2nd Hefe looking for a few tweaks... Questions

[KettleCorn]

1st Hefe Brew ... Not bad!! Good even. But always room for improvement.

Here is what I am looking to adjust:
- It was kinda dark maybe an 18 on the SMR scale. I am looking to tweak to a lighter color maybe closer to a 7 or 8... Like a Widmer?

- Also we have carbonation but not much. Do we just add a bit more sucrose prior to bottling?

- I'd also like a slight bit more banana flavor to the next batch.

So here is what we did to get the first batch:

Clean sanitize ect
8 Qrt Pot
6 Qts water to a Boil
Add Malt Extract (barvarian wheat) 6 lbs
Return to boil
Add 1.5oz Cascade hops in mesh bag
boil 55 minutes
add .5oz cascade hops to mesh bag
continue boil 5 more minutes
Cooled in Ice Bath to ~72 degrees F
Pitched Yeast (WLP300)

Made about 4 gallons - we did not fill completely fill carboy with water. (noobs). Did not have hydrometer - No SG Reading. Final SG was 1.014
(waited three weeks). Added ~1/2 cup sucrose in boiling water, cooled, and added to secondary. Bottled on 3/29/2012


Not much to alter here - pretty simple.
Maybe I try a different LME? Any suggestions?
I can make a partial mash and use 8oz flaked wheat and 8oz of flaked oaks, I saw that somewhere - what will this affect?

Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[Captain Damage]

Did not have hydromete

Get a hydrometer.

Made about 4 gallons - we did not fill completely fill carboy with water. (noobs).

Calibrate your carboy. Fill it with 1/2 gallon of water at a time until full and mark the side with a Sharpie so you can tell exactly how much beer you've got. While we usually say that when brewing with extract you're pretty much guaranteed to hit your calculated OG, this only applies when your other measurements are accurate.

Add Malt Extract (barvarian wheat) 6 lbs Return to boil

Add no more than 1/2 of your extract at the beginning of the boil. Add the rest at about 10 minutes. It will force you to pause the boil for a few minutes but just resume the clock when it starts boiling again. It helps keep your beer from getting darker that you expect, and you get a little better extraction from the hops.

Cooled in Ice Bath to ~72 degrees F Pitched Yeast (WLP300)

Try to cool to a lower temperature. Mid-to-low 60sF if you can. You can pitch your yeast at that temperature.

Maybe I try a different LME? Any suggestions? I can make a partial mash and use 8oz flaked wheat and 8oz of flaked oaks, I saw that somewhere - what will this affect?

You can try different brands of extract and see how the flavors differ, but when you're experimenting like that you should only change one parameter at a time so you can say definitively how it changes the beer. So get your hydrometer and calibrate your carboy and make this recipe again, then later try it with a different brand of extract and compare the two.

For the partial mash you need to combine your unmalted (flaked) adjuncts with some 2-row or 6-row barley malt and hold them at a specific temperature, usually about 152F for 30-60 minutes. If you don't have the barley malt in the partial mash, you'll just be extracting starch from the adjuncts.

 

[tojo]

Knowing how exciting this "hobby" is its understood you wanted to jump in with both feet but as stated above it's important to have all the right equipment. If you don't have hopefully you can find someone nearby who also brews and borrow. A friend got me into brewing and I asked him to come over for my maiden brewday to supervise and give advice. He also brought some equipment I did not have at the time. So...get a friend!

As you are seeking to do and is stated above......experiment but also take copious notes on what you do each time (each change to practice or recipe) and you will figure out what works and what doesn't.

FYI......I used electrical tape on my carboys to mark where five gallons is.

 

[KettleCorn]

Thanks for all this input. this is great!!

Calibrate your carboy. Fill it with 1/2 gallon of water at a time until full and mark the side with a Sharpie so you can tell exactly how much beer you've got. While we usually say that when brewing with extract you're pretty much guaranteed to hit your calculated OG, this only applies when your other measurements are accurate.

Ok. Done... We found that it will hold a little more that 5 gallons. We have it graduated now in 1 gallon increments to 4 then in half gallon increments to full.

Add no more than 1/2 of your extract at the beginning of the boil. Add the rest at about 10 minutes. It will force you to pause the boil for a few minutes but just resume the clock when it starts boiling again. It helps keep your beer from getting darker that you expect, and you get a little better extraction from the hops.

