Messed up my Weizenbock

So it will end up being a Dunkelweizen. Funny how these things turn out. I am sure it will end up being quite a tasty Dunkelweizen, because it smelled sehr gut.

The only reason it is not a bock, is because a missed my OG by a few points. I was aiming toward the much lighter side of a bock, but since I missed it (first time I have done wheat, and the percentage was 60%+ of the total grain), it is into weissbier territory. This being said, the IBUs will be a little higher as well, I am sure.

Here is the recipe... I think it will turn out great! Note that it was a small batch, with the final volume being near 10L.

Dunkelweizen in Munich

15-B Dunkelweizen

Size: 10.22 L

Efficiency: 70.18%

Attenuation: 80.5%

Calories: 178.11 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.054 (1.044 - 1.056)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.010 - 1.014)

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Color: 15.3 (13.0 - 14.0)

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Alcohol: 5.7% (4.3% - 5.6%)

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Bitterness: 23.85 (10.0 - 18.0)

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Ingredients:

3.6 lbs Wheat Malt

1.3 lbs Pilsner Malt

0.5 lbs Munich TYPE I

0.33 lbs Caramunich® TYPE II

0.09 lbs Chocolate Malt

0.02 lbs Roasted Barley

0.38 oz Hallertau Tradition (8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.11 oz Hallertau Tradition (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1.0 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 4.14 L; Strike: 134.2 °F; Target: 122 °F

00:23:00 Protein Rest - Rest: 20 min; Final: 118.8 °F

00:24:00 Infusion - Water: 4.0 L; Temperature: 211.8 °F; Target: 157 °F

01:24:00 Sac Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 147.8 °F

01:25:00 Infusion - Water: 2.61 L; Temperature: 212 °F; Target: 160.9 °F

01:55:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 7.0 L collected, 15 min; Second: 7.0 L sparge @ 170 °F, 7 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 14.0 L

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.22

Bottling Day... and running out of DME

Yes, I am running out of DME as my priming agent. Since I do not have a LHBS nearby, I am going to have to resort to table sugar to do the work. It has been a while since I have done this, but, I am sure things will be fine.

I am going to bottle the CHP I made a couple of weeks ago... and again, I am worried about the amount of Roasted Barley I added. So, I will be giving it a taste later this afternoon.

I have this deep fear that somehow I will forget to add the hazelnut extract to the bottling bucket. Luckily I got plenty of sleep this morning, so my mind should be sharp enough to avoid that catastrophe.

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter/Stout

After doing some research, I have determined what the difference between a stout and a porter is. The reason for the research, was due to limited grain resources on hand. Currently I have these grains in stock:

• Weizen (Wheat)
• Pilsner
• Wiener (Vienna)
• Munich
• Caramunich II
• Carapils
• Chocolate Malt
• Roasted Barley

Now, I have wanted to make Jamil's CHP (Chocolate Hazelnut Porter) for a long time. Due to some forethought on my part, I made sure early on that I acquired Hazelnut extract, although I did not put enough forethought into what specialty grains/malts I should have on hand though. So at the end of the day, I am not able to brew Jamil's recipe, but a clone of a microbrew porter with the CH part.

The difference between a porter and a stout... the differences I am concerned about are the ones pertinent to this recipe. I could substitute (or have) everything but one ingredient, Black Patent Malt. Porters are "all malt", while stouts can have things other than malt (like "Roasted Barley).

So, I do have roasted barley. I thumbed through BYOs recent clone recipes magazine, and found a porter that contains ingredients that I have on hand. Now, I think this might technically not be a porter, since it does have roasted barley, and I have read that you must NOT-NOT-NOT put that in a porter.

Well, I will brew Bridgeports "Porter" recipe from BYO. Now, the recipe I will show is pretty identical to the one published, except I scaled it down, and substituted in Pilsner for 2-row, and Caramunich for the Crystal. Otherwise, it is identical. The SRM, IBU, OG/FG are close enough.

On brewday, the smell of the wort seemed a little too roasty for me. It tasted like reasonably good unfermented beer. In time the roastyness will die, or? Upon bottling, I will add in the Hazelnut extract... here is the recipe ->

Chocolate Hazelnut Porter (probably stout, but a Bridgeport Brewery clone) I

12-B Robust Porter

Size: 14.45 L

Efficiency: 81.49%

Attenuation: 75.5%

Calories: 199.9 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.048 - 1.065)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.012 - 1.016)

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Color: 27.6 (22.0 - 35.0)

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Alcohol: 5.95% (4.8% - 6.0%)

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Bitterness: 34.22 (25.0 - 50.0)

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Ingredients:

