House Hefeweizen 1.5 tasting

Wheat beers are a big reason that I got into craft beer in the first place. When I was in college, I remember a friend of mine giving me a bottle of Hoegaarden and saying "this is my favorite beer." The translation being, "when I have a little extra money, I'll buy some of this stuff instead of a 30 rack of Natural Light." I can remember tasting it and being a little perplexed by the tart, yeasty flavor, but liking it. I remember coming home and looking around at local gas stations for the intriguing brew (then with a little bit of my parents' cash in my pocket) and, not being able to find it, settling for a six pack of Miller High Life. I tragically had no idea what a bottle shop or craft beer was at the time.

A few years later I realized that my Saxon Club, a group that I've been a fraternal member for all my life, had the Bavarian variation of wheat beer on tap in the form of Paulaner Hefeweizen. I love Paulaner Hefeweizen. I quickly switched from Warsteiner to Paulaner and eventually found that it was my favorite of the European wheat beers. After discovering home brewing a few years ago, it wasn't long after that I started brewing an attempt at the perfect hefeweizen myself. Rarely will I go a month without brewing a variation of my House Hefeweizen, a recipe I've settled on after brewing a handful of variations.

It's caught on too. I've got a large following amongst my friends and family for hef. It's a great gateway beer - BMC drinkers can tolerate it at first (what else will they drink on tap amongst IIPA, stout, and ESBs), but then come to crave it - and I find total non-beer drinkers are always intrigued by it. My Mom, who never drinks beer, will always pour herself a glass of hefeweizen after mowing the lawn if it's available.

What do I want in my hef? Simple. Apparent malt character - something where I'm able to pick out the bready flavor of a decent Pilsner malt and the sweetness of wheat malt - hefeweizen yeast - banana esters and a touch of clove and bubblegum flavor - a refreshing acidity that makes it great for summer drinking or quenching my thirst, and just a touch of bitterness to balance it. I like a more aggressive banana flavor than the style guidelines call for and have brewed my hefs to accomplish that. 

Last round I throttled back my fermentation temperature to get more within style guidelines with an eye towards the National Homebrewers Conference. I also cut out my decoction mash because of brew day constraints. I still used Safbrew WB-06, which I have come to love at 78-80 degrees fermentation temp, and kept everything the same. Here are the results:

Admire the head. It didn't last long.

Appearance: golden, hazy, yeasty. Just slightly off white color head with very big bubbles. Head recedes in less than a minute.

Smell: juicy fruit with a touch of bread.

Taste: bubblegum, banana, a hint of clove. It's got a nice acidity that I don't think I tasted in earlier batches. 

Mouthfeel: full and creamy. It quickly dissipates making me want to take another sip.

Overall: Solid iteration of hef. The more balanced approach allows the malt flavor to come out more than my more aggressive fermentations did. No discernible mouthfeel difference from my decoction hefs. The head retention is disappointing. I need to tweak the recipe because clearly the decoction does help with head retention. 

Next time? More carapils or maybe a bit of Munich to help with head retention. But I'm enjoying the balance and the fact that I can taste malt. I'm happy with the flavor and can confidently skip the decoction mash, unless I have the time on the brew day. Set the fermenter for 73-74-75. The new name of the game is assertive, but balanced banana yeast ester.

A minute and a sip later.

New Year, New Beer

I'd taken about a month off from brewing over the holidays. That's not to say I wasn't busy with brewing related projects...A busy holiday brewing schedule meant I was racking beer, bottling, kegging, filtering, and sampling beer to get it packaged for holiday parties and, of course, giving out my Kexxxmas Ale as gifts. Unfortunately, I didn't get to bottle and label as much of my Christmas beer as I wanted to. There will be many friends and family who receive their Kexxxmas Ale gifts in the new year.

After the hiatus, I wanted to get back to brewing in a big way, so I put together a triple brew day and invited out a few friends. On deck was a Heady Topper clone (which ended up as an Imperial Heady Topper...yikes), House Hefeweizen 1.5, and a Munich Helles.

After 18 hours of brewing, sampling, and geeking out over home brew, I've got 30 gallons fermenting.

Brew madness

Details below:

Heady Topper Clone

I have a really solid Conan culture that I've used on a handful of beers. I made a 6L starter for this monster and more or less followed theveganbrewer's fourth and final recipe from HBT. I adjusted the recipe to fit my 15 gallon kettles and sized my batch for 12 gallons, but with increased efficiency and careful inattention to detail, I seemed to have overshot my original gravity by about 13 points. I ended up with an "Imperial Heady Topper" at 1.090. Other than that, the brew went perfectly. I finally have confidence in my whirlpool and Blichmann hop blocker combination to minimize kettle hop loss and separate the beer from the massive amount of hop pellet debris.

