How To Homebrew: Bavarian Hefeweizen All-Grain
9Nearly a year ago I posted a step by step on how to brew beer over at the Mediocre forum...
https://mediocre.com/forum/topics/homebrew-step-by-step-cream-ale-extract-kit-w-specialty-grains
Since then I've gotten more equipment and my process has changed. This time I'm going for the real deal all grain brewing process. Hopefully, you'll notice the differences between extract and all grain brewing over the next month or so.
To make this a bit dramatic, I am challenging @marklog to a brew vs brew forum war. @jont agreed to judge the beer. The only rule is that the beer has to be a Hefeweizen. If you also brew beer, then you are welcome to join in. All you have to do is brew a beer and send a bottle (preferably 22oz) to Mediocre (and maybe to the other people participating?) by the end of April. It would be great if you could also document your brew as well.
So, here is what I'm going to brew...
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/bavarian-hefe-weizen-all-grain-kit.html
I'm going with a pre packaged kit and experimenting with some fruit. Right now, my plan is to brew five gallons, and split the fermentation into two vessels. One of them will have fruit and the other won't (possibly strawberries).
It'll be about two weeks before I post any progress. If you're interested in brewing your own beer, go a head and ask!
- 29 comments, 78 replies
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I just head to the liquor store and slap down $14 for a suitcase of PBR.
Been drinking PBR since I was 13 and first got drunk at a Lutheran wedding. God loves Lutherans most of all, don't you know. Especially those that drink PBR.
This may have a lot to do with why I'm an agnostic.
Now on a serious note (well, okay - there is a lot of truth to the aforementioned), if I had the time and did not travel so much, I'd be all over this. Good luck with the strawberries.
Don't use a pre made recipe kit. Use your own recipe! Once you do, then we can start the real competition.
@zxinfinity it sounds like we have our third competitor. bring your own recipe to this party!
@zxinfinity yeah, I was going to do that but Northern Brewer had a buy two get one free special. Ive made a few on my own, but I haven't used an all grain kit just yet.
As @kevin mentioned, I have accepted his challenge. To make this even more dramatic, I will be taking a more American approach to the Hefe with this Summer Wheat Kit, inspired by a beer made a few hours from my home town.
http://www.homebrewing.org/Solsun-Oberon-Clone-Recipe-Kit_p_607.html
Feel free to load up on German v. American propaganda. First to mention Godwin's law gets a gold star- oh wait, that's me! The only fruit allowed in this beer will be an orange slice on the rim.
Good luck to all, especially me!
@marklog I just realized I linked the extract instead of the all-grain. For Shame! http://www.homebrewing.org/Solsun-Oberon-Clone-All-Grain-Recipe_p_4827.html
@marklog Well your's will still be more german if he puts fruit in it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot
Aright dammit now I have to not be sick, spin up a hefe recipe and schedule a brew day.
Thanks, obama
All grain is the way to go.
I tried extract once, and once only. I hated the taste (maybe I just got an old jar of LME).
Can I join in on this competition??
@grum sure! You have until the end of April.
@Kevin Sweet! I'll put together a recipe for this and post it in a couple days.
So the real goal here is to get so many people to join the competition that all the Mediocre employees get drunk by judging, right? =P
Also, if you haven't made an all-grain wheat beer before, you may want to add some rice hulls to the mash to help with the grain bed formation if you're using a mash tun with a false bottom.
Not sure I would trust @jont or his tastebuds but as a fellow homebrewer I'm interested to see how this shakes out.
If you want to experiment with fruit here is one of my favorites that could fall into a hefe class, it has enough wheat to barley. I'd make it myself and send a bottle, but it wouldn't be ready by April. This is extract though, I have notes somewhere on a full grain version but can't find it.
3.5 lb Light DME
3 lb Wheat DME
6.0 oz Corn Sugar
0.5 lb Crystal 20
0.5 oz. Simcoe (60 Minutes)
1 oz. Amarillo Gold (15 Minutes)
1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 minutes)
Fresh grated Orange Peel from 2 navel oranges (10 Minutes)
Fresh grated Lemon Peel from 2 lemons (10 Minutes)
WLP008 (or 001) Yeast
Steep Crystal in 1 gallon at 155 degrees F for 40 minutes.
Raise temp and remove grain sack at 175 degrees.
Put grain sack in a second kettle of 1 gallon and let it steep at 170 for an additional 10 minutes.
Add back to primary kettle with additional water to make 4.5 gallons.
Late addition for 70% of the DME.
Top off to 5 gallons in the fermenter.
