Last night I brewed a hefeweizen. When I tasted the OG sample, there was a more pronounced bitter note than I expected... not objectionable, but more than I'd expect.
The 5 gal recipe called for a 60 min boil, and these hops:
1 oz Cascade at the boil (60 mins boil time)
1 oz Tettnang at 50 mins (10 mins boil time)
I used Hopunion whole hops, not pellets.
I also had 3.3 lb of liquid yeast malt and 3 lbs of dry wheat malt. Specialty grains were about 1 lb of crystal, and 12 oz Munich, steeped at 150F for 20 mins. (I might have those amounts backwards, going from memory here.)
I used tap water, which is good tasting but pretty soft here. The recipe also called for gypsum at the boil, but I screwed up and forgot to add it til 40 minutes into the boil.
The anticipated IBU from this recipe was 18. I wanted an even less bitter brew than that, maybe around 14 IBU, which is approximately the value for Weihenstephaner hefe. So, I altered the recipe by putting in the Cascade hops at 20 minutes, for a 40 minute boil. The longer hops boil, the more bittering ... right?
(I know that there are ways to calculate IBU contributions, but I was going by the seat of my pants. I'll check Palmer's book and figure out the proper calculations next time, ahead of time.)
So anyway, like I said, the wort tasted more bitter than I expected. It was more on the first taste than the finish, if that matters.
- Does wort taste more bitter than the finished beer? I assume that perceived bitterness would remain the same as yeast don't metabolize those compounds.
- What sort of hops and boil schedule would you recommend for a low bitterness ~ 14 IBU hefe? I'm wondering where I went wrong. I expected a bigger IBU reduction from a 20 minute shorter boil, but my expectations may simply be unreasonable.
This beer will still be good, but I would like to get closer to the mark next time.
The 5 gal recipe called for a 60 min boil, and these hops:
1 oz Cascade at the boil (60 mins boil time)
1 oz Tettnang at 50 mins (10 mins boil time)
I used Hopunion whole hops, not pellets.
I also had 3.3 lb of liquid yeast malt and 3 lbs of dry wheat malt. Specialty grains were about 1 lb of crystal, and 12 oz Munich, steeped at 150F for 20 mins. (I might have those amounts backwards, going from memory here.)
I used tap water, which is good tasting but pretty soft here. The recipe also called for gypsum at the boil, but I screwed up and forgot to add it til 40 minutes into the boil.
The anticipated IBU from this recipe was 18. I wanted an even less bitter brew than that, maybe around 14 IBU, which is approximately the value for Weihenstephaner hefe. So, I altered the recipe by putting in the Cascade hops at 20 minutes, for a 40 minute boil. The longer hops boil, the more bittering ... right?
(I know that there are ways to calculate IBU contributions, but I was going by the seat of my pants. I'll check Palmer's book and figure out the proper calculations next time, ahead of time.)
So anyway, like I said, the wort tasted more bitter than I expected. It was more on the first taste than the finish, if that matters.
- Does wort taste more bitter than the finished beer? I assume that perceived bitterness would remain the same as yeast don't metabolize those compounds.
- What sort of hops and boil schedule would you recommend for a low bitterness ~ 14 IBU hefe? I'm wondering where I went wrong. I expected a bigger IBU reduction from a 20 minute shorter boil, but my expectations may simply be unreasonable.
This beer will still be good, but I would like to get closer to the mark next time.