Query about my first ever brew.

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Zappa86

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Hi, I'm about to do my first ever brew this weekend. I'm going for a hefeweizen and I have a couple of questions before I start:

1. Can I steep carawheat? From what I've read wheat has to be mashed not steeped, however, I've also read that all malts with the prefix 'cara' are speciality malts and are ideal for steeping.
2. If I can steep carawheat do I also have to have hulls/husks or barley malt along with it just as you would with a mash?

If it helps here is my planned recipe

500g carawheat
3kg coopers wheat lme
20g hallertau tradition pellets 4.7%
White labs hefeweizen wlp300
Servomyces capsule
Whirfloc tab

Any advice on this or any mistakes you guys spot would be greatly appreciated.
 
1. Carawheat is simply a crystal malt made from wheat so it should be fine for steeping.
2. No, hulls are added to a mash to prevent a stuck sparge which you don't need to worry about. Barley malt isn't needed either for steeping, only if you're doing a partial mash.
 
1. Carawheat is simply a crystal malt made from wheat so it should be fine for steeping.
2. No, hulls are added to a mash to prevent a stuck sparge which you don't need to worry about. Barley malt isn't needed either for steeping, only if you're doing a partial mash.
Thanks for that :D , really looking forward to getting this brewed.
 
I don't think you need the whirlfloc tablet if you aren't doing a mash. Even then half a tablet is sufficient. I've never used a servomyces tablet, but it shouldn't hurt. The bitterness from the hops looks right for a 60min boil. I would make a starter out of the liquid yeast, to ensure a healthy starting yeast population. Some people do underpitch wlp300 on purpose, to maximise the banana/clove flavours is kicks out, but I wouldn't recommend it as you don't know the viability of the pack. This yeast is also quite sensitive to temperature. Ferment at 18-19C for a restrained subtle character, as you would get in Germany, or at 21-22C for a more characterful brew as is a common interpretation of the style in the US.
 
Another thing, I've never heard of caramel malts being used for a Hefeweizen, and it isn't really in keeping with the style. This will affect the taste and the colour; I suspect it might end up at the dark end of the spectrum for the style, perhaps even closer to a light Dunkel Weizen or Weizen Bock.
 
I was wondering about the Whirfloc tablet myself, again it was something I read mixed views on Whirfloc in Hefe, clarity shouldn't really matter with a German style wheat beer so I may just leave it out. I was hoping the servo capsule would help me avoid doing a starter, the yeast will be new from the shop (putting my faith in them that they look after their stock properly!) so hopefully they'll be raring to go in a moderate OG wort with plenty of nutrients. Aiming to ferment at the lower end of the scale you suggest, a nightmare for me would be to end up with a juicy-fruit bubblegum beer!
 
Yeah, it was a bit of an impulse the carawheat, probably sounds daft but I fancied steeping real grains and thought it sounded like something that would go well with a hefeweizen. I do like darker hefe like hacker-pschorr sternweiss.
 
Just completed the brew, now sitting in the fermenter waiting for the bubbling :) Was a bit stressful, especially on the cold side worrying if I was keeping everything sterile, hopefully the starsan splashed everywhere would do the trick, but it was really fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how it'll turn out.
 
Am sure you will wake tomorrow to the reassuring regular glug of an airlock (if one was fitted)
your gonna have a brew to savour in a few short weeks ..
 
I don't think you need the whirlfloc tablet if you aren't doing a mash. Even then half a tablet is sufficient. I've never used a servomyces tablet, but it shouldn't hurt. The bitterness from the hops looks right for a 60min boil. I would make a starter out of the liquid yeast, to ensure a healthy starting yeast population. Some people do underpitch wlp300 on purpose, to maximise the banana/clove flavours is kicks out, but I wouldn't recommend it as you don't know the viability of the pack. This yeast is also quite sensitive to temperature. Ferment at 18-19C for a restrained subtle character, as you would get in Germany, or at 21-22C for a more characterful brew as is a common interpretation of the style in the US.

IanM
I wish I had half your knowledge of beer/brewing mate,I don't mind admitting I'm jealous,you may find yourself on the receiving end of a few questions from me,MyQul helped me recently with a Czech Pilsner and it has turned out nice,only done three biab brews and what a hobby,super :thumb:
 
Just completed the brew, now sitting in the fermenter waiting for the bubbling :) Was a bit stressful, especially on the cold side worrying if I was keeping everything sterile, hopefully the starsan splashed everywhere would do the trick, but it was really fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how it'll turn out.

Let us know how it works out :thumb:
 
IanM
I wish I had half your knowledge of beer/brewing mate,I don't mind admitting I'm jealous,you may find yourself on the receiving end of a few questions from me,MyQul helped me recently with a Czech Pilsner and it has turned out nice,only done three biab brews and what a hobby,super :thumb:

Haha. Thanks, but I can't take too much credit. The only reason I knew about the Hefeweizen style was because I read up on it before making my first attempt at one, which is in the fv with the same WLP300 yeast as we speak.
 
I have used Carawheat before but 500g for your recipe is too much imho. I would only use half. Its good stuff though
Glad I took your advice and cut the carawheat down (I used 250g), at the moment it's looking a bit on the lighter side of a dunkelweizen, if I had put the whole 500g I think it would have been way too dark.

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Now one week since the wort went into the fv and it all seems OK. One thing I am concerned about is that I haven't seen a bubble from the airlock since 4 days into the fermentation. Is this normal? It went like a rocket the first few days but seems to have gone all quiet now.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
 
Yeah that's fine. It slows down as the sugars get consumed, but the yeast is still doing its job.
 
Thanks. Going to give it one more week then I'll bottle.

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Just bottled the brew and I'm pretty pleased with it so far. FG was about 1.012 which is about what beersmith suggests, smells like hefeweizen, looks like hefeweizen but the little sip I had did taste like hefeweizen but it had a really thin body. I'm planning on brewing it again, do you think more malt extract will add body (as well as alcohol)?

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