HefeWeizen 18/09/08

[pantsmachine]

Recipe: joes whit beer
Brewer: Joe Inglis
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 24.00 L
Boil Size: 27.47 L
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 4.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 40.40 %
1.75 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 35.35 %
1.20 kg Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 24.24 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 18.9 IBU
0.30 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) YeastWheat

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.95 kg

New filter in my mash tun, fired up the turkey fryer(needs a bigger gas flow to REALLY boil well). Anyway, a test beer and my first use of liquid yeast. Turned out well and happy but i need to build myself a brewhouse!

Ghetto 3 tier, brew liq is in the pan at the back on the turkey fryer.


Mashed well


Grain strainer, made that day.


Wort pre boil


Hops


SG of 1.046


Fermenting at 19 degrees and smells out of this world!


I was drinking Paulaner Hefeweisen in Spain last week and it was ace so hoping if i can get close to it i will be a happy chappy!

[Jim]

Great pics, pm. Hope it turns out well.

[pantsmachine]

Thanks Jim, As i say this is a test run for the further development of my AG kit. Grain strainer wroked really well. I also made a hop filter for the boiler which has not yet been used for real. The turkey fryer i ordered from the states is a cracker. I hooked it up to a high flow regulator and a bottle of propane yesterday and did a 14 litre test boil with water only. It let me flush the debris out of the hop strainer, test my new tap/washer on the pan to 100 deg and just to hear the burner roar! It went from scottish freezing pipe water to boiling in 18 minutes. Pretty happy. Photos below.








Heck i even got the go ahead from SWMBO to shelve out a shed and turn into a brewery! Getting there and enjoying every step of the way.

[mysterio]

Nice work, should get close to Paulaner with that yeast and the Vienna malt I reckon.

[pantsmachine]

Thanks Mysterio. Had a Doh! moment during the brewing, transfered from kettle to FV and giving myself a verbal pat on the back for a job well done. Look down and theres the protofloc and irish moss sitting most certainly not added for final 15 minutes. Think i'll have a crack at yeast washing at the end of this batch as the German wheat weisens are right up there among my faves. Hows your weisen coming along then, didn't you do one recently?

Edit, as i said before i am a huge fan of german weiss beers. I like the belgian style as well but for my buds its german 1st. Went into the local off license to see if the had any paulaner hefeweiss. None there so instead i bought a 1/2 dozen bottles of erdinger weisbeer.

Nice enough but much lighter in colour than Paulaner. It is not as sweet and has no real banana scent or a real yeast presence in the mouth. Now theres no real point to these witterings. Just pointing out that even though we know there are big differences between Belgian and German style of weissbeer. There are also big differences within German Weissbeers. Same goes for my other fave which is Schlappeseppel Weiss. A different taste again from the 2 above. OK finally a question. I am currently fermenting the hefeweiss at 19 degrees. If i want to encourage the yeast to throw off esters(bananas etc) should i be fermenting at a higher temp? Please feel free to kick me as i am still finding my way in all this! Its been fermenting for 2 days now but if i can adjust the final few days of primary to give me a sweeter stonger ester beer i will do so as thats what i like in this style.
Even if you don't have the answer thanks for reading through to the end.

[mysterio]

I dont bother with kettle finings... it's supposed to be a cloudy beer so what's the point. It can end up pretty clear with whirlfloc which isn't what you're after unless you're brewing Kristalweizen.

Yeah I brewed one last week. I haven't tasted it yet but I might have a sneaky sample tonight. Mine seem to undergo a vigorous secondary ferment in the keg which carbonates them well with hardly any extra CO2 needed, dont know if yours do the same..?

Yeah i'm with you, I really don't care for Erdinger. None of the classic flavours. I tried the dunkel recently which is even worse, no malty/chocolatey flavour like you get from the nicer dunkelweizens and also a weird apple ester. Not very good. I always go for Weihenstephan, can't beat it IMO.

As for the fermentation temps, I know this sounds like a cop-out answer, but experimentation is key. I've tried 17, 18 & 19, and they've all been good, but i'm still not getting enough banana for my liking. So this one i've tried 20, and i'll try 21 next time if need be. It's hard to suggest a golden temperature that will get all the flavours you're after because it depends on several factors, not least the pitching rate, original gravity, mash & amount of aeration. I would say keep it at 19, taste it, and alter next time if it's not quite what you want. The one I tried at 19C turned out pretty spectacular though.

Great looking turkey fryer by the way, are you using propane or butane on that and what kind of regulator have you got?

[pantsmachine]

I agree on the cloudy, that's what it should be. Last weiss beer i made was sec ferming like champagne, not kidding 1 flip top bottle i opened cleared 1/2 the contents out of itself before i could get a glass under it. Tated ace.

I saw Weihenstephan in the shop but it was not until i tried the Erdinger and realised it was average that i started reading up about other weiss available in uk shops. I'll get a few in for this weekend coming. Family coming up from Glasgow.

The regulator on the fryer is the standard one for the fryer. I tried the fryer on a standard BBQ regulator & QC regulator on my bbq butane bottle. They are very limited on the gas flow, took an age to get a boil on.

I then went and spent 50 quid on a 13kg propane bottle(30 quid bottle deposit) with the correct screwthread to accept the fryer supplied widebore regulator. No joke its like a jet engine when its wound right open! Might try and get a bit of video for my IRS next week and post a link. Initial mash temp was 72 onto grain, tun holds temps well and the 19 deg ferment temp has been steady so at least i now have a baseline to play from for the next weiss.

[pantsmachine]

Bottled and kegged at 1.012, had a quick taste from the beaker and very nice. Will do more of these weiss beers. I have 2 gallon FC'ing in the fridge at the moment and 20 people coming round on Saturday so only 1 each(eek). Still i've got my reserves of 'others'.

[pantsmachine]

I now have about 5 pints left in my 2 gallon FV and it tastes great. In fact, it should be harder to achieve a nice taste like this! The orange peel flavour is blending into the bananas from the hops really well and i will do this one again with a maybe a tweak or 2......

[pantsmachine]

I now have about 5 pints left in my 2 gallon FV and it tastes great. In fact, it should be harder to achieve a nice taste like this! The orange peel flavour is blending into the bananas from the yeast really well and i will do this one again with a maybe a tweak or 2......