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Honey Hefe
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67 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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1.01
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1.01
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1.058
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6.3%
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Ingredients
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5 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
·
½ lb. Flaked Wheat
·
1 ½ lbs. Honey
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½ oz. Vanguard Hops (Bittering)
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½ oz. Vanguard Hops (Flavoring)
·
½ oz. Vanguard Hops (Aroma)
·
1 tsp. Irish Moss
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White Labs Pitchable Liquid Yeast – Hefeweizen
Ale Yeast WLP300
Brewers Log
Beer Date 01102009: <Day 1>
I tried to brew last weekend, but my local brewshop was
out of extract. Since I don’t have the equipment for all grain, I had to
postpone L.
Oh well, life goes on. They indicated that they should have a shipment come
in by the next weekend but I decided not to chance it and ordered my
ingredients online.
I spent a bunch of time online reading up different recipes
and figuring out what I wanted to do with this batch. Since everybody seems
to like hefe, I figured that was a good place to start. I looked at a bunch
of recipes and then made up my own by merging a lot of the ideas into
one.
I spent a bunch of time reading up on extracts (liquid vs
dry) and how the impact the specific gravity of the wort. Liquid Malt Extract
(LME) and Dry Malt Extract (DME) are basically the same thing with respect to
beer quality, the main differences are in the potency and ability to store. 1
lb of DME will contribute more specific gravity points (~44 points per
gallong) then 1 lb of LME (37 points per gallon), and it can be stored longer
before use.
I also got a new toy. I have been contemplating the
purchase for about a year now, but I finally took the plunge and invested a
c-note on a refractometer.
This is a special tool that helps to measure the specific gravity of the
wort. It works by measuring the refraction of light through the liquid due to
the sugars. It allows me to measure the specific gravity of the liquid by
only taking a couple of drop instead of the older method that takes several
ounces.
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I start off by taking my refractometer and checking the
calibration. If impurities create specific gravity, then pure water
(distilled) should have a 0 reading. So I take a couple drops of distilled
water (it is really frustrating that I had to buy a whole gallon for 2
drops, but oh well a small price to pay for calibration), hold my new toy
up to the light and verify it is calibrated properly. It came with a
screwdriver and instructions to adjust if necessary, but it wasn’t.
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Next I pull the yeast out of the fridge to let it warm
up a little bit. Then I washed out my 5 gallon brew pot and poured in 2
gallons of bottled spring water and heated to ~ 160oF.
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I poured the grains into a grain bag and plopped into
the water while turning the heat down to a very low setting and pulling the
pot mostly off the burner.
·
½ lb. Flaked Wheat
I picked flaked wheat for 2 reasons. 1) I read that it
helps with head retention and 2) it was in a couple of the recipes that I
looked at.
I steeped the grains just between 150oF and 160oF
for ½ hour.
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While the flaked wheat was steeping I poured 3 gallons
of bottled spring water into my larger pot and fired up the outside burner.
When the steeping was done I poured the steeped liquid into the larger pot
so I could do a full boil batch.
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When the temperature of the wort was approaching 200oF
mark I added some malt extract. I only added one pound because I wanted to
try to make a lightly colored batch of brew (something I haven’t really
been able to do yet)
·
1 lb. Bavarian Wheat DME
I turned off the burner and poured in and stirred with a
whisk to make sure that all dissolved and nothing was suck to the bottom.
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With only 1 lb of extract, the foaming didn’t seem to go
too crazy. It foamed up a little bit but it was very controlled. I was
worried because I had 5 gallons of liquid in a pot that only holds a little
over 7 gallons and there wasn’t a whole lot of room for foaming up (I had
potholders close by incase I had to do an emergency removal of the pot from
the burner). Once it came to a steady boil I added the bittering hops.
·
½ oz. Vanguard Hops (Bittering)
This was yet another chapter in the story of hops
substitution. Most recipes I have read call for Hollertau hops, but that is
one that is really tough to get a hold of these days, so I read up and
found that Vanguard was a suitable substitute.
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I got up every few minutes to stir and after 45 minutes
I added the flavoring hops and the Irish Moss.
·
½ oz. Vanguard Hops (Flavoring)
·
1 tsp. Irish Moss
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After 55 minutes I added the aroma hops.
·
½ oz. Vanguard Hops (Aroma)
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After an hour of boiling I killed the flame and had Dave
help me out with the rest of the malt extract and the honey. I learned a
while back to add the dry contents first so Dave stirred while I pured in
the remainder of my DME and then I poured in the Honey. I took a cup of the
hot wort and pured into the honey container to help loosen it up and ease
in the pour.
·
4 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
·
1 ½ lbs. Honey
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Next I moved the pot into my big ice bucket and inserted
the immersion wort chiller. I turned the water on slowly so I could extract
lots of heat and use minimal water. After the water was flowing we packed
ice around the pot to help it cool from the outside in (in the summer time
this is necessary because the tap water temp is higher then the target temp
of the cooling).
I have read a couple of
articles that recommended coiling the input hose and submerging in ice
water to maximize the cooling. I think I will try this on my next batch.
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The cooling went much faster then I was expecting it to,
I almost didn’t have everything sanitized in time. The strainer caught the
Irish Moss, fortunately I used the hops bags this time and it was a nice
clean pour. It filled right up to the 4 gallon mark on my bucket. So that
means that I lost roughly 1 gallon to evaporation in the boil. So we took
another gallon of bottled spring water and filled up to the 5 gallon mark.
I don’t think I want to add
another gallon to the boil because the pot was pretty full when the foam
broke, but next time I will do my old trick of throwing a gallon of water
in the fridge to cool down and add right after the boil.
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Next I siphoned the wort into my carboy. I recalled from
the last brew that the new siphon I have is taller and too big to use on
the counter top (when I pump I hit the low ceiling in my kitchen), so I
used the kitchen table instead which has a lower surface and a higher
ceiling. After a couple of pumps tings were moving a long.
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Now I get a chance to use my new toy for real purposes.
I take a couple of drops wort and the light tells me that it reads 14.5
brix. A quick 4x conversion and I get a specific gravity of 1.058. Since I
have never used this before I wanted to confirm the reading with the old
method.
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80 oF
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Adj
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SPGR
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1.055
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1.057
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The measurement is pretty darn close, and since my
refractometer has build in temperature control I am doing to go with it
over the older method.
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Finally I add the yeast, put the carboy in a bucket and
tie off a knife to end of my blow-off hose.
·
White Labs Pitchable Liquid Yeast – Hefeweizen
Ale Yeast WLP300
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Beer Date 01312009: <Day 21>
I actually bought a couple ounces of oak chips to give
this batch an oak aged flavor, but I decided against it. The idea seemed cool
at first, but I eventually decided against it. I will use the oak chips for a
porter or a stout.
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67 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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1.01
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1.01
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1.058
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6.3%
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