AG no.6 - Drunkle Stephen

[Alastair70]

After the great result with last months Hefeweizen, (and the accidental over-order wheat), I've followed up with a Weihenstephan Dunkle.
Starters made, water treatment is complete and the Grainfather is set to hit temperature at 12.30 tomorrow. I've a half-day at work tomorrow morning and the perfect plan for how to spend the afternoon. Recipe below.

19L Batch

Water profile
Ca 75ppm, HCO 20, SO4:Cl ratio 1.5

Fermentables
2kg Wheat Malt (Weyermann)
2kg Pilsner Malt (Weyermann)
0.15kg Caramalt (Crisp)
0.15kg Special B (Dingemans)

Mash - 16L
Protein rest - 20 mins 50C
Mash - 60 mins 66.7C
Mash out 10 mins 75C

Sparge - 12L

Boil - 60 mins
Single hop addition, Hallertauer Mittlefrau 30g at 60 mins

Fermentation
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen
1 smack pack, starter made last night, target 0.78 cells/ml/Plato

 

[Oneflewover]

Looks like a good recipe

 

[Alastair70]

Cheers. It’s a distillate of about 5 different ones I found online. The method is pretty close to what I used or the Hefeweizen, just sticking with what seams to work.

 

[Alastair70]

Just had an entertaining days brewing. Managed to knock the filter off the Grainfather during the boil, smash my trial jar and forgot to check mash pH again. Apart from those minor dramas everything mostly went according to plan.

Ended up with 20.75L of wort in the fermenter, OG 1.049, and pitched the yeast. Going to run it at 18C in the water bath for the first few days to maximise the clovey ester production, then up the temp to get the banana in and the diacetyl out. (Happy to be corrected, if I’m wrong on those points).

Brewhouse efficiency comes in at 76%, I must be getting better at this!

 

[strange-steve]

I've managed to knock the filter off many times now, I do intend to get a SS jubilee clip to hold it in place.

Going to run it at 18C in the water bath for the first few days to maximise the clovey ester production, then up the temp to get the banana in and the diacetyl out. (Happy to be corrected, if I’m wrong on those points).

You probably won't get much banana if you wait a few days before ramping the temperature up, lower temperatures tend to reduce ester production (banana comes from esters, clove comes from phenols). If you want more of a balanced flavour profile then I'd ferment a little higher, or else ramp the temperature up more quickly.

 

[Alastair70]

Thanks Steve, I stand corrected. Aiming for balance, so I’ll up the temp earlier.

 

[Alastair70]

7 days in primary and gravity is down to 1.012. Going to let it sit until Sunday then bottle. Swig from the trial jar tasted ok, clove and banana flavours appear balanced, but it’s pretty rough round the edges at the minute. A bit of settling in time is in order.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Hiya mate, thinking of doing a dunkel soonish, looking at your recipe I wondered how dark it's coming out?

 

[Alastair70]

Not as dark as I'd have liked. I'll be rechecking gravity tomorrow, I'll post a picture.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Cheers mate!

 

[Alastair70]

Gravity fell a bit further, down from 1.012 on Wednesday to 1.010. Small glass on right is the Drunkle Stephen, large glass on the left is my HefeWeissbier "Weiss The Flock" for comparison. Not a lot of difference in colour, but the Dunkelweizen has a deeper maltier flavour. Will be re-brewing both, the Hefe is spot on but the Dunkle needs some tweaking.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Quite similar looking aren't they! If they taste nice that's the main thing!

I've decided (and bought) the malt to make the weizenbock and dunkelweizen from GH's book. Looking forward to it!

 

[Alastair70]

Quite similar looking aren't they! If they taste nice that's the main thing!

I've decided (and bought) the malt to make the weizenbock and dunkelweizen from GH's book. Looking forward to it!

Looking forward to see seeing your final recipes and hearing how you get on. I’m lining up some stouts and IPAs for autumn brewing then I’ll be coming back to the wheats after that.

 

[Alastair70]

I've worked it out!!
Reviewing my order, I added 250g of flaked rice, not rice hulls as planned. Doh
Will rebrew same recipe with hulls next time and see how it turns out.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Ahh what difference would that make (i could google)?

The Dunkelweizen recipe will be

Wheat Malt 2.7kg
Munich Malt 2.3kg
Caramunich 300g
Special B 300g

Tetnang 32g @60 mins

Bavarian wheat yeast lallemand danstar i think.

ABV 5.6% and EBC 29.5

 

[matt76]

I don't think the rice hulls will add anything, I think they're usually used to prevent a stuck sparge if you're using large amounts of certain adjuncts.

But I believe this is mainly irrelevant if you BIAB. Certainly when I've used 20% flaked oats I've found the mash very sticky afterwards and hard to get an effective bag squeeze - but subsequently I found a 20 min mash rest at 50degC cured the problem

 

[pilgrimhudd]

20% flaked oats is a lot, what was that in? A stout presumably?

 

[matt76]

20% flaked oats is a lot, what was that in? A stout presumably?

You would think so, but nope - it was my El Dorado-hopped pineapple hazy pale ale

 

[Alastair70]

I don't think the rice hulls will add anything, I think they're usually used to prevent a stuck sparge if you're using large amounts of certain adjuncts.

But I believe this is mainly irrelevant if you BIAB. Certainly when I've used 20% flaked oats I've found the mash very sticky afterwards and hard to get an effective bag squeeze - but subsequently I found a 20 min mash rest at 50degC cured the problem

The Hefe I did in July took over an hour to lautre and sparge, hence the attempted addition of rice hulls. Out of interest the 250g of flaked rice helped no end!
Brewing in a Grainfather so a bag squeeze isn’t an option any more.

 

[cushyno]

Ahh what difference would that make (i could google)?

The Dunkelweizen recipe will be

Wheat Malt 2.7kg
Munich Malt 2.3kg
Caramunich 300g
Special B 300g

Tetnang 32g @60 mins

Bavarian wheat yeast lallemand danstar i think.

ABV 5.6% and EBC 29.5

I brewed this recipe back in Feb, though with Munich and Wheat grain weights reversed (I didn't have enough wheat left).

The Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068 yeast is a cracker. It was fermented at 18°C and with a water profile slightly on the malty side, made for a nice balanced flavour.

It's a rather lively brew and I've had a few gushers.