Hefeweizen II
My first attempt at a hefeweizen was at the beginning of last summer (2004). It turned out great and I ran out very quickly, mostly consumed by my wife much to my personal benefit. The only problem I had with it was a bit too much sulfur byproduct and not quite enough banana ester from my yeasties. Nice apricot smell, though.
I was planning on going straight for either an Oktoberfest style or a German alt for the fall season but a friend of mine pretty blatantly requested a wheat beer. Her personal favorite is Hoegaarden but I'm not quite ready for a Belgian white. I'll try that one in the early spring.
So, I went back with the recipe I started last year and decided to use a slightly different strain of yeast. Go figure that almost the exact "problems" I had with the last batch were exactly what the strain I used was supposed to do and it was still a tasty beer. I just figured there's always a bit of fun trying to tweak an old recipe. Besides, the old recipe is still in the book if it turns out to be the true winner.
So, without further ado, here's the recipe. I tried to stick to German purity laws, but I don't know if using malt extract counts against that. (I'm still working out the kinks on my lauter tun)
I'm assuming that you know general brewing terms. I've included links for some of the terms I've found decent info on.
Hefeweizen II: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Yeast
Date: 4 Sep 2005
Ingredients
0.5 lb. Simpson's medium crystal
0.5 lb. Weyermann Pale Wheat
4 lb. Munton's wheat DME
1 lb. Munton's extra light DME
1.5 tsp. gypsum
2 oz. Hallertauer hops (leaf)
Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP300)
Instructions
-Heat 1.5 gal water to 150 F
-Add grains and steep for 30 min
-Strain grain water
-Sparge grains with 0.5 gal water
-Bring to a boil and remove from heat
-Add malt extracts and stir well
-Add 1 gal water and bring to a boil
-Add hops and gypsum
-Boil 45 minutes
-Add finishing hops and Irish moss
-Boil 15 minutes
-Strain into primary fermenter
-Sparge hops bag with cold water
-Add water to 5 gal total volume
-Cool to 75 F and pitch yeast
Original gravity: 1.047
Estimated IBU: 28.9
I got ambitious with the hops. It came in a 2 oz. pack and I figured why waste it? The style is traditionally about 8-14 IBU but I've felt like I lost a little too much during fermentation in the past.
Today, fermentation was happily chugging along. It'll probably get moved into the secondary in a day or two when initial fermentation pretty much nears its end.
Upcoming aspirations include kegging homebrew (thanks to the household addition of a nifty kegerator) and my very first all-grain batch.
I was planning on going straight for either an Oktoberfest style or a German alt for the fall season but a friend of mine pretty blatantly requested a wheat beer. Her personal favorite is Hoegaarden but I'm not quite ready for a Belgian white. I'll try that one in the early spring.
So, I went back with the recipe I started last year and decided to use a slightly different strain of yeast. Go figure that almost the exact "problems" I had with the last batch were exactly what the strain I used was supposed to do and it was still a tasty beer. I just figured there's always a bit of fun trying to tweak an old recipe. Besides, the old recipe is still in the book if it turns out to be the true winner.
So, without further ado, here's the recipe. I tried to stick to German purity laws, but I don't know if using malt extract counts against that. (I'm still working out the kinks on my lauter tun)
I'm assuming that you know general brewing terms. I've included links for some of the terms I've found decent info on.
Hefeweizen II: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Yeast
Date: 4 Sep 2005
Ingredients
0.5 lb. Simpson's medium crystal
0.5 lb. Weyermann Pale Wheat
4 lb. Munton's wheat DME
1 lb. Munton's extra light DME
1.5 tsp. gypsum
2 oz. Hallertauer hops (leaf)
- 1.5 oz. boiling
- 0.5 oz. finishing
Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP300)
Instructions
-Heat 1.5 gal water to 150 F
-Add grains and steep for 30 min
-Strain grain water
-Sparge grains with 0.5 gal water
-Bring to a boil and remove from heat
-Add malt extracts and stir well
-Add 1 gal water and bring to a boil
-Add hops and gypsum
-Boil 45 minutes
-Add finishing hops and Irish moss
-Boil 15 minutes
-Strain into primary fermenter
-Sparge hops bag with cold water
-Add water to 5 gal total volume
-Cool to 75 F and pitch yeast
Original gravity: 1.047
Estimated IBU: 28.9
I got ambitious with the hops. It came in a 2 oz. pack and I figured why waste it? The style is traditionally about 8-14 IBU but I've felt like I lost a little too much during fermentation in the past.
Today, fermentation was happily chugging along. It'll probably get moved into the secondary in a day or two when initial fermentation pretty much nears its end.
Upcoming aspirations include kegging homebrew (thanks to the household addition of a nifty kegerator) and my very first all-grain batch.
posted by chris @ 7:54 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:08 PM,
Brian said…
Cool!
I think I had your hefe last year when it was still pretty green. I thought it was quite good then...certainly better than any of my ham-handed attempts at the style.
When you get all-grain up and running, we have to plan a batch for when I'm in town. I'll spring for the ingredients in exchange for getting to be there.
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