HefeWeizen

I decided to try my hand at a HefeWeizen last month. I was looking for an easy drinking beer that would be ready in less than 3 weeks. This seemed to fit the bill just fine.

In a bold move, I decided to craft my own recipe for this, despite having never brewed one before. I did some research and came up with a nice easy recipe. Don't be surprised if you have seen recipes very very similar to this around, this is a basic hefe and so it resembles a lot of other recipes.

The key ingredients to a HefeWeizen are: wheat malt, pilsner malt and yeast. That gives you the basic core of the beer. Hops are not a big priority here, just need a little for balance. I used German Magnums, and hopped it to 9.7 IBUs. Use a clean bittering hop for this, you don't want too much flavor coming through. I like Magnums because while they are very bitter, they are also extremely smooth.

For my HefeWeizen, I decided I wanted just a touch of something extra. So I added a small amount (1 lb) of Munich Malt. That adds just a touch of extra maltiness that goes very well with the style, in my opinion.

The yeast and fermentation temperatures make or break this beer. For the yeast I chose White Labs WLP380 HefeWeizen IV Ale. This is a more balanced yeast, giving a nice amount of both clove and banana flavors. It is supposed to be less fruity than other Hefe yeasts, but I found that it added a significant amount of banana aroma, especially while the beer was still young.

White labs lists the optimum temperatures for this yeast as 66°-70°, don't listen to them! If you ferment it that warm you will have a fruit basket on your hands. Make a nice starter for this (use www.mrmalty.com to calculate size) and pitch cold. Like 55-58° cold. Let the beer warm up naturally to 62° and hold it there. Give it lots of time, at this temp the Hefe IV is a bit slow, but worth the wait. In my case I let it go for 1 1/2 weeks and then I let it warm up to 67° to finish out.

The most important step here is controlling your temps, pitch cool, ferment cool and all will be well. If you ferment warmer it will still be drinkable, but in my opinion you won't strike that wonderful balance between flavors.

Here is the recipe:
for a 6 gallon batch at 70%
7 .00 lb White Wheat Malt
3.75 lb Pilsner Malt
1.00 lb Munich Malt
.30 oz Magnum (10.43%) @ 60
WLP380 HefeWeizen IV Ale

Mash at 152° for 75 minutes.

Use a 90 minute boil to drive off any DMS.

Should be ready to bottle keg in a couple of weeks. Enjoy this beer young!

Brown Porter

I brewed up what was supposed to be a brown porter. That was the idea. The recipe was one I found on the internet, it claimed to be a taddy porter clone, but that was a complete lie. It was in reality far more like Black Butte than Tadcaster.

For a 6 gallon batch at 70% efficiency:
10 lb Maris Otter
1.3 lb Crystal 60°L
1 lb Black Patent
.5 lb Chocolate Malt
.2 lb Dark Molasses
1.11 oz Northern Brewer @ 90
.6 oz Fuggles @ 15
WLP007, 2 liter starter

Est OG: 1.053

Mash at 150° for 75 minutes.

I ended up overshooting my OG by 5 points and started at 1.058

Ferment cool at 62-64°. I allowed it to raise to 67° after a week and a half to get full attenuation. WLP007 was very very quick for me. It dropped to 1.019 after just 3 days. After 2 weeks it was 1.017. Only 70% attenuation, but it worked nicely for the style.

I ended up with a dark beer with a very full body and lots of dark roasted grain character. Fantastic drinking. Even on a hot summer day, it's very refreshing. Serve it a little cold for the style and it really goes down smooth.

Wedding beers were a hit!

20 gallons of beer and I have about 3 gallons left. Not too bad. The California Common and the WitBier were the big hits, with the Pale in 3rd and the Stout a distant 4th. Well, I knew that Stout was not all it could be when I made it.

I'm still of the opinion that I left the best beers at home. I whipped up a Brown Porter and a HefeWeizen to have around for family and friends and both of them turned out amazing! Oh well.

Expect recipes and posts on both of those soon.