Weizenbock

Next up is my first attempt at repitching a yeast cake. I saved the Wyeast 3068 from my last Hefeweizen in a growler that I stored in the fridge until I needed it (about 3 weeks). I also corrected my partial mash mistake from the last brew and went with a “double partial mash”. Basically I mashed in 2 pots instead of just one, and I have to say it worked out fairly well, except my efficiancy was a little low but I'm getting used to that.

The recipe is pretty much all mine. I did some research and looked at some different recipes to get an understanding of the basic ingredients and then made up my own combination of malts. I decided to go light on the Crystal 120 to keep the dark fruit flavors in the background, I really wanted the caramel and banana to be the main attraction. I think I did a pretty good job of accomplishing this. I don't think I would change this recipe much, maybe add a little more caramel malt and a slightly lower fermentation temp, it got away from me a little.

The aroma has a nice balance of banana fruitiness and caramel/tofee sweetness, with a bready background. A touch of dark fruit but not to much. Clove esters combine with the alcohol to add some spiciness. Deep ruby/brown color. Decent head retention. Full bodied with just enough bitterness to keep everything in check.

Recipe:
Expected OG: 1.080
Actual OG: 1.075
Expected FG: 1.020
Actual FG: 1.021
IBU: 24
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 5.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 71%
ABV: 7.1%

Extract/Sugar:
Wheat DME 3 lbs.
Briess Pilsen DME 2 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Weyermann Light Munich 4 lbs.
Weyermann Dark Wheat Malt 2 lbs
Weyermann Cara Wheat 8 oz.
Weyermann Cara Munich III 4 oz
Briess Crystal 120 4 oz.
Weyermann Chocolate Wheat 2 oz.

Hops:
60 min: Warrior, 15.8% 0.5 oz.

Yeast:
Wyeast 3068 cake saved from Hefe

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Double Partial Mash (stove top method): In brew kettle, heat 11 quarts of water to 165˚, meanwhile pre-heat two 8qt pots in oven (set to warm) add grain bags and grains to preheated pots, then slowly add water and stir. Mash temp should be about 153˚. Move pots to preheated oven for 60 minutes.

After about 30 minutes, heat 8 quarts of water to about 175˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bags and let it drain for a few minutes. Add first running to kettle. Pour 4 quarts of heated water to each pot and add grain bags, stir and let sit for 20 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars. Should end up with around 14 – 16 quarts of wort.

Add 1 gallon or so of water and wort to brew kettle (for a total of around 5.5 gal.), add DME and stir, heat to a boil and add hops.

Chill wort to about 70˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch decanted yeast starter.

Notes:
Brewed on 9/19/09 by myself

9/18/09 – made 2 cups of wort with about 1.8 oz. of DME and pitched it onto the decanted yeast cake.

9/19/2:00pm – OG came out low, again. Calculating about 55% efficiency, not good. Pitched starter at about 68˚. I bought a small fountain pump and used it to recirculate ice water through chiller. Worked great. Need to make a bigger chiller.

9/19/11:00pm – Fermentation is under way, about a ½ inch of kraeusen. 70˚

9/20 – Fermentation has been rocking all day. Lots of yeast through the blow-off. Temp got a little higher than I wanted, around 77˚

9/21 – Fermentation has started to settle down a bit, temp is holding around 72˚. Removed blow-off and replaced with foil.

9/25 – Temps have been dipping down into the upper 60s, hope they stay like this or go lower.

10/15 – Bottling day. Bottled 24 – twelve ounce bottles, 12 – 22oz. Bottles and one 750ml bottle. Used 6 oz. of corn sugar for about 3 volumes of CO2.

Hefeweizen Part II

So...I'm way behind on posts around here so I decided today I'm going to try to catch up a little (Peter willing). I didn't even take any pictures of this batch.

First up is my second batch of Hefeweizen. I told you back in July that I was going to brew it again with a better yeast and that is exactly what I did. Wyeast 3068 did exactly what I wanted and this batch turned out better than the first batch. The banana aroma is more pronounced with a more subdued clove note. Carbonation was better with just over 3 volumes of CO2. It lacks head retention which I think is due to it being all extract. There were some slight off flavors that are probably from a fermentation that got a little to hot or the extract. Next summer I'll brew this again, only as an all grain recipe and I bet it'll be even better. I'll definitely be using 3068 as my regular wheat yeast from now on.

Original Gravity: 1.053
Actual FG: 1.013
IBU: 12-15
Apparent Attenuation: 75%
ABV: 5.2%

6 pounds of Muttons Wheat DME
1 ounce of Vanguard (5.0%) for 45 minutes
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Wheat from a 1 quart starter

Brewed on 08/06/2009 by myself.

Add 5 gallons of water and 6 pounds of extract, heat to a boil, add hops and boil for 45 minutes. With about 5 min. left add the chiller to sanitize it.
Chill wort to about 80˚ or less, transfer to carboy, add water to 5 gallons, pitch yeast.

Notes:
8/5 - Made a yeast starter using about a quart of wort (3 oz DME) in a growler.

8/6 – Forgot to take final gravity. Pitched entire 1qt starter at about 77˚ at 11:30am Using a blow off this time because this yeast is supposed to produce gobs of Kraeusen. Had full Kraeusen by 8:00pm and by 9:30 the blow off tube was full. Temp is around 75˚

8/7 – Blow off tube still full this morning, bucket is filling up with yeast. Temp is holding at 75˚

8/13 – Fermentation is pretty much done, temp has been holding at ambient 72 – 73˚

8/26 – Bottling Day. Used 6.5oz. of corn sugar in close to 5 gallons for about 3.3 volumes of CO2. 24-22oz, 4-12oz, 1-24oz. Saved yeast cake for weizenbock.

