Home Brew Batch #12: All Grain Hefeweizen

So the weather warmed up quite a bit the last couple of weeks (May '13). I remembered a Hef that I brewed a few years ago that was a big time banana bomb because is fermented really warm. With summer right around the corner, warm ambient temperature for fermenting, and a desire to try an all grain recipe other than all barley, I though a Hef was in order!

The last two all grain batches I have brewed I was only doing 2.5 gallons due to the size of my 4 gallon brewpot that could only hold enough grain for a half batch. I had the idea to do the mash in my 6 gallon fermenter, so I thought I would try a full 5 gallon batch with a lighter recipe like this Hef.

I adapted a recipe from my home brew book Brewing Classic Styles. Here it is for a 5 gallon batch:

- 6 lbs German Pilsner Malt
- 6 lbs. Wheat Malt
- 0.8 oz. Hallertau
- 1 vial White Labs WLP 380 Hefeweizen IV

Brewing was pretty straight forward with the brew in a bag method:

- 4 gal. strike water @ 165 f
- Mash at 152 f for 60 min.
- Rinsed in 1 gallon hot tap water (I should have heated it)
- Boil 30 minutes
- 0.8 oz. Hallertau
- Boil for 60 more minutes
- 1/4 tsp. Irish Moss last few minutes

I used a sink full of water and my wort chiller to get it down to about 75 f before pitching the yeast (1.050 OG). As I said above the ambient temperature was pretty high in the house (high 70's), so the next morning the fermentor was going wild and the temperature was up near 80 f. I tried to put a wet t-shirt on the fermentor to cool it down a bit, but that didn't help too much. I fermented out pretty quick and then the temperature came down.




I left it in the primary for two weeks and then bottled it. After a couple of weeks to carbonate I tried one. The banana was off the chart, but there was a lot of fusel alcohol.

Update: I just finished my last bottle in December '13. Seems like the both the banana aroma and fusel alcohol chilled out a bit. It was really good, especially because I drank it out of a glass Das Boot!