"Little Harold" - All-grain German Hefeweizen, Small Batch

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Justibone

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This is one of my "80 Beers in 80 Weeks" recipes. I'm brewing small, 1gal or 1/2gal batches trying to use items found in common kitchens. For this recipe I didn't need anything special from any homebrew store, except for ingredients.

:fro:

"Little Harold"
Category #1: Weizen/Weissbier

This is a one-gallon version of Jamil Zainascheff's German Weizbier recipe "Harold-Is-Weizen". His original recipe is published in the book he wrote with John Palmer, "Brewing Classic Styles". Jamil has won at least one prize with this beer, I believe.

Brewer: Justibone
URL: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/blogs/justibone/
Type: All grain
Size: 1 gallons
Color: 4 HCU (~4 SRM)
Bitterness: 12 IBU
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 6.0% v/v (4.7% w/w)

Water:
I used a Brita filter to filter most of the chlorine out of tap water. Since I used bleach-water for sanitization, that might be considered either pointless or extra important, depending on your view.

Grain:
1 lb. 2 oz. German Pilsner
1 lb. 2 oz. Wheat malt

Mash: 68% efficiency
I mashed the 2+ lbs. of grain on an electric range, using 3 quarts of water for the mash. When it reached temp I moved it off the burner, covered it, and wrapped it in a towel for 60 minutes. Halfway through the mash, I stirred it once, and lost a lot of heat doing so.

Boil: 60 minutes, 1.5 gallons
I did not use any Irish Moss or other boil additives.

Hops: 0.15 oz. Hallertauer (4.3% AA, 60 min.)

Yeast: Safbrew-WB, dry Weizenbier yeast.
I used about 1/5th of an 11g packet.

The brew was started in the morning of 11-1-11. The mash and boil were completed back-to-back, but the cooling was accomplished by setting the boilpot in a sink part-full of water, covering it with its lid, and then running errands for a few hours.

The fermenters were two sanitized (bleach water) glass jugs from wine. Each was filled half-full and placed in a cooler with frozen water bottles to keep the temperature low, and hopefully to keep the kreusen under control. No airlocks were used; the wine jug caps were screwed on very loosely instead.

Carbonation: 4.5 volumes
Cane Sugar: 1.88 oz. for 1 gallons @ 72°F
When it is time to carbonate the beer, each half gallon (in one-gallon jugs) will be poured gently through a sanitized funnel into a 2L soda bottle. Boiled sugar water will be added and the bottles sealed for 2-3 weeks. Carbonation will be at 4.5 volumes, since it is expected that, when it is time to serve them, they will be poured into a growler and transported thusly shortly before consumption. Some yeast in the growler will be desirable.

This web page generated by The Beer Recipator.
 
I made this recipe or something close to it a couple of weeks ago as my first BIAB batch. I used the Wyeast Weihenstephaner liquid yeast instead of the dry. I'm a bit dissappointed in the 50% efficiency I had but even at 4.5% abv it does the job and tastes great! Thanks for posting this!
 
You're welcome. My friend said this was literally the best tasting beer he had ever tasted. I highly recommend the book I got this recipe from... the recipes really are amazing, and I haven't had a bad beer yet when I made them. :D
 
Great post, I have a few question —

1. Did you mash out or raise your temp prior to the boil?
2. Are you using a BIAB
3. How did you reduce the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles

I am looking to do some small all grain batches this weekend and am interested in how you scaled this recipe!
 
I made a small batch Hefeweizen with very similar recipe, but I got too clean taste for it even though I fermented it up at 22-23°C. I used about 1/2 packet of 10g Gozdawa WB11 (polish company that repacks bulks of other companies yeasts).

After studying more of the chemical side of homebrewing started to think that I might have over pitch the yeast rate.

I need to do a new batch with lower pitch rate, use around 3 grams of yeast and hope to get more hoped taste.
 
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