Weizenbock

Yesterday I finally took the dive and brewed a bock, well a weizenbock. This was somewhat of a bench mark test for my system, giving me an idea the max amount of grain I can work with and the expected gravities. The mash was a double decoction and the boil was 2.25hours to go from 6.25 gallons down to 4. Calculated gravity was a 1.094, actual was 1.100. The yeast was a primary cake from a 6 gallon dunkelweizen I had just racked. I was rather pumped at my results and had to share them.

4 Gallons
7.75# Wheat
5.25# Dark Munich
.3oz Nugget 13.8% (Boil)
O.G. 1.100

Nice work! I've got an Aventinus clone I want to get in the pipeline soon, but I need a brewday to open up. Curious to hear how yours turns out.

Hey bg...good to see you back. So about that Aventinus, do you think that's doable by an all-grain newby, or is that gonna take some decoction mashing, and other fancy stuff?

El Pistolero said:

do you think that's doable by an all-grain newby, or is that gonna take some decoction mashing, and other fancy stuff?

Click to expand...

The decoction mashing is not that difficult. People mostly shy away from the amount of work and time it takes to do one. Do a 2 step (protein rest, saccrification and mash-out). The protein rest will actually help with the higher protein content of the wheat.

Kai

El Pistolero said:

Hey bg...good to see you back. So about that Aventinus, do you think that's doable by an all-grain newby, or is that gonna take some decoction mashing, and other fancy stuff?

Click to expand...

EP, i did a double decoction for mine, and it was busy, but fun. if you want, i can help out? i'd be happy too. but, i understand if you don't. when i try new stuff out on the systme, i like to be alone!
mines been in secondary @ 45 degrees for over two weeks now.....

where ya been BeeGee?

Been in Sveeden on business. Predictably am down with a cold, but it'll pass.

I wasn't really planning on doing a decoction for the Aventinus clone, although I'm considering doing a protein rest as Kai mentions using hot water infusions (I'm a coolertun guy, so no direct heat). I've always done wheat beers before as single-infusion mashes without any real problems. I think the only problem for an AG newbie with the recipe would be hitting the efficiency to get the high abv and perhaps dealing with a stuck mash due to the wheat content which can probably be avoided with some rice hulls. I wouldn't be scared to try it if I were you. Here's the recipe (good for comparison to PT Ray's so as not to totally hijack here...):

9# wheat
2.25# munich
2.15# pilsner
1.63# caramunich

5.5 HBU Hersbrucker @ 60
1.4 HBU Hersbrucker @ 15

0.08oz bitter orange peel @ 15
0.15oz coriander @ 5

I'll be using Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan as that's what I have saved, but I suppose any good hefe yeast would work. I tried culturing an Aventinus, but failed. I'm also not sure about the orange peel and coriander...I don't really taste that but it was in the recipe I found. SG is ~1073, and SRM 11.

doing the decoction will help negate the stuck mash problem though. plus, it'll eek out every bit o' maltiness for the brew :~)

c'mon...live on the edge!!!!

DeRoux's Broux said:

doing the decoction will help negate the stuck mash problem though. plus, it'll eek out every bit o' maltiness for the brew :~)

c'mon...live on the edge!!!!

Click to expand...

I'll be using rice hulls and haven't had any problems with my manifold so far...but extra maltiness sounds excellent. I'm definitely considering a decoction, especially if SWMBO goes to the mall or something on brewday and I'm left to my own devices.

A Weizenbock certainly calls for a decotion. And decotion mashes are made for the cooler set-up (they are the best way to do step mashes in coolers). They are also called Bottichmaishen (Tun-mash) as opposed to Kesselmaische (Kettle-mash) in Germany, which refers to the use of an unheated mash tun. I used a double decoction for my Doppelbock and a tripple for my Maibock today. Might have been overkill for the Maibock, but it was fun. The biggest problem I see, is actually mixing the mash well enough once you added the decotion part. It took me some time until the rest temperature was even enough.

Kai

I might tap your knowledge sometime before I brew this one, Kai. Plus, learning all the German terms will make me sound like an expert among experts! (Seriously, keep them coming) Regardless of whether I do a decoction or hot-water infusion, I plan on doing a step mash with a protein rest and a sacc. rest which will be a first for me, as I've only done single infusion mashes in the past. Ignorance is bliss, right?

BeeGee said:

I might tap your knowledge sometime before I brew this one, Kai. Plus, learning all the German terms will make me sound like an expert among experts! (Seriously, keep them coming) Regardless of whether I do a decoction or hot-water infusion, I plan on doing a step mash with a protein rest and a sacc. rest which will be a first for me, as I've only done single infusion mashes in the past. Ignorance is bliss, right?

Click to expand...

I plan to do a Hefeweizen next. But this is about 2 to 3 weeks away. For this I might go with a double decoction again. You should also add a mash-out step to your mash. This is oftentimes overlooked. But if you hold your saccrification temp for to long, or it even drops during the lauter, you may end up killing the body of your beer by having to much beta amylase activity.

Regarding the German terms, I like them a lot and even sprinkle them in my brew-log even though I keep it in English . But I actually learned them after the english ones since I had to read some german texts and posts first.

I just posted a possible 3 step mashing scheme for a hefeweizen for someone else.

Kai

Kai said:

You should also add a mash-out step to your mash. This is oftentimes overlooked. But if you hold your saccrification temp for to long, or it even drops during the lauter, you may end up killing the body of your beer by having to much beta amylase activity.

Click to expand...

I sometimes do this by adding boiling water before running off my first batch (I still consider this a 'single infusion mash', although technically I suppose it isn't). However, since I'm batch sparging and my second batch results in a grainbed of 168-170F I think I'm probably avoiding the beta-amylase problems. Also, first batch runoff to boiling is usually < 30 minutes.