Whoa whoa whoa. @JonT can't judge this alone. I've sampled more Hefeweizens than you can count (favorite beer type by far), and he and I disagree on 85% of food and drink topics (tacos suck and Freebirds is fine).
@Moose 22oz bottles are more than shareable between two judges-err-people.
@grum oh totally, I just wanted to make sure I was able to shoehorn my way into the hefeweizen tasting. Y'know, dibs and all that
@Moose you were on my shortlist of judges for the record, JERK
I don't feel like looking of my recipes. To do Bavarian style Hefeweizen I've had good luck with the following sort of profile:
* 50/50 wheat/barley grain mix
* Some rice hulls if you're mashing that much wheat
* Light amount of Hallertau hops, at 60 minutes and 15 minutes
* Something like WLP300 is key. On the relatively warm side, like 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Also use a blow off tube for the first 2 days or so.
Nothing too fancy. Bavarian ones aren't all that hopped and most of the distinct flavor comes from the fermentation. Luckily it's a pretty easy fermentation to replicate without temperature controls.
@ram434 yep, I'm interested in the banana flavor and seeing how it pairs with a bit of strawberry in the fermentor.
@Kevin Nice. I did a Raspberry Hefeweizen 2 years ago. One thing I found is that the sweetness of the fruit will ferment out completely, and it adds an extra tart component. If you want to avoid that I guess you could look into adding some sort of non-fermenting sweetener.
@ram434 @Kevin There was recently some blowback to a Budweiser Superb Owl commercial about pumpkin peach ale, and I saw this recipe in the following week or so. The recipe from Northern Brewer at http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-PeachofResistance.pdf and they're adding extract at bottling but not using actual fruit. That might give you some additional sweetness. (Everclear + Fresh strawberries + cheesecloth = strawberry extract?)
@2palms I guess I'm kind of nervous about adding too much fermentable sugar at bottling. Do they just rely on the pressure to stop the fermentation, or just a timed chilling?
@2palms Okay, actually read the pdf. They aren't adding sugar, just a flavor extract. No problem there.
I brew, too! And inherited a bunch of brewing supplies recently. I haven't had any experience shipping beers, though: does anyone have pointers for packing/shipping 22 oz bottles of beer and having them arrive safely? Since it's a "controlled substance" is it necessary to
lieahem, creatively list contents as "barley tea" or somethingFollow-up question: Can we just get a count of "participants" the last week of March and ship that many bottles to Meh? I'd rather send a dozen to one spot than pack and ship 12 separate packages, plus it would protect everyone's mailing info in case someone wants to remain quasi-nonymous: Big Brother Mediocre already knows where we live, but that doesn't mean @Thunderchick wants us homebrew folks dropping buy unannounced...
@2palms :%s/buy/by/g Sorry for the typo. Musta been the homebrew.
@2palms When I shipped, I put each bottle in a ziploc bag, and packed the box with a lot of news paper/packing materials. It's not illegal to ship beer, but some carriers won't do it. If they don't ask, then don't tell them.
@Kevin Who've you used? No reason not to name-drop if you've had luck in the past! I think my post office asks "Any liquids/perishables/live animals" - I've never answered in the affirmative so I don't know what the rule is. But I signed for a "LTL" freight package at work a few weeks ago, and the carrier was YRC. On the same truck as our package was a crate with 9 "corny kegs" from Manzanita Brewery and their BOL said specifically "Barleywine" -- maybe it's better/easier/cheaper to declare you're shipping wine than beer? Does anyone have wine.woot bring them booze? How's it declared/who is the shipper?
@2palms I used UPS. Apparently you can't use usps
@Kevin Any idea how much it cost you to ship a single 22? If the list of participants grows fairly large, shipping may become quite expensive.
@grum @2palms That's a good point. At least one 22oz needs to make its way to Mediocre, but swapping homebrew with everyone else is optional.
@2palms barleywine isn't wine. normally i wouldn't nitpick, but this is a homebrew thread.
Make sure you don't Smartpost, I'm pretty sure the Postal Service has a rule against shipping alcohol!
Alright, I've come up with my recipe (albeit tentative as of writing this):
"A Mediocre Hefeweizen"
by @grum
Mash:
5.5 lbs White Wheat Malt (57.9%)
3.5 lbs Pale 2-row Malt (36.8%) (may turn this to pilsner malt)
0.5 lbs Munich Malt (5.3%)
1.0 lbs Rice Hulls
Boil:
0.5 oz Cascade for 60 minutes (8.5 IBUs)
0.2 oz Lemon Peel for 20 minutes (may eliminate this)
0.4 oz Citra for 10 minutes (5.4 IBUs)
0.75 oz Coriander Seed for 5 minutes
Fermentation:
Hefeweizen IV Ale Yeast (WLP380)
1.0 oz Amarillo Gold (dry hop for 7 days)
Estimated IBUs: 13.9
Estimated ABV: 5.5%
Force carbonated at 2.7 volumes.
