Triple Header Brew Day - Hefeweizen

The third beer on my triple-header night was a Hefeweizen. What a long night with two stuck mashes. I switched to my smaller mash tun for the third brew in hopes of not getting another stuck mash and thankfully it ran off like a champ (which was good since I didn’t begin running off until after 1:00 AM).

I have commented here before that I have made several attempts to brew beers that my wife likes, with no success to date. If she drinks beer, it is usually Corona Light or Miller Lite. A few weeks ago she had a Sam Adams Dunkelweizen and she told me how much she liked it. As soon as I heard that, I began researching how to make a Dunkelweizen. I ended up settling on a Hefe and hopefully it is a nicely phenolic beer that she will drink.

Brew Date: 4/28/12

Beer Number: B26

Beer Name: “The Warden’s Hefe”

Type: Hefeweizen

Primary Fermenter: 5 gal. glass carboy (? days)

Volume: 5 gal.

OG: 1.054

FG: TBD

Expected IBU: 13

Expected SRM: 3

Ingredients:

4 ¼ lbs. Weyerman Pilsner Malt

4 ¼ lbs. wheat malt

0.678 oz. (19g) Mt. Hood pellet hops (5.2% AA) @ 60 min

WLP300 Hefeweizen

Step by Step Process:

Yeast Starter (4/21/12)

1. Made 1.5L starter with 150g pilsner & extra light DME
2. boiled for 15 minutes and allowed to cool overnight
3. transferred to sanitized wine bottle
4. pitched 1 vial WLP300 Hefeweizen yeast
5. shook infrequently
6. Within 24 hours, there was krausen that overflowed through the foil

Wort

7. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher (double-crushed the wheat)
8. Heated 11.5 qt. strike water to @140F and poured into mash tun
9. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @133F mashed @ 15 min
10. Pulled 4 1/3 qt. decoction and heated to 154F
11. Turned off heat and allowed temp. to drop to 152F at end of 10 min.
12. Brought to a boil and immediately returned to mash
13. Mash settled at 154F; mashed open for 45 min. allowing temp. to drop to 152F
14. Heated 5 qt. water to boiling and added to mash tun for mash out @ 168F
15. Recirculated @ 4 qts.
16. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
17. While draining, fired burner and set heat on med.
18. When empty, filled with 2.5 gal. of 168F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
19. When empty, filled with 2.5 gal. of 168F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
20. Collected a total of @ 7.5 gal. wort
21. Brought to a boil and boiled for 90 min, adding 19g Mt. Hood pellets at 60 min.
22. Using wort chiller, cooled to 95F in @ 15 minutes; 75F in @30 min.
23. Transferred to sanitized fermenter

Yeast Starter (4/21/12)

24. Crash cooled yeast starter in the morning
25. Drained liquid from original starter
26. Poured @ 3 qt. hot water into mash tun
27. Collected in small pan, boiled for 15 minutes, and cooled in cold water bath
28. Poured 3^rd runnings wort into yeast starter container
29. Pitched entire yeast starter @ 68F
30. Placed fermenter in fermentation room
31. @ 12 hours, no visible airlock activity temp 62F
32. @ 2 days – vigorous airlock activity, temp 63F

Notes:

• pre-boil gravity = 1.037