Lately, I've been thinking about ways to use the wheat that was sent to me this summer by our new friend
Jason in Kansas. The wheat was sent shortly after harvest and accordingly it was unmalted. Admittedly, I was intimidated by the possibility of having to malt close to twenty pounds of wheat. So I did what anyone would have done, I put the wheat on the shelf and ignored it for awhile. Having received a fantastic malt mill for Xmas from my parents, I started to think about that raw wheat still sitting on the shelf. After some reading I realized that I didn't have to malt the wheat as long as I used at least an equal amount of malted barley in the mash. The enzyme content in modern malted barley is quite high and that means well milled wheat can be broken down into simple sugars by the enzymes in the malted barley included in the same mash. Enter, the malt mill.
Additionally, I had just purchased a 50 lbs. bag of US two row barley. Third, while I usually brew ales, my garage has been pretty steadily maintaining a 50 degree temperature the last few weeks, which is the perfect temperature at which to ferment a lager (at least primary fermentation). All of these factors led me to brew a weizenbock this afternoon. Now, the recipe wasn't perfect. This weizenbock is not exactly to style, and I had to call a few audibles. A pure weizenbock would rely on german malts (munich and pilsner) as the backbone of the mash. But being a poor graduate student, I couldn't simply ignore that brand new 50 lbs. of two row (what I mean to say is that I couldn't afford to ignore it). Second, I stopped by my local homebrew store yesterday in hopes of picking up a German Bock yeast strain (WLP833) and unfortunately all they had was the White Labs 838 strain, Southern German Lager. Again, beggars can't be choosers so I decided to move forward. Despite both these deviations from the ideal recipe, I think I'll turn out a nice product.
As part of this beer's journey to completion I plan to age it for a few weeks in my recently acquired whiskey barrel (currently being used to age an
english strong ale). I noticed today that Mike, over at the Mad Fermentationist, used a near identical barrel to
age a triple wheat bock. Mike is an awesome brewer, so at least this concept is in good company (the execution is up to me!).
It was a chilly brew day at a high of 32 degrees, which gives everything a dramatic steamy look:
| Style: Weizenbock | | |
| Type: All Grain | Calories: 208 | |
| Rating: 0.0 | Boil Size: 6.40 Gal | |
| IBU's: 26.19 | Batch Size: 5.50 Gal | |
| Color: 17.8 SRM | Boil Time: 90 minutes | |
| Preboil OG: 1.060 | | |
|
| | Estimated | Actual | |
| Brew Date: | - | 02/17/2013 | |
| OG: | 1.064 | 1.062 | |
| FG: | 1.014 | 1.014 | |
| ABV: | 6.55 % | 6.29 % | |
| Efficiency: | 70 % | 67 % | |
| Serve Date: | 04/14/2013 | / / | |
|
| Fermentation Steps |
| Name | Days / Temp | Estimated | Actual |
| Primary | 14 days @ 48.0°F | 02/17/2013 | 02/17/2013 |
| Secondary | 21 days @ 50.0°F | 03/03/2013 | - |
| Secondary | 21 days @ 32.0°F | 03/24/2013 | - |
|
| Grains & Adjuncts |
| Amount | Percentage | | Name | Time | Gravity |
| 7.00 lbs | 45.90 % | | Red Wheat | 60 mins | 1.037 |
| 7.00 lbs | 45.90 % | | Pale Malt (2 Row) US | 60 mins | 1.036 |
| 1.00 lbs | 6.56 % | | Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L | 60 mins | 1.034 |
| 4.00 ozs | 1.64 % | | Chocolate Malt | 60 mins | 1.028 |
|
| Hops |
| Amount | IBU's | | Name | Time | AA % |
| 0.75 ozs | 16.74 | | Pearle | 60 mins | 7.80 |
| 1.00 ozs | 6.68 | | Tettnang | 15 mins | 4.70 |
| 0.25 ozs | 2.77 | | Pearle | 15 mins | 7.80 |
|
| Yeasts |
| Amount | Name | Laboratory / ID |
| 1.0 pkg | Southern German Lager | White Labs 0838 |
|
| Mash Profile |
|
| Medium Body Infusion In | 60 min @ 156.0°F |
|
| Add 19.06 qt ( 1.25 qt/lb ) water @ 173.3°F |
|
|
|
| Sparge 16.47 qt of 170.0°F water over 60 mins |
Sippin' on wheat and whiskey,
Holz
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