@grum do you think it'll be a citrus bomb or will it be subtle? Looks good either way to me.
@Kevin I anticipate it being fairly citrus-y, although more on the lemon/grapefruit side of the spectrum as opposed to orange.
Amarillo Gold hops lend a lot of citrus flavors, especially when dry hopped (apparently... I've yet to use them yet!). I'll probably just taste it somewhat frequently during the dry hopping so I get just the right amount of citrus.
@grum This sounds like Shock Top.
@marklog Definitely the taste I'm going for, but hopefully a bit different!
@grum You'll have the advantage because yours won't be a Budweiser cousin.
@jont, can we get some unofficial official advice from some warehouse and shipping experts?
@marklog use enough dunnage.
@JonT I'll be sending your Texan air right back to you.
@jont googling 'dunnage'
@marklog For an example of what happens when you don't use enough dunnage, see the Great Ceramic Mug disaster.
OK! Here is my yeast starter...
I went with the Hefeweizen yeast from White Labs. I love the banana and clove flavors it gives off.
Over sized funnel!
I was planing on leaving this sit outside for an hour or so, but I noticed my cigar ash tray was the perfect size and had some ice cold water in it. Perfect for an ice bath. PS -- I don't smoke, and on the rare chance I smoke a cigar I always tell myself that I won't ever do it again.
Yeast has been pitched, and I will brew on Sunday!
It exploded! Maybe I need a bigger flask
Another Brew Day...
First step is to heat up the strike water. This is needed to activate the enzymes in the grains that extract the sugars. The higher the strike temperature the less sugar you'll get. So if you want a high alcohol beer, then you should use a lower temperature. Mine is about 154F. I also put in some Ph stabilizer. This is the first time I did that, so i'm not sure what to expect.
Here is my mash tun. I mix the grains and water together and the magic happens. A Tun is an imperial unit of measurement which is equal to about four hogsheads.
Here are the grains. They are crushed. I'm not worried about contamination because I'm going to boil everything for an hour.
After the mash happens, everything is drained into the boil kettle and the heat is turned up.
I wasn't paying attention and it foamed over, a lot. A lot of home brewers say to keep a spray bottle on hand to kill off the foam. Thankfully I had my star san spray bottle.
From what I understand, this phase is called the hot break.
After the boil is over, you have to chill down the wort. I made myself a home made wort chiller. All I did was get about 10 feet of copper coil, some tubing, and a hose barb. It worked really well, it went from boiling to about 70F in 20min.
Here's where it will ferment. I have a feeling it will get messy. I hope the blow off tube will prevent it from exploding.
@kevin nice photos! Did the boil over affect your OG? I tried to make a Hopslam clone but I drank too many Hopslams while brewing and ended up having a massive boil over which left me with a Hopslam Light.
@marklog I think my OG is lower than the target. I used tap water to calibrate my refractometer. The recepie says it should be 1.049 but mine was more around 1.035
@kevin also, your chilling set up looks great. How much water do you think you use to chill? I go through 15 gallons to chill 5 gallons. It seems awfully wasteful. I captured the water this time for my next brew but there's got to be a better way.
@kevin one more thing.. either your name isn't @kevin or you stole that cooler :)
@kevin one more one more thing.. did you ever work out the fruit part?
@marklog pretty sure mine went through about 20 gallons, but I got it down to 70 degrees. My ground water is nice and cold right now.
@marklog hah, I bought it from Nick.
@marklog I'm going to let it ferment a week before putting fruit in
Beer Update: Fruit Step
After some cleaning, sanitizing, and finding all the misplaced stuff -- I got my first look at the beer...
I decided to use some store brand frozen mixed berries. Nothing is in season right now, and from what I understand there shouldn't be any contaminates in frozen food.
The color of the beer looks really pale. I'm worried that I might have used too much water. My OG reading was pretty far under the target, so there might not be a whole lot of body or alcohol. However, the sugar from the berries should bump it up, but I'm still expecting it to taste thin.
I split the batch in half. The clear carboy has the berries, and the bucket does not. I'll let it sit for a week or more then bottle it. I'm still on track to have this beer ready by the end of April. It takes about two weeks for the carbonation to hit its peak. So, It'll be at it's best for @jont and company.
How is your beer looking @marklog ?
