SITZPINKLER (Dunkelweizen)

Do not sit and pee, else Germans will mock you.

STORY
Germany and beer are essentially synonymous. The country has birthed several prominent beer styles; altbier, berliner weisse, bock, gose, helles, kölsch, pilsner, rauchbier, schwarzbier, and weissbier just to name the big ones. German's take their beer so serioiusly that they have gone so far as to legislate a beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot. Under the Reinheitsgebot, beer can only be brewed with barley, hops, water, and yeast. 

In a nod to Germany, and its behemoth beer ancestry, I brewed a dunkelweizen. Dunkelweizens are dark (dunkel) wheat beers (weizens), and have characteristically strong phenols (clove) and esters (banana). Wheat is not part of the original Reinheitsgebot, but luckily for us, there is a new loophole in the law for wheat beers; wheat is permitted, but only if used with a top-fermenting yeast. Now that we are law abiding, let's brew.

Here's a quick name blurb. Sitzpinkler is my favorite German word. The word translates literally to 'one who urinates in the sedentary position,' or more loosely 'a wuss'. Its fun to say, and hopefully fun to drink (...the beer not the pee). 

RECIPE (PRINTABLE VERSION)
Grains (13.2 lbs)
     7.5 lbs Wheat Malt
     5.0 lbs Munich Malt
     .50 lbs CaraMunich II
     .20 lbs Carafa II
Hops (3-4.0 AAUs)
     4.0 AAUs Hallertau (1.5 oz | 2.7%)

Yeast

Wyeast 3068 (Weihenstephan Weizen)

(Low | 73-77% | 64-75°F)

STATS

OG: 1.049

FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.8%

SRM: 15

IBU: 15

MASH SCHEDULE
*See NOTES section for more detail

Acid Rest (to increase clove flavor)
15 qts water @ 120°F for :15
Should settle to 109-113°F
Protein Rest (to reduce wheat associated haze)

9 qts water @ 212°F for :15

Should settle to 131-145°F

Saccharification Rest

5 qts water @ 212°F for 1:00

Should settle to 152°F

Sparge
Prep water @ 212°F
Continue until 6.5 gallons gathered

BREW SCHEDULE

 All Hops @: 60
     Irish Moss & Yeast Nutrient @ :10
     Cool in Ice Bath to 65°F
     Pitch Yeast (no starter)
     Setup Blow Off Mechanism

FERMENTATION SCHEDULE

     Transfer to secondary after 2wks 

     Bottle after another 2wks 

     3.2 vol CO2 when bottling (1.3oz/gal corn sugar)

     Conditional at room temp for 2wk (minimum)

     Cold condition for 1 wk

     PROST!

NOTES

This beer has a funky mash schedule. If you start unprepared this beer may be DOA. Before the acid rest, be sure you have boiling water at the ready. Since the acid rest is so short, you might not be able to get your next 9+ quarts of water heated in time. That would be a problem, because temperatures and timing a very important in this beer.

WARNING! Chemistry approaching!

The reason for the acid rest is to increase the clove profile of the beer. At this temperature enzymes produce ferulic acid. During fermentation yeast with break the ferulic acid into 2-Methoxy-4-winylphenol (aka 4-vinyl guaiacol, aka 4-VG). This chemical is responsible for the phenolic flavor of clove in beer.

I decided on a protein rest, simply because the an acid rest was used. The mash temp started low, so I decided to take a midpoint stop to help reduce haze. No chemistry lesson here, just straight up practicality.

Lastly, make sure to not use a yeast starter. In order to create enough fruitiness to balance the spicy clove flavors, we want the yeast to 'juice it up'.  Specifically, we are looking for our yeast to create isoamyl alcohol (aka banana oil). Unfortunately, in order to force the yeast to bow to our will we need to put it through the ringer. The more strain we put on the yeast the more fruit flavors it will spill out. Therefore we are going to keep the pitch rate down, and heat fermentation up (72°F).

Also, I should note that a multiple infusion mash is a difficult beast to tame. Temperatures are hard to hit and keeping temperatures uniform is equally tiresome. If the mash gets to hot, cooling it down is simple enough; just open the mash tun. But, a cold mash is more difficult to rectify. In the case of cold, feel free to use decoction to heat your mash again. When decocting (that might not be a word), scoop grains and wort into a pan and boil it, then dump it back it, repeating if necessary. This is an admittedly crude solution, but with this beer is actually very authentic.

REFERENCES
Steven (aka zVulture), of BrewUnited, has written a very insightful series of posts called "A Dark Journey Through Hefeweizen." You'll notice that I reference a lot of his material in the Notes section above. If you'd like extra detail, or a very unique beer recipe, check out his five part series.
Part 1 - The Dunkelweizen Clone
Part 2 - Mastering the Yeast
Part 3 - Decoction Mashing
Part 4 - Yeast Blending
Part 5 - