Hugh Heffe is ON!

Just mashed in at 124F (.9qt/lb) for my protien rest. Boiling the next infusion to rest it at 152F (total 1.48qt/lb)... gotta have it in there in about 5 minutes. This heffe rocks... my starter is in the ferment fridge at high krausen just waiting to chew on some wheat!

Pol

Just dumped in my second infusion, resting at 152F... heating the sparge water now. Two more hours and I will be boiling... I generally rest at 152F for an hour, and then the sparge generally takes about an hour. I am really loving this new system... never really had to "dial it in"... it just works. I have more free time now when I am brewing than I have ever had.

ALSO, making starters rocks because the yeast is ready to go as soon as your wort is cooled, no rehydrating and cooling and yadda yadda...

Pol

Sparge water is getting topped up... final infusion to rest at 168F for 10-15 minutes is just about ready, and just in time. I am taking pics and will have them on my photobucket site here when it is complete...

I ran off 7.5 gallons at 1.041... first hop addition is in, second is coming in about 10 minutes. SO far everything looks exactly the same as my last Hugh Heffe brew...

Pics and video coming

Well it looks like I achieved about 79% eff again... though this time I ran off alot more wort, boiled for just over an hour, ended up with a considerable ammout more in my fermentor and will have a slightly less alcoholic heffe this time around. Expected FG is 1.011 with 4.55% ABV. Starter is pitched, just fashioning the blow off tube now... sweeet brew day.

Pol

Sounds like a great hefe to me! Congrats on a successful brew day!

I hope the hefe I'm doing tomorrow goes as well as yours did.

I am sure that it will go great. It took me 6 hours from start to finish with cleanup. NOW, if I had not had friends over I would have cleaned as I went and saved some time. The brewing process was fast, my new system is really hands off and allows me to screw around. Planned my camping trip for next week today while I was mashing!

Pol

All the pics are uploaded here:

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/PolTavern/

There is a Slide show called 5/26/07 Heffe and some videos in my album from today too... enjoy!!

Pol

Checked out the pics it all looks nice. I just kegged 5 gal of a Hefe with a very similar recipe. Now the hard part...the waiting. This was my first hefe I was amazed by the amount of absorbtion during mash. I had to add an extra gallon of h2o that I didn't expect just to get it up par. Do you know if it is the wheat that absorbs so much?

I am curious at this too, I am making a hefe in the next few weeks. I am probably going to use 70% wheat/30% pilsner. VermVerm how much did you loose total?

I dunno... I use .9qt/lb for my initial infusion to rest at 124F. Then I use another .6qt/lb to rest at 152F for the conversion. I fly sparge, so I am not really concerned with how much absorption there is. I personally have not realized a difference. I will only go as low as .9qt/lb for my initial infusion, that is thick enough. Glad you liked the pics!!!!

Pol

Awesome! I can't wait to brew my Heffe on Monday. I'll be making my starter tomorrow around noon and brewing about noon on Monday. After reading your recipe, I think I might adjust my infusion amounts.

I use a spreadsheet for calculating my infusions... this brew, with 10 lbs of grain required the following...

To rest at 124F... 9qts at 136F
To rest at 152F... 6qts at 205F (boiling)

I seriously ran off almost 8 gallons... I have a 32qt pot and it was 1/2" from the top... I was skillful enough to not have a boilover too! If you want any assistance withyour heffe, let me know, this is my second time making this one and it is a REAL crowd pleaser!

Pol

I lost about a gallon more than I would on say a porter. That is on a 5 gallon batch. I believe its because there is no husk on the wheat. I used 55% wheat on mine to give you an idea.
VermVerm

What do you mean "lost" a gallon? You mean, you batch sparge and it soaked up so much water that you did not have enough runoff? I am confused...

Pol,
sorry I didn't notice right away, but I'm brewing your recipe.:rockin:
I had to make a few adjustments due to what my LHBS had (no 6 row)
So I'm brewing this below, potentially named Ludweizen.
6# Wheat malt
3# Pilsner
1# Munich
1# 2-row
same hops and yeast
Looking forward to drinking this one!

Sweeet. I had a friend over today to watch my brew session, he is an old extract brewer and all of the AG equipment and process really shocked him... He has had some of my Hugh Heffe this past week and he is hooked, this is going to be a regular brew around here. This is by far my fav, brew to date. Check out my photobucket link in this thread, I got some good pics and some neat video. :rockin:

So here is mine
7lbs wheat
3lbs pilsner malt
1lb rice hulls
1 oz Hallertau Pellet 60min (3.5%AA)
WLP300

I might sub the rice hulls for 6-row if I can get it (is there a shortage?).

Is this good? Should I do 60/40 wheat/pilsner?

Beerrific said:

So here is mine
7lbs wheat
3lbs pilsner malt
1lb rice hulls
1 oz Hallertau Pellet 60min (3.5%AA)
WLP300

I might sub the rice hulls for 6-row if I can get it (is there a shortage?).

Is this good? Should I do 60/40 wheat/pilsner?

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This is the hefe I always make (in fact brewed this morning) - though I only use 230G (0.5lbs) of rice hulls. You will be extremely happy with it if you keep the fermentation temp between 70-75 so the yeast flavour and aroma can shine to their fullest.

Looks good to me... YUM! Mine is a 60/40 split, but I am by no means a professional. I say brew it and send some to me so that I can compare them HA HA. The WLP300 is great, make sure you have a blow off! I dont know about the 6 row, my LHBS always has it... so... maybe there is a shortage though. BREW ON!!!!!

bradsul said:

This is the hefe I always make (in fact brewed this morning) - though I only use 230G (0.5lbs) of rice hulls. You will be extremely happy with it if you keep the fermentation temp between 70-75 so the yeast flavour and aroma can shine to their fullest.

