#5 - Back to the beginning

Batch #5 (Brewed Tuesday, February 03, 2009)

Goal:
I was trying to recreate the first batch with slightly different ingredients. Also, this was my first batch utilizing only primary fermentation. I will wait 10 to 14 days and rack to bottling bucket and bottle. No secondary fermentation. This is following advice seen today on home brewing website that Weizen beers don’t benefit from the clearing action of secondary fermentation.

Ingredients:
1 x 4lb. can Edme Microbrewery Series Wheat Beer hopped Liquid Malt Extract
1 x 3lb. bag Munton’s Amber DME
Irish Moss
Publix brand Spring Water to make just over 5 gallons wort
Wyeast Weihenstephan slap pack (#3068)

Notes:
I brought 2 gallons water to 180⁰ and added can of LME and bag of DME. I brought the wort to a boil and added 2 cups slightly chilled water to stave off the foaming action. I brought it back to boil and had to remove from heat to prevent foaming action. I brought it back to a boil and added some room temperature water to stave off another foaming action. Foaming action finally subsided and boiled for about 8 minutes. Added Irish Moss and boiled another 12 minutes. Covered with lid and placed in ice bath in kitchen sink.
It took a little while to get the temperature down, but at 125⁰ I poured the hot wort into my bucket. I spilled about a cup on the floor. I added water to make slightly more than 5 gallons wort. The slap pack was bulging when I added it to the wort.
Wednesday morning, quite a large amount of airlock activity was evident, making me happy. When I got home from work, however, it had turned into a complete blowout! There was about 1 cup of beer/foam on the lid of my bucket and on the ground around it. The airlock was COMPLETELY gummed up with dried wort. I quickly tried to clean up the spill and get the airlock back on, but it took a little while, and I eventually had to take the lid off twice, and I had to clean the airlock 3 times! I finally got fed up with this solution and rigged up a blow off hose. I’m glad I did, because overnight about 2 more cups of foam came through the hose. Heavy fermentation still continues, causing the lid to bow up noticeably. I guess that slap pack was ready to rock and ROLL!

I'm now thinking that this batch was a stinker!
Bottled after 14 days.
Carbonation present in a couple of days.
Too bad this batch stinks! Literally! It smelled like feet! Nothing like the first batch. Crap! Poured out half of the bottles, but kept a few that weren't half bad. In any case, none of the bottles had the nice banana flavor/aroma that makes Weihenstephaner my favorite beer.

Original Gravity: 1.054 @ 79 degrees (corrected value is 1.05637)
Final Gravity: 1.018 @ 72 degrees (1.0193)
Calculated Alcohol %: 4.86% ABV

Lesson learned: My LHBS owner was right: ALWAYS RACK TO SECONDARY!!! I won't make that mistake again. This batch was a good learning experience, but nothing else.