German Hefeweizen

This morning I got up early to brew a German style Hefeweizen for my friends Chris Tallent and Ashley Roos engagement party. I will be providing two beers for this event, a English Dark Mild and German Hefeweizen. I already have a keg of the Dark Mild so I needed to brew a 10 gallon batch to fill (2) 5 gallon kegs. Brew day went extremely smooth with no problems at all. I have taken a few pictures of my sent up to share.

First is a picture of my mash tun. I have a Minibrew 15 gallon mash tun. It is made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE). I had a rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler with a stainless false bottom but needed more capacity to mash more grain. The false bottom in the Minibrew is way better than the rubbermaid cooler false bottom. I would have to vorlof 5-6 one gallon pitchers to get the wort to run clear. With the Minibrew false bottom the wort is running clear after 2 one gallon pitchers. To heat the water for the mash I have a Blichmann Engineering BoilerMaker 20 gallon brew pot. It is by far the best pot I have ever laid eyes on. It is a little on the pricey side but after using it for almost a year now it i s definitely worth the money. I have a March 809HS pump to pump hot water and wort around so I don't have to lift it. When doing 12 gallon batches with is a must!!

So after I have finished the boil I use the pump to recirculate the wort while I chill it with a 50' immersion chiller. I have modified the chiller with another copper tube to help whirlpool the wort while chilling. It definitely reduces the chilling time. So while the beer is chilling I cleaned my fermentor. I have a 14 gallon Blichmann Engineering Fermanator. It is all stainless so it is really easy to maintain. After the wort was cooled, I transfered the beer to the fermentor and pitched the yeast. Without going into much more detail that is the brew setup. The Beersmith brew information in posted below.




BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Weissbier
Brewer: Ashley Strube
Asst Brewer:
Style: Weizen/Weissbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Boil Size: 15.38 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
11 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 50.00 %
11 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 50.00 %
2.70 oz Vanguard [4.40 %] (60 min) Hops 22.2 IBU
2.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) Yeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 22.00 lb
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Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 7.00 gal of water at 163.4 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 4.00 gal of water at 200.0 F 168.0 F