Hefeweizen With Decoction

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Brewsmith

Home brewing moogerfooger
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I have my mash going right now for my hefeweizen. I kept the grain bill simple:

6.5 lbs. Wheat Malt
3.5 lbs. Pilsner malt

(My LHBS was out of rice hulls) I started the mash with an infusion with 1.5 qts/lb @ 122 degrees for about 15 min. I took out some for the decoction and brought it to 150 for about 15 min. The decoction is boiling right now...

Back in a minute! :)

Thanks Baron von Beegee for the help with the decoction process! :rockin:
 
Added decoction back to mash and added a little boiling water to get temp up. Temp is at about 148 and the mash tun is now full! I was only going for a single decoction but I guess I will need another one to get the temp up for mash out now :D.
 
While the mash is at the saccrification rest I'll post the rest of the recipe. I'm using whole hops for the first time. :) My LHBS get them from Freshops, so now I have 4 oz of 4.8% Hallertau in the fridge.

I wanted to keep my recipe simple, so I didn't include any crystal of carapils malts. Maybe next time I'll use some flaked wheat in there. Here's the whole thing for 5.5 gal:

6.5 lbs. Wheat Malt
3.5 lbs. Pilsner Malt

0.75 oz. Hallertau 60 min
0.5 oz. Hallertau 30 min

OG: 1.048
SRM: 3
IBU: 19

I'm figuring 70% efficiency, so we'll see how close I get.

Mash out in a few minutes...
 
Well the brew is in the fermenter :) I collected close to 8 gllons and boiled it down. My OG was 1.052, I hit about 75% efficiency! The sample I took tasted great. We'll see how it is in a few more days.
 
Transfered to secondary last night, Tuesday. I could smell bananas, but after tasting, it there was less banana flavor than I anticipated from the aroma. I wasn't able to use the White Labs 351 because my LHBS didn't have it in yet, so I went with the 300. The taste was slightly tart with some banana flavor. The gravity ended up around 1.009. I think I'll only keep it in secondary for about a week, partially because I'm dying to get it in the keg for the kegerator, but also because the conditions in my garage are not perfect. It's in a water bath trying to keep it as close to 68 as possible.
 
So I have the weizen in the keg and it's almost carbed up. I just tasted some and it's amazing! The smell is a little citruy/clove and the flavor has just a slight hint of banana to it. The color is a pale straw and has just enough hops ot cut the sweetness, without adding any real hop flavor or aroma. Amazingly refreshing, especially in this heat wave we're having on the west coast. This is just about perfect!:ban:

Again, thanks to Baron von BeeGee for the decoction help. There were so many different things I did with this one that it might be hard to duplicate exactly, but I will try. I did a double decoction (at protein to infusion rest and at mash out), used a glass primary in the bath tub with a water bath (to keep the temp down while I went out of town, but when I came back the tub was empty!) and the yeast came out the air lock, but didn't explode. The only thing I might try different is the yeast. I'm still curious about the 351.
 
I, too, want some repeatability on my Hefeweizen. I think it's really, really difficult to do with a well controlled fermentation but as long as I'm in the ballpark I'll be happy. I found the citrusy/tart flavor came out much more with the stepped mash vs a single temp infusion.

It is a great summer beer.
 
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