Peaches-N-Cream Hefe

I recently renewed my AHA membership and was perusing the AHA's site and came across Scott Townson's  2010 NHC Gold Medal winning Peaches-N-Cream Hefe  recipe.  I thought this was one my wife would enjoy so I brewed it on Mother's Day weekend.  I realized when writing this post this is probably going to end up being the summer of wheat beers around our house.  I recently brewed a Pinkus Hefe clone and I've had numerous requests to re-brew my Watermelon Wheat.  Add in this Peaches-N-Cream brew and I think I've got wheat beers covered for a while.  I'm going to have to brew up an IPA or something for a bit of variety.

Scott's original recipe was for 12 gallons so I used BeerSmith to scale it down to 5 gallons.  There appeared to be at least one typo in the recipe; the yeast is listed as "WLP300 San Francisco Lager yeast".  WLP300 is actually Hefeweizen Ale Yeast  and WLP810 is San Francisco Lager Yeast.  Judging by the recipe name, I'm going to assume the correct yeast is WLP300.  Another possible issue is the recipe calls for a secondary fermentation at 35 F for 6 months.  Hefe's are a style that are typically consumed young and don't typically age very well; I'm thinking this may also be a typo so I'm not planning on lagering it as above.  The scaled recipe is as follows:

0.83 lb Rice Hulls
4.50 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
3.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L
0.41 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops
0.41 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (50 min) Hops
3.33 oz Peach Flavoring (Bottling)
5.83 oz Lactose (Bottling)
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat


Directions
Crush grains and mash in at 112° F (44° C) for 20 minutes.  Infuse to raise temp to 144° F (62° C) and hold for 20 minutes.  Pull first decoction and bring slowly to a boil.  Add back, raise temp to 152° F (67° C) and hold for 60 min.  Pull second decoction and add back to raise temp to 159° F (71° C) and hold for 30 minutes.  Infuse to mash out at 168° F (76° C).  Sparge to collect 6.75 gallons of wort.  This uses a 90 minute boil.  Add first hop addition and bring to a boil.  Add second hop addition with 50 minutes remaining.

Primary Fermentation: 65° F (18° C) until finished
Secondary Fermentation: Six months at 35° F (2° C)***Suspected typo***

Brewing notes
This was my first decoction brew session.  I don't know that I'd want to do decoctions every time but it wasn't quite as big a pain as I was anticipating.  It would probably be more time consuming if you were brewing larger batches but for a 5 gallon batch it's not too bad.  I stirred the decoctions constantly in order to avoid scorching the grain.  I also ran the BCS-460 in manual mode.  My only complaint is I need to buy a spoon with a more comfortable grip.  I used the following grains in my version:

Briess Light Munich Malt, 10L
Weyerman Pilsner Malt
Weyerman Wheat Malt
I also had to substitute Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan because the LHBS was all out of WLP300.

Tasting Notes (Updated 7/1/2011):  If mine turned out anything like Scott Townson's, I can see how he did so well in the NHC.  This is a very tasty brew especially in the summer.  It's not overly sweet from the lactose and the peach flavoring is very balanced as well.  There's a slight clove character but not overpowering or distracting.  This is a very refreshing summertime brew and I'll definitely be making this again.

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Pinkus Hefe-Weizen Clone

This weekend I'm brewing a Pinkus Hefe-Weizen Clone.  I don't normally drink a ton of hefe but I do enjoy the style especially as the weather gets warm.  I brewed a Bavarian style hefe a while back and it was good, but the clove flavors were a bit strong for my taste.  The Pinkus Hefe reminds me more of an American style hefe since the yeast character is a bit more neutral.  WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch should provide the clean low-ester character I'm looking for and is less flocculant than a lot of ale yeasts, so some will remain in suspension.

Credit for this recipe goes to brewmastermike on HBT.  He indicates he got some help from the brewmaster at Pinkus-Muller on recipe formulation.  His recipe uses a 50/50 wheat/barley mix.  I found a couple resources that suggested a 60/40 wheat/barley mix is used in the commercial version so that's what I'm going with.  Also my LHBS was out of Hallertauer so I'm substituting Liberty.

Recipe
6.6 pounds Weyerman Wheat Malt
4.4 pounds Dingemans Pale 2 row
1 ounce Hallertauer 90 min
.25 ounce Hallertauer 15 min
.25 ounce Hallertauer Hersbrucker 5 min
1 package of White Labs German Ale/Kolsch yeast (WLP029)

I used a 1.03 liter yeast starter.