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Yeah, I will buy a pound and save half probably. So you think 70/30 is good?

Beerrific said:

Yeah, I will buy a pound and save half probably. So you think 70/30 is good?

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I certainly wouldn't go higher than that or even rice hulls probably couldn't save your sparge. If I have no rice hulls I'll go 60/40 as The Pol suggests, never had a stuck sparge. I did a 70/30 once with no rice hulls and SLOW doesn't begin to describe the sparge.

To be honest I couldn't tell any difference in taste between 70/30 and 60/40 because the yeast flavour is completely dominent. If you can't get rice hulls (or just want to save a couple bucks) go with 60/40 or even 50/50 - you won't be disappointed either way. I even make it with 2row instead of pilsner (when I have none) and the flavour difference is negligable.

I just looked in my fridge and there is already CO2 venting out of the blow off tube... that is 6 hours after pitching... NICE!! This WLP300 was harvested and washed from my previous batch about 6 weeks ago, made a small starter, glad it worked!

Pol

bradsul said:

I certainly wouldn't go higher than that or even rice hulls probably couldn't save your sparge. If I have no rice hulls I'll go 60/40 as The Pol suggests, never had a stuck sparge. I did a 70/30 once with no rice hulls and SLOW doesn't begin to describe the sparge.

To be honest I couldn't tell any difference in taste between 70/30 and 60/40 because the yeast flavour is completely dominent. If you can't get rice hulls (or just want to save a couple bucks) go with 60/40 or even 50/50 - you won't be disappointed either way. I even make it with 2row instead of pilsner (when I have none) and the flavour difference is negligable.

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I was going to do 60/40 but this is my first all grain and I am worried about efficiency. I might go 6lbs wheat and 5lbs pilsner (55/45).

I had thought about using 2-row but I want the lighter color (as light as possible) and I think the pilsner is lighter and it ends up like a couple bucks more.

The Pol said:

What do you mean "lost" a gallon? You mean, you batch sparge and it soaked up so much water that you did not have enough runoff? I am confused...

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lost- what I expect as far as grain absorbtion vs. what was really soaked up by my grain. It was more than normal. I expected to get get 6 gallons into the brewpot(runoff) but only was able to get 5-ie 1 gallon lower than my expectations...so I added more to my sparge and made up the difference. Somewhat of a technicality and yes batch was the form I used to sparge on this. Hopefully that clears the point.

Sweet VermVerm... Yah, I dunno... I fly sparge and therefore don't really look at absorption. My infusion ammounts though work out well, not too thick during the protien rest, and not too watery during the starch conversion. Peace :fro:

The Pol said:

Sweet VermVerm... Yah, I dunno... I fly sparge and therefore don't really look at absorption. My infusion ammounts though work out well, not too thick during the protien rest, and not too watery during the starch conversion. Peace :fro:

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Yeah I am going to use your infusion ratios, thanks for all the help.

NP take care, let me know how it goes

Beerrific said:

I was going to do 60/40 but this is my first all grain and I am worried about efficiency. I might go 6lbs wheat and 5lbs pilsner (55/45).

I had thought about using 2-row but I want the lighter color (as light as possible) and I think the pilsner is lighter and it ends up like a couple bucks more.

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55/45 is a good ratio too. You can throw in the rice hulls regardless and they will help if you're worried (they certainly won't hurt at all). The 2row I use is slightly darker than pilsner malt but the difference is so small, without a direct side-by-side you couldn't tell the difference (this of course is just my experience with the 2row I buy).

12 hours after pithching and the Heffe is really chugging away, I am expecting the full blow off in a few hours... I am so glad I am home to see it!

Pol

The Pol said:

12 hours after pithching and the Heffe is really chugging away, I am expecting the full blow off in a few hours... I am so glad I am home to see it!

Pol

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I just saw your photobucket pictures. I am preparing my blow off, set-up like you have it, connected to the airlock. What ID tubbing do you use? I have 3/8 and it is too small (even if I heat it in hot water...).

I used 3/8" ID tubing... Man that thing blew off well! BTW I am entering this Heffe in the Indiana State fair homebrew competition. Wish me luck....

Pol

The Pol said:

I dunno... I use .9qt/lb for my initial infusion to rest at 124F. Then I use another .6qt/lb to rest at 152F for the conversion. I fly sparge, so I am not really concerned with how much absorption there is. I personally have not realized a difference. I will only go as low as .9qt/lb for my initial infusion, that is thick enough. Glad you liked the pics!!!!

Pol

Click to expand...

So I [basically] understand the point of the protein rest. A lot of people use it so that their beers will be clear, not necessary in a hefeweizen.

Reading in How to Brew: " In fact, using a protein rest on fully modified malts tends to remove most of the body of a beer, leaving it thin and watery."

So I am using 40% German Pilsen Malt (60% White Wheat). I know Pilsner Malt is usually less modified than other malts. Is that un-modified enough to benefit from a protein rest?

Made my starter today...

Brewing Sat. or Sun. (got to look at the rain forcast), first all grain, just trying to get everything worked out in advance.


Thanks for the help.

Pol,
I'm still bubbling away. Took 36 hours on the blowoff before I could even think
about putting an airlock on it. I thought I frigged it up, but I think she'll still
turn out all right. I'm going to use the yeast cake and pitch a Dunkelweizen on it.
Here's my panic thread..https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31039

This Heffe recipe is my fav that I have created so far... still trying to get a new one with coriander and orange peel balanced just right.