PB OG: 1.065 @ 13.5 gallons
OG: 1.090 @ 12 gallons

Hit with a solid 3 minutes of oxygen and pitched the decanted Conan starter.

I knew something was off with my recipe when I realized how full my mash tun was

22ml of CO2 hop extract warming up on the boil kettle

The best I've done at minimizing kettle loss and keeping that pellet junk out of my fermenter

Recipe: Heady Blunder

Brewer: Adam Keck

Style: Imperial IPA

TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Estimated OG: 1.088 SG

Estimated Color: 6.5 SRM

Estimated IBU: 167.9 IBUs

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

15.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   1        -             

24 lbs                Golden Promise (Simpsons) (2.0 SRM)      Grain         2        68.6 %        

6 lbs                 Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)           Grain         3        17.1 %        

2 lbs                 Caramalt (Muntons) (12.0 SRM)            Grain         4        5.7 %         

2 lbs                 White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)               Grain         5        5.7 %         

1 lbs                 Turbinado (10.0 SRM)                     Sugar         6        2.9 %         

6.25 oz               Hop Extract [10.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min    Hop           7        113.2 IBUs    

22.00 ml              CO2 Hop Extract (Boil 90.0 mins)         Other         8        -             

2.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop           9        8.5 IBUs      

6.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      

3.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Steep/Wh Hop           11       20.5 IBUs     

2.00 oz               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop           12       8.3 IBUs      

2.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 0.0 Hop           13       0.0 IBUs      

2.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  30.0 Hop           14       12.7 IBUs     

1.00 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool   Hop           15       4.9 IBUs      

1.0 pkg               Conan (Mad Fermentationist #) [35.49 ml] Yeast         16       -             

2.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days      Hop           17       0.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Day Hop           18       0.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days  Hop           19       0.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop  Hop           20       0.0 IBUs      

0.50 oz               Apollo [17.00 %] - Dry Hop 8.0 Days      Hop           21       0.0 IBUs      

2.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days      Hop           22       0.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Day Hop           23       0.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days  Hop           24       0.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop  Hop           25       0.0 IBUs      

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out

Total Grain Weight: 35 lbs

----------------------------

Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     

Mash In           Add 42.50 qt of water at 163.5 F        150.0 F       75 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 8.95 gal water at 168.0 F

Notes:

------

20ml of hop extract

House Hefeweizen 1.5

I kept the recipe the same for this iteration of House Hef, but opted for 1lb of Melanoidin malt in lieu of a decoction. When you're brewing 30 gallons of beer in a day, or brewing commercially for that matter, an extra 1.5 hours and the logistics of decoction make it a nightmare. I'm also fermenting it in my 67 degree basement without a fermentation wrap. This should get it up to 72-73 degrees at peak fermentation, which should result in a little less banana character than I've pushed this beer previously. Although I really enjoy heavy banana flavors, the style is technically less aggressive. We'll see how it turns out compared to the last iterations of the recipe.

Speck und Zwiebel to go with our Bavarian brew

PB OG: 1.042 @ 12.5 gallons

OG: 1.05 @ 11.5 gallons

Gave it 2 minutes of oxygen and pitched 15g of rehydrated Safbrew WB-06.

Recipe: House Hefeweizen (1.5)
Brewer: Adam Keck
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Weizen/Weissbier (Wheat Beer)
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 4.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 10.6 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
11 lbs                Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         1        52.4 %        
8 lbs                 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         2        38.1 %        
1 lbs                 Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)             Grain         3        4.8 %         
1 lbs                 Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM)               Grain         4        4.8 %         
0.50 oz               Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min     Hop           5        5.3 IBUs      
1.00 oz               Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min     Hop           6        5.4 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min      Hop           7        0.0 IBUs      
2.0 pkg               Safbrew Wheat (DCL/Fermentis #WB-06) [50 Yeast         8        -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 21 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash In           Add 28.25 qt of water at 162.8 F        152.0 F       60 min        
Mash Out          Add 14.70 qt of water at 202.9 F        168.0 F       10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.98 gal water at 168.0 F

Munich Helles

I had some aging Oktoberfest lager yeast in my fridge. Now that my 1972 Delfield cooler is up and running, I can finally dial in temperature control to the precision that I need for both lagers and ales. Of course, on my 14th hour of brewing I had to hit a snag: I ran my pump too aggressively at first while recirculating my mash and it sucked enough grain up to clog the wet end of my pump. Everything worked fine after I disassembled/reassembled it. I cooled to 45 degrees before pitching my WLP 820 starter - 6L decanted. Lager cooling is such a breeze in the winter time. I have an external 1/8th HP pump connected to a bucket that I use to clean kegs out. Dual purposing it couldn't be simpler. I just fill it with cold water and ice/snow and set the outflow to the input on my wort chiller and recirculate the ice cold water. After I got the temperature down to ~ 65 degrees with well water, I switched over and dropped it another 20 degrees in about 15 minutes.

