Schneider-Weisse
The next beer to bottle came up today, it was our clone of the classic 1872 G. Schneider & Sohn Unser Original Weissbräu. Our recipe came from Tess and Mark Szamatulski's book "CloneBrews, 2nd Edition: Recipes for 200 Brand-Name Beers". This spicy wheat beer is produced by the oldest wheat beer brewery in Munich ,and has won about every award there is to win.
Here is the details:
-Steepables 30 min @ 150 °F
6 oz. German Dark Munich malt barley
3 oz. German Dark Crystal malt Barley
2 oz. acid malt barley
-Extracts @ boil
6 lb. Muntons wheat DME
-Hops @ t-60
1 oz. Tettnanger 3.8% Alpha Acid
-Priming
5 oz. Priming Cane Sugar
-in theory-
IBU: 13
SRM: 8
OG: 1.053-1.054
FG: 1.011-1.012
ABV: 5.4%
-in real life-
IBU:13-14 (never know how strong the hops were, they degrade over time)
SRM: 10 (our crystal was very dark)
OG: 1.050 (pretty sure I got gypped on the Wheat DME)
FG: 1.018 (under pitched yeast by quite a bit, not too surprised here)
ABV: 4.2% (bad attenuation = not getting there)
Notes for the future:
The original recipe (the one at the factory) of this beer calls for Hallertau Bavarian hops. The Tettnanger is noted for being a bit more spicy and less susceptible to wilting than Hallertau . In English: this means less expensive. It could use a bit more hops, more spiciness and the bitter would not be overpowering for how malty the beer is. I am thinking 0.25 oz. would be enough.
I am fairly positive that the yeast was a bit under pitched -this was brewed before my previous decision to always use starters- thus the poor attenuation and low ABV for the recipe. One interesting thing to note is that the SG at racking and at bottling were identicle. I certainly hope that there is enough live yeast left to get this stuff carbonated.
We took a taste when I took the gravity reading; I see no reason to waste the stuff. It is awesome, wicked awesome, surprisingly clear for using a hefeweizen yeast strain, and still tastes great when warm and flat. We should see a bit more attenuation during bottle conditioning, not more than 0.003 SG though.
Dunkelweizen 1:
The first primed bottle was sent to the fridge this morning to get cold for "testing". Pours dark amber and gold in color with a thick tightly knit head of bubbles and strong lacing. Low banana notes and definite clove/hop spice with mild alcohol and yeast in the nose. First sip is strong carbonic bite with immediate clove and caramel flavor. Mouth feel is a bit light for the style but not watery, very carbonated. Finish is sweet, mildly citrus, and strong in roasted malt/wheat without graininess.
Overall it still tastes a bit "green" and in need of some cold conditioning. This should balance out some of the over the top sweet finish and hopefully give it a more wheat grain finish. If not, next time it gets 0.5 lb. of flaked wheat in the mash and I will beat the flavor into it.
I am still very happy with the results for how painfully slow the first batch was to start up. Eight days before primary fermentation is just too long to consistently deal with. It also has 2 yeast strains in it due to the re-pitching, hard to tell how different the next batch will be until it is ready to bottle.
____________
Primary: Belgian Trappist Triple (Brewer's Best Kit) w/ Chimay's own yeast
Secondary1: CCB Amber Clone (Doc's Cellar Kit)
Secondary2: Dunkleweizen 2 (looking much better than our first attempt)
Coming up: Thunder Pumkin Spice Ale, Robust Porter (Brewer's Best Kit), Sam Adams Winter Lager Clone, Red Baron Irish Red Ale (our first attempt at our own recipe)
Here is the details:
-Steepables 30 min @ 150 °F
6 oz. German Dark Munich malt barley
3 oz. German Dark Crystal malt Barley
2 oz. acid malt barley
-Extracts @ boil
6 lb. Muntons wheat DME
-Hops @ t-60
1 oz. Tettnanger 3.8% Alpha Acid
-Priming
5 oz. Priming Cane Sugar
-in theory-
IBU: 13
SRM: 8
OG: 1.053-1.054
FG: 1.011-1.012
ABV: 5.4%
-in real life-
IBU:13-14 (never know how strong the hops were, they degrade over time)
SRM: 10 (our crystal was very dark)
OG: 1.050 (pretty sure I got gypped on the Wheat DME)
FG: 1.018 (under pitched yeast by quite a bit, not too surprised here)
ABV: 4.2% (bad attenuation = not getting there)
Notes for the future:
The original recipe (the one at the factory) of this beer calls for Hallertau Bavarian hops. The Tettnanger is noted for being a bit more spicy and less susceptible to wilting than Hallertau . In English: this means less expensive. It could use a bit more hops, more spiciness and the bitter would not be overpowering for how malty the beer is. I am thinking 0.25 oz. would be enough.
I am fairly positive that the yeast was a bit under pitched -this was brewed before my previous decision to always use starters- thus the poor attenuation and low ABV for the recipe. One interesting thing to note is that the SG at racking and at bottling were identicle. I certainly hope that there is enough live yeast left to get this stuff carbonated.
We took a taste when I took the gravity reading; I see no reason to waste the stuff. It is awesome, wicked awesome, surprisingly clear for using a hefeweizen yeast strain, and still tastes great when warm and flat. We should see a bit more attenuation during bottle conditioning, not more than 0.003 SG though.
Dunkelweizen 1:
The first primed bottle was sent to the fridge this morning to get cold for "testing". Pours dark amber and gold in color with a thick tightly knit head of bubbles and strong lacing. Low banana notes and definite clove/hop spice with mild alcohol and yeast in the nose. First sip is strong carbonic bite with immediate clove and caramel flavor. Mouth feel is a bit light for the style but not watery, very carbonated. Finish is sweet, mildly citrus, and strong in roasted malt/wheat without graininess.
Overall it still tastes a bit "green" and in need of some cold conditioning. This should balance out some of the over the top sweet finish and hopefully give it a more wheat grain finish. If not, next time it gets 0.5 lb. of flaked wheat in the mash and I will beat the flavor into it.
I am still very happy with the results for how painfully slow the first batch was to start up. Eight days before primary fermentation is just too long to consistently deal with. It also has 2 yeast strains in it due to the re-pitching, hard to tell how different the next batch will be until it is ready to bottle.
____________
Primary: Belgian Trappist Triple (Brewer's Best Kit) w/ Chimay's own yeast
Secondary1: CCB Amber Clone (Doc's Cellar Kit)
Secondary2: Dunkleweizen 2 (looking much better than our first attempt)
Coming up: Thunder Pumkin Spice Ale, Robust Porter (Brewer's Best Kit), Sam Adams Winter Lager Clone, Red Baron Irish Red Ale (our first attempt at our own recipe)