1st partial mash, hefeweizen, gravity too high?

So I did my first partial mash last night, and was very happy with the process. I definitely felt more like a "real brewer" using all that grain. Thanks to Death Brewer for his great pictorial. I followed your procedures, and I think it went well. The only thing was that I finished with a high OG.

Here is my recipe (that I found somewhere on this board):
5lbs Wheat DME
1 1/4 lb red wheat
1 1/4 lb pilsner 2-row
1/2 lb carapils
.75 oz hallertau (60 min)
.25 oz hallertau (5 min)

Mashed the grain in 1.50 G at 152 for 60 min.
Drained and sparged for 10 min in 2 g @ 170
drained and combined wort. I then added 1lb dme and brought to boil.
Once boiling, added bittering hops.
Boiled 50 min, then added 4lbs DME and 1tsp irish moss, boiled 10 min
added aroma hops, boiled 5 min.
Flame out.

Cooled to 78 and dumped into fermenter. Added cool water to just above 5 gallons and stirred. Temp was 68.
Pitched my 400ml starter of 24 hours of WL 380 (hefe IV).

When I took my OG (before pitching), it was 1.062. That was a lot higher than I anticipated. When I tasted it, it was very sweet.

Any feedback on recipe/procedure? Will this beer taste good and just be strong?

Thanks for your feedback

I don't think that OG is unreasonably high. However, you mentioned that you stirred it after adding your topoff water; how much did you mix it up? Typically in order to get an accurate reading when you're using topoff water, you will want to shake vigorously. You may well have gotten an inaccurate reading if the water and concentrated wort were not completely mixed together.

That is going to be a pretty warm Hefe. High OG happens, I was aiming for 1.052 in a 10 gallon batch Sunday. Even after adding a couple of gallons of extra water to the boil, I came out with 1.056.

Just call it a "Helles Weizenbock" and say you planned it that way.

I mixed it up as well as I could, but didn't shake it. I just hope that it won't taste as sweet as it tasted last night!

digphish said:

I mixed it up as well as I could, but didn't shake it. I just hope that it won't taste as sweet as it tasted last night!

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The yeast will take care of the sweetness.

Cpt_Kirks said:

Just call it a "Helles Weizenbock" and say you planned it that way.

Click to expand...

Damn that is funny.

So, after 13 days in primary, and a vigorous fermentation (almost blew the top off my bucket), I took another gravity reading: this time it was still high at 1.022. Haven't seen any bubbles in a few days, and figure it was done. This still seems a little high. Thoughts? I started to think my hydrometer was off, but water at 60 degrees is 1.000. Will a high ending gravity mean my beer will have more body, calories, flavor?

Thanks

With a FG of 1.022 (given your OG of 1.062) your beer is likely not done fermenting out yet. Give it a another day or 2 and check it again to see if you get the same reading again or if its still dropping (fermenting).

And on your original post about the high gravity. I've been doing partials similar to DB's stovetop method and have been getting really high efficiency from the mash. You can always pull a sample from the wort after you sparge (and added any initial malt extract) and cool it to check gravity and adjust the amount of your late DME addition to increase or decrease the OG you're shooting for.

I actually already moved the beer to a keg. So, I guess I could just leave it in the keg at room temp and call this a secondary fermentation, right? I'll pull a gravity reading in a few days and see if anything has changed.

Yes. I don't keg, so maybe someone else will chime in, but i'd think you could leave it at room temp and just vent the keg a few times a day to release a little pressure if it is still fermenting out. You've not force carbed or added priming sugar (if naturally carbing) yet have you?

I only put 12psi on it to seat the lid. It is sitting at room temp right now. I'll give it another week or so. I didn't add any clarifier either.