PB OG: 1.042 @ 12.5 gallons

OG: 1.059 @ 11 gallons

Applied 3 minutes of oxygen and pitched the decanted 3L starters of WLP 820.

So much yeast for such a delicate beer.

Transferring to the last boil of a long day.

Brewer: Adam Keck
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Munich Helles
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 3.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 18.6 IBUs
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
20 lbs                Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         1        100.0 %       
3.00 oz               Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.60 %] - Boil  Hop           2        17.1 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Hallertauer Hersbrucker [2.60 %] - Boil  Hop           3        1.5 IBUs      
2.0 pkg               Octoberfest/Marzen Lager (White Labs #WL Yeast         4        -             


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 20 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Saccharification  Add 25.00 qt of water at 163.7 F        152.0 F       60 min        
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 11.15 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------

Update:

Heady Blunder (Heady Topper clone gone imperial)

I fermented this at 68 degrees for four days then bumped up the temperature to 71 degrees. On 1/8/2014, it recorded a ~1.030 specific gravity. The color is a very intense dark orange. Probably darker than Heady Topper. The flavor was extremely fruity with signature Heady Topper dankness. I didn't taste any of the sweetness that comes with a 1.030 gravity, as the hops covered it up entirely. The Conan "peach" flavor was there, but not pronounced.

Fiery orange.

I took the heat off of the fermenter on 1/13/2014 and will let it crash cool to 38 degrees while I am on vacation next week. I opted to let the beer sit, rather than rush to dry hop it. This will be the first time I do a two stage dry hop in earnest. I want to do it right.

House Hefeweizen 1.5

Transferred 10 gallons to kegs on 1/14 after 10 days in the primary. FG: 1.010, kegged at 30 psi. The sample was as expected: a little more reserved on the banana notes due to the cooler fermentation. It also had a different texture than I remember in the last batches. This could be a result of it not being carbonated and not representative of how the final beer will come out or it could actually be a result of skipping the decoction mash (and the protein rest that comes with it). We'll see on the final beer.

Munich Helles

Checked the gravity on 1/15 to see if it was ready for a diacetyl rest. SG: 1.020. Bumped up the temperature to 57 degrees. I'll leave it set for 2 days then I'll begin to cool the beer down to lagering temperature. This is probably the most malt focused beer I've done and even with the unfinished yeast business, the prominent taste was bready, pilsner malt. I used 100% Avangard Pilsner malt in the grist and it shows off.

Update 2:

Heady Blunder

After crashing for a week, the beer came out much clearer. I transferred with CO2 by installing a spear in my sanke fermenter. I added the first round of dry hops on 1/27, the second round on 1/30, then put the corneys in the fridge for crashing on 2/2. I've been dry hopping in the keg with nylon socks. Looking forward to tasting what the 2-stage dry hop will do for this beer. Later this week, I'll pull samples of the beer till it is clear then transfer to clean kegs for serving. 

One week @ 38 degrees cleared the beer out really nicely, even without finings

Munich Helles

I was thinking about filtering this beer into serving kegs, but then I drew a sample and saw how crystal clear it was after two weeks of lagering. I tasted it for any diacetyl or off flavors before deciding whether I'd lager it longer or package it for serving. There were no off flavors. It tastes delightful. I transferred it into two corney kegs then set the kegs on 10 psi of gas. I intend to serve one keg within the week and bottle a few of them and the other I'll allow to lager longer to see if there is a noticeable flavor improvement.

I'm a little thrown off by the FG: 1.020. I suppose I could have allowed it more time to ferment, but I really thought that the diacetyl rest at 58 degrees for two days would have finished it out. It didn't move a single point of gravity. The attenuation for WLP820 lager is 65-73% and from 1.059 to 1.020, I hit the low end of the scale at 66% apparent attenuation. Next time, I'll pitch a larger starter (easier now that I've salvaged the yeast) and I'll allow it a full 2.5 weeks to ferment.

The sample was excellent though, and I didn't sense any extra sweetness.

Crystal clear.

House Hef 1.3 2

Loving marathon brew week.

