Hefeweizen Urgent Help

[gingerjesus]

Whilst brewing a 38 litre batch of Schofferhofer Clone http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/714/schofferhoffer-weizen-clone . I accidentally added my one hop addition of 80gms Hallertauer Pellets (3% average Alpha) at the end of the boil(flame out) instead of the start and didn't pick up on it until a few hours after(brain fart). My target IBUs was 20.8 now i'm thinking i will get around 5 IBU's if that. Wort was chilled to 20 degrees in 30 mins. Gravity was 1051. Will it still be drinkable? any suggestions on lifting the IBUs? i have 20gms of Hallertauer left and have read suggestions of boiling hops in water and adding but was thinking this would just add Aroma and no Bitterness?with the IBUs being so high i am holding on to hope that i might get away with it. Has been in Fermenter 72 hours gravity is at 1024.

 

[verysupple]

The flame out addition will add some bitterness, but probably not enough.

You can boil some other hops and add that but the problem is the added water also dilutes the beer - so you end up with a watered down beer that's only a little more bitter. I'd be looking into adding a bit of Isohop or something similar. It's basically a hop extract that only really adds bitterness without changing the flavour. AFAIK it wouldn't be a problem adding it after fermentation has started either.

 

[Weizguy]

you can do an hour long boil with the remaining hops and some wort (or malt extract) that you may have and add that back to the brew.

Just 2 or 3 litres.

Save the drinking until you commence the boil.

 

[verysupple]

you can do an hour long boil with the remaining hops and some wort (or malt extract) that you may have and add that back to the brew.

Just 2 or 3 litres.

Save the drinking until you commence the boil.

I've done some more calcs and this method will work for you. But only because it's a weissbier and doesn't need much bittering.

Calculation:

I just calculated that your 80 g FO addition would give only a few IBU. Let's call it 3 for this calculation.

It's generally accepted that you can't get much over 80 IBU due to the solubility of the effecting compounds.

So, 3 L of 80 IBU into 23 L of 3 IBU will result in 26 L at 12 IBU.

That's OK bittering for a weissbier.

The catch is that your 3 L has to have the maximum amount of bittering. So boil those hops (preferably in ~1.040 SG wort) for at least 60 min.

EDIT: Oh, and if you use wort for the hop boil make sure you add it before FG is reached so the yeasties will ferment it out nicely.

 

[JDW81]

Save the drinking until you commence the boil.

This is the best piece of brewing advice you will ever receive. I'd wager more mistakes are made by people having cracked their first beer during the mash than not knowing what they're doing.

 

[gingerjesus]

thanks for the advice guys. so verysupple for my 38 litre batch would it be possible to take a few litres say 5? out of my fermenter and maybe add some additional water (1 litre or so),bring to the boil and add the 20 grams of hops,rolling boil for 60 or 90 mins.chill down to say 18 degrees and add it back to the fermenter? i pitched two vials of White Labs WLP300 into 38 litres with no starter and its sitting at 19 degrees in my temp controlled kegerator. Also if its possible would my best bet to be sanitize my plastic wort paddle and give it a quick stir when i put it back in the fermenter or just dumb it in?

 

[manticle]

I firmly believe being able to problem solve with a few under the belt is a skill more brewers need.
Certainly helped me brewing at case swaps.
For OP - definitely a small wort boil. Don't boil in just water.

 

[gingerjesus]

i made the mistake by getting mixed up between 0 mins and 60 mins into the boil with beersmith. The recipe was so simple with one hop addition it threw me off.i hit the boil timer in a hurry and the hop addition disappeared because the time had ellapsed was making sure everything was going well and looked back at the recipe which said 60 min hop addition...ohh yeah on the hour mark(idiot)...i am only new to the game and i did only sample my last brew when the boil had commenced still wouldn't of changed anything because i had missed the boat

 

[Adr_0]

Some good solutions above. I like hop plugs (when I can get them) but got complacent once and added one two many at a 60min addition, with northdown, and I had a bit of a late ice water arrival (long story) which meant I didn't start chilling for another 10min, so my 35IBU english bitter turned into a 50-55IBU english IPA. I had to steep some crystal and light DME and it took a couple of months to smooth out... but ended up being a great cask IPA with great character.

And as for drinking when brewing... my serious advice is you should have one or two at some stage through the brewday, but you don't really want to be pissed. Mashing can sometimes be a drama, but so can post-boil stuff (chilling, fermenter transfer).

