Like Stonch, I have been adding to my relationship with beer through running a nano-brewery in the kitchen. While I have no beer cam (yet), it's great fun as brewing gets you close to the ingredients and give you some insights into what craft brewers are doing and doing for you.
So I ordered a few all-grain kits from the ever excellent and much to be recommended Paddock Wood of Saskatchewan - yes, in Canada you have to mail order your beer supplies if you want the good stuff - and settled down to making some of the styles I am fond of these days, pales ales and porters and milds mainly. Then last night, I got out the hefeweizen kit thinking I would make the wort on one night, boil it and pitch the yeast the next. I puled out my copy of Eric Warner's 1992 home brewing text German Wheat Beer and - holy decoction, batman - what a epic effort! Just making the wort took about seven temperature changes and required splitting the mash at one point treating the two parts to different temperature treatments. Each stage (theoretically) provides for separate enzyme or protein generation and needs coaxing out in specific succession. As a result, what I thought was going to take maybe an hour and a bit pushed three and a half and I am stuck with half a carboy of something that looks kinda like thin gravy.
I will tell you how it goes but for now my first lesson is certainly respect your hefeweizen. By the way, Eric seems to have been the lead dog (CEO) of Flying Dog since 1999. Good source of advice to take.
Comments
Eric Trimmer - June 18, 2007 10:09 AM
"I am stuck with half a carboy of something that looks kinda like thin gravy."
Don't worry. That style's supposed to look cloudy...
Ugh. Spending two hours brewing from extract is a daunting task for me. I'd like to start brewing all-grain -- for the same reason I like to make my own mayonnaisesd -- but the brew time is so long I don't know if I'd ever get around to brewing a batch.
Thomas - June 18, 2007 5:27 PM
I tend for a two stage rest on mash one at 120-125F and then my 155 and have been very pleased with my results, but I am very much a 'Relax and Have a Homebrew' Brewer.
Also I am a total Hefe fanatic. :-)
Bailey - June 18, 2007 5:33 PM
We've tried to brew German wheat beer twice. It was horrid both times. The fancy-pants sachet of liquid yeast we bought didn't do anything, either time, so we ended up using dry "lager" yeast. Didn't taste nice. The version with blackberries in was good, though - I guess they mask the underlying foulness. Never tried a mash as complex as the one you describe. Good luck!
Alan - June 18, 2007 10:21 PM
The half batch appears to be in the range of 1.048 at about 10.5 litres. I am going with the Bavarian Wheat strain from Wyeast. Day two was much easier.
LStaff - June 19, 2007 4:38 PM
Looks like you've tried it the hard way. Next time try the easy way and compare to see if the extra time effort is worth it to you. Purists will piss all over this method, but I have done it both ways and prefer the results (and the time savings) of doing it the easy way. Only you, trying it on your equipment, will be able to tell if it works for you or not.
The easy way - single infusion mash in the low 150's with 5-10% carahell malt.
Alan - June 20, 2007 10:57 PM
Looks really good at the transfer to the secondary. 1.016 or around 4% and a clean banana-pineapple, clove-white-pepper taste.
Kris - July 18, 2007 2:51 PM
How did it turn out in the end? I really want to try this myself.
Alan - July 18, 2007 3:31 PM
Oh, yea. I was going to mention. It was still tasty at the bottling but I used DME to bottle. The one I popped after ten days was overwhelmed with the DME taste. I am leaving it for another month. Next time I would bottle with corn sugar or even honey as I fear I may have undone all the all grain goodness.
Alan - August 9, 2007 5:40 PM
Now, three weeks later, it is much better. My only complaint is that it is not carbonated enough even with the extra boost of DME I gave it.