Homebrew Session: Kong’s American Hefeweizen
Each year, the American Homebrewers Association organizes an annual Big Brew event that is not so much a centralized event but a collection of Big Brew events held throughout the country by homebrewers such as you and me. The 2010 Big Brew this year was a little bittersweet as one of the recipes was offered in honor of Greg Noonan, author and brewmaster, who passed away last fall.
I didn’t submit my own “Big Brew” as part of the festivities as it was… a much smaller affair. My wife’s good friend Kong joined me on this brew day. Kong had expressed interest in helping me brew beer on a few occasions and this was the perfect opportunity to introduce him to homebrewing. Out of the three available recipes, Kong decided to try his hand at the American Craft Beer Wheat (Extract). Although, I did change up the recipe a little bit because I couldn’t find certain ingredients.
Ingredients
Malt
- 6 lbs - Dried wheat extract
Specialty Grains:
- 1 lbs - Bamburg Wheat (1.6L)
Hops
- 1 oz - Chinook (11) - bittering
- 1 oz - Chinook (11) - aromatic
Yeast
- Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP300)
Extras
- 1 tablet - Servomyces
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV: 5.775%
Process
- Steep all grains for 30 minues at 155° F.
- Bring to a boil, add 1 oz Chinook hops for bittering.
- At 30 minute mark, add 6 lbs Coopers Light DME.
- At 40 minute mark, add in wort chiller to sanitize in boil.
- At 50 minute mark, add 1 tablet servomyces.
- At 57 minute mark, add 1 oz Chinook.
- Chill to 65° F - 70° F.
- Pitch yeast and aerate.
Tasting Notes (wort) — 5/1/10
Dark gold color with greenish hues and a thin, white/off-white head. Sweet, wheat malt aroma with fresh, yet muddled hop aroma. Flavor is sweet wheat with an assertive hop bitterness. Body is medium-high with no carbonation.
Tasting Notes (primary) — 5/15/10
Cloudy, gold/dark gold color with no head. Lots of banana phenolics in the aroma with some sweet wheat malt aroma. Medium-high citrus flavors upfront with medium/medium-high hop bitterness and a low level of residual sweetness. Body is medium-low/medium with low carbonation.
Tasting Notes (final) — 7/14/2010
This beer was actually done a few weeks ago but I just got around to drinking it. The beer is a cloudy gold/egg yolk color with a white head. Fruity banana aroma with a slight clove in the background. Kong’s hefeweizen has a lemony citrus flavor upfront, medium-low banana fruit flavors in the middle with a floral, resinous hop flavor and an assertive, medium-high hop bitterness. The beer is medium bodied with a spritzy carbonation and a slightly dry finish.
Overall
I couldn’t get the exact liquid extract the recipe originally called for and I’m very okay with that. I don’t particularly enjoy using liquid extract because a lot of that flavor gets imparted into the beer. Also, the color is never as it should be. Also, I split up my hop additions instead of using a first wort hopping as in the recipe. I did a late hop addition at the 57 minute mark because I was looking for more hop flavor and aroma. Lastly, Kong wanted more banana fruit character in the beer so we used a more traditional hefeweizen yeast.
All that being said, I am really enjoying how this beer turned out. A lot of the banana character from the yeast comes through and the hop character is readily apparent as well. The beer ended up pretty much exactly as I imagined as it would and more with the unexpected citrus flavors and character.
I will say that I was a little worried about the level of hop bitterness. The entire batch went home with Kong and he’s not exactly a hop head. The hop bitterness of this beer is comparable to a strong pale ale. In the end, I just trusted the process and the resulting beer ended up being layered and balanced. While Kong did enjoy the beer, he wants to make a more traditional hefeweizen that more fruit/yeast forward.
With the exception of the two photos taken during my review of the final product, all these shots were taken by Kong and his DSLR. I am envious. Just the macro shots alone are worth it; there is also very little post-production work that needed to be done as well. I used to be in photography, having cut my teeth on an old Nikon FM. I miss it. I get so wrapped up in the process of the brew day, documenting everything and taking mediocre shots with my point-and-shoot that I fail to properly compose a shot. It’s good to see things from another point of view, literally and figuratively.
