Brew Day – Summer Lemon Hefeweizen
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| Trying a new arrangement in the garage |
Today I’m brewing a summer wheat. Hefeweizen aficionados will want to turn away now – I’m committing the unforgivable sin of brewing it with lemon (traditionally, hefeweizen is served without the lemon slice so often found in American wheats).
The beer itself is a mix of German and US style hefeweizen – a typical German grain/hop bill, with lots of pilsner malt and hallertauer hops, but fermented with a less estery US hefeweizen yeast. And yes, a lemon’s worth of zest & juice goes into the batch.
Recipe & Brewday Below the Fold…
| Summer Lemon Hefeweizen |
| Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer |
| Type: All Grain | Date: 13-04-30 |
| Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l | Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 % |
| Boil Size: 25.49 l | Est Mash Efficiency 71.4 % |
| Boil Time: 60 min | End of Boil Volume 21.84 l |
| Ingredients: |
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
| 0.23 kg | Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) | Adjunct | 1 | 4.6 % |
| 2.50 kg | Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) | Grain | 2 | 50.2 % |
| 2.00 kg | Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 3 | 40.2 % |
| 0.25 kg | Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) | Grain | 4 | 5.0 % |
| 14.17 g | Hallertauer [4.80 %] – Boil 60.0 min | Hop | 5 | 8.9 IBUs |
| 14.17 g | Hallertauer [4.80 %] – Boil 15.0 min | Hop | 6 | 4.4 IBUs |
| 1.00 Items | Lemon – Zest + Juice (Boil 0.0 mins) | Flavor | 7 | – |
| From Bank | American Hefeweizen Ale (WLP320) | Yeast | 8 | – |
| Beer Profile: |
| Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG | Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG |
| Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG | Bitterness: 13.3 IBUs |
| Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 % | Est Color: 3.5 SRM |
| Mash Profile: |
| Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out | Total Grain Weight: 4.98 kg | ||||||||
| Sparge Water: 19.53 l | Grain Temperature: 18 C | ||||||||
| Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C | Tun Temperature: 16 C | ||||||||
| Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE | Mash PH: 5.20 | ||||||||
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Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 19.53 l water at 75.6 C | |||||||||
Carbonation and Storage | |||||||||
| Carbonation Type: Keg | Volumes of CO2: 2.3 | ||||||||
| Pressure/Weight: 12 PSI | Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI | ||||||||
| Keg/Bottling Temperature: 7.2 C | Age for: 30.00 days | ||||||||
| Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage | Storage Temperature: 18.3 C | ||||||||
Brew Day:
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| Juice & Zest of 1 lemon |
Brew day went as well as one could hope. Hit the mash temp dead-on, collected the right volume of sparge, gravity of the sparge was slightly higher than planned (1.043 instead of 1.041). Boil was uneventful, and I got some hop trellises built once the risk of boil-over had passed.
I carefully zested the lemon, to avoid putting an pith into the beer (pith – the white stuff under a lemon/citrus skin – is quite astringent). The juice + zest went in at the end of the boil, as to minimally drive off the lemon aroma.
Post-boil gravity was dead-on predicted – 1.050, with slightly more volume than I had originally anticipated. As you may imagine, I’m hardly saddened by more beer!