6.6 lbs Pilsner Malt

1.0 lbs Caramunich® TYPE II

0.38 lbs Chocolate Malt

0.57 lbs Roasted Barley

0.43 oz Magnum (15%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.47 oz East Kent Goldings (5.7%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

6.0 oz Cocoa Powder - added during boil, boiled 5 min

18.75 mL Hazelnut (extract) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 8.9 L; Strike: 167.0 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 4.48 L; Temperature: 206.8 °F

01:34:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 8.5 L collected, 15 min; Second: 8.5 L sparge @ 170 °F, 8.5 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 17.0 L

Notes:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.20

It has been brewed! (Dampfbier)

Ok , so I have finally got around to brewing the Dampfbier recipe. Except for some mash temperature maintenance/striking problems, things went smooth-like. I ended up having to use Hallertauer Tradition, instead of Mittlefruh... but I will not be able to tell the difference. You can bet on that. My nose and tastebuds are not that sensitive.

Starter-> Boiled enough DME for 200ml starter, dropped in 1/10 WLP300 tube, let it go overnight. Twelve hours later, boiled 800ml worth of starter, and put 4/10 WLP300 in to go for another 8 hours. The starter was bubbling hard by the time I pitched in the nightime. The wort temperature was 70F.

Fermenter-> Airlock activity started within the hour. The next day the airlock is still active, and the wort is sitting at 63.5F. Ok, so "dampf" means "steam"... at these temperatures, it will not be an active (steam) ferment. The starter smelled like a banana plantation, so that should be enough banana for me. I would rather have it cold ferment (clovey).

Dampfbier I

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 15.6 L

Efficiency: 82.51%

Attenuation: 79.4%

Calories: 176.26 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.053 (1.044 - 1.052)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.010 - 1.014)

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Color: 7.1 (2.0 - 8.0)

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Alcohol: 5.55% (4.3% - 5.6%)

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Bitterness: 13.26 (8.0 - 15.0)

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Ingredients:

5.33 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger

1.14 lbs Vienna Malt

1.14 lbs Munich TYPE I

0.38 oz Hallertau Tradition (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 45 min

0.19 oz Hallertau Tradition (8.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

0.5 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 7.92 L; Strike: 166.9 °F

01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60.0 min

01:04:00 Infusion - Water: 4.53 L; Temperature: 210.0 °F

01:34:00 Sparge - FirstRunnings: 0.0 L sparge @ 168.0 °F, 8.0 L collected, 15 min; Second: 9.0 L sparge @ 170 °F, 9 L collected, 15 min; Total Runoff: 17.0 L

Notes:

Put some comments here:

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.20p

Dampfbier

After perusing through a BYO magazine from last year, the style of "Dampfbier" has got me interested. The is basically a German Weissbier, without the wheat. Since I love the Weihenstephan yeast strain so much, this beer seems very well suited for me. It is basically 70% Pilsner Malt, and 30% Munich Malt with Hallertauer hops. Ok, this seems simple enough.

Here is the recipe from BYO (more or less)

Dampfbier

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 5.0 gal

Efficiency: 73.51%

Attenuation: 80.5%

Calories: 169.68 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.051 (1.044 - 1.052)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.010 - 1.014)

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Color: 6.4 (2.0 - 8.0)

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Alcohol: 5.43% (4.3% - 5.6%)

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Bitterness: 14.38 (8.0 - 15.0)

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Ingredients:

7 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger

3 lbs Munich TYPE I

1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (4.0%) - added during boil, boiled 45 min

.5 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (4.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min

1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1 ea White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Schedule:

Just mash at 152F for an hour.

Notes:

Ferment it cold ( <>72F) for the steam "dampf" effect. This would give you huge banana flavors.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.19

Simcoe Tasting

Ok, so my IPA in Muenchen II (an All-Simcoe beer) recipe had been bottled, and is now ready for tasting. Let me first say how excited I am about this beer. This beer is basically a hop delivery system. First, it consisted of a late hop addition, exclusively. Second, I did not dry hop it because I did not want to impart extra aroma due the experiment with this late hop only (10 minutes, all hops went into the boil).

I needed to check how much aroma went into the brew without staining of a dry hop addition.

So, the tasting, look and feel of the beer. LOL

1. The head is thick, and long lasting. So far so good.
2. The color is spot on according to the recipe I posted earlier. Nice
3. The aroma... piney and fruity, I can not say much more about it, except that it is obvious.
4. Bitterness, normal for a pale ale, not necessarily IPA numbers, according to taste of course.
5. Flavor... yes, this beer is a hop delivery system. The first impression I had when I drank it was ORANGE. Nice. No need to add fruit extracts when you can pull similar flavors from the hops.
6. Mouthfeel. Great, it is not as dry as my last beer. I am not sure what the FG gravity is at the moment since I do not have a hydrometer. But, I would guess 1.012 - 1.015 or so.
7. It must be the Munich water. I can not complain, the water is the best tasting tap I have ever had, and this goes into the beer somehow.

