008. OBK Hefeweizen

11L for strike water accounting for 2.2L of grain absorption. (Rule-0.6G for 6 lbs of grain). Assuming 8.8L after.

After grains were placed in strike water, it was 158F - way too high. Added cold water from tap to get it down to 151.3 @ 52 minutes. Then, 151.0 @ 40, 150.8 @ 30, 149.0 @ 20, 147.9 @ 10, 146.3 @ 5. Mashed out for 10 minutes @ 168. Dunk sparge for 10 minutes @ 170.

Estimated 6.2L for dunk sparge, but actually got 8L. This made 16.8 (4.4G) in pre-boil Wort. SG was 1.034 @ 126F which equates to 1.044 actual SG. Apparently this is 86.83% pre-boil efficiency. Really high if it is true. On second thought, maybe my grain absorption was much higher. If I correct my pre-boil wort to 4.0 gallons, I get 78.22% - pretty much spot on with post-boil efficiency.

Assuming typical boil off rate is 14% it makes more sense. 14% of 4 gallons is 0.56 gallons, which roughly comes to 3.5 gallons in the fermenter.

Post-boil OG was 1.050! Pitched yeast @ 22C @ 9pm and will begin adding ice bottles at 7am in the morning. Reading in the ice bath is 20C, so will assume +2 for the fermenter, plus the traditional 3C for 1.050 OG and for the increased temps from ferm.

With 3.5G (maybe 3.4) of post-boil wort @ 1.050 OG, I have a brewhouse efficiency of 77.78% (or 75.56%). Why is it less than pre-boil efficiency?

First bottle on 07/28. Lots of head, although it dissipates after some sips. First impression is that it is very carbonated and sweet. Aroma has huge banana notes which will hopefully die down with age. This is probably because of the high and variable ferm temps. Does this mainly affect the aroma and not the flavour? I should also check my carbing process next time...

Side-by-side: 08/03 (Granville Island Hefe)

App: Mine is a straw gold colour, GI has a distinct orange hue. Both have same level of haziness and mine shows greater signs of carbonation.

Smell: Mine smells predominately like rotten bananas with a little bubblegum. I can chalk this up to the higher and variable ferm temps. GI is much more pleasent - citrus and banana, also with bubblegum.

Taste: Mine tastes better than it smells. Sweet and carbonated. Light banana notes. Gi is also very sweet but less carbonated. Much more of a bubblegum taste. Both are quite different but good in their own ways.

MF: Both have light body with medium high levels of carbonation. However, GI is a little bit heavier on the tounge.

Overall: I have to side with GI, mainly because of the aroma, given everything else equal.