German Brewing

I'm currently just testing the boiloff with water, what I'd get if I turned down my induction top one step. Almost zero movement, I don't think I dare to do a boil with this little movement.

I'll just boil this for an hour and do a second test without the lid halfway on and on the same intensity as I've been doing all the way. The lid gives me more rolling. I guess that boil off is not equal to boil intensiy when it comes to coagulation of proteins. I get a lot of loss even without any serious action in the boil. So I guess I'll be able to lower the intensity, even if the evaporation will be more, by removing the lid.

Edit: I'll treat the boiloff as a dead en pr now. I'm only boiling for a post boil volume of 16Liters, so it's a small kettle which isn't as narrow comparing to the surface as bigger kettles, so I'm concluding that I actually don't have a too vigorous boil, but that I "naturally" have a high boil off rate due to the surface area. When I'm boiling normally It's just slightly simmering.

Boiling is often overlooked, but ever so important.

You need to boil sufficiently but without inducing undue heat stress. It's a real balancing act.

A bit of rolling (rolling boil) is considered the right amount by visual inspection.

The lid will help you distribute the heat uniformly -- which is highly desirable.

The low protein content of pima aids clarity. It often comes in between 10-11% protein, whereas wheat and spelt are generally 13-15% and 14-16% protein, respectively.

I boiled at a lower setting today. WAY less coagulated proteins to scoop up. Boil was still what I'd call acceptable, barely some action at the surface, but enough that I'd call it adequate.

No fining, I'll let this one sit shorter than normal after boil, since I don't need to harvest the yeast from it. Have another batch I'll at the end of the week where I'll re-harvest.

Thanks for all your input so far. I love getting here, throw out some questions, get some feedback and reseaching it further on my own hand.

I've got a batch going right now, split between WLP300 and WLP351. Wow, quite a difference. The 351 threw a TON of sulphur and smells of grape skins. It'll be interesting to see how it tastes after some conditioning. The 300 is spot on and beautiful.

W68 and similar is what we associate generally with Bavarian Wheat.

Of course, our tastes are totally conditioned. Thus, it's not excluded that one cannot get great results with 351, but it may need a bit more time than expected to yield satisfactory results. Either way, I am sure that 'the dedicated' are able to reach stunning examples once enough time flowed into the effort.

So, what your impression of both profiles (as of now)?

Well. FYI, being afraid of proteins settling out after chilling, and dumping it within half an hour into the fermentor is a terrible idea. I did this to one of the three hefes I brewed last week. Took a sample from it right now and the aroma was hoppy and the taste was somewhat astringent. the esters and phenols actually got pushed to the background because of this. 0.5g/l Magnum as bittering was all I used.

I'm looking at very poor attenuation of the two ones which had 10% caramalt. So I will not be doing that again. However, a prolonged 72C-step seems to have done some of the trick. I used my "house" recipe but prolonged that step on one of the hefes from last week.

I hardly ever have a noticeable drop. But then, I may ferment quite a bit differently.

Be careful that the fermentation doesn't get stuck. This often happens when people don't pitch enough yeast into it to begin with (you need more than you think), only to find to their surprise that suddenly, after a few days, the attenuation begins to rise.

I find that a sensible Hefe needs a good 4-5 weeks of conditioning before it peaks.