Just got my first taste of the berried hefeweizen. It was as thin as I thought, but still had some hefe characteristics, the berries made it seem almost like a wine cooler.
I assume @marklog gave up!
No chance, @Kevin. Bottled and conditioning. Tonight I'll be tasting what was kegged. I'll be figuring out how to package and ship this week.
@marklog ok great, I was worried you skipped out! I recommend that you put the bottle a ziplock baggie. I also want to send them something local, incase they find my beer undrinkable.
@Kevin I'm going to do the same thing! The selection will depend on how much I like MY beer. If mine is great I'll send them something shitty so they can say that mine is better than commercial brew.
@Kevin I love hefeweizen, it is my number 1 beer choice (since Aventinus is so expensive), but I have mixed thoughts on Strawberry beer, so I am very curious and excited to try this.
@Moose well, keep your expectations really low.
@kevin, did you notice anything different with the pH stabilizer? Did you have water issues previously?
@marklog I didn't notice any difference. I'll keep using it until I notice something.
I shipped my bottle of "A Mediocre Hefeweizen" last week and, according to FedEx, it was signed for by "CTUCKER" today.
It turned out to be 5.2%. Just 0.1% under the estimated level. My friends didn't think it was very mediocre though. We have never gone through a keg so fast...
I have a bunch of photos of the process I'll be posting hopefully later today.
So since @marklog is shipping his next week, we should expect judging by mid-may?
@grum you need to work on your dunnage son :( I excitedly ran out to the warehouse to look for the beer and was told that the bottle shattered all over the floor. I'm really sad that it didn't make it.
@JonT http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com
@JonT Noooooooooo!!!! -_- I have an extra bottle. I'm going to send it. I'll be following this guide (http://barlowbrewing.com/2010/11/11/how-to-pack-and-ship-beer/). Sorry to have failed you...
@grum this has me super freaked out. I was worried about dunnage to begin with, and now this!? WASTED BEER!? My head and heart are heavy. My head because I have a fat head.
@grum also.. since when did Chris Tucker work in the warehouse at mediocre? Not enough royalties from The 5th Element?
@grum it's okay buddy, you didn't fail me. I'm more upset that you put a bunch of effort in and we didn't get to enjoy it. :( Talk to @Kevin if you need help, he sent us some beer that all arrived in one piece :) @marklog just trust and believe that everything will be okay, it's all we can do.
@grum @kevin @jont my package is slated to arrive on Friday 5/1.
@grum @marklog @jont I put my beer in a box, then put that box in another box with as much dunnage as it could hold.
@Kevin I wrapped my 22oz bombers with large format bubble wrap (huge meatball sized bubbles), shipping taped the hell out of them, put them in a box that allowed for zero movement. Wrapped the box in a kitchen garbage bag and used nearly a roll of shipping tape to seal it tightly around the box. I then put that box in another box that had a bubble floor and cardboard paper dunnage all around it. I sealed that box with another full roll of shipping tape. I'm still freaking out.
This is how you wrap a package:
@marklog Don't forget the peanuts!
Mine has been shipped off. Should get to @jont by Tuesday.
@Kevin @jont any word on the package?
@Kevin Arrived safe and sound! Thanks for all the extras and goodies! Using those shirts as dunnage was a smart move.
Looking forward to the taste test soon!
Alright, @JonT, @marklog, and @Kevin. I will be shipping out the second bottle tomorrow (sorry to make everybody wait, I've been oncall the last week and quite busy). It is sufficiently dunnaged now, I think! But I'd like to post some photos from my brew!
Brew day! Heading up the mash water:
Measuring out the tasty malt:
Milling our grains in our fancy homemade mill:
Check out that grainy goodness:
Time for the dough in!
After the boil now, chilling the wort down to yeast pitching temps:
Time for some dry hopping!
Mmm, I love the aroma of Amarillo hops!
Kegging time! ignore my mess of a house... (#roommates)
Chilling the keg down to serving temperature to carbonate:
Carbonating the beer! I shook it vigorously for 2-3 minutes at 30psi:
First pint! Look at that beautiful head:
Me bottling while my co-brewer drinks homebrew:
@JonT's bottle!
@grum oh no, he has his own grain mill and a beer gun -- I think we lose @marklog
@Kevin he's not the only one :) Mmmmmmmm Beergun.... /drool.
@marklog hah, i just noticed that!
@Kevin ha ninjaedit.
@Kevin It's so nice, the beergun. No bottle conditioning! That means, with force carbonation, I can go from carboy to drinkable, carbonated bottle in just 3-4 days.
@grum, is that a hefe?
