Hefing and Puffing!

Have you ever woke up and thought what a great day to brew a Hefe-Weizen? Well, I had that yearning. Our Summer Wit was almost gone, mainly due to my overly generous (drunk) self walking around the cul de sac after the US/England game trying to convert commercial beer drinkers into craft beer aficionados, and there was limited future brew time on the horizon, so I seized the day. Yes, this means another independent brew day.

So we'll be taking the "brew through" adventure onto BJCP Category 15-German Wheat & Rye. This category has a range of substyles from Weizen/Weissbier, a pale, spicy, fruity, refreshing wheat-based ale. To a Weizenbock, a strong, malty, fruity, wheat-based ale combining the best flavors of a dunkelweizen and the strength of a bock. Since I'm looking for a refreshing wheat based ale to replace the Summer Wit, I'm going to brew Jamil's Harold-Is-Weizen.

Most people seem to either love or hate German wheat and rye beers. They all include a large portion (50% or more) of wheat or rye malt, and feature a unique banana/clove yeast character.

Ingredients

Malt
Continental Pilsner Malt (50%)
Wheat Malt (50%)

Hops
Hallertau

Yeast
Wyeast 3068-Weihenstephan Weizen

Impromptu brew day means scrambling for ingredients. Thanks to our bulk grain buys, I was set for malt but needed to secure the hops and yeast (a.k.a. heart & soul). My local source was out of #3068, so I had to head north to MY LHBS. Thanks to summer vacation traffic on I-95, my quick supply mission turned into a 4-hour road trip.

Crushing the Grains
For the record, I successfully used the drill the day before, but apparently crushing wheat requires two hands. After I sent 4 lbs. of wheat flying through the air, I abandoned the drill and attached the handle to the Malt Mill. I'm known to be freakishly strong, but manually grinding 5.5 lbs. of wheat on a 95 degree day, pushed me to my physical limit. Let's say my blood, sweat, and tears literally went into this batch. The 5.5 lbs. of Pilsner was a breeze after the wheat.

Strike
Heated 3.5 gallons of tap water to 160 degrees. Added 3 t. of calcium carbonate, 1 t. of gypsum, and 3 t. of calcium chloride to the mash. Target mash temperature was 152 degrees, and stayed consistent once I added cold water to the mash. Mashed for 60 minutes.

Sparge
5.2 gallons of tap heated to 170 degrees and batch sparged for 15 minutes.

Boil
Pulled 7 gallons of wort @ 1.043. Brewing Classic Styles said 1.043 @ 7 gallons, so feeling good. Added 2 t. calcium carbonate to the boil. Starting gravity was a 1.048 and it had calculated 1.050 @ 5 gallons. Have I mentioned how much I'm loving our new refractometer?

Fermentation
The book recommends fermenting @ 62 degrees, but we already have an IPA fermenting at 67 degrees, so I'm sticking with that temperature. Pulled 5 gallons into a 6.5 gallon carboy and cooled overnight. We usually do a starter, but due to the spontaneous nature of this brew I just pitched one pack of yeast. The beer has been in the primary for almost three weeks, so we'll be racking to a keg soon.