Ok... I am a noob so I'll double check this statement...

>Add the rest at about 10 minutes.

Please bear with me as I try to repeat this back so I understand. 1/2 the extract at the begining then the other half in the final 10 minutes. Said another way boil 1/2 the extract boils for the full 60 min and the other half for only 10 minutes at the end?

Try to cool to a lower temperature. Mid-to-low 60sF if you can. You can pitch your yeast at that temperature.

Ok...

make this recipe again, then later try it with a different brand of extract and compare the two.

Ok.. that makes sense...

Any advice on how to increase the carbonation on this next batch?

For the partial mash you need to combine your unmalted (flaked) adjuncts with some 2-row or 6-row barley malt and hold them at a specific temperature, usually about 152F for 30-60 minutes. If you don't have the barley malt in the partial mash, you'll just be extracting starch from the adjuncts.

I'll try this later... I like the scientific approach described above first. THANKS!!

 

[KettleCorn]

We now have a hydrometer too.
Our second batch (an English Nut Brown Ale) we graduated the carboy and invested in the hydrometer. It inital SG was 1.066 and we'll start taking final reading soon

The ENBA is still in the carboy.. next weekend we bottle that batch and brew our second Hef attempt.

 

[KettleCorn]

I guess after re-reading my main question is;

Quote:
Add no more than 1/2 of your extract at the beginning of the boil. Add the rest at about 10 minutes. It will force you to pause the boil for a few minutes but just resume the clock when it starts boiling again. It helps keep your beer from getting darker that you expect, and you get a little better extraction from the hops.

Ok... I am a noob so I'll double check this statement...

>Add the rest at about 10 minutes.

Please bear with me as I try to repeat this back so I understand. 1/2 the extract at the begining then the other half in the final 10 minutes. Said another way boil 1/2 the extract boils for the full 60 min and the other half for only 10 minutes at the end? Correct?

Thanks sooo much for all the help.

 

[YeastHerder]

The tip to boil half the extract in the last 10 minutes is very interesting and has me thinking about the whole 'extract' thing! When we boil it, we're actually re-boiling it.

If the boil is mostly about sterilizing the water and extracting the hops (the extract was already boiled and most likely sterile, at least until we opened it), is there a reason why we shouldn't wait and add all the extract toward the end of the boil?

If we did this, it would mean that we would be boiling the hops all by themselves - is that somehow bad? Maybe we need to boil the hops in the presence of at least some extract to serve as a carrier for the hoppie goodness? I'm just thinking the less of it we boil for the full time, the less carmelization (dark color) we get.

Oh, Kettle is my brother, we're brewing these together.

 

[Kaz]

The extract has already been boiled once so you don't really have to boil all of it. I do believe that wort gravity plays a role in hop utilization, so its not a bad idea to boil some of it for 60 minutes with the hops. Maybe half for 60 minutes and the rest for the last 15 minutes. Another thing you can try is getting Wheat DME (if that isn't what you're using already). The DME can be a little lighter than the liquid.

One question...what kind of hefe are you shooting for Bavarian or American? If you're looking for a German Weizen, keep the the WLP300 yeast and look for some German noble hops like Hallertau or Tettnanger. They'll be a little softer than the cascade. If its American Wheat you're aiming for, then stick with the Cascade, but I would switch to a cleaner yeast like WLP001 or the 320 American Wheat strain. The American wheat yeasts will not add as much clove/banana as the German strains and let the hops and wheat come through a little more.

 

[YeastHerder]

One question...what kind of hefe are you shooting for Bavarian or American?

Good question, I like widmer bros just as much as franziskaner, so not sure. We want more citrus/banana going on, so thought we'd get that from the more german-style though.

 

[KettleCorn]

Hallertau or Tettnanger

I have seen these recommended for german hefe's. Softer would mean less bitter then that is a good idea... it will proabbly allow the banana to come thru a little better.

I prefer the German Wheat over the American. So we'll keep the WLP300

What is the trick to more carbonation without making bottle bombs

We added 8oz of sucrose in "a little bit" of boiling water to prime for bottling. I did a calc run and it was 4.0 volumes. the recommended was 3.5 to 4.5 for wheat beers, so mayeb we can add just a bit more sucrose on the next batch. I'll run the Calc for 4.3 or 4.4

Any other suggestions?

 

[YeastHerder]

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