@marklog Definitely a hef. Fits within the BJCP Style Guidelines for a Hefeweizen!
@grum nice! you may send me a bottle of this dry-hopped hefe.
@marklog Alas, it's all gone... -_- The bottle I'm sending to @JonT is the final bottle of Mediocre Hefeweizen...
@marklog, @Kevin, what are you all brewing next??
I just finished brewing a smoked porter tonight! Smelled wonderful, I wish it was next month already so I can try it.
@grum I have an Irish Red that I need to brew
@grum two weeks ago i participated in a Big Brew for National Homebrew Day. 120 homebrewers packed up their gear and set up in the parking lot of a local craft beer production facility. I made 10 gallons of Belgian wit. The other day i added pureed peaches to one of the fermenters and I've been aggressively dry hopping the other.
This weekend, tart cranberry saison.
@marklog I wanted to participate in the Big Brew, but Seattle's annual Beer and Bacon festival fell on the same day... You can't pass up unlimited beer and bacon-inspired dishes!
@Kevin I have a couple Irish Reds I'd like to drink…
@JonT I should be doing that in a month or so!
@Kevin I actually have an Irish Red on my brew list.. I have all the ingredients. Do I see another brew battle on the horizon...?
@grum the perfect meh beer. i haven't found a red that i love. How about a hopmonster, or stout? OR... we can just say 'irish' and you guys do a red and I'll do a stout.
@grum @kevin
speaking of beer lists... here's my current status:
In the keezer:
Black Rabbit IDA (Dark and Hoppy)
Hopsplat Pale (weedwhacked lawn and rainwater)
A Mediocre Hefe (aka bananabeer)
Fermenting:
Peach Belgian Wit (Lefty Loosey)
Hoppy Belgian Wit (Righty Tighty)
Kegged and waiting:
Aaron's Redemption IIPA (just tasted this as I was kegging... very excited)
Pink Hippo with a Tutu Extra Light Pale Ale (Hopwater)
Starsan
Michigan Air
On Deck:
- Cranberry Saison (maybe with Black Pepper)
On the list:
- Chocolate Milk Stout (maybe 10g batch, half with PB2 and half without)
- Roasted Pecan Brown
@marklog Nice list! Is that Hopsplat ale actually made with lawn clippings..?
I'm currently in the planning stages of building an 11-ish tap keezer because why not, but for now I've got a 4-tap kegerator... Beer disappears from it too quickly and I haven't been able to keep up.
In Kegerator:
- Check Out that Blonde Ale
Fermenting:
- A Mediocre Hefeweizen (again, due to popular demand)
- A Smoked Porter
On Deck:
- Mr. Michael Red (IRA, named after our former roommate)
On the List (ingredients purchased, planning on brewing over the coming months):
- Belgian Golden Strong Ale
- Blackberry Hefeweizen
- Dry Irish Stout (gonna hopefully get this on nitro)
- Imperial Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (16.8%!)
- Imperial IPA
- Imperial Rye
- Scotch Ale
- Dunkelweizen
@grum the Hopsplat was a Hopslam clone that experience a massive boilover due to too many Hopslams consumed. I figured i could watch Transformers 4 and my boil at the same time. It merely only tastes like grass clippings. Some people actually like it! I built a three tap keezer and have out grown it as well. Occupying some space is a newly acquired 31 cu ft stand up freezer that could probably hold 10 more taps if i really packed them in. I'll probably do 7 or 8 and a nitro.
@grum I rate your dunnage this time 11/10.
It looks like we have all of the entrants! We've got a Hef showdown between @Kevin, @marklog, & @grum.
We'll also be featuring @bluebeatpete's Tripel but it won't be in direct competition since it's a different type entirely.
I'll keep you guys updated on how and when the tasting/showdown will happen. Looking forward to it!
@JonT cool! Make sure the beers are cold!
@JonT goat prize updated or for realz updated?
@JonT Glad It got there in one piece this time. I was fairly confident though, to be honest. It weighed 2 more pounds than it did the first time, and it was all dunnage. =] Looking forward to the tasting/showdown! Next LabStream??
@grum that's the plan! We'll announce more details soon.
@JonT this is kind of a dumb question but, do you know how to pour a Hefeweizen? You need to swirl the bottle a bit to mix up the yeast in the bottle. There's some pretty big yeast bits floating around in mine, and don't want you to think that's bad.
However, you should hold each bottle up to a bright light to make sure there's nothing growing in it.
@Kevin I'm sure anything growing in there will be delicious! I'll make sure we do a quick check and swirl before the tasting.
@kevin @JonT I have never experienced this 'something growing in my bottle' phenomenon. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.