Partial mash hefeweizen - wow, it's dark...?!

[ashyg]

Since it's so dark, I guess I'll just call it dunkelweizen

1 lb oats
2 lb wheat
3 lb dry wheat malt extract
1 oz hallertau hops @ 60m
1 pkg White Labs hefeweizen yeast

Mashed the grains @ 155 degrees in 2 gallons of water for about 90 minutes, then removed the bag, let it drain and squeezed out all the liquid I could(OWEE, HOT) and threw it into another kettle of 2 gallons @ 170 degrees, which dropped to 155 as soon as I added the grains. I let that soak for 10 minutes, then teabagged it a few times to be my sparge. Drained the bag again and tossed the grains out.

Combined all the liquid and the dry malt extract and brought to a boil. THIS WAS A MISTAKE! It caused the dry malt extract to caramelize and change the color of the beer from a light honey-ish color to a darker tan. It will still taste good but next time I'd wait until 45 minutes into my boil to add the malt extract to minimize caramelization, or go all-grain. Anyways. Brought it to a boil, added hops, boiled 60 minutes.

Chilled to 70(I need an immersion chiller, I have everything except the copper tubing), siphoned to my primary fermenter, and topped off with 1 more gallon filtered water. Added my liquid yeast directly from the fridge(oops) and put on the airlock and away we go

I figure that I only have about 4.0 gallons or so of liquid total this time which I'm happy with because my last batch ended up watery because I tried compensating for boil-off and added too much water. Worst case scenario... stronger beer. That's never bad, right?

How long should I leave this baby in primary? I've seen things online ranging from 1 week to 6 weeks for hefeweissens.

Should I add more water to it while it's in primary to try to bring it up closer to ~5 gallons or just leave it as is? I just tossed it in the closet about 9 hours ago and the yeast isn't doing anything yet... I'm hoping it's getting excited.

Did adding the liquid yeast directly from my fridge instead of letting it come to room temperature first affect anything? I'd assume it'd come to equilibrium with the 70 degree wort after a few minutes and be fine.

 

[fratermus]

How long should I leave this baby in primary? I've seen things online ranging from 1 week to 6 weeks for hefeweissens.

Don't have any definitive answers for the other ones, but I leave most of my weizen in primary for 2wks then bottle. Maybe longer if I'm going for clove with a cool primary (60F).

 

[impatient]

Since it's so dark, I guess I'll just call it dunkelweizen

1 lb oats
2 lb wheat
3 lb dry wheat malt extract
1 oz hallertau hops @ 60m
1 pkg White Labs hefeweizen yeast

Mashed the grains @ 155 degrees in 2 gallons of water for about 90 minutes, then removed the bag, let it drain and squeezed out all the liquid I could(OWEE, HOT) and threw it into another kettle of 2 gallons @ 170 degrees, which dropped to 155 as soon as I added the grains. I let that soak for 10 minutes, then teabagged it a few times to be my sparge. Drained the bag again and tossed the grains out.

You should never squeeze your grains.

Combined all the liquid and the dry malt extract and brought to a boil. THIS WAS A MISTAKE! It caused the dry malt extract to caramelize and change the color of the beer from a light honey-ish color to a darker tan. It will still taste good but next time I'd wait until 45 minutes into my boil to add the malt extract to minimize caramelization, or go all-grain. Anyways. Brought it to a boil, added hops, boiled 60 minutes.

Chilled to 70(I need an immersion chiller, I have everything except the copper tubing), siphoned to my primary fermenter, and topped off with 1 more gallon filtered water. Added my liquid yeast directly from the fridge(oops) and put on the airlock and away we go

I figure that I only have about 4.0 gallons or so of liquid total this time which I'm happy with because my last batch ended up watery because I tried compensating for boil-off and added too much water. Worst case scenario... stronger beer. That's never bad, right?

How long should I leave this baby in primary? I've seen things online ranging from 1 week to 6 weeks for hefeweissens.

Should I add more water to it while it's in primary to try to bring it up closer to ~5 gallons or just leave it as is? I just tossed it in the closet about 9 hours ago and the yeast isn't doing anything yet... I'm hoping it's getting excited.

Did adding the liquid yeast directly from my fridge instead of letting it come to room temperature first affect anything? I'd assume it'd come to equilibrium with the 70 degree wort after a few minutes and be fine.

could have shocked the yeast is there any activity

 

[dontman]

I am curious about those grains. If they are as listed, just wheat and oats, then you had no enzymes to convert the starch to sugar and you will have a very high FG. You needed some base malt to provide the enzymes.

With the yeast you might get a slow start but as long as the wort was at 70 you would not have killed it so you should be fine.

I do flameout additions of any extract I use for the reason you listed.

 

[ashyg]

I am curious about those grains. If they are as listed, just wheat and oats, then you had no enzymes to convert the starch to sugar and you will have a very high FG. You needed some base malt to provide the enzymes.

What do you mean by "base malt"? What is normally used?

You should never squeeze your grains.

eep. I was told to get all of the liquid out of the grains possible by a friend. Why shouldn't you?

could have shocked the yeast is there any activity

not yet

 

[rocketman768]

What do you mean by "base malt"? What is normally used?

Base malt is something with enough "diastatic power" (a measure of enzyme activity) to at least convert all of its own starches (and preferably MORE) to sugars available to yeast. See this website
and look at the "D.P" lines. Also, read the wiki article. The most common base malt in american ales is 2-row barley.

And about squeezing the grain bag, it won't do you any more good than letting the bag drip for 5 minutes.

 

[ashyg]

Base malt is something with enough "diastatic power" (a measure of enzyme activity) to at least convert all of its own starches (and preferably MORE) to sugars available to yeast. See this website
and look at the "D.P" lines. Also, read the wiki article. The most common base malt in american ales is 2-row barley.

And about squeezing the grain bag, it won't do you any more good than letting the bag drip for 5 minutes.

EDIT: Holy cow, I just realized how dumb I am. I re-read my receipt and there were no oats at all - the oats were present in the extract w/ specialty grains recipe that the LHBS initially began preparing for me until I noticed that there was only 1 lb of grains present and said, "Wait, is this the partial mash?"

The LHBS grabbed my grains for me so I wasn't entirely sure what they were getting.

So my real grain bill is 2 lbs of pilsner 2-row malt and 3 lbs of flaked wheat.

Sorry about the confusion, I tripped myself up over it

Also, last night I went and shook my fermenter up really well and it seemed to instantly kick the yeast into an excited orgy. Today there is a considerable amount of krausen developing and to my surprise the color is actually lightening to be closer to the cloudy honey that you normally think of when you hear hefeweizen.