Hefeweizen in Brewzilla

[rmr9]

I’ve mentioned this in a few other posts but since getting my robobrew/brewzilla several years ago I have not had success brewing a Hefeweizen on the system. I’ve tried 3 times and always ended up with horrible efficiency and just underwhelming thin results. Contrast this with my old cooler system back in the day when I could crank out delicious correct gravity Hefeweizens…very disappointing since they’re one of my favorite styles.

So does anyone have a tried and true recipe or set of techniques that they’ve used to successfully brew a Hefeweizen on a robobrew/brewzilla? I’m at a loss!

 

[day_trippr]

I only have one potential observation: crush quality always matters wrt efficiency.

Wheat requires a significantly narrower mill gap than barley to actually bust it up enough for a decent yield. If you aren't gapping for that, or if your grain supplier isn't gapping their mill tighter for the wheat, efficiency will be lower, potentially by a lot. I use a separate mill for wheat so I don't disturb my barley mill gap, with the former set for .020" while the latter is set for .032" - a pretty decent difference.

Other than crush I can't think of anything else...

Cheers!

 

[rmr9]

I was thinking crush could be a culprit since the last attempt was before I got my 2 roller mill and didn’t feel like hand cranking my corona mill.

Of the 3 batches, 2 were crushed by the shop once by corona. I could try double crushing the wheat perhaps so as not to fiddle with my mill gap. Wonder if I used too many rice hulls as well since the sparge went really fast if memory serves. I’d love to get a weizen going to complement my schwarzbier on tap but it’s daunting given my 0/3 record.

 

[SFC Rudy]

Are you using the same recipe you used in your cooler mash brew? Have you adjusted your grain bill to account for the lower efficiency in an AIO?

 

[rmr9]

Are you using the same recipe you used in your cooler mash brew? Have you adjusted your grain bill to account for the lower efficiency in an AIO?

Not scientifically, but yeah I did. In my old cooler setup I was using 11lbs of grain getting an OG of 1.055 or thereabouts. With the robobrew, I typically hit an OG of 1.050-1.054 with 12lbs of grain, so I adjusted my recipe up to 12lbs of grain but got OGs of 1.040-1.044 for the Hefeweizen

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

In your previous method did you step mash? If you did, do you still do that in the all in one system? ( I’ve recently acquired a used grainfather and I’m interested. I know the rests are with goals in mind and our modified malts don’t necessarily require it.)

 

[rmr9]

In your previous method did you step mash? If you did, do you still do that in the all in one system? ( I’ve recently acquired a used grainfather and I’m interested. I know the rests are with goals in mind and our modified malts don’t necessarily require it.)

In the cooler setup I typically did single infusion with mashout except for one time I did a double decoction which turned out to be the best hefeweizen I have yet brewed.

In the Robobrew I did single infusions at 150 for the first 2 batches and the last one I did a hochkurz step mash 145 for 30 minutes, 158 for 45 minutes followed by mashout at 170 for 10 minutes.

 

[SFC Rudy]

Not scientifically, but yeah I did. In my old cooler setup I was using 11lbs of grain getting an OG of 1.055 or thereabouts. With the robobrew, I typically hit an OG of 1.050-1.054 with 12lbs of grain, so I adjusted my recipe up to 12lbs of grain but got OGs of 1.040-1.044 for the Hefeweizen

Do you sparge?

Palmer has the math for stepping up a recipe to a no sparge recipe. I tried it and usually would have to add approx. 20% more grain to make the same numbers as a recipe that was created with a sparge. By that calculator

I use a Mash and Boil and realized that my malt pipe fits in my Anvil fermenter so I can do a batch sparge in it. Got my efficiencies back up to 75-80%.

 

[rmr9]

Do you sparge?

Palmer has the math for stepping up a recipe to a no sparge recipe. I tried it and usually would have to add approx. 20% more grain to make the same numbers as a recipe that was created with a sparge. By that calculator

I use a Mash and Boil and realized that my malt pipe fits in my Anvil fermenter so I can do a batch sparge in it. Got my efficiencies back up to 75-80%.

Yes I do sparge. Generally I mash in with 6.5 gallons and sparge with 2 gallons. I’ve thought about retooling these numbers but I have been getting the consistent 1.050 OG with this approach. I was thinking my volumes may be on the high end, I used to err towards slightly higher wort production since I was filling a 5.5 gallon pin cask instead of a 5 gallon corny originally.

