ALL GRAIN - Not quite Pittsy's Hefeweizen

[RobWalker]

Many have said this, many shall continue to say it...thanks Pittsy for the advice on brewing a hefeweizen :thumb: I've just subbed and tweaked to suit my inventory/taste.

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.500
Total Hops (g): 18.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.057 (°P): 14.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.60 %
Colour (SRM): 3.8 (EBC): 7.5
Bitterness (IBU): 14.8 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 76
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.000 kg Wheat Malt (66.67%)
1.500 kg Pale Malt (33.33%)

Hop Bill
----------------
8.0 g Northern Brewer Leaf (9.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
10.0 g Northern Brewer Leaf (9.7% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)

2 stage step mash:
----------------
20 mins @ 63c
50 mins @ 69c (71c is too scary for me, sorry pittsy.)

Also left out the crystal, as I'm a big fan of Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen and it's all pale. I can't help but want to put some of my leftover Cascade in at the end, but I think i'm gonna keep it simple and resist temptation :lol:

Fermenting with Mangrove Jack's M20 Wheat Yeast, apparently it's closer to Weihenstephaner's hefe yeast than the WLP hefe! I'm gonna put that down to rumour, but it's a good documented result at least which is fine for me.

 

[RobWalker]

1.047 pre boil gravity. If I lose 1/5th of my wort to boil off I'll be reasonably on track - which is great because my efficiency is based on an overnight mash which usually nets me a tonne more points!

 

[nobyipa]

:thumb:

[/URL]

i managed 63c for 20
72c for another 60 min over heated a wee bit 1C over
wont be long before you drink it all
Weihenstephaner one of my favourite commercial beers
side by side tasting will give you the answer
Weihenstephaner is no where near as good as your own brew :drink: and about 4 times the price
: :drink:

 

[RobWalker]

I can't help but disagree, not in terms of the hefeweizen, but Vitus is one of the greatest beers in existence :thumb:

 

[Jimmy321]

Agreed Vitus is one of the best beers available for it's style.

 

[RobWalker]

Well, what a friggin disaster today was.

Mash started great, boil started great, 10 minutes in my boiler decided to just keep things hot instead of boiling them...took the wort out, cleaned the element up, returned it, nothing. So I've boiled up 10L of wort on the hob for nearly 30 mins, kept the other lot hot in the brew boiler so hopefully it sweats out some bad flavours - a hot break isn't important for a hefe, so I reakon this may be okay, barring any potential off flavours from a short and somewhat covered boil. I hope to god I get the bitterness right, I chucked some extra hops in and tasted the wort regularly, now it's just quite bitter.

If someone can advise me on how to clean this crappy element, I'd really appreciate it. There's some black buildup in the hard to reach places, how shall I remove this?

I don't know what my gravity is because I didn't stir the two worts properly. Nor do I really care at this point.

 

[barry44]

Your plastic bag of hops looks like something else entirely!!!

Those are the hops, right?

 

[pittsy]

was gonna say hope all goes well seen this problem on a few posts . glad im gas

 

[barry44]

Is that the brupaks boiler? If so, I have one and I use oxi on it after use, rinse out, cover and boil for ten minutes in tap water. Seems to be OK so far after half a dozen brews

 

[RobWalker]

Mmm,cannabeer ;p

It is the brupaks, at least prior to uk rebranding. This has seen maybe 10 brews tpo and its been fine until now, looks like ill have to give it some love before the next brew!

Fermenting well this morning but no banana smell yet. Ive wrapped it in a blanket, should I crank out the brew belt for the next 24 hours? It says the yeast can ferment up to 30c.

 

[pittsy]

Mmm,cannabeer ;p

It is the brupaks, at least prior to uk rebranding. This has seen maybe 10 brews tpo and its been fine until now, looks like ill have to give it some love before the next brew!

Fermenting well this morning but no banana smell yet. Ive wrapped it in a blanket, should I crank out the brew belt for the next 24 hours? It says the yeast can ferment up to 30c.

If it is a true german strain don't ferment higher than 24c , 22c is my max and i've tried a lot hotter . It will be crapola if you do . P.s 20c is often ideal for good banana . The esters that produce banana are enhanced at the mashing stage , even though it's the yeast that make the flavour , without the right profile it will have little effect (temp)

 

[RobWalker]

I whacked the brew belt on last night as I read it won't increase temp by more than 10c. We'll, it fermented out when I was at work! I had a quick taste as I thought I may have hurt the yeast but its dried out with lots of banana, woo! Whether the temp increase helped or not I don't jnow but thw results are good. Just the usual waiting now and it'll be good to drink :d