Any Home-brewers?

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(01-23-2021, 02:42 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: You change anything in your grain bill on the American vs Bavarian hefe, or just the yeast?  

I've never really gotten into using a secondary.  Even if I'm aging on oak or adding fruit, I don't find the beer is ever on the yeast for more than 5-6 weeks, and I've never had an issue with that length of time (those beers are also usually higher gravity, but not always in the case of fruited beers).  I know most people swear by the method or were scared into doing it because they heard a horror story but I like to save time in transferring, avoid accidental oxygenation and reduce the number of vessels I need.  I'm curious if you've ever had an issue or just secondary out of habit/precaution? 

Just the yeast is different on this current first round. The next American Hefeweizen that I'll make in a week or so, I'll change it closer to the American recipe as I just followed the Bavarian recipe this time. I only use a secondary fermenter when I need beer sooner than two or three weeks apart and I'm re-using the yeast. Other than that, it just means more cleaning and more chances of an infection so I usually just use the primary from start to finish. One of my mentors when I first got back into brewing calls the secondary the "Clear Tank" to make a less cloudy beer, but, since I'm mostly just interested in the Hefeweizens, he said I probably wouldn't need to use one at all.

Most of my beers are 5% to 5.5% alcohol. I tried the higher gravity route for awhile when I first started up brewing again but once I made a beer that more or less followed the normal recipe, it tasted much, much better than my higher gravity versions as I did ye olde "side by side taste test". So now, I just shoot for the 6 lbs of extract and stay there. I'm in the process of putting together a cooler Mash Tun and already have the Hot Liquor Tank ready to go. I need to drill, sand or file the opening just a wee bit to match the fittings for the Mash Tun.

I've made around 175 batches the last 7 to 8 years and 130 to 140 of those were Hefeweizens (it's why I started up brewing again). I've MAYBE checked the gravity on 12-15 beers but that was only because friends asked me to make certain styles for parties or backstage gatherings at concerts and I knew people were going to ask. I rarely drink enough to get drunk so I just assume that I'm making the same 5% to 5.5% that I did when I measured them before. I bought some guy's kit a few months ago and he had a refractometer in there. I'll check these with that once they're all done because all of these will be in my office kegerator. It holds six corny kegs and I have a mini-fridge that holds two more. I want to have all eight slots full to have a variety at my office/recording studio for our radio station KEGR, The Kegger. I call it "Alaska's Homebrew". My next usage of the Bavarian yeast will most likely be a Dunkelweizen.

I've made four batches over the years that were pretty high gravity. Two Chaparral Red that were 7.9% and 8.1% and two HAC(High Alcohol Content) Honey Ales that were 11.4% and 12.9%(just shy of a Barley Wine). All of them except for the 7.9% were surprisingly smooth(left the hops in too long for that one) but the HAC were too much alcohol, took too long to make(well over a month for both) and cost almost twice as much to brew. I also got annoyed from waking up hours later in my recliner with half of a warm, flat second glass of beer next to me. I have too much of my German blood in me. My Mom took me to Germany when I was 15 and I learned from my relatives VERY quickly while recovering from my first hangover. . . "Germans don't like hanging around drunks. Just get a buzz and maintain it and then EVERYBODY has fun."