Winter Paradise Hefeweizen

January 2018.

Steep grains in 2 gal water at 160 F for 20 minutes. Sparge grains. Remove from burner, add LME and bring to boil. Add Hallertau hops in hop bag and boil for 45 minutes. Add Huell hops to hop bag and boil 15 minutes (total boil of 60 minutes).

Remove kettle from burner and let cool for 10 minutes. Add wort to primary fermenter, which has 3 gallons cold, sanitized water. Mix to aerate. Let cool to below 80 F, then pitch yeast.

Primary fermentation at approx 66 degrees F. Roused yeast in fermentor at the 1 week mark. Used open fermentation process, covered fermentor with mesh cloth for first few days, then lightly covered fermentor with plastic lid. Skimmed krausen on day 2 and day 3. Nine days in primary fermentation, then into secondary for 24 hours, then bottled with 5.4 oz corn sugar, boiled in 1 pint water.

Use of the Huell Melon hops is an experiment, which was suggested by my LBS, to add a slight profile of melon and tropical fruit. Added the Belgian CaraVienne to add just a bit of a darker, rich color for a winter brew.

Numbers were off just a bit from the auto calc...
OG - 1.048
FG - 1.008
ABV - 5.25%

Bottle condition at 72 F for 1 week, then store at 68 F.