BYOBB Dunkelweizen

This is a darker wheat beer with flavors of chocolate and banana. As such, it’s very low on hops. I recommend aging it for a couple weeks, but don’t overdo it. It doesn’t get better with age indefinitely. Remember to swirl the bottle a little bit before you pour, so you get some of the yeast in your glass. For this reason, this beer tends to not do as well in kegs.

Goals

• 5 gallons
• Starting specific gravity: 1.050 - 1.055
• Finishing specific gravity: 1.010 - 1.015
• ABV: 5.5%
• Bitterness: 10 - 12 IBU
• Color: 16 SRM

Mini-mash recipe

Ingredients

• 4 lb. wheat extract syrup
• 1 lb. two row malt
• 1.25 lb. Munich malt
• 10 oz. caramel wheat malt
• 6 oz. chocolate wheat malt
• 1.5 oz. Hallertauer hops (60 minutes)
• Wyeast #305 (Bavarian Weizen)

Procedure

• Heat 1 gallon of strike water to 170° F.
• Add strike water and crushed grains to mash tun, stirring well.
• Temperature should stabilize around 156° F. Hold this temperature for one hour, checking the temperature every 15 minutes.
• While mash is being conducted, heat 2 gallons of sparge water to 170° F.
• Recirculate runnings until clear, then sparge and collect a total of 3 gallons.
• Add 1.5 oz. Hallertauer hops. Boil 60 minutes.
• Cool with wort chiller to ~ 75° F, strain to remove the large amount of hop debris, and add to 2 gallons of water in carboy. Top up to 5 gallons.
• Pitch yeast.
• Bottle or keg when fermentation is complete.
• Optional: Age in bottles approximately two weeks, then cold condition in bottles 2-4 more weeks before serving.