PB OG:  1.040 @ 12 gallons. I'm undershooting this batch to even out the other one. 5 gallons of this batch will top off the other 10 to make a 1/2 barrel keg for serving.

FG: 1.050 @ 11 gallons. Right where I want to be.

House Hefeweizen 1.3 1

Suddenly I had to brew twenty gallons of Hefeweizen within a week and a half. I guess I don't need to sleep this week!

With the short time frame, I didn't really have any time to make a proper starter with Wyeast 3068 like I normally do for my house hef. It's served me really well, but alas, I'm not going to spend over $40 on enough liquid yeast packs to pitch raw. That led me to dry yeast options. I read thoroughly over Danstar Munich and Safbrew WB-06 reviews on homebrew forums and was initially really unimpressed. I then read Fermentis's details page for their yeast. The manufacturer says that WB-06 will accentuate banana flavors at over 22C and clove under 22C. Since I assumed the banana flavors are what brewers were disappointed by, I hypothesized that the brewers in question weren't getting their ferments up consistently to 72 degrees or higher. I then checked probrewer.com and found this awesome post from a brewer in Akron with several GABF and WBC awards won by Fermentis yeast. Hmm... He had some great things to say about WB-06 with three caveats: push fermentation temperature to and beyond its limits, underpitch, and don't aerate. WTF?

I'm suddenly excited about using this dry yeast! 

It makes me realize also how valuable probrewer.com is. There's an extra degree of creativity when the profit motive or scarcity is introduced and brewers are forced to make great beer with equipment and process tweaks in lieu of ideal ingredients every single brew. 

I'm going to ferment just past the recommended upper bound and go for 75 degrees F, 23.9C. 

I also had to sub in 2 lbs of white wheat malt because I made a LHBS pickup mistake. And like last time I'm adding some carapils for head retention - I really want that classic sticky lacing on the side of maßkrug next Saturday!

Mashed in at 130 degrees for protein rest for 35 minutes; did a combination temperature and infusion mash to 156 for 45 minutes; then decocted 3 gallons and boiled for 15 minutes. Collected about 13.25 gallons of wort and started boiling. I've been doing so many whole leaf IPAs lately that it's strange throwing in half an ounce of hops for a bittering addition.

PB OG: 1.039 @ 13.25

OG: 1.045 @ 12 gallons

The boil is throwing off such a distinct sweet wheat aroma. I don't know why I'm picking it up so strongly now. I think this will be a great beer. I'm hoping the white wheat gives it a little more subtle bready flavor.

Pitched about 15g of rehydrated dry yeast into unaerated wort. Set fermentation temperature for 73 degrees knowing that with ambient temperature at 65 degrees, it'll mosey on up to 75 degrees and likely above with the fermentation activity.

I get to brew it again tomorrow.

UPDATE: the fermentation is going crazy and the internal temperature is at 79F. Part of me is wishing that I would have made room in my fermentation chamber to control the temp more and part of me is looking forward to tasting what the enhanced fermentation temperature is going to produce! I'll update with taste results.

Update 2: tested the gravity on 7-31 and was blown away. It's just about fermented out after only two days - 1.015. The banana flavor is very, very prominent. If it's any telling, I won't be disappointed with WB-06 fermenting at ~80F.

Update 3: My mom says this is the best the House Hefeweizen's been, so the WB-06 isn't a bust for sure. It's definitely got more flavor than 3068 fermented at 62 degrees.


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: House Hefeweizen (1.3)
Brewer: Adam Keck
Asst Brewer:
Style: Weizen/Weissbier (Wheat Beer)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 12.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.70 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 3.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 10.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU      
1 lbs                 Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)                     Adjunct       1        4.8 %      
9 lbs                 Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         2        42.9 %      
8 lbs                 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         3        38.1 %      
2 lbs                 White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)               Grain         4        9.5 %      
1 lbs                 Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)             Grain         5        4.8 %      
0.50 oz               Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min     Hop           6        4.3 IBUs    
1.00 oz               Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min     Hop           7        6.6 IBUs    
4.00 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins)          Other         8        -          
0.50 oz               Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min      Hop           9        0.0 IBUs    
2.0 pkg               Safbrew Wheat (DCL/Fermentis #WB-06) [50 Yeast         10       -          


Mash Schedule: Decoction Mash, Single -> Braukeiser
Total Grain Weight: 21 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time  
Protein Rest      Add 27.20 qt of water at 138.2 F        130.0 F       35 min      
Infuse to Sacchar Add 16.80 qt of water at 198.3 F        154.0 F       45 min      
Decoction to Mash Decoct 12.20 qt of mash and boil it     168.0 F       15 min