PM Dunkelweizen for Critiquing

[Malticulous]

I had problems with my dunkelweizen too. At nearly the last moment I decided to toss in a pound of German Vienna and then I busted over 90% again. I think it was at 1.063. If I had some wheat DME I would have added it for a weizenbock, but because the wheat was already near 50% and all I have is light DME I decided too I diluted it to six gallons to not be out of BJCP guidelines. I thought "more beer=better". Now all I have is a half gallon of head space. It looks like the Kraeusen just fit.

 

[Gremlyn]

Just a little update on the test batch, The WB-06 started out quite strong, though not much of a krausen, about 1". It went full steam ahead for about 36 hours and then the krausen dropped. Airlock activity started to die down. This whole time the temp was about 72F. After the vigorous activity was over, the temp dropped to about 68 and the air lock continues to bubble today (8 days after pitching). Granted it isn't frequent, but it's still about once every minute or two.

 

[Gremlyn]

Bottled the test batch up today, and had a little taste. Definitely tasted like a porter-weizen, not bad though. Still a little green, but a few weeks in the bottle and it should be a decent beer.

 

[syd138]

So just to update what I said earlier about using WB-06, it did taste like crap initially.. but after sitting in the bottle for a month its actually not too bad.

Right now Im doing the exact same recipe but using WLP300.. so I'll see exactly how different they are.

 

[Gremlyn]

I couldn't pick out much of the yeast taste or really any off flavour, it just tasted young. I think only time will tell. At least you give me hope that if it does taste bad at first, it'll correct

 

[Gremlyn]

OK, so it has carbed up! I had the first bottle a couple of days ago and it's actually not bad. I get a slight banana taste, though it could definitely be stronger. I don't get any cloves at all. I bet if I did this recipe with one of the liquid yeasts it would be great.

 

[Gremlyn]

Had quite a few people try the dunkelweizen tonight and all loved it Definitely going to make this again!

 

[syd138]

you gonna use WLP300 this time, or the same yeast?

 

[Gremlyn]

I won't use the WB-06 again, I haven't decided which I will go for yet between the 300 and the 3068. I probably won't be making this again for a few batches anyway, so I have time to figure it out. Definitely would repeat the grain bill with the screw up of doubled up Carafa II though. It had a good dark maltiness and that recipe is right at the end of the SRM spectrum for the style.

 

[ghpeel]

Not crazy about the wb-06 again, but maybe i'll try it in cider. Got all clove and not banana in my weizenbock with it, which was fermented in teh high 60's. Maybe a mid-70's fermentation is needed to really clean it up and push the banana.

With that yeast, my beer tastes just sort of ... weird... If i've had some IPA or other strong flavor before it, then it's fine, but I don't really enjoy it as the first beer of the evening. Definitely moving to liquid for my hefes from now on.