Thumbs up on this Hefe?

Hey gang --
I have some friends in town from Germany and they are screaming about how they can't get a decent Hefeweizen anyplace in town here (they are correct). So they found out I brew and convinced me to give it a try. Here is what I have come up with, modeled on what I've seen for Paulaner clones -- feel free to chime in with recommendations. I am stuck with the 3 gal partial boil but hoping that a late extract addition will help avoid caramelization. I am feeling some pressure to get this one right!

Thanks in advance!

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Recipe: 6th ST Hefe
Brewer: Lock 7 Ale Co.
Asst Brewer:
Style: Weizen/Weissbier
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 7.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 10.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: - %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.50 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) (15 min) Dry Extract 57.57 %
2.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 32.89 %
0.33 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5.43 %
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.11 %
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [3.00 %] (60 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) Yeast-Wheat

Process:
1) Steep Munich & Cara-Pils 30 min in 2.75 gal at 160F
2) Remove grains, add 2 lb Wheat DME, bring to boil
3) At boil add hops
4) After 45 min of boil add 3.5 lb DME
5) Return to boil and boil 15 min more
6) Cool, strain into fermenter, pitch yeast
7) Ferment 10 days @ 67F
8) Move fermenter to 55F for 10 days more
9) Bottle

I don't plan on using a starter because the beer is only moderate gravity and I read it's beneficial to slightly underpitch for a hefeweizen.

i'd increase the munich malt to two lbs and steep in 1 gallon of water. then it would be a partial mash, and you really need a PM to get the most out of the munich and carapils.

other than that, it looks great.

Death - Game on.
Your style of PM looks too dang easy so I'm going for it (F-yeah!). If you answer everyone's questions as promptly ans satisfactorily as you do mine, you probably should get a medal for reducing the blood pressure of so many brewers... and another one for all the better beer in the world that's your fault!

I will cut out a pound of DME to compensate for the sugars I'll get from the mash -- I suppose this will mean there's less wheat in my Hefeweizen... but I bet it still comes out fine. If I'm mashing 2.33 lbs of grain, I should be able to get away with 1 gal of mash water, right? The same for my sparge, and then I just add water up to whatever my kettle will fit and let 'er rip for the boil?

Do you think I'll be okay w/ a wyeast activator of the 3068 and no starter? I can break it and then leave it in a good warm place overnight before brewing.

I ferment in a temp-controlled water bath and work with the basic assumption that the ferment will stay closer to the water temp than it would to ambient air temp. I will try to set the bath around 62 I think, hoping that the ferment will go down in the 65 range. Aiming to brew Saturday AM. Any thoughts?

Let the record show that I will NOT be voting on any more poles unless there is the Ralph Nader Option!



At least until I change my mind.

goplayoutside said:

Death - Game on.
Your style of PM looks too dang easy so I'm going for it (F-yeah!). If you answer everyone's questions as promptly ans satisfactorily as you do mine, you probably should get a medal for reducing the blood pressure of so many brewers... and another one for all the better beer in the world that's your fault!

Click to expand...

i try

goplayoutside said:

I will cut out a pound of DME to compensate for the sugars I'll get from the mash -- I suppose this will mean there's less wheat in my Hefeweizen... but I bet it still comes out fine. If I'm mashing 2.33 lbs of grain, I should be able to get away with 1 gal of mash water, right? The same for my sparge, and then I just add water up to whatever my kettle will fit and let 'er rip for the boil?

Click to expand...

you could do a pound of wheat and a pound of munich, but if you're going for the stout aspect, i'd stick with the munich.

1 gallon of water would be perfect. mash at about 154°F (heat your water to 166°F before you add the grains)

goplayoutside said:

Do you think I'll be okay w/ a wyeast activator of the 3068 and no starter? I can break it and then leave it in a good warm place overnight before brewing.

Click to expand...

that'll be fine...just might take a little longer. just leave it at room temperature, nowhere hot.

goplayoutside said:

I ferment in a temp-controlled water bath and work with the basic assumption that the ferment will stay closer to the water temp than it would to ambient air temp. I will try to set the bath around 62 I think, hoping that the ferment will go down in the 65 range. Aiming to brew Saturday AM. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

that temp range sounds perfect.

Talking of mashing wheat... for future reference, how does your "tea-bag" sparge technique used in your PM method do with stuck sparges? It seems to me there should be less of a problem with stuck sparges using your method than with some of the other techniques out there. In situations where you do use a bunch of wheat and/or rye, do you add rice hulls?

i probably should use rice hulls...i might get better efficiency, but no...it's not as much of a problem. it drips out of the bottom...the only pain in the ass is holding that sucker up long enough to let it drain. a colander helps.

