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Dunkelweizen
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63 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.016
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1.016
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1.051
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4.6%
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Ingredients
·
2 tsp. Gypsum
·
1 lb. German Wheat
·
¾ lb. German Pilsner
·
½ lb. Carastan 35
·
½ lb. Honey Malt
·
¼ lb. Chocolate Malt
·
¼ lb. De-bittered
Chocolate
·
8 oz. Munich
·
6 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
·
1 ½ oz. Hallertau
Leaf Hops (Bittering Hops)
·
½ oz Hallertau Leaf
Hops (Flavoring Hops)
·
½ oz. Northern Brewer Hops (Flavoring)
Brewers Log
Beer Date 01192008: <Day 1>
Purchased another German Hefe
kit from morebeer.com but we decided to use that asa
base this time and experiment a little. Went into Home Brewers Depot and
found a recipe for a Dunkel Weiss that we are using
as a base. The gentleman working there modified the recipe slightly to
account for the hops that they had on hand (darn this hops shortage) and
whatever personal experiences influenced his recommendation. I have a feeling
this recipe isn’t a true dunkelweiss, basically we
steeped some grains in the water to darken it and possibly give it a dunkelweiss like flavor, but I imagine a true dunkelweiss has some roasted wheat grains
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Washed out brew pot and threw filled with 2.5 gallons
of bottled spring water.
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Poured grains into a muslin socks.
·
1 lb. German Wheat
·
¾ lb. German Pilsner
·
½ lb. Carastan 35
·
½ lb. Honey Malt
·
¼ lb. Chocolate Malt
·
¼ lb. De-bittered
Chocolate
·
8 oz. Munich
Unfortunately I only had a single muslin sock this time,
and I needed two, and we left the shop only a few minutes before closing
time. Oh well, we improvised by going to the grocery store and picking up
some cheese cloth. But double layering it and tying off seemed about the
right sized mesh. It seemed to work pretty good for the boil, but I would
rather use the muslin socks in the future.
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I controlled the water temperature nicely this time
keeping it right about ~ 163oF for most of the ½ hour grain
steeping.
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Dave had his usual iced tea concoction with the
drippings from the muslin socks after we pulled them out of the water.
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Added some gypsum here, were supposed to do that earlier
either when or before steeping, but we got sidetracked cleaning and
preparing to bottle the stout. Hopefully this wasn’t a critical element in
the water holding flavor form the steeping. It isn’t anything I have ever
done before so I don’t imagine I will notice any problem.
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As the temperature approached boiling we added the malt
extract
- 6
lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
It took an exceptionally long time for the wort to come to a boil an break off the foam. It just
kept foaming and foaming and we had to play that game where you pull it off
the heat and then sit partially over to keep from boiling over. Curious if
our method of stirring in the DME is flawed. We have been stirring and
creating a vortex and then pouring, it seems good for mixing it in, but
this time it built up a lot of foam that seemed somewhat problematic. I
will have to read up on that and see.
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The base recipe called for one type of hops, but they
didn’t have enough, I would log the original, but it is crossed off the
sheet and illegible. It is some form of Hallertau.
The type of hops was picked because we were told we needed this bitterness
to break the sweetness of the everything else. We were specifically told
NOT to add aroma hops (usually the last 5 minutes of the boil) because we
didn’t want to cover up the natural aroma from the grains.
- 1
½ oz. Hallertau Leaf Hops (Bittering Hops)
As it boiled we continued to stir every 3-5 minutes to
sufficiently mix in the hops.
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After ~35 minutes of the boil I added the Flavoring Hops
·
½ oz Hallertau
Leaf Hops (Flavoring Hops)
·
½ oz. Northern Brewer Hops (Flavoring)
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After the boil was complete I moved the cooking pot to
the sink and backed 2 bags of cubed ice around the pot. I stirred every few
minutes spread the cooling liquid through out and in 20-25 minutes I had
the wort to < 80 oF.
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Hops leaves are AWESOME. The pellets turn into a thick
and nasty goo that clings to the strainer. The
leaves are much simpler to strain. I pretty much just poured the whole pot
of wort into the bucket and it just flowed
through the strainer almost at real time.
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This time rather then adding the water to the carboy, we
poured it into the bucket. This mixed in very well and let saved the hassle
of pouring through the small hole in the carboy. I saved the last gallon of
water though because I wanted to have some extra room in the carboy to
shake and mix in the air.
The siphoning went very quickly and easily.
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I vigorously shook the carboy to mix in a bunch of air
and then I poured a slight bit out to take a temp and specific gravity
reading.
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70 oF
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Adj
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SPGR
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1.050
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1.051
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Good thing we talked to the guy, because he recommended
a different yeast strain then I would have picked out. I would have
naturally grabbed the German strain that I used before, but he recommended
the American strain because it is better at warmer temperatures. Turns out
the German strain is best if used in the sub 60 oF. I was wondering why
we still had a bit of banana aroma and flavor in our previous batch, I
though low 60’s was enough, I guessed wrong.
- White
Labs Pitchable Liquid Yeast – American Ale
Yeast WLP320
We did have a slight ‘oops’ with the yeast. We shook it
up before opening the vile and some of it squirted out onto the floor L.
I don’t think it should matter because it was only a tiny bit, but thought
I would note.
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Capped the carboy with a hose going into a bucket of
water. This will keep air from coming up the hose into the carboy, but will
allow gas to easily escape without clogging the air lock if there is a
great deal of activity.
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After brewing cleaned up a bit and headed to a friends
birthday party. When I returned a few hours later I entered the house to
the distinct smell of brew day. That sweet and pleasant aroma hit me like a
tone of bricks as I stopped and inhaled deeply. It probably looked like a fabreeze commercial.
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Beer Date 012008: <Day 2>
I woke up in the late morning and headed off to a pool
tournament, but obviously checked the batch before leaving. There was no
apparent activity. No bubbling, no foam column growing up the carboy it just
looked like brown liquid in a glass container. But oh how things had changed
by the time I returned (about dinner time). I walked into the kitchen for
something and noticed some foam in the hose and pulled back the towel to
reveal foam all the way up the carboy (yay J)
and I do it to the soundtrack of a steady stream of bubbly goodness in the
bucket beside me
Beer Date 02092008: <Day22>
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63 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.016
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1.016
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1.051
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4.6%
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Nothing adventurous to report, we got 46 bottles out of
the batch.
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