Mash
Step mash - 13.75 quarts for a protein rest at 122F for 30 min
Step to 143F for 30 min
Step to 151F for 30 min
Step to 162F for 30 min
Mash out at 168F

Notes
I'll be using a handful or two of rice hulls in the mash to help prevent a stuck mash.  Chill to 65F and aerate well.  Gradually raise to 68F.

Brewing Notes
I'm getting a little later start than I'd planned.  I turned on the sprinklers yesterday.  Turns out it looks like whoever installed my sprinkler system forgot to cement (only primed) one of the joints.  It held for a couple years but separated last night at some point.  Long story short it filled up the window well and started leaking into my daughter's room.  Fun stuff.

This is the first session using the Siphon Spray Wort Aerator on my sparge arm.  So far it's working great.  Originally I was using copper pipe with slots cut so the returning liquor was gently distributed across the top of the grain bed.  I switched from a stainless steel hose braid to a false bottom a little while back and it allows small grain pieces and husks to flow through until the grain bed sets up.  This resulted in these pieces clogging the slots in the sparge arm.  The Siphon Spray Wort Aerator eliminates this issue and it works great.  If you're thinking about building a sparge arm, keep it simple and consider using this cool little gadget.

For the step mash I'm running the BCS-460 in Manual Mode.  I'm doing this for simplicity's sake since most of my mashes are single infusion.  I seem to be getting between a 1 to 1.5 degree rise per minute for the step increases which is consistent with previous brews.

Tasting Notes (Updated 7/1/2011): 
I did a side by side a while back and I thought I'd posted an update...I guess I didn't so this is from memory.  I wouldn't say this is cloned, at least not the way I brewed it (hop substitution?).  Mine was noticeably a couple shades darker.  There was also the slight tartness in the commercial version that was much more subdued in mine.  It was still a fantastic Hefe, but I wouldn't call it cloned quite yet.

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All Copper Counterflow Chiller Experiment

I recently picked up a hopback from B3.  Basically you use a hopback to infuse volatile hop flavor and aroma in you beers. Typically you gravity flow from kettle to hopback, then pump or gravity flow from hopback to a counterflow chiller (CFC) to your fermenter.  By chilling immediately after the hopback you retain those volatile hop flavor and aroma compounds.  So that's the theory but the problem is I didn't have a CFC so the hopback wasn't going to do me much good.

There are lots of commercial CFC's out there but I usually like to go the DIY route; plus some are really expensive.  I like the plate chillers but I worry about break material clogging them up and fowling up future batches.  The HomeBrewNetwork has a nice wiki on a DIY counterflow chiller.  The Cliff's Notes version is you insert 3/8" copper tubing into a 5/8" rubber garden hose, sweat some fittings and bam, you have a very decent CFC.  The only thing I don't like about this is eventually the rubber hose will crack and you'll have to figure out a way to replace it.  This would probably mean you have to cut some tubing out every time you have to fix it.  I stumbled upon a post from PJ on HomeBrewTalk.com where he'd built an all copper CFC.  I like this option better because you'll never have to deal with a cracked outer tube.

Mine is inspired by PJ's (his site can be found here with great instructions) but the end product is slightly different.  PJ builds his using 25 foot lengths of tubing (actually 50 footers cut in half).  I saw a couple commercial CFC's that used around 12 feet of convoluted tubing, so I decided to try to build a 10 footer and see what would happen...plus my wife wouldn't approve the budget for anything longer.  I built it a couple weeks ago and just got around to testing it today.

The test was pretty straightforward, I boiled 6 gallons of water and ran it through my CFC and measured the temperature of the water entering and exiting the CFC.  I know this isn't real scientific, but it's fairly practical.  I have ball valves on both my kettle and pump to regulate the flow rates.  The cooling water initial temp was 52.3 F.  I used a couple different flow rates on the cooling water.  I don't have an accurate way to measure how fast the water was flowing, so I'll just call it low and high.  Even on high, the flow rate wasn't terribly high.  Initial Water (Wort) Temperature = 205.3 F.

Round 1 Tests

1. Gravity feed with ball valves completely open, low chilling water flow - wort output temp = 93.3 F
2. Gravity feed with ball valve 3/4 open, low chilling water flow - wort output temp = 88.8 F
3. Gravity feed with ball valve 3/4 open, high chilling water flow - wort output = 84.0

Results will vary, especially when taking varying tap water temperatures into consideration, but as you can see above a 10 foot CFC can provide some pretty decent cooling.  These aren't quite pitching temperatures, but it's below temps where DMS is produced and most importantly should prevent those volatile hops flavors and aromas from being lost.  

