#8 - Back to the beginning #2 (Dunkelweizen)

Batch #8 (Brewed Tuesday, April 28, 2009)

Goal:
My #5 turned out a little funky (we poured out a bunch of them) and my #6, which wasn’t quite a regular Dunkeles, was a little bit off, too. For that reason, I started back over with a simple, pre-made malt extract recipe. Just trying to make a good, high quality beer; I don’t care about the “crafting” when I am saving so much money over the store. Also, my #1 (which was good) got a little bit too carbonated and lost its banana aromas after bottle aging for 2-3 months. Was it too hot in the bottle, bottled too soon? Hopefully, this batch will answer those questions.

Ingredients:
3.3 lb. can of BrewFerm hopped Belgian Wheat liquid malt extract
3 lb. bag of amber dried malt extract (Munton’s)
Wyeast Weihenstephaner 3068 slap-pack

Notes:
I was supposed to use a pound of grain, but was rushed and didn't have time to steep and sparge (I had to rush to dinner and the slap pack was already swollen).
Everything was sort of normal. All went well, except during the 20 minutes of boiling, the boil over effect kept coming back and back, never going away.
I pitched my yeast @ 85 degrees, but the next morning there was a ton of activity with good aroma to indicate proper activity.
After 2 ½ days of fermentation in primary, blow off activity is still going strong. This type of beer (especially pitched at a higher temperature) seems to need a good blow off solution, not just what I’ve rigged up. (NOTE: LHBS worker told me to modify an airlock and attach 1/2" hosing as a blow off solution. I am using this in batch #9 to good effect.)

Racked to secondary after 5 days.
Bottled after 6 more days.
Tasted 1 bottle after 1 day, and there was a VERY slight amount of carbonation (normal for my batches). Taste was good, but thin body, as expected. When carbonated, I expect this batch to rival my #1.
Tasted another bottled after 1 more day (2 days total). There was more carbonation and the taste was better, but the body is still a little bit thin and the beer definitely needs more carbonation. I'm thinking 2 more days and it will be perfect!

Original Gravity: 1.044 @ 85 degrees (corrected value is 1.0473)
Final Gravity: 1.015 @70 degrees (corrected value is 1.0161)
Calculated Alcohol: 4.09% ABV