Rank_Amateur
Member
Hi All,
Fairly noob brewer with about 20 brews under the belt over the past 8 months. I have a small scale home set up so predominantly brew 23L partial mashes although have some smaller 11.3L carboys I can do small scale all grain brews in.
Anyhoo I am thinking about creating a big Pale Weizenbock type dessert beer (for want of a better term and avoiding the temptation to call it an Imperial Hefe!) in one of my smaller fermenters and allow it "some" time to age.
So basically I'm looking to brew something along the lines of 55% wheat, 40% pilsner, 3% crystal and 2% carapils. As I intend it to be a "dessert" Style beer. I want something a little sweeter (hence the crystal) than a standard hefe to balance the higher alcohol content. I will also add about 1kg of honey and possibly a very small amount of white cardomin (in line with the dessert theme)
So I'm pretty comfortable about the grist I'm going to use. My question is around the yeast. I'm going to shoot for something around the 1.100 gravity mark + Honey - so ABV will be around 10+%. I ideally want to retain the Typical Clove and Banana Characteristics of a Hefe, with hints of honey and spice to go with it in a large beer.
I understand that WPL300 will struggle once the Alchol gets up around the 8-9% mark. So in order to get the flavour profile from the yeast I am after would I be right in thinking that I double pitch the WPL300 first and then once the initial ferment is done (taking gravity readings but probably if it makes it down as far as 1.030 i expect it will stop about there). If I add a 2nd yeast that has a higher tolerance to alcohol to finish things off and dry it out will that have much of an impact on the esters and phenols produced by the WPL300? Will the new yeast scrub some of that out?
If so am i better to add something like a Trappist yeast that will add (hopefully) complementary aroma's, or do i go for something like a WPL001 that will be very clean??
I have never brewed a really big gravity beer before (biggest about 1.060) as I have been primarily interested in sessionable beers but now I have a good stock of beer its time to experiment a bit... so any advice gratefully received!
Fairly noob brewer with about 20 brews under the belt over the past 8 months. I have a small scale home set up so predominantly brew 23L partial mashes although have some smaller 11.3L carboys I can do small scale all grain brews in.
Anyhoo I am thinking about creating a big Pale Weizenbock type dessert beer (for want of a better term and avoiding the temptation to call it an Imperial Hefe!) in one of my smaller fermenters and allow it "some" time to age.
So basically I'm looking to brew something along the lines of 55% wheat, 40% pilsner, 3% crystal and 2% carapils. As I intend it to be a "dessert" Style beer. I want something a little sweeter (hence the crystal) than a standard hefe to balance the higher alcohol content. I will also add about 1kg of honey and possibly a very small amount of white cardomin (in line with the dessert theme)
So I'm pretty comfortable about the grist I'm going to use. My question is around the yeast. I'm going to shoot for something around the 1.100 gravity mark + Honey - so ABV will be around 10+%. I ideally want to retain the Typical Clove and Banana Characteristics of a Hefe, with hints of honey and spice to go with it in a large beer.
I understand that WPL300 will struggle once the Alchol gets up around the 8-9% mark. So in order to get the flavour profile from the yeast I am after would I be right in thinking that I double pitch the WPL300 first and then once the initial ferment is done (taking gravity readings but probably if it makes it down as far as 1.030 i expect it will stop about there). If I add a 2nd yeast that has a higher tolerance to alcohol to finish things off and dry it out will that have much of an impact on the esters and phenols produced by the WPL300? Will the new yeast scrub some of that out?
If so am i better to add something like a Trappist yeast that will add (hopefully) complementary aroma's, or do i go for something like a WPL001 that will be very clean??
I have never brewed a really big gravity beer before (biggest about 1.060) as I have been primarily interested in sessionable beers but now I have a good stock of beer its time to experiment a bit... so any advice gratefully received!
