Sunday, August 21, 2011

Hefeweizen Brew Day

With the temperatures outside remaining under 100 I decided it was time to fire up the brew kettle.  I will be doing a lot of tailgating in the upcoming months in Manhattan for some KSU football.   I wanted to brew something for the first couple games that is light and easy drinking since the outside temps will proly still be on the hot side.  I have been drinking a lot of the Dortmunder and Bitter I have on tap right now so I wanted something different.  My wife suggested a Hefeweizen since I hadn't made one this summer.  I figured that would be a great beer that would appeal to the other tailgaters in the hot weather. 

My recipe for a German style Hefeweizen is fairly simple.  I use 50% German Pilsner malt and 50% White Wheat malt.  Any German noble hop will do to hit your IBUs.  This beer isn't about the hops so it isn't that important which variety you choose.  For this batch of Hefeweizen I choose to use Tettnang because I had around 1 pound of these in the freezer.  Trying to clean out the freezer of hops before the new crop of hops come in to Hops Direct this fall. 

After the boil I hooked up the garden hose to the immersion chiller as usual.  The ground water here in Kansas is hotter than normal because of the extremely hot summer we have had.  I knew that the ground water with the immersion chiller wasn't going to get my wort down to pitching temperature without some help.  I was going to have to break out my pond pump with ice water to assist in the cooling process.  I use this setup when I brew lagers to get my wort down to 55*F.  I purchased a pond pump from Home Depot that you would use in a small fish pond.  I place that at the bottom of a brew bucket and fill the bucket with ice.  I put enough water in the bucket to get the pump going and the hot water coming back will melt the ice to keep the pump from running dry.  I attached the pump to the immersion chiller and run the ice water through the chiller to help bring the wort down to 60-65*F.  I use the hose water to first get the wort down to 80-85*F then I hook up the ice water.  This works really well and I only use one 20 lb. bag of ice.  If your struggling to get your wort down to pitching temperature with this hot summer weather, give this technique a shot.  It is really inexpensive and works extremely well.


I used the Wyeast 3068 yeast.  If you like your hefeweizen to have more of the clove flavor ferment this beer in the low 60s or if banana is your thing then ferment in the upper 60s to lower 70s.  I like the banana but in lower amounts so I generally ferment this beer around 64-66.  I have posted the recipe below if you want to give this beer a shot.  Cheers!!


Recipe: Weissbier
Brewer: Ashley Strube
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Weizen/Weissbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
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:
------------
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 %       
2.50 oz       Tettnang [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
----------------------------
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       

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