That said, I wanted a bit more cooling capacity.  I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket from some hops rhizome sales, so I built a second 10 foot CFC this evening.  The plan is to daisy chain the CFC's so that I essentially end up with one big CFC with dual cooling inlets and outlets.  I don't know if I'd recommend going this route if you're starting from scratch, but since I had already built the first 10 foot CFC I figured this was the best way to ensure it's usefulness.  The price should be close to a 25 foot CFC but you'll have twice as many copper fittings to sweat; not a huge deal and if it is you probably should just buy one off the shelf.  Theoretically mine should provide better cooling than a longer CFC with a single inlet/outlet for the cooling water.  The first circuit will knock the temperature down near 90F.  My prediction is the second circuit should knock it down very close to the temp of the cooling water.

Round 2 Tests - The conditions for round 2 were the same as round 1.  By adjusting the flow rate I was able to get the output temperature down in the low 60's; not bad for a homemade chiller.

The dual circuits make the chiller a bit larger than I would have liked.  If you're starting from scratch I'd go with a 20-25 foot chiller rather than two 10 footers like I've created.  Based on my experience, anything longer than 25 feet would probably be overkill and unnecessary.

Unfortunately, aesthetically speaking, after connecting hoses and such I don't really like the look of my setup much.  It just doesn't have as clean a look as I would like.  One of the aspects that I like about home brewing is it allows for trial and error in various situations and there's always the opportunity to improve processes and techniques.  That said, at some point I may end up going with a plate chiller after all (and cleaning the heck out of it after each batch).  If I do, a 10 foot CFC would make a great pre-chiller.

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Hops Trellis

I've been relocating my hops plants and part of that has included building a trellis for the hops to grow on.  I was hoping to build a six post trellis (three sets of two posts) anchored to footings.  The benefit of this is it would have been free-standing so I wouldn't have to set posts below grade (eventual rotting).

Unfortunately due to a bay window in the dining room I didn't have quite enough room for this setup, so instead I went with an in-line three post setup.  The posts themselves are 4x4x16 and are set in concrete 4.5 feet below grade and tied together with two 2x6x20 headers..  All lumber is redwood and was ordered from Burton Lumber in SLC.  I'm sure pressure treated would probably last longer but IMO the redwood looks a little nicer and accepts stain better than pressure treated.  Speaking of stain, all lumber was stained with two coats of Olympic Maximum Solid Color Stain in Mystic White prior to assembling.  I ended up with an overall height of 11.5 feet..that was until a rep from my HOA came by.  Turns out the HOA prohibits any structures taller than 8 feet in the backyard.  As I was talking to him I was looking around at the other yards and noticed no less than five structures exceeding the eight foot limit including his next door neighbor's shed.  I obliged the HOA and trimmed mine down to eight feet which is a lot lower than I wanted, but still much better than my 5 and 6 foot temporary trellises.  Besides, I'd like to build a patio cover at some point that will need to be around 9-10 feet, so I figured I'm going to pick my battles.  

My hops themselves are still spaced a little closer than I'd like but much more spacious than in the previous locations.  I added some new varieties this year so I'm doing a little experimenting to find out which ones will grow better in the Salt Lake Valley.  Utah has a pretty dry climate and can get hot during the summer.  The first summer here there was an entire month where it never got under 100 degrees.  Fortunately that isn't the norm, but we do routinely get up in the 90's.  If some varieties fail to thrive I'll remove them in favor of the ones that do better.  So far Cascade and Nugget seemed to do the best but I'm interested to see if that will change now that they have a bit more room to grow. 

Besides being on the warm side, our soil isn't the greatest.  Prior to re-planting I added some soil amendments consisting of composted steer manure and a blend of composted poultry manure and other organic material.  These were worked into the existing soil using a spade shovel and digging fork.

I'm still planning on adding some 2x2's to the top of the trellis but here's the finished product more or less.  I gotta say even at 8 feet there's a bit of flex in the posts and at 11+ feet there was even more.  Even though it's not at tall as I originally planned, the HOA may have done me a favor when the first windstorm blows into town.