Death -- after using your method for the first time, I am impressed with how easy it is. I have a couple of questions for you though:

1- There is no vorlauf. Do you view this as a weakness for getting really clear beers?
2- Do you have any way of avoiding getting boil trub in the fermenter?
3- I had a low OG that I believe to be the result of statified wort after I topped up for the ferment. Any little tricks for avoiding this? I am thinking just stir the snot out of it after it's topped up, I guess.
4- How do you aerate?

Thanks.

1- There is no vorlauf. Do you view this as a weakness for getting really clear beers?
Nope. vorlaufing is not for clearing the beer, it's for keeping grains and particles out of the boil. the bag has small enough holes that it minimizes the particles that get into the beer. although not affective as vorlaufing, i have never seen any ill effects. clearing the beer is about patience, temperature and yeast...for the most part. all the particles that get into your boil will just drop out.

2- Do you have any way of avoiding getting boil trub in the fermenter?
i dump it all in when i use this method...again, everything will settle out. When i use my keggle, i use the false bottom and a filter. going to extremes like this will only improve your beer, but i've made beers that were just as amazing using this "tea-bag" method.

3- I had a low OG that I believe to be the result of statified wort after I topped up for the ferment. Any little tricks for avoiding this? I am thinking just stir the snot out of it after it's topped up, I guess.
i take my gravity readings at various stages, including pre-boil and before and after top-off. if i am using extract or mixing with anything like water, i mix the sh*t out of it before i take my reading. it's the only way to get close to accurate. but at least if you take the rest of the readings, you'll know how far off your calculations really are.

4- How do you aerate?
I rarely do to any extreme. using this method, i pour the wort rapidly through a funnel into the fermenter and i also stir the wort in the pot at the end of cooling. i have a pump and stone and access to o2, but don't use them much...usually i will just shake it a little bit. oxygen is for yeast reproduction. it's always nice to have a little of that going on in the fermenter, but i also have most of it taken care of with my pitching rate. dry yeast or starters from liquid will take care of high gravity beers.

Good answers (and more or less what I was thinking so that's encouraging...)

I am sure the cause of the low OG reading was stratified wort, because I took a reading at the start of my boil (before adding extract) that came out where it was supposed to be -- I made an AG recipe in beersmith mashing my grain bill w/ the extract and using my boil vol. as the final volume to estimate what it should be (it said that for 2.75 gal of wort, I should have about 1.022, I got 1.021). So if I got the mash right, and I added the extract (yup... did it... never heard of that not working before...), the only explanation for the bad reading (1.041 as opposed to recipe target of 1.052, at 70 F, an I believe my actual hydrometer to be accurate wihtin about 1.002) is that my sample wasn't representative. Pain in the a$$... I need a longer stirring spoon.

At any rate, my fermenter now smells like bananas...

...

...

teeheemwahahahaaaaa...

...

Friggin' stupid aquarium heater not working for me! My water bath wasn't gonna go (ale yeasts prefer over 52) so i just left it out in my room which is about that letting it cool from the pitch (at 75) as the ferm got wound up. Of course it was flirting with 60 soon, so I put a sleeping bag over it and stuck it next to a heat vent, then went and spent the night at school writing a paper. I returned today to find it at 73, took the sleeping bag off and moved it back away from the heater. No blowoff activity from my 6.5 gal bucket but there is positive pressure and everything smells like banana so It's going alright... I guess worst case we get a bit more banana than was the plan. Oh, the joys!

Well my first rule of brew is "No passing judgment on a batch until a month or so after you've given up on it," so I'm not in despair, but on the other hand this does not inspire confidence. The water heater has now been replaced so the next batch will be where I want it.

hefeweizens fermenting in the 70s will give you lots of banana, but usually doesn't have the hot alcohol or super phenolic, estery madness of other yeasts. in other words, the beer may not be as nice as you'd like, but it will still be good.

next time leave it at 60°F. it may take some time to ferment, but it will be nice and clean with a lovely clove flavor and slight banana.

Took S.G. today, coming in at about 1.014 with still a good head of krausen in the bucket (wouldn't have opened it if I could see that from outside but oh well). We tasted it (tastiest hydrometer sample in my brewing career).

Will bottle Sunday. If the hydrometer sample is any indication of how good this beer will be when fermented with all the temperature changes, I can't wait for the next batch where it cruises along all nice and cool.

Thanks again for your help, Death.