It's Hefe-time

My brother and I used a recipe I gleaned from online sources to brew a hefeweizen last week. It was our first attempt at using a recipe (not a kit) and our first attempt at a double batch. Needless to say, it was intense.

The guys at Beer Crazy were absolutely awesome in their help with the ingredients. They didn't have the exact hop variety the recipe called for, but it was a pretty common strain and they had a variety that would work. Other than that, they had it all.

After assembling all of the ingredients, my brother and I began to boil the water. An hour later, when it was finally hot enough to add the grains, we started brewing. We had never used hop tablets before so that was a neat experience. Next time I think we are going to use a hop bag... the aftermath of the little hop petals was pretty disturbing. I think the bag would make clean-up a lot easier. We also used ten pounds of dried wheat extract (which seemed like a lot, not gonna lie.)

We used a wort-chiller (homemade of course) to aid in the cooling process. This cut down the wait from about three-four hours to about one hour. The wort chiller just consists of a length of copper tubing wound into a coil which, after sanitizing, we dunked in the brewpot. We ran cold tap water through it to produce the cooling effect. Soon after turning on the tap we realized that oven mitts might be nice for holding on to the outgoing end of the tube. Yeah, it got hot pretty fast.

After it had cooled, we sloshed the wort back and forth between two fermenter buckets to properly aerate it. Then we divided the ten gallons up into three fermenters, five gallons into a bucket, four into the carboy and the last gallon or so into a party pig. Into the party pig we put some orange zest, just to experiment a little. I think the zest should do well to spice up the hefe, I just hope it doesn't have any really adverse side-effects. Then I added the yeast. It was a liquid yeast, which was new to us, and I didn't make a yeast starter. Next time I think I will definitely try that.

The original gravity was a little low, but I think that has something to do with when we took the reading. My brother pointed out that the sample we took didn't appear near as dense as the rest of the brew. Plus, after ten pounds of extract, I imagine the OG should be a bit higher than what we got. So far we have been pretty good about nailing the OG and FG, and this is the first time it wasn't exactly what we were expecting.

Then we played the waiting game...

A day later nothing had really happened. Normally the carboy will have exploded into action within about eight hours of adding the yeast, so I was a little apprehensive. I went to Beer Crazy to see if they could lend any insight. They told me to wait a little while longer because sometimes the wet yeast takes a little longer to get going. So, I went home with a bottle from Ommegang to wait.

And wait...

The party pig was the first to start bubbling. Then the bucket. Still no action from the carboy. I began to rethink how much yeast I had added to the carboy. Did I add enough? Should I pitch more? But, I continued to wait, and not be too hasty.

Lo and behold, it finally started to bubble yesterday. Now it has a layer of foam on top that resembles an angel-food cake. As I write this there is a symphony of pops and gurgles assuring me that everything will be okay.

This weekend we are going to try the red we bottled several weeks ago. That was the first time we had used the carboy, also the first time we tried the two-fermentations. Hopefully we get a little more clarity with it this time. Next weekend the IPA will be ready to sample. I am really excited to try it and see how the toasted oak chips worked out.

Wish us luck!

Peace.