4/5/15 Northern Brewer American Wheat - 5gal - UPDATED!

Recipe Data

Date:  4/5/15

Type of beer:  American Wheat 

Recipe Author:  Northern Brewer

Batch Size:  5gal

Yeast:  WLP320 American Hefeweisen

Sacch' Rest: 152 for 60 min

Mashout: 170 for 10 min

OG at 75% efficiency:  1.043

Fermentation Temperature:   65-70 F

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Brew Day Data

Starter: 1 liter 70grams light DME 36 hrs stir plate

Sacch' Rest: 10 min 146 (strike temp. too low)
                     50 min 152
Mash-Out:   10 min 168
Sparge:         35 min 170

Pre-Boil Gravity:    1.036

Pre-Boil Volume:    6.6 gal

Mash Efficiency:   80.27!!

Realized OG:  1.050

Actual Post Boil Batch:  4.5 gal

Pitch Temperature: 70

Yeast Nutrient:  2.5 tbs

Notes:  Sunken recirculation hose and to fast recirculation and sparge caused fishers. UPDATE*  the reflectometer was off by .013.  Instead of the OG being low it was a bit more than expected.  I would not have had to boil as long as I did to bring up the gravity.

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Fermentation Data

Initial Thermowell Temperature:  70 F
Ambient temp was about 69 from heaters and brewing

4   Hours Thermowell Temperature:  73 F  (No Airlock Activity)
Ambient temp was about 67 and falling

12 Hours Thermowell Temperature:  71.6 F (Slight Airlock Activity)
Ambient temp was about 65 and falling

30 Hours Thermowell Temperature:  69.8 F  (Extreme Airlock Activity)
Ambient temp was about 63.

38 Hours Thermowell Temperature:  66.8 F  (Low Airlock Activity)
Ambient temp was about 63

After 15 days in the fermenter I the FG was 1.000 which gives me a ABV of 6.56!

The beer was EXTREMELY clear.  I plan to give it about 5 days to carbonate at about 45 degrees. I will set up the carbonation tonight.


Using the thermowell really opened my eyes!  The yeast activity really kept the temperature up.  Last night at about the 26 hour mark I put a small fan blowing on the base of the fermenter and the temperature began to fall within a few minutes.  My guess is that the air was stratifying around the bucket causing heat build up.  I know what to do next time...  I hope the time the fermentation was above 70 degrees did not cause too much ester production.

UPDATE!!!!

Turns out that the reflectometer  I was using was consistently low by .013!!!  I am changing the Data above to reflect this.