Small scale hefeweizen

[daveozzz]

Hi there,
Looking for a sanity check..

I've done 3 kits and now wanted to try an extract. I love hefeweizens (augustiner and schneider weisse especially) and am desperate to be able to brew one I like. I've already had a go with a Coopers wheat kit with Wyeast 3068, but I really don't like the results. It seems very thin, it's too clear for a weiss, and has an annoying aftertaste I can't place - possibly like the taste you get drinking soda water on the sides of your tongue - not disastrous, some of my friends like it, but I find it a bit of a chore to drink. (not blaming the kit - was probably something I did!).. So I wondered if extract might make it slightly easier to get good results.

I've been playing with the BeerSmith trial version without any real idea what I was doing (seems well worth the money to my inexperienced eye) and came up with the following which is based on a couple of hefeweizen recipes I found kicking about the internet. It's scaled down from 5 gallons to 10L total with a 5L boil.

Can anyone tell if this looks vaguely sensible? Will it end up being anything close to a proper hefeweizen do you reckon?

Also, could I get away with making the boil even smaller? say 3L? Not entirely sure my cooker will cope with a 5L boil!

Cheers for any help!

--------------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 l
Boil Size: 5.68 l
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
73.91g Caramunich Malt (110.3 EBC) Grain 4.9 %
46.19g Acid Malt (5.9 EBC) Grain 3.1 %
1385.78g Wheat Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 92.0 %

7.11g Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7.7 IBUs
14.22g Hallertauer Hersbrucker [3.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 3.9 IBUs

1.0 pkg Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) [35.49 ml] Yeast

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.0 %
Bitterness: 11.6 IBUs
Est Color: 15.9 EBC

 

[thejesmonddingo]

Well worth looking at this viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10257 ,I've brewed one batch which I like,and am culturing some Schneider yeast to have a go at their Edel Weisse.Big thumbs up to Aleman for this.Yours looks ok too.
Ian

 

[daveozzz]

Thanks for that - an interesting thread.. you did an extract version of it right?.. was it a full boil? do you have a dedicated burner or did you do it on a standard cooker?

I'm curious what's the largest boil size I could reasonably keep on a rolling boil for an hour on a normal cooker. I guess I should just try it and see!

 

[thejesmonddingo]

I did 13 litres,using 2 kg of wheat dme,and boiled in two pans on a stove top,total volume 8 litres,then topped up in the FV.You don't actually have to boil all the extract for an hour,the hopping is low,so maybe 500g with the hops for 60 mins,then add the rest with 15 mins to go.
Ian

 

[daveozzz]

I did 13 litres,using 2 kg of wheat dme,and boiled in two pans on a stove top,total volume 8 litres,then topped up in the FV.You don't actually have to boil all the extract for an hour,the hopping is low,so maybe 500g with the hops for 60 mins,then add the rest with 15 mins to go.
Ian

So if the BeerSmith calculation works out the hop additions for a full gravity boil, would it change the utilisation if I was doing a late addition do you know?

EDIT: I'll answer my own question - yes it does change the utilisation but the software does have an option to work that out for you which I totally failed to spot.. all good.