beer Passow Brews: Bavarian Weissbier

[imaguitargod]

Well, did a very complex brew today and it didn’t come out to where I wanted it, so it’s going to be a very light lawnmower beer. I started out with a mash in temp of 113 F and held that for 10 minutes to get some 4VG out of the grains, then I did a protein rest at 122 F for 20 minutes. After that I ramped it up to 143/145 F for 40 minutes then sparged at 180 F.

I was aiming for an OG of 1.070 but got 1.040. EXTREMELY disheartened. No more step mashing for me. Here’s some pictures from the brewing day.

Look, I built a new stand for my hot water tank (far left)

The beer going from the mash tun into the boil kettle. This pic was taken just for TB.

Me and the beer:

 

[texas blues]

Now those are proper pics Herr Passow. I'm guessing you need another pound of grains to get to 1070 but can't tell for certain as you did not post the ingredient list. What hops?

Salute', TB.

 

[frydad4]

Looks like a nice setup. You doing 5 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy?

Nothing wrong with a lawnmower beer, you can funnel it.

 

[moyboy]

Sounds like it should still taste ok but just won't have that true full body Weissbier flavour. But i'm sure I'd still drink it as a good BBQ beer.....

Good pics IGG

 

[imaguitargod]

Now those are proper pics Herr Passow. I'm guessing you need another pound of grains to get to 1070 but can't tell for certain as you did not post the ingredient list. What hops?

Salute', TB.

I hops I used was Hallertauer Mittelfruh. I've stopped posting recipies because I've moved into the realm of formulating my own.

As for not enough grain, oh, it was enough, 14 pounds to be exact. I've narrowed it down to the fact that this was step mashing (first time I've done it). so it could be one of the follwoing:
1. By raising them temp I exposed the grains to higher than should be temps which killed the starch sugar conversion.
2. My new temp gadge is off by a few degrees and I actually didn't hit the 143/145 F temp of mashing and thus no starch conversion actually happened.
3. Some unkown variable popped up.

Looks like a nice setup. You doing 5 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy?

Nothing wrong with a lawnmower beer, you can funnel it.

It's looking around 2.7-3% abv, so funnel it may be a good option

Also, that's a 6.5 gallon carboy. I ended up with 5 gallons of beer. I was supposed to be 5.5, but I had a technical malfunction with new equiptment....bugs have to be worked out of the system....

 

[imaguitargod]

On a positive note, I did perfect a strike water formula for mashing. It was spot on!

 

[texas blues]

Careful with that 6 gal. carboy. Too much headroom will skunk that beer for batches of 5 gal. or so. You can always have some clean boiled water standing by to top up. Better lawnmower with a little less sg and alcohol than oxidized beer. Calibrate that damn thermometer!! As you were using Halletauer, I'm guessing pellets over leaf?

On another note..Vegas has horrible water but I'll be brewing this fall...

Salute', TB.

 

[imaguitargod]

Careful with that 6 gal. carboy. Too much headroom will skunk that beer for batches of 5 gal. or so. You can always have some clean boiled water standing by to top up. Better lawnmower with a little less sg and alcohol than oxidized beer. Calibrate that damn thermometer!! As you were using Halletauer, I'm guessing pellets over leaf?

On another note..Vegas has horrible water but I'll be brewing this fall...

Salute', TB.

Bah, it'll be fine, never had an oxidized beer yet (besides, all the O2 is pushed out of the carboy). I used pellet.

As for your water problem, there are things you can add to improve the water.

 

[texas blues]

Bah, it'll be fine, never had an oxidized beer yet (besides, all the O2 is pushed out of the carboy). I used pellet.

As for your water problem, there are things you can add to improve the water.

The water is full of minerals and the chlorine is pronounced. Preboiling the water should take the chlorine out. I don't need all of the minerals out but a bit less. I prefer alt style beers, some amber ales, and full bodied lagers like a marzen.

Salute', TB.

 

[Steve973]

Step mashing can be a real pain in coolers. You have two options - pull off some liquid, sort of like a very thin decoction and boil it and return it to the cooler, or infuse boiling water. The problem with the first option is denaturing the diastatic enzymes, although this can be rectified by adding some. The problem with the second option is the possibility of getting a crappy liquid-to-grain ratio.

I was curious what your grain bill was. You probably didn't need the acid rest at 113 degrees. You could have done a stiff protein rest at 122, then infused an amount that would have brought you up to 1.25qt/lb at whatever temperature was necessary for saccharification. 143/145 is a bit low and would result in a quite thin but very fermentable beer. At this temperature, conversion takes quite a while, too. 150/152 would have been a better temperature for this step, I think.

Also, do you perform a mash-out? Or do you simply go from mash to sparge? You can get a nice jump in efficiency in your extraction if you get your mash up to 170 for 15 minutes before sparging. I employ the "thin decoction" method by pulling a quantity of wort off of the bottom, boiling it, and returning it to the mash. In a five gallon batch, that quantity is somewhere around a gallon's worth.

 

[Steve973]

The water is full of minerals and the chlorine is pronounced. Preboiling the water should take the chlorine out. I don't need all of the minerals out but a bit less. I prefer alt style beers, some amber ales, and full bodied lagers like a marzen.

To take out the chlorine, you could use a canister filter with a carbon insert. One of the whole-house types of filters at Home Depot should do the trick, but make sure you get a carbon insert instead of using the sediment filter that usually comes with them. Boiling will remove chlorine, but chloramine can still remain and cause off-flavors. If your water is very hard and has a lot of buffering capacity, you might not reach a pH in your mash that is helpful for enzymatic activity. Have you taken any pH readings of the liquid in your mash? If necessary, you can use Five Star pH 5.2 buffer, or even add small amounts of lactic acid to your mash to reach the desired pH in the low-fives.