Hefeweizen Help

[newtobrew5]

First, this is my first post to any forum ever. I'm paranoid. Haven't subscribed to facebook, etc. Amazing part is that I'm halfway technologically savy. However, for the purposes of good brewing, I'm willing to break my streak. This forum has been extremely helpful in educating me on the basics and advanced techniques on brewing, so thanks to all.

Second, I brewed my first beer yesterday, a bavarian hefe extract. Things went well, but I gathered a few questions through the process. If it's any help on your answers, I'm using a bucket, one-stage fermenting process, and plan to bottle. Also, I have already searched for answers to my questions on this site and elsewhere, but if I missed them feel free to tell me I didn't do a good job. So here goes:

1) Should I add hops before or after ME at 60 min. If after (and assuming I took the water off heat to add ME), do I wait for boil to start again before adding and then start my timer?
2) Based on much reading and listening to basic brewing radio, I added LME at 15 min left rather than at the beginning for color purposes (though added DME at the start). Do I take the wort off heat for LME addition at 15? Do I wait for boil to start again before starting countdown for remaining 15 mins.
3) I don't have a good thermometer, and I know the temp affects the reading, and I also didn't mix my top off water well, so that could affect the reading as well, but I got a 1.058 OG reading and the recipe calls for 1.049. Any reason to worry? I checked the fermentor after about 14 hours and it was bubbling away.

Thanks in advance

 

[BWN]

If it was an extract chances are your OG is fine.

 

[PT Ray]

There's not really an absolute answer to your questions. It's all good either way.

1. You can add the hops before or after the extract. I start the clock when it comes back to a boil.

2. Take the pot off the heat. If you're using a thin gauged pot extract will easily get burned. I've never figured out why you would add extract 15 minutes before the end of the boil. Just add it at the end. If you're trying to sanitize, it only takes a minute or two at 180 degrees, not a 15 minute boil. So I'd have to say the clock keeps ticking while adding the extract.

3. If you water volume was correct then I would assume the wort wasn't mixed well. Most the time you're only talking a couple specific gravity points when correcting for temperature.

 

[newtobrew5]

One thing I found frustrating about reading these threads were questions from a worried brewer followed by other users' answers and plenty of relax have a home brew comments, but then no final post from the original poster telling us how the beer actually came out. Well, here's the happy result for me...

I fermented in my garage which had an ambient temperature of between the low 60s to the low 70s (on average around 68). I bottled after three weeks using table sugar to prime (I managed to throw out the corn sugar I bought while cleaning the bottling bucket, don't ask...) Final gravity was 1014 with a perfect attenuation of 75% (ABV 5.9%, so a little north of style). I couldn't hold out any longer and cracked one open after a week. It tasted great, strong banana nose, and the carbonation was surprisingly good considering it had only been a week and reviews on northern brewer of the kit complained about the carbonation. Best of all, now when someone tells me to relax and have a home brew, I actually can. Thanks for the help and good luck to any future newbie reading this.

 

[Beezy]

Everyone told me to wait 3 weeks after bottling but I like you had to have a try after a week. All my brews have been sufficiently carbed after one week and haven't seemed to improve after that. Thats ok because they were good to begin with. I used the corn sugar tho. Probably just going to keep doing that since it works well.