Weisse Beer - 19.5.07 + Pics

[Frothy]

So sunny weather and wheat beer go well together right? Fingers crossed for a glorious weekend.

With little needed persuasion I'm going to give a Weisse beer (white/ wheat beer) a go tomorrow. I've got a sack of pale malt, 1.5kg of Wheat malt & a sachet or Safbrew T-58 wheat yeast. I have just bought a copy of "CAMRA - Brew classis euro' beers at home" which will no doubt be useful. Any tips on recipies, pitching rates (i.e. should I make a starter,) fermentation times & temperatures. Serving carbonation etc. would be great as I haven't a clue.

cheers & happy brewing for this weekend
Frothy

[delboy]

Glad to hear you jumped on the wheat beer wagon. I won't offer to much advice since i've the sum total of one batch under my belt, it'd be the blind leading the blind.
one thing though the T-58 i think will produce something a bit more wit like, not that its anything to be concerned about.
With it being a dried yeast i would have thought you have plenty of cells in it to get the job done (wheat ferments are strong ferments anyway). The only reason i could see for doing a starter is to split it for future batches (ie the jim method).

[oblivious]

Safbrew T-58 is supposed to make a good wheat/Wit beer, if your gravity is under 1.060 one pack, hydrate in a cup of Luke warm water for 15 min’s will be fine. If you want more of a Wit you can add orange peel and coriander (crushed) to the last 10-5 minutes of the boils around 26 grams, but you may want to Google that just to be sure

I am no longer going to secondary my wheat’s beers any more 10-14 days in the primary and bottle or keg, there best consumed fresh.


Happy brewing

[mysterio]

Yep T-58 produces a nice wit beer, you might want to throw in some spices at the end of the boil to make it 'to style'. An ounce of crushed coriander gives a great zesty aroma, I've used dried curacao and sweet orange peel before but I didn't get much flavour from those. You don't need a starter with that yeast but i'd probably rehydrate it.

[BarryNL]

Based on my recent batch of "Disasterous Dunkelweizen" (named because everything seemed to go wrong making it) I'd say wheat beers love to be fermented at the high end of the yeasts suggested temperature range (and possibly even beyond). The disaster of a hot spell when I couldn't get the fermentation below 26 degrees seems to have produced wonderful banana flavours and a great beer.

[Frothy]

Thanks for the tips I'll re-hydrate the yeast & also try the ferment schedule Oblivious suggests. I think for the first time I will try a 90minute mash & 90minute boil. According to the CAMRA book true Weisse is fermented with the addition of Lactobacillus delbruckii so I think I got my wires crossed somewhere. What a great little book, I can't believe how many styles are covered & I'm really looking forward to trying some out.

This is a Palmer recipe for an American Style Wheat Beer
19L @ 1.050 27IBU
2.7kg Pale Malt
1.4kg Wheat Malt

Hallertau 27IBU
Split equally between 60minute & 30minute additions

I've changed the hops to Hallertau mittelfrau as if they are anything like Hallertau herschbruck I love the orangey flavour. I have no dried orange peel but I may whack in that ounce of crushed coriander.

Frothy

[mysterio]

According to the CAMRA book true Weisse is fermented with the addition of Lactobacillus delbruckii so I think I got my wires crossed somewhere.

That's only for a Berliner weiss which is intensely sour and fairly low alcohol. Lactobacillus goes nowhere near a Bavarian weiss.

[Frothy]

Brew got underway just over 2 hours ago with some slight alterations to the recipe. Now it's a 60minute boil with 25g of Hallertau herschbruck at 60 and 15minutes (I completely made this schedule up.)

Brewery


The burco 3 tier now replaces the need for my totton pump, for brews bigger than 23L I'll use my boiler as the HLT as I have done before & use the pump.

[Vossy1]

Have a great brew day Frothers

[Frothy]

Final 19L recipe (I don't think this follows any particular style):
1.5kg Wheat Malt
3.15kg Marris Otter
90 minute mash at 67oc

30minutes hot break etc.
25g Hallertau herschbruck 60minutes
25g Hallertau herschbruck 15minutes
23g Coriander seeds (crushed) 15minutes
5g Irish Moss 15minutes

IBU <20

I over sparged a bit with the liquor at 85oc & collected 22.5L, the final runnings were down to 1.002 @ 66oc.

The fiercest of Hot Break set upon doubling the boil volume... there's a picture somwhere.

[Vossy1]

The fiercest of Hot Break set upon doubling the boil volume... there's a picture somwhere

Looking forward to it

[Frothy]

The early results are in:

Just over 65% efficiency with 19.75L @ 1.050
Nice light colour. My Hallertau herschbruck were only 2.1% AA so although the wort tastes good now the calc's predict only 10.5 IBU's. Most recipies seem to be more like 13-20 IBU but I'm happy that there should be some strong hop flavours through using a reasonable quantity of a low AA hop.

Coriander

Air Pump with adapters and 2micron stainless air stone

10 minutes of aeration

Quite light but I'd probably use a lager malt next time.

Chilling time - I've got around some of the cleanliness problems associated with plate chillers by using a pre-filter. This is fitted with a piece of stainless steel gauze (from a seive) within some 22mm copper pipe, the filter catches small hop particles that make if through the hop strainer. Before and after each brew I back-wash the system with 2L of boiling water to flush out the crap and cleanse the pipes. I don't feel the need for any further sanitation, at least not reguarly. You'l notice I'm very fond of the 15mm : 1/2" JG hose adapters, they make the system very flexible.



Will try and leave it for 10days in the primary & straight into the corny with some absurd pressure ~ 30psi to really get some bubbles into it. Then drinky drinky fingers crossed for some more nice weather.

cheers
Frothy

[Vossy1]

Gr8 pics

Nice to see the cooler board at work

[Frothy]

Here's the killer hot break, with 23L in a 50L kettle is suddely filled up->

[mysterio]

Nice one Frothy... I think you'll be pleased with the coriander.

Wheat beers get away with very low hopping, because they're meant to be carbonated much higher (higher than your average lager anyway), the fizzyness balances out the sweetness.