Mr Darcy is a hefeweizen I brewed for my friend Adam's wedding on December 7 and bottled on December 21. This tasting was on January 14. No photo for this one because I was too busy drinking it.
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.011
IBU: 13
ABV: 4.2%
Aroma: Banana city, y'all! Of course there's banana. There's also a hint of clove and some decent wheat notes. There's no mistaking what it is.
Appearance: A thick, creamy white head with a cloudy yellow body verging on gold where the glass is a bit thicker. Beautiful.
Flavour: The clove gets a bit more space in the flavour of the beer. Banana, wheat and pilsner malt all tied up in a delicious way. The bitterness is very light and strictly complementary.
Mouthfeel: A creamy mouthfeel that somehow exists despite a moderately high level of carbonation.
There's a divide among people who like hefeweizens. It's between those who are fans of banana and those who love the clove. This beer would make the banana fans happy but would leave the clove fanciers wanting a more. As far as I can tell, this beer has no off flavours from the fermentation, the banana is not subtle but it's not out of control and the malt flavours are delicious. Overall, it's a good version of the style without quite hitting the Platonic hefeweizen. I think I'd like a little less banana.
The thing I really like about this one is what it looks like. Some people get weak knees at the sight of a beer that's so crystal clear you can read a newspaper through it. That's fine I guess but I much prefer the texture and depth of colour of a cloudy hefeweizen. Top that with a large, dense head and that's just about perfect. Weird since hefeweizens aren't even in my top 10 favourite beer styles.
It's a little embarrassing but I have always had my temperature controller set at the temperature I wanted to ferment at. For this beer it was 17 celsius. My temperature probe is taped to the side of the fermenter and insulated with some wetsuit material. I didn't take into account the heat developed during active fermentation and I've since read that inside the fermenter is generally a 2-3C higher than outside. So I was really fermenting at 19-20C instead of 17. Clever. That's where the banana was coming from and probably meant that the extra clove I was after was suppressed. Next time, Gadget.
Next time: ferment a couple of degrees cooler to lower the banana a little and let the clove come out a bit more. I'd also like try one or two different strains since all of my wheat beers so far have been with WLP300/WY3068.
Do you have a fermentation chamber? I currently have a dedicated fridge and insulate the temp probe against the side of the fermenter. I'm just using plastic fermenters at this time, but from what i know, so long as your probe is well insulated from the air, it should read the actual temperature of the fermenting wort?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I thought. I'm using a fridge and a chest freezer. I was reading this thread on AHB though (http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/77000-measuring-fermentation-temperature/) and the people who've measured the actual wort temperature say they're getting a 2-3C difference between an insulated probe on the outside and the actual wort. That fits pretty well with my experience of brewing hefeweizens where I'm getting more banana than I should be.
ReplyDeleteThat thread makes for interesting reading. Rather than reiterate a few thoughts check out my response (bilbrewing). Only way to tell is to brew the hefe again (dang, what a chore!). If you're keen, Stan Hieronymus - Brewing with Wheat is a good read and has a fair bit of info about yeast strains, temps and expected flavours.
ReplyDeleteGood to put a username to the blog comments. :-)
ReplyDeleteI guess the thermal conductivity depends a bit on the fermenter material and thickness. Maybe Bertus is using glass? Better bottles are a thinner and a different kind of plastic than the ones I generally use. It reminds me of the different rates of cooling between a glass longneck and a Coopers PET one.
That's all speculation though, you're right, I just need to brew it again. Such hard work.
Just for fun, next time you plan to brew the hefe let me know. Perhaps i'll do the same mash and pitch a different yeast then we can compare!
ReplyDeleteSounds good!
ReplyDelete