Collecting Wort

Ok, here is a picture of the wort collection from one of my brewdays. As you can see, the worlds cheapest mashtun is being used in a high tech siphon gravity feed system. It is my belief that the fermenter I am using is made for winemaking, but it was the only thing I could really use here. And, it works fine. Previously I had used glass carboys, but I have none at the moment.

The collection of the wort is slow. Tube diameter plays an important role in this, and I have to make do with what I have.

All in all it seems to work out fine. I was going to go through the trouble of drilling a hole in the cooler, and have the runnings feed out of the bottom. But, siphoning works just as well. I do not have to worry about sanitation (starting the siphon) since it is a pre-boil process step.

This type of all-grain system could not get any simpler!

Chill Haze

It seems I have my first case of chill haze, and the symptoms are obvious. My beer seemed to have dropped clear in the third week of it being bottled, and I was thrilled. Unfortunately, once it cools in the refridgerator, things get murky.

The sad part is that I had Whirlfloc on hand for all of my recent brews, but I had forgotten to put it in for the last two out of three batches. So, we will see if the All-Simcoe IPA (no whirlfloc) retains a chill haze quality or not. My last batch I did remember to put it in, I guess I will know in a month or so.

From what has been read, it seems that gelatin, whirlfloc, and irish moss can sometimes solve the problem. But, cold filtering will usually always solve the problem. Since I do not have the means, I will find another way.

The cause of the problem can be everything from what the barley farmer did, to protein content, to tannins, to the maltsters...etc.

Few Things in the Last Couple Days

I managed to bottle on Wednesday (IPA in Muenchen II), and I brewed yesterday (IPA in Muenchen III). Yes, it has been a couple of busy days.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my hydrometer is broken. I feel completely naked without it. The hydrometer somehow gives me a sense of the science going on behind the brew... and without it, it just feels like art (subjective). Being the technical person that I am, I am saving samples of the wort that I am not able to test for when I finally get a new hydrometer. Being that there are no LHBSs around here, I will need to wait a while. Bummer.

Some New Blogs Added

...to the left side of the page. Three added that are brewers blogs. Interesting to read into the mind of a professional brewer.

First Tasting of IPA in Munchen I

Well, I cracked open a bottle of my first batch sparged all grain brew... and I would have to say it is lecker (German for tasty). I never anticipated that my first all grain would taste so good, or get brewed so easily and smoothly. This recipe is basically an IPA with EKG and Centennial hops.

I have to say that I was a little worried about using the EKGs because I have not used them in the past. But, all seemed to turn out fine.

The beer is clean, and there are zero off flavors. The bitterness is super smooth (it has no bite). The hop aroma is super noticeable when inhaled, but not overwhelming when the glass is sitting a foot and a half away from you.

The beer is cloudy, but came out the correct color. The head is long lasting, and not overly large.

The final gravity of the beer ended up being 1.008. This is a little on the dry side, but to be honest, it is not a big deal. The only downfall of this dryness is that I drink the beer faster than I really should be. Dangerous it is, due to the alcohol percentage of 7%+.

The alcohol can not be tasted, this is a sign of a good fermentation. The basement held in the low 60s, and the yeast is US-56. Both properties allowed the presence of alcohol flavor to be minimal.

I can say that this recipe is a winner. One of the downsides is that the clarity of the beer is poor. This is most likely attributed to me forgetting to put whirlfloc in it, and not boiling as hard as I could have been.

All in all, things went super well. I would like to thank "The Brewing Network", and Denny's batch sparging webpage, and all of the great beer forums out there for allowing this process to be so easy, fun, and producing of great flavored brew.

Ok, I did not win an award. But, I feel like I could not have done so well without the above mentioned resources.

Distinguishing between Weissbiers

I noticed that I am having a little trouble distinguishing between Weissbiers here in Munich. I can definitely say that I do not enjoy Erdinger Weissbier. Otherwise, the rest taste super similar... except for some differences in aroma, and whether they have gone bad or not, it is hard to distinguish between them.

Now, I can of course distinctly taste the difference between styles of Weissbier (i.e Dunkel, Weizenbock, Regular). My favorite being the Dunkles Weissbier. I guess as time goes on, my palette will advance a bit. For now, I can enjoy the majority of them without thinking about it too much.

To be honest, after 5-10 sips, who is analyzing any beer anymore?