Other advice out there says you shouldn't start drinking until AT LEAST your strike water starts to heat, so.....

 

[SNippets01]

Also remember guys, if you have not added any hops to the wort during boiling and if you have the software or tools to reasonably accurately measure your volume of water - just add more water to the kettle and reset the timing if you need.

 

[hoppy2B]

Get yourself some higher alpha hops as I think you will struggle to get enough IBU from 20 grams at 3%.

I'm not able to think of a single reason you wouldn't be able to boil 1 litre of plain water. You simply need to make your IBU calculations based on the fact you have a zero gravity boil.

 

[gingerjesus]

I have 82gms of amarillo 8.9% average alpha acid at home also that maybe I can use a small amount with the hallertauer,not really for hefeweizen but a small amount boiled in my small batch hopefully wouldn't add much taste just bitterness I need?

 

[manticle]

I'm not able to think of a single reason you wouldn't be able to boil 1 litre of plain water.

Depending on the water pH, the bitterness extracted can be unpleasant when plain water is used.

 

[manticle]

I have 82gms of amarillo 8.9% average alpha acid at home also that maybe I can use a small amount with the hallertauer,not really for hefeweizen but a small amount boiled in my small batch hopefully wouldn't add much taste just bitterness I need?

Don't use amarillo unless you want the flavour of amarillo. I'd use the hallertauer - you are not looking for a huge IBU contribution. If you must use a higher aa hop, use something like German Northern Brewer.

 

[technobabble66]

I'm not able to think of a single reason you wouldn't be able to boil 1 litre of plain water.

Sorry H2B, but i'd strongly disagree.
The chemistry involved in the extraction process can differ very significantly if you're using plain water. Certain components of the hops will/won't be extracted that wouldn't/would normally be, or at higher/lower levels. There's several reasons as to why that you don't need to bored with - pH (as per Mants) is a major one. Non-polar components (e.g.: oils) not dissolving easily into polar solvents (e.g.: water) is another.
Also there is a significant amount of alteration to the extracted components during the full length of the boil that would normally occur. This is due to the interaction of these components with the various grain-derived compounds in the wort.

Another empirical way of looking at it: If it didn't make a difference, we wouldn't have a couple of hundred years of doing it.

Edit: if you had no other option, the water thing would be definitely better than nothing, however it'd be best to use the 1.040-1.050 wort if you can get your hands on some DME, etc.

 

[hoppy2B]

I wonder if a very low gravity would make a good option. It might provide enough of the components to interact with the hops but still give good hop utilization. I would have thought that if one were using twice as much hops then one would be getting twice the tannins etc., when shooting for the same IBU.

Mt Hood could be a good option. I've grown it and can say the stuff I grew is very clean flavoured.

 

[mofox1]

This is the best piece of brewing advice you will ever receive. I'd wager more mistakes are made by people having cracked their first beer during the mash than not knowing what they're doing.

I whole heartedly agree as well. A couple of minor(ish) mistakes and at least one decent burn would have been prevented had I postponed the ah, brewing celebration as it were.

From now on I shall endevour to celebrate the end of sparge, and not "I have printed the recipe, therefore I must drink".

 

[manticle]

I wonder if a very low gravity would make a good option. It might provide enough of the components to interact with the hops but still give good hop utilization. I would have thought that if one were using twice as much hops then one would be getting twice the tannins etc., when shooting for the same IBU.

The most oft quoted range is 1030-1050 for optimum utilisation vs smooth bittering. Unless you're desperately broke, I don't think it's worth the potential cost savings to verge much beyond that.

Hop chemistry - whether IBU contribution, essential oil contribution or polyphenols and tannins is complex and I think the occasion is rare when you can think in such linear terms as 'twice this makes double that'.

 

[Weizguy]

Agree with Manticle. Hop bitterness also, as explained by John Palmer at ANHC about 6 years ago, is not just about the alpha acids.

 

[gingerjesus]

I've bitten the bullet and mixed up 3 litres of wort out of the fermenter with 1 litre of water to give me a gravity of 1.015 boiling for 90 mins est post boil of 1.018. Added my 20 grams of hops with est 74.1 ibu and a final total of around 3.2 litres. Tasting what was in the fermenter it was missing bitterness. Hopefully this will kick it up a touch. If it spoils it than you live and learn. Just after a drinkable beer really at this point