Hello all:
After a trip to Munich, Germany and consuming many a hefe-weizens, I decided to try and create it here in my home. It was awesome drinking two liters of superb fresh beer and waking up in the morning headache-free. My manager (and friend) at work gave me his basic brewing equipment kit and I started reading. One of the books he gave me ("Clone Beers" by Tess/Mark Szamatulski) included a list of directions and ingredients to make cloned Paulaner Hefe-Weizen so I decided to use it. I could not remember what the name of the German beer was so I thought this good as any. I should have used a kit for my first batch, but I wanted a little more of a challenge and control of the ingredients.
Please use the following information to give me advice and/or grade my first brew. I have a couple issues I need help troubleshooting; I will describe these below in bold type.
Here is a rundown of what I bought following the suggested recipe in the book:
4 oz. of German Munich Malt (uncrushed)
6 lb. wheat DME (65% wheat, 35% barley)
1 oz. pellet German Hallertau Herbrucker hops @ 3.8% AA
1 slap pack of Wyeast 3056 Bavarian wheat liquid yeast
Here is what I did (this book did not give me a lot of specific details, but I did my research - sanitized and resanitized everything throughout the process):
1) Crushed Munich malt with a rolling pin - I did not get really aggresive when crushing (as I read that you don't want it to be dust) - hard know whether or not I crushed it enough. After I was done 10-15% was powder and the rest looked somewhat still intact.
2) Steeped Munich malt in 1/2 gallon boiled tap water at 150*F for 20 minutes (using a grain nylon bag). I tried to keep the temperature of the water at 150 as much as possible by continuing to turn down the stove temp during the 20 minutes. Is it necessary to keep it at 150*F for the entire 20minutes or just let the temp drop naturally? Yes, I'm that anal....
3) Strained the grain water and sparged wet grain with one gallon of 150*F water into the brew pot (22 quart - stainless). Brought this 1.5 gallon mix to boil and removed from stove.
4) Added all 6 lbs. of DME and the hops at this time. The recipe called for hops to be 3% AA, but I received 3.8% AA from the website. How do you order hop pellets at particular AA's? I did not see an option to select the desired AA. I also slapped the Wyeast pack at this time and I ensured the nutrient pack was broken and well shaken. Yeast pack was fully inflated in 3 hours time.
5) Added one gallon of boiled tap water (boiled water for 20 minutes to remove possible clorine; I can smell it in our tap water - i'll use spring water next time...) for a total of 2.5 gallons and brought the wort mixure to boil. Boiled wort for one hour and immediately placed the wort into an ice bath for rapid cooling. At no time did the ice bath water get into the wort (i'll get a wort chiller soon - I have read they are very important).
6) Strained wort into primary and added 2.5 gallons of water to help bring down temp. I used a large plastic spoon to create the whirlpool and took regular temperature readings. Recipe said to pitch yeast when wort was under 80*F - I santized slap pack and pitched yeast at 74*F. Stirred the 5 gallon mix well to distribute yeast. Took OG reading - it was 1.055.
7) Placed primary (plastic pail with airlock) into dark room. I monitored temp on outside of pail. Over the course of 8 days, temperature stayed at 68-70*F for 95% of time. Wife turned up the air and primary went to 76*F over night. She was verbally thrashed accordingly - how might have this effected the beer? I believe it was at 76*F no longer than approxiately 8 hours. Had great bubble action after 24 hours and CO2 burps slowed to every 45 seconds on day 8. Opened the primary and took a FG reading. It was at 1.013 so I assumed it was done (book states 1.011-1.012). The fumes of alchohol down near the surface of the liquid about made me pass out it was so strong!
8) Racked to the sanitized secondary with spigot. I read that secondary is not really important and I wanted to make sure enough yeast was still active/alive for carbonation so I moved on to bottling. Would the secondary prove useful for this type of beer? I have read that keeping this in the primary for two weeks and skipping the secondary would have been better.
9) I mixed 1 cup of boiling water and 1 cup of table sugar together and let it completely dissolve and cool to 95*F. I mixed this sugar solution in a whirlpool fashion to the secondary and started bottling. Was this correct or do you add the priming solution to the bottle and then fill bottle with beer?
And thats where I am at this point. Here are my issues - I had to drink a beer at this point just to get a preview:
>>> Took a whiff and it has a great nose full of banana and clove. It seems to me that it is slightly sweeter and has more pronounced hop bite than the version I drank in Germany. The sweeter does not bother me - the hop bite is more than I would have hope for. The biggest thing that gives me concern is aftertaste- it is very strong. I'm guessing the hops is the contributing factor? Or lack of carbonization? Was it because it was 3.8AA and not 3.0AA? Added too early to the boil? The book said right before the 60minute boil...
>>> Can these issues above (tad too sweet, a little hoppy, strong aftertaste) be cleared up or greatly reduced with the bottle conditioning? Will the bottle conditioning help at all? How long minimum? Three weeks?
>>> I took three bottles and put them into the fridge to see if it made any difference in taste, head retention, and carbonization. What are your thoughts on bottle conditioning of ale in fridge temps? Unnecessary? Useful?
>>> I used table sugar because I forgot to get the M&F wheat DME. Was this a big mistake? How will effect the beer? Should I get some carbonization tablets just in case the fizz is lacking after 3 weeks?
Thanks all for any advice whatsoever - sorry about the novel!
After a trip to Munich, Germany and consuming many a hefe-weizens, I decided to try and create it here in my home. It was awesome drinking two liters of superb fresh beer and waking up in the morning headache-free. My manager (and friend) at work gave me his basic brewing equipment kit and I started reading. One of the books he gave me ("Clone Beers" by Tess/Mark Szamatulski) included a list of directions and ingredients to make cloned Paulaner Hefe-Weizen so I decided to use it. I could not remember what the name of the German beer was so I thought this good as any. I should have used a kit for my first batch, but I wanted a little more of a challenge and control of the ingredients.
Please use the following information to give me advice and/or grade my first brew. I have a couple issues I need help troubleshooting; I will describe these below in bold type.
Here is a rundown of what I bought following the suggested recipe in the book:
4 oz. of German Munich Malt (uncrushed)
6 lb. wheat DME (65% wheat, 35% barley)
1 oz. pellet German Hallertau Herbrucker hops @ 3.8% AA
1 slap pack of Wyeast 3056 Bavarian wheat liquid yeast
Here is what I did (this book did not give me a lot of specific details, but I did my research - sanitized and resanitized everything throughout the process):
1) Crushed Munich malt with a rolling pin - I did not get really aggresive when crushing (as I read that you don't want it to be dust) - hard know whether or not I crushed it enough. After I was done 10-15% was powder and the rest looked somewhat still intact.
2) Steeped Munich malt in 1/2 gallon boiled tap water at 150*F for 20 minutes (using a grain nylon bag). I tried to keep the temperature of the water at 150 as much as possible by continuing to turn down the stove temp during the 20 minutes. Is it necessary to keep it at 150*F for the entire 20minutes or just let the temp drop naturally? Yes, I'm that anal....
3) Strained the grain water and sparged wet grain with one gallon of 150*F water into the brew pot (22 quart - stainless). Brought this 1.5 gallon mix to boil and removed from stove.
4) Added all 6 lbs. of DME and the hops at this time. The recipe called for hops to be 3% AA, but I received 3.8% AA from the website. How do you order hop pellets at particular AA's? I did not see an option to select the desired AA. I also slapped the Wyeast pack at this time and I ensured the nutrient pack was broken and well shaken. Yeast pack was fully inflated in 3 hours time.
5) Added one gallon of boiled tap water (boiled water for 20 minutes to remove possible clorine; I can smell it in our tap water - i'll use spring water next time...) for a total of 2.5 gallons and brought the wort mixure to boil. Boiled wort for one hour and immediately placed the wort into an ice bath for rapid cooling. At no time did the ice bath water get into the wort (i'll get a wort chiller soon - I have read they are very important).
6) Strained wort into primary and added 2.5 gallons of water to help bring down temp. I used a large plastic spoon to create the whirlpool and took regular temperature readings. Recipe said to pitch yeast when wort was under 80*F - I santized slap pack and pitched yeast at 74*F. Stirred the 5 gallon mix well to distribute yeast. Took OG reading - it was 1.055.
7) Placed primary (plastic pail with airlock) into dark room. I monitored temp on outside of pail. Over the course of 8 days, temperature stayed at 68-70*F for 95% of time. Wife turned up the air and primary went to 76*F over night. She was verbally thrashed accordingly - how might have this effected the beer? I believe it was at 76*F no longer than approxiately 8 hours. Had great bubble action after 24 hours and CO2 burps slowed to every 45 seconds on day 8. Opened the primary and took a FG reading. It was at 1.013 so I assumed it was done (book states 1.011-1.012). The fumes of alchohol down near the surface of the liquid about made me pass out it was so strong!
8) Racked to the sanitized secondary with spigot. I read that secondary is not really important and I wanted to make sure enough yeast was still active/alive for carbonation so I moved on to bottling. Would the secondary prove useful for this type of beer? I have read that keeping this in the primary for two weeks and skipping the secondary would have been better.
9) I mixed 1 cup of boiling water and 1 cup of table sugar together and let it completely dissolve and cool to 95*F. I mixed this sugar solution in a whirlpool fashion to the secondary and started bottling. Was this correct or do you add the priming solution to the bottle and then fill bottle with beer?
And thats where I am at this point. Here are my issues - I had to drink a beer at this point just to get a preview:
>>> Took a whiff and it has a great nose full of banana and clove. It seems to me that it is slightly sweeter and has more pronounced hop bite than the version I drank in Germany. The sweeter does not bother me - the hop bite is more than I would have hope for. The biggest thing that gives me concern is aftertaste- it is very strong. I'm guessing the hops is the contributing factor? Or lack of carbonization? Was it because it was 3.8AA and not 3.0AA? Added too early to the boil? The book said right before the 60minute boil...
>>> Can these issues above (tad too sweet, a little hoppy, strong aftertaste) be cleared up or greatly reduced with the bottle conditioning? Will the bottle conditioning help at all? How long minimum? Three weeks?
>>> I took three bottles and put them into the fridge to see if it made any difference in taste, head retention, and carbonization. What are your thoughts on bottle conditioning of ale in fridge temps? Unnecessary? Useful?
>>> I used table sugar because I forgot to get the M&F wheat DME. Was this a big mistake? How will effect the beer? Should I get some carbonization tablets just in case the fizz is lacking after 3 weeks?
Thanks all for any advice whatsoever - sorry about the novel!