Monday, September 8, 2014

Beer Zeus Dunkleweizen

Brew date: Aug. 23, 2014
#30 - 4.25 gal

A beer for the baby to be. Beer Zeus: the name of that baby (at least according to our friends... and me). A ridiculous unique name for the beer, but a pretty straight forward recipe.

My first weizen too. I don't tend to care for them, but my wife is a big fan. Especially dunkleweizens. And since she's been brewing a baby for the last 8+ months, she gets whatever she wants when that kid drops.

A team effort all around. And, by "team," I mean that I did nearly all the work. (We're talking about the beer now.) She helped with the mash in, hop additions, and yeast pitch. In between, she made delicious bread and soup. It was a good arrangement.

Turning to the overall brew session, it went smoothly enough. However, my efficiency was lower than expected, maybe 75%. I may have to increase the length of the first saccrification rest next time. I lengthened the boil by another 20 minutes to get closer to my target OG.

This was also the first batch that I successfully whirlpooled and chilled simultaneously. The heat resistant water proof silicone gloves I recently purchased were a big help. Don't leave home without them. The fittings, tubing, and pump are finally doing the work I intended.

After about a week, I racked the beer to a 3-gal carboy to secondary. A few quick observations on the still fermenting and conditioning product. I think the beer could use more residual sweetness and toasty malt. I probably could up the chocolate, caramel wheat, and Special B malts by a few more ounces. Probably throw in a little caramel 40L malt too.

Also, I could definitely detect a distinct sulfur smell early on. I hope that this is just a characteristic of the yeast (as the description says), and that it will dissipate with conditioning. It does seem to be slowly fading. Otherwise, the beer is pretty light, and has that wheat-y flavor. As the wife says, "it tastes like a dunkle." I hope so.

Ingredients:
  • 5.25 lb Pale wheat malt (Briess)
  • 1.75 lb 2-row malt (Briess)
  • 6 oz Munich malt 20L (Briess)
  • 3 oz Caramel wheat malt (Thomas Fawcett)
  • 3 oz Chocolate malt (Briess)
  • 3 oz Special B (Dingemans)
  • 3 oz Roast wheat malt (Thomas Fawcett)
  • 0.5 lb Rice hulls
  • 25 g Tettnanger (3.9%, pellet) (60)
  • Add remainder of Tettnanger (30)
  • 1 t Irish moss (15)
  • Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen yeast 1L starter
Target OG: 1.052
Target FG: 1.013
Target ABV: 5.11%
Target IBU: 15
Target Efficieny: 80%

Schedule:
  • Mash in 4.5 gal @ 128F
  • Protein rest @ 122F (20)
  • Sac rest @ 149F (30)
  • Sac rest @ 158F (30)
  • Mash out @ 168F (10)
  • Batch sparge 3 gal
  • Boil (60)
  • Chill to 70F and pitch
Observations:
First runnings: 3.5 gal @ 1.048
Pre-boil: 6 gal @ 1.040
Evaporation: 1 gal gone at 42 min
OG: 1.047-1.049

Fermentation:
  • Put carboy in cold water with 2 frozen one-gallon jugs overnight. Chill to 66F.
  • Remove ice jugs and allow tempt to free rise all day to 70F
  • Chill for 4 hrs and free rise overnight
  • Allow to ferment at 68-70

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