First Non-Kit Brew: Hefe

[bighitterstone]

I'm putting together my first non-kit brew and want to get off to a good start. I'm looking for some suggestions from seasoned brewers before I put grain to water. This would be a 5 gallon batch.

Do you see something I'm missing? Any other suggestions?

I'm attempting to play with the Hefweizen style and would like to get around 7% ABV

My calculations:
OG: 1.075
FG: 1.019
IBU: 8.82

Grain Bill
* 8 lb. German Wheat Malt Light
* 6 lb. German Pilsner Malt
* 1 lb. Rice Hulls
* 8 oz. Wheat Flakes
* 2 oz. Aromatic Barley Malt
* 2 oz. Acid Malt

Steep in 3 gallons at 150 for 90 minutes.
Bring to boil (60 minute)

Hops
* 1 oz. Hersbrucker Pellet Hops @ 60 minutes left
* ¼ oz. Spalt Pellet Hops @ 15 minutes
* ¼ oz. Perle Whole Leaf @ 15 minutes

Yeast
* Hefeweizen Ale Yeast WLP300

Thanks for the input in advance!

 

[ncbrewer]

8.82 IBU seems low for an OG of 1.075 - the BU:GU ratio would be 0.12. The Finn Hill Brewing guidelines show a range of 0.21 - .032. I usually aim for 0.24. I guess it depends on your taste.

EDIT: The range is for a Weizen beer, and the .032 was a typo - it should have been 0.32

 

[bighitterstone]

I just plug the info into a calculator. That's what it gave me. I will admit to being a noob to building a recipe so the info you gave me has me a bit lost. Is this a big issue? How will it affect taste?

 

[ncbrewer]

The idea is that bitterness should be in balance with the bitterness for the particular style. This article has some good info:
http://finnhillbrewing.blogspot.com/2011/04/bugu-ratios.html

Maybe you increased the OG without increasing the bitterness?

With a BU:GU ratio of 0.12, it might taste too sweet. But I just did a rough calculation and got about 16 - 17 IBU for your recipe, so I really don't know what to think.

 

[bighitterstone]

Thanks for the great link and all the help. I'll double the Spalt hops to get it a bit more bitter. This is the link I use for the recipe builder. My calculations show different numbers to theirs but it gets me away from my fear of being too sweet.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

 

[ncbrewer]

I'll double the Spalt hops to get it a bit more bitter. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

I'm really at a loss as to why my calculations (using the Tinseth formula) shows roughly twice the IBU that your recipe builder shows. If you double the hops, and it was really at 16 IBU to start with, it will probably be too bitter. It might be a good idea to check it against Palmer's "How to Brew" - he has both charts and formulas: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html

 

[bighitterstone]

Will do. I'm going to try a couple of different calculators as well to see if I can at least triangulate the results. Thanks for the help

 

[Andrew_R]

The OG of this beer is insanely high for anything that would even remotely be regarded as a hefeweizen. You are definitely into the weizenbock, weizenstark beer territory.

The info previously mentioned about hops is something that should definitely be taken into account, this beer would be insanely sweet with that level of hops

Your liquor/grist ratio is also extremely low, target 1.5qt/lb during the mash

Lastly, fermentation temps are crucial for weizen yeasts. What is your planned fermentation temperature(s)?

 

[RonPopeil]

do a protein rest. put the wheat in a separate bag and hold it at 130 for 30 minutes. bring it to 150 and put the other bag of grain in for mash duration.