No-Decoction Hefeweizen

I’ve brewed this recipe a couple of times and I’ve always enjoyed how it has come out. The only issue is that I’ve never actually hit the targets I’ve wanted (that I’m aware). I chose to brew my Hefeweizen for competition because I feel it is straight to style and I’m curious to see how it fairs against other competition and to see what a panel of impartial judges thinks. 

For some reason I had trouble brewing this beer again. I added rice hulls to the mash tun to aid in efficiency; however, it still came in under gravity. I made adjustments during the boil to increase my gravity by extending the boil. I wasn’t too concerned losing volume because I have more than enough beer already, but I was concerned with hitting targets. Apparently though I made a miss calculation and boiled off too much and ended up 0.010 points over my target, which would lead me to believe that I was at the right pre-boil gravity. I’m not sure what happened, but I added about a gallon of water to bring it into the target range.  Adding the water won’t lower my calculated IBUs too much and since it’s a Hefeweizen they are low to start. Who knows maybe the extended boil will add some extra melanoidins that I would get from a Decoction if I were not so lazy (that’s why I add Melanoidin malt).

On top of all of my brewing problems the week following brewing the temperature dipped as a cold front came through. Normally I ferment my Hefeweizens at 64^oF to keep the yeast esters in check, but I had trouble getting it warm enough. If I brought it inside it would be too warm, but outside in my chest freezer it was too cold. I’m sure some time I’ll actually brew this beer without any added trouble, but at the end of the day I can’t really complain because it’s always been good. 

Beer Stats

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil time: 135 minutes

Estimated OG: 1.048

Measured OG: 1.046
Measured FG:
ABV:  

IBU: 15

SRM: 6.8^o

Grain Bill

5.0 lbs – Wheat Malt

4.5 lbs – Pilsner Malt

0.3 lb – Acid Malt

0.25 lb – Melanoidin Malt

Hops

65 min – Hallertauer – 0.75 oz

25 min – Hallertauer – 0.25 oz

Mash Schedule

151^oF – Saccrification Rest – 60 minutes added 2 grams each of CaCl and Gypsum

Yeast

Wyeast 3068 – 1L starter made the day before the freshen up the yeast

Notes:

1/17/15 – Brewed by myself. Mash pH measured at 5.39. Added 3.1 grams of CaCl and Gypsum to the sparge water. Pre-boil measured at 1.030 with hydrometer. Added time to the boil to condense the wort. Chilled to pitching temperature and measured gravity, 1.058 this time. Added 1 gallon of chilled boiled water. Gravity down to 1.046. Added 45 seconds of pure O₂ and pitched the yeast starter. Placed in chest freezer to ferment. 

1/18/15 – No signs of fermentation, probably because it’s too cold, chest freezer temperature is at 50^oF. Fermentation started 36 hours later.

1/19/15 – Temperature up to 52^oF.

1/20/15 – Temperature up to 54^oF.

1/22/15 – Brought up to beer room to finish out fermentation. Room temperature at about 70^oF.

2/3/15 - Placed in chest freezer to cold crash some of the floaties.

2/4/15 - Bottled with 175 grams of table sugar targeting 3.8 volumes of CO2.

2/18/15 - First tasting. Really pleased with the results.