Recipe: Becca's Bavarian (German Hefeweisse)

Every so often you hit it spot on.  Everything comes together to make a magical concoction of malt, hops, and yeast.  My Bavarian Hefe that I brewed nearly 2 years ago was such a beer.  The perfect flavor blend of banana and cloves, a smidgen of vanilla, light, bready, highly carbonated, effervescent   My wife loved it, as did I, and it was sad to see it go.  I have longed to brew it again, and my wife has longed for the day I would.  On Valentine's Day she gave me my present, an extra brew day to make my Hefeweissen, and a twist, she wanted me to teach her to brew it.  Sweet!  
She has helped me bottle many of my beers, but never has she watched or assisted in brewing, let alone taking it on herself.  And if there is any of my beers for her to tackle, it is this one.  It is the only beer that I step mash so it will be much more intricate than add this much water at this temperature, stir and walk away for an hour.  Last time I was scrambling to get my step infusions ready and boiling, this time will be much easier.  This is also the first time using my new mash tun ball valve with my pump, so there will be a learning curve involved for this as well.  I did change a few things this time: I dropped the Sacc rest down to 145 instead of 150 for more fermentability, and then added a last step to 158*F to ensure conversion and keep some body.  I also used a commercial Weissen yeast strain this time since I didn't have the time to culture the Sierra Nevada Kellerweisse yeast and I couldn't find any 6 packs around town to culture from.  I doubt that this change will be noticeable.  The hope is that I will get plenty of clove from the acid rest, and plenty of banana from slightly underpitching along with a higher fermentation temp.

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Stats:

5.0 gallons

OG 1.049

FG 1.011

ABV 5.0%

IBU 11

SRM 4

74% Extract efficiency

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Fermentables:

5.0# White Wheat Malt

3.5# Weyermann Pilsner

0.5# Flaked Wheat

0.5# Weyermann German Dark Wheat

10 mins @ 113*F (Ferulic Acid)

5 mins @ 120*F (Protein Rest)

30 mins @ 142*F (Beta Rest for fermentability)

20 mins @ 154*F (Alpha rest for body and finish conversion)

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Boil (120 mins):

90 min 0.25oz Simcoe Pellets 13.0%

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Kettle Additions:

Gypsum - 1/8t mash, 1/8t boil

Calcium Chloride - 3/8t mash, 1/2t boil

Pickling Lime - 1/8t mash (more calcium and some carbonate)

Nutrient - 3 taps @ 15 mins

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Fermentation:

Cooled to 52*F

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen 500ml Starter

Split into 2 separate 5 gallon Better Bottles - no airlock to relieve any pressure (open fermentation), covered with foil.

64*F 1 days
67*F 2 days

72*F 6 days

47*F 3 days

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02/18 - President's Day - brewed with my wife, Becca.  Hit the first 2 rests perfect.  Beta rest missed by 5 degrees, infused with an extra 1/2 gallon of boiling water and brought it to 142*F.  Rested for 20 minutes (30 total), then infused with another 6 quarts boiling water to bring it up to 154*F for 20 mins.  Efficiency was low so drained an extra 1/2 gallon of wort from the mash tun and boiled an extra 30 mins from 8 gallons.  Chiller took beer from boiling to 52*F in 20 mins.  Pumped to 2 carboys and split starter, no aeration.  Placed in warm closet to ferment.  Started at 10 am, done by 3.

02/19 - 12 hours past, beers are still sitting around 57*F, put heating blanket on them after feeding the baby, upped temp before work again.  At 64*F by 9am.  Up to 67* that afternoon.

02/20 - Thick krausen tops the beer, maintaining temp around 67*F.

02/21 - Cranked up temp to 72-75*F to finish fermentation strong as well as increase banana.

02/28 - Found growth on top of one of the beers.  The foil had a rip in it and has been allowing air into the carboy.  Seems to be Brett, looks a lot like some of the other pellicles that I have in my Brett beers, just smaller, and the bubbles forming in it look horribly familiar.  Flushed both carboys with CO2, fitted with airlocks, and took them off the heat (moved to garage).  Sent pix to Mad Fermentationist, Embrace the Funk, and Ryan Brews for help identifying it.

3/2 - Bottled the clean half-batch separately to 3.7 vols CO2.  Infected version had pellicle across entire top of liquid - transferred 3/4 gallon to 1 gallon jug for aging.  Transferred 3/4 gallon onto Pom juice for aging.  Transferred 1/2 gallon into 2L soda bottle and force carbed for drinking.