 

[SFC Rudy]

I calculate to get 60% of my boil volume out of the mash and sparge with 40%.

 

[rmr9]

One issue I need to address is my vessel for heating sparge water, it can’t accommodate much more than 2 gallons unfortunately. I’ll have to see if my malt pip fits into my anvil bucket. Only problem being I would need to use said bucket for fermentation. Unless I break out my all rounder but I don’t want to mess with that unless I get this piece sorted out.

 

[SFC Rudy]

One issue I need to address is my vessel for heating sparge water, it can’t accommodate much more than 2 gallons unfortunately. I’ll have to see if my malt pip fits into my anvil bucket. Only problem being I would need to use said bucket for fermentation. Unless I break out my all rounder but I don’t want to mess with that unless I get this piece sorted out.

When I sparge in my fermenter I clean it during the boil so that is not an issue.

Heating sparge water is an issue. I bought a second M&B, mash in one and sparge in the other. But if I am using my fermenter as a sparge vessel I heat all my water then transfer my sparge water volume to a round drink cooler to keep it warm during the mash. Works well other than the M&B only holds 7 gal water and I usually need 8 or so for my brew day. I bought a cheap electric water heater from walmart to heat the extra gallon or so of sparge water.

AIO's are great, but they do have limitations

 

[kevin58]

You need to forget what you did with that old cooler rig. This is a brand new system with its own equipment profile. Start building your recipe from scratch and make refinements along the way until you get the results you want. I started with a cooler mash tun type system and then went to a propane fired 3 vessel set up... to a 3 vessel electric herms followed by three different all-in-one systems. In none of those transitions did I ever look back at the previous system as a comparison to the new.

 

[rmr9]

You need to forget what you did with that old cooler rig. This is a brand new system with its own equipment profile. Start building your recipe from scratch and make refinements along the way until you get the results you want. I started with a cooler mash tun type system and then went to a propane fired 3 vessel set up... to a 3 vessel electric herms followed by three different all-in-one systems. In none of those transitions did I ever look back at the previous system as a comparison to the new.

This makes a lot of sense, it is very different for sure. As Rudy mentioned, the AIO’s do have their limitations.

Process wise I’m not basing it on the cooler days. Mainly focusing on the difference in quality in end product between the two.

 

[doug293cz]

I calculate to get 60% of my boil volume out of the mash and sparge with 40%.

Batch sparge lauter efficiency is maximized when the initial runnings and sparge runnings volumes are equal. Required strike and sparge volumes can be predicted accurately using a spreadsheet like this. Or, you can just use the simple rule of thumb of 60% of total brewing water for strike, and 40% for sparge. This accounts for grain absorption (which only applies to initial runnings), and gets you close enough to 50/50 run-off volumes, for a wide range of target OGs, that you won't be able to accurately measure the efficiency difference from a precisely 50/50 run-off.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

One issue I need to address is my vessel for heating sparge water, it can’t accommodate much more than 2 gallons unfortunately. I’ll have to see if my malt pip fits into my anvil bucket. Only problem being I would need to use said bucket for fermentation. Unless I break out my all rounder but I don’t want to mess with that unless I get this piece sorted out.

When I sparge in my fermenter I clean it during the boil so that is not an issue.

Heating sparge water is an issue. I bought a second M&B, mash in one and sparge in the other. But if I am using my fermenter as a sparge vessel I heat all my water then transfer my sparge water volume to a round drink cooler to keep it warm during the mash. Works well other than the M&B only holds 7 gal water and I usually need 8 or so for my brew day. I bought a cheap electric water heater from walmart to heat the extra gallon or so of sparge water.

AIO's are great, but they do have limitations

You don't have to heat sparge water (unless your conversion is incomplete at the end of your mash, AND you didn't do a mash-out.) Cool sparge water will increase your time required to heat to boil, but that's pretty much the only drawback.

Brew on

 

[rmr9]

You don't have to heat sparge water (unless your conversion is incomplete at the end of your mash, AND you didn't do a mash-out.) Cool sparge water will increase your time required to heat to boil, but that's pretty much the only drawback.

Brew on

That’s a good point, something to definitely consider. Heating to boil already takes a heck of a long time, that’s the only drawback to the 110V system I have. Maybe someday I’ll be able to bump up to 220V but that’s a ways away