a single infusion mash.

Here's some great info on decoction mashing:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Decoction_Mashing

TyTanium said:

In short, you get a unique malty/bready character. A decoction is removing a portion of the mash, boiling it, and adding it back in to raise the main mash temp. The boiling increases Maillard reactions (which create melanoidins) to give it that unique character. It's very easy to do, just takes more time. Adding 2-3% of melanoidin malt creates a reasonable facsimile with a single infusion mash.

Here's some great info on decoction mashing:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Decoction_Mashing

Click to expand...

Thanks man, this is good info..

need help figuring out how much water to use for mash and sparge. I'm going to batch sparge.

The calc im using is saying 3.25 gals for mash and 4 gals for sparge, total of 7.25 gals. With absorbtion, is this fairly accurrate?

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. Plug for your sparge water, since the grain will be mostly saturated and you won't lose much to absorption

Target boil volume - 1st runnings collected = Volume Sparge Water
6.5 gallons - 2.75 gallons collected = 3.75 gallons needed, so sparging with 4 should be great (I usually do a little extra, just to be safe)

Hopefully these will help ya now and in the future. They help me quite a bit in making up my mind.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Btw.... looks to be a nice tasty beer there, and the sp was Hallertauer

One other thing... I would use a blow off tube on your fermenter