Overall trellis

Just in time, purple tips of Cascades are starting to emerge

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Home Grown Hops

Springtime is almost here so it's time to start thinking about hops. I've been growing my own hops for a couple years now. They've done well but I have run into a couple issues. I bought some rhizomes from my LHBS as well as from Freshops.com. My plan was to plant the hops in a "temporary" location until I was able to find the time to build a trellis. Well, almost four years and one finished basement later and they're still in their "temporary" location.

The primary problem is they're planted in fairly close proximity to each other so the bines get intertwined making it difficult to harvest the varieties separately. Right now my freezer is full of mixed hops that I'll probably end up using in some kind of mongrel brew. This year I'm going to finally build my trellis and replant the hops in permanent locations.

The other issue is I didn't do a whole lot of planning when I selected my current varieties. I would have been better off focusing on flavor/aroma varieties, but I ended up with a few that are primarily known for bittering (e.g. Brewer's Gold, Nugget). I also didn't do much analysis as to which hops I tend to use most often. I knew I really liked Cascade and Centennial and had several recipes that called for them, but the others were kind of shots in the dark.

Current Varieties: The following is a list of the varieties I've had in the ground for the past three years.

• Brewer's Gold - Bittering hop with neutral aroma character. Grows well in all climates. 8-10%
• Cascade - Pleasant, flowery, spicy, and citrusy. Can have a grapefruit flavor. Grows well in all climates. 5-6%
• Centennial - Medium with floral and citrus tones. Grows well in all climates. 8-10%
• Liberty - Mild and clean aroma, slightly spicy character. Does better in mild climates but can grow in hot climates. 3 - 5%
• Nugget - Quite heavy and herbal. Grows well in all climates. 12-15%

Planned Varieties: I've been reviewing my recipes for the hops I use most often. Based on the number of my recipes they appear in, here are my top 10 hops: Goldings, East Kent (22), Cascade (17), Hallertauer (12), Northern Brewer (12), Columbus (10), Williamette (10), Centennial (9), Fuggle (8), Tettnang (8). I already have Cascade and Centennial so I can eliminate them from my wish list. Hallertauer doesn't do so well in hot dry climates, so I'll skip that one. Ditto for Fuggle. Pending availability, I'm planning on adding the following varieties this year:

• Chinook - Mild to medium-heavy, spicy, piney, and grapefruity. While it's often used for bittering, it does have a nice flavor/aroma profile and does well in hot dry climates.
• Golding - Mild, extremely pleasant, and gently hoppy. I brew with lots of East Kent Golding hops, so I'd love to give this one a try. Prefers cooler climates but does ok in hot climates.
• Mt. Hood - Mild, pleasant, and clean, somewhat pungent and resiny. Derived from Hallertau but unlike Hallertau it does well in all climates.
• Williamette - Mild and pleasant, slightly spicy, fruity, floral, a little earthy. Similar to Fuggle but tolerates warmer drier climates better than Fuggle.

So this is my rhizome wish list for this year. These four varieties are fairly common so I'm crossing my fingers they'll all be available. I've noticed a couple online suppliers have started selling or are taking pre-orders. I'm gambling in the hopes that Freshops.com has all these varieties available this year, preferably in the "jumbo" size. Based on personal experience, they often produce hops the first year whereas regular sized rhizomes tend to take at least a year to get established, so I prefer the jumbos.

If you're new to hop growing here's a few things to keep in mind.

• Use homegrown hops for flavor and aroma additions. These will be the most useful for brewing since alpha acid content varies year to year. There is no easy way to determine alpha acid content, so buy you bittering hops at the LHBS and grow your flavor/aroma hops.
• Pick a variety that will grow in your area. If you live in a hot dry climate, don't pick a variety that prefers cool moist climates. It may grow but probably won't produce any cones.
• Pick varieties that you use most often in your favorite recipes and styles.
• Don't over-water the rhizomes as this can result in rot.
• Do watch for pests and signs of fungal infection. If you have to treat them be sure to use treatments that are brewing-safe.
• Do provide a sturdy support for them to grow on. My temporary support is made out of PVC irrigation pipe. It's ok in a pinch, but it has severely warped after a couple seasons and has had a hard time supporting the weight of the bines. Plus my wife hates the way it looks.
• I thought it was worth mentioning that hops are toxic to dogs. Use caution especially if you have a dog that likes to chew on plants as they can be deadly. Fortunately, my dogs have never shown any interest in my hops; I wish I could say the same for my peach tree. I think spent hops would be more attractive to dogs since they've been flavored/saturated with malt sugars. Bottom line, if you have dogs, use common sense.

Update 3/5/2011: Freshops.com is now taking orders!!!

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