My First All Grain Weizen

[rich]

I'll be brewing my first all grain hefeweizen this Sunday. It will be my 5th all grain batch. I mash in a 50 qt square cooler with a copper manifold, and batch sparge.

I would be pleased to hear some tips, tricks and common pitfalls to mashing weizens.

[Thirsty Boy]

I'll be following this thread pretty closely Rich. I'm hoping ot do a Hefe next as well.

Advice please oh wise ones.......

[Kaiser]

I would be pleased to hear some tips, tricks and common pitfalls to mashing weizens.

- make sure you listen to Jamil's Hefe Weizen Show first.

- Most brewers recommend adding rice hulls to aid the sparge. I have done it w/o with 60% wheat and didn't have much problems, but it would be a good insurance. about 1/2 lb should be enough for a 5 gal batch.

- Hold a protein rest at 50 *C (122F) for ~20 min. This will help with the proteins and some of the gums. The later makes sparging easier. You can decoct to the saccrification rest or use a hot water infusion. Choose whatever you are comfortable with.

Kai

[bub]

I use up to 60% wheat no rice and no protien rest... just single infusion.
my only advice is use hallertau hops and wyeast 3068 yeast
BUB

[rich]

Ok, for this beer I have chosen to do a protein rest with a double decoction to bring me up to the sacc rest. My next question is, if we are so worried about extracting tannins from the hulls at 170+, why isn't there tannin extraction during the decoction boil? Also, will decotion alter the pH of the mash (1 use 5.2, but don't alway acidify my sparge water)?

[Kaiser]

My next question is, if we are so worried about extracting tannins from the hulls at 170+, why isn't there tannin extraction during the decoction boil? Also, will decotion alter the pH of the mash (1 use 5.2, but don't alway acidify my sparge water)?

check this one out, certainly saves me a lot of typing:
http://www.byo.com/mrwizard/1489.html



Kai

[rich]

Thanks Kaiser. I actually managed to answer my own question. I've read many articals this morning on decoction mashing. This one was particularly good.

http://www.strandbrewers.org/techinfo/decoct1.htm

Wish me luck, I'm going for it. Watch out Jamil, I'm gaining on ya.