Hefeweizen

My fifth brew is a nice simple Hefeweizen. This is the simplest recipe I've done to date (no steeping grains, dry yeast) but, you wouldn't have been able to tell by the mess I made, spilled water, spilled wort, broken hydrometer, nothing was going my way. In the end, I still made beer and it tasted good.

The key to good Hefeweizen is a good German wheat yeast that kicks off plenty off banana and clove aromas. I really enjoy the one that Free State makes every summer. For this brew I decided to give a dry yeast a try and see if I could make a good Hefe with it.

Tasting Notes: Pours with a huge fluffy white head, I think I overdid the carbonation a bit. Color is a hazy golden straw color. Aroma is full of cloves with just a hint banana, not the balance I was looking for. Flavor is about the same, wheaty with a nice clove flavor, not a lot of malt or sweetness. Finish is rather dry with plenty of carbonation, very refreshing. Mouth feel is a little light. Good beer overall*, but not exactly what I was aiming for. I was really surprised that the FG came out so low.

*I had picked up some Sam Adams Hefeweizen to use as a comparison beer because I usually find Sam Adams' beer to be pretty true to style, they're never great but always solid and accurate. Well not this time, what I bought was just another boring American wheat. It made my Hefe taste great in comparison. It's frustrating that breweries can't label their wheat beer correctly – If you want to use German words, use German yeast, simple enough.

For the next batch I want to try to get more banana than clove and hopefully a little creamier body via less carbonation and yeast attenuation. I'm going to try using a liquid yeast instead of the dry. The dry was good, but not the profile I want.

Recipe & Notes:

Original Gravity: 1.055
Expected Final Gravity: 1.013
Actual FG: 1.010
IBU: 12-16
Boil: 45 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 81% (!!)
ABV: 5.9%

Extract:
Muttons Wheat DME 6.0 lbs.

Hops:
Vanguard 5.0%, 45 min. 1.0 oz.

Yeast:
Safbrew WB-06, 1 pack

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Notes:
Brewed on 05/21/2009 by myself.

Add 5 gallons of water and 3 pounds of extract, turn heat up. Add hops and boil for 45 minutes. At about 5 min. add the rest of the extract and the chiller to sanitize it.

Chill wort to about 80˚ or less, transfer to carboy, add water to 5 gallons, pitch yeast.

5/21/9:00pm – Pitched yeast at about 68˚. Managed to break my hydrometer and spill water and wort on multiple occasions.

5/22/10:30am – Kraeusen starting to form, just a thin film. Temp = 66˚.

5/23/7:30pm – Kraeusen starting to settle down, primary appears to be past. Temp = 68˚.

6/5/09 – Bottled ten 650ml bottles, ten 22oz bottles and seven 500 ml bottles which is about 4.6 gallons. Used 8.7oz of corn sugar which came out to about 4.3 volumes of CO2.

Hefe' for Breakfast

This weekend is considered the symbolic end of summer, although around here summer has a ways to go still, so I thought I should finally review a “summer-time” beer.* There is no summer-time beer I enjoy more than a nice fresh Hefeweizen.

*My first pozterisk (you'll have to scroll to the botom of that link). Most beer geeks like to drink a lighter beer, like Lagers, Pale ales, Wits, and Hefeweizen, in the summer and darker beers, like Porters, Barley wines and Stouts, in the winter. Personally, I drink whatever beer I'm in the mood for at the time, with the modern technology that is indoor climate control, season isn't as important as it once was.

Hefeweizen is a traditional south German beer made with at least 50% wheat and a special strain of yeast that gives the ale a banana and clove aroma. Since freshness is paramount to a good Hefe', and we know the freshness of imported beer from Germany is questionable at best, I like to stick to locally made examples like the one from Free State.

I picked up a growler at Free State last night so I would have a nice beer to drink while I embark on my Labor Day weekend list of chores. After finishing my morning mowing I poured a nice tall glass of the cloudy, golden straw colored ale with a thick white head to sip while I prepared my breakfast.

The aroma is thick with bananas, clove, and wheat malt – a delicious start. The first sip taste like fresh banana cream pie sprinkled with nutmeg and clove. The mouth feel is creamy and smooth with just enough heft. The wheat tartness kicks in in the finish and it has just enough hop bitterness to balance it all out.

This just might be the perfect accompaniment to eggs and bacon. There are a couple of other good Hefes out there and I hope to bring you some reviews of them before the summer really ends.

The breakfast of champions!

Old Franziskaner

So, here's that post on the Dunkelweiss that I promised. I picked this bottle of Franziskaner up at a local shop where I didn't think I needed to worry about how old a bottle was, turns out I do. The date code on the bottle, located in the lower left of the front label, is “12263”. A little on-line research revealed that this translates to a bottling date of the 122nd day of 2006 (May 2) and that it was bottled on line #3. This means by beer is almost 2 years old. Wheat beers are best when they are consumed fresh.

As are pale ales, on the same trip I picked up a six pack of Hazed & Infused and it also seemed old, there was almost none of the enjoyable hop aroma. Boulder Beer Co.'s beer lack any kind of bottled on or best by date so I have no way to tell exactly how old those beers were.

As a result of the beer being old, I'm not going to post any tasting notes but I did take some pictures, so enjoy...