I dunno what I'm doing wrong with my hefes, but I just can't seem to make a good one. Or even a reasonable one. At this stage I'm looking for ideas on what to try next, although I feel I have tried a lot of different things already.
I have made 5 batches now and don't feel that progress is being made. They are coming out tart, a little smelly, estery and generally unpleasant. I'm not getting those wonderful aromas and flavours that one would associate with hefeweizens. All my other brews are coming out really nice - I feel my pilsners and lagers are up there with the good commercial versions, supposedly a lot harder to brew than a hefe.
Here's the full details on my process for the latest batch for anyone willing to take the time to read. I apologise in advance for the length...
Grain bill - 40% white wheat, 35% Weyermann pilsner, 10% vienna, 10% dark wheat, 5% caramunich. I went for a slightly unusual / darker grain bill since I wanted to bring down the pH without using acid malt (which was my prime suspect for the off-flavour).
Hopped to 13 IBU using Tettnang with a 60 min addition only.
Water adjusted to target 22ppm Ca, 7ppm Na, 0ppm Sulfate, 35ppm Chloride. Our water is quite soft, I added very modest CaCl2 additions to bring up the Calcium and all additions went to the mash. Treated the water with Campden to remove any Chlorine / Chloramines.
Mash with a 20 min acid rest at 44c then 50 mins at 67c. Measured with brand new calibrated thermometer which I have since confirmed the readings against another good quality thermometer. Mash did lose a few degrees over the 50 mins (finishing at 64c).
Room temp mash pH was 5.5 after 20 mins. Bang on what Brunwater said, I have read that hefes are better at the higher end. This is using a cheap meter however so let's say +/- 0.2. Batch sparged by lifting the bag into another vessel (then again into another vessel).
90 min boil to reduce DMS. Lost some wort to boilover and OG finished a bit low at 1.043, but I don't imagine this would affect things terribly. Chilled to pitching temps in about 30 mins.
Pitched 3 month old WLP300 pack using a small non-decanted starter, pitched slightly under the recommended pitch rate and no wort aeration.
Fermented at 17c/62f in a temp-controlled swamp cooler, probe in the beer. I calibrated the STC-1000 in an ice bath and checked the temps against a good quality thermometer to make sure the temps are good.
At 12 hours there were mild spots on the top of the wort, good krausen and busy airlock at 24 hours. Fermentation finished at 1.008 on day 4 and I left it in primary until day 10 then bottled.
Am confident in all aspects of sanitation - the fermentation was done in glass, everything sanitised using Starsan, no accidents and no reason to think it's a sanitation issue.
Despite what I thought was a solid brewing process, bottling sample tasted pretty much the same as the last batch, tart and nasty, though perhaps not as bad. I was really hoping that the WLP300 would bring a nicer yeast character but doesn't seem to have changed much.
I'm kinda at a loss as to what to try next. I'm in a small town in New Zealand with no brew club but I'm thinking I need to track down some BJCP judges and send them some bottles around the country for an opinion (plus some bottles of good beer for their trouble). We don't have a brew club in town but we do have several craft nanobreweries - maybe I could hassle them for an opinion?
Otherwise, does anything here stand out as a problem? Any suggestions on what to change next time? I brew 1 gallon at a time so at least I'm not stuck with bulk lots of terrible beer. This is actually hefe batch 5 and I have tried several different variables already - different ferment temps, WB-06 / Wy3638 / WLP300 yeast, acidifying the mash vs not, water additions vs not, single infusion vs acid rest, wheat/pils grain bill vs the darker one here, yeast pitch rate, different brand of malts etc.
Thanks for reading
I have made 5 batches now and don't feel that progress is being made. They are coming out tart, a little smelly, estery and generally unpleasant. I'm not getting those wonderful aromas and flavours that one would associate with hefeweizens. All my other brews are coming out really nice - I feel my pilsners and lagers are up there with the good commercial versions, supposedly a lot harder to brew than a hefe.
Here's the full details on my process for the latest batch for anyone willing to take the time to read. I apologise in advance for the length...
Grain bill - 40% white wheat, 35% Weyermann pilsner, 10% vienna, 10% dark wheat, 5% caramunich. I went for a slightly unusual / darker grain bill since I wanted to bring down the pH without using acid malt (which was my prime suspect for the off-flavour).
Hopped to 13 IBU using Tettnang with a 60 min addition only.
Water adjusted to target 22ppm Ca, 7ppm Na, 0ppm Sulfate, 35ppm Chloride. Our water is quite soft, I added very modest CaCl2 additions to bring up the Calcium and all additions went to the mash. Treated the water with Campden to remove any Chlorine / Chloramines.
Mash with a 20 min acid rest at 44c then 50 mins at 67c. Measured with brand new calibrated thermometer which I have since confirmed the readings against another good quality thermometer. Mash did lose a few degrees over the 50 mins (finishing at 64c).
Room temp mash pH was 5.5 after 20 mins. Bang on what Brunwater said, I have read that hefes are better at the higher end. This is using a cheap meter however so let's say +/- 0.2. Batch sparged by lifting the bag into another vessel (then again into another vessel).
90 min boil to reduce DMS. Lost some wort to boilover and OG finished a bit low at 1.043, but I don't imagine this would affect things terribly. Chilled to pitching temps in about 30 mins.
Pitched 3 month old WLP300 pack using a small non-decanted starter, pitched slightly under the recommended pitch rate and no wort aeration.
Fermented at 17c/62f in a temp-controlled swamp cooler, probe in the beer. I calibrated the STC-1000 in an ice bath and checked the temps against a good quality thermometer to make sure the temps are good.
At 12 hours there were mild spots on the top of the wort, good krausen and busy airlock at 24 hours. Fermentation finished at 1.008 on day 4 and I left it in primary until day 10 then bottled.
Am confident in all aspects of sanitation - the fermentation was done in glass, everything sanitised using Starsan, no accidents and no reason to think it's a sanitation issue.
Despite what I thought was a solid brewing process, bottling sample tasted pretty much the same as the last batch, tart and nasty, though perhaps not as bad. I was really hoping that the WLP300 would bring a nicer yeast character but doesn't seem to have changed much.
I'm kinda at a loss as to what to try next. I'm in a small town in New Zealand with no brew club but I'm thinking I need to track down some BJCP judges and send them some bottles around the country for an opinion (plus some bottles of good beer for their trouble). We don't have a brew club in town but we do have several craft nanobreweries - maybe I could hassle them for an opinion?
Otherwise, does anything here stand out as a problem? Any suggestions on what to change next time? I brew 1 gallon at a time so at least I'm not stuck with bulk lots of terrible beer. This is actually hefe batch 5 and I have tried several different variables already - different ferment temps, WB-06 / Wy3638 / WLP300 yeast, acidifying the mash vs not, water additions vs not, single infusion vs acid rest, wheat/pils grain bill vs the darker one here, yeast pitch rate, different brand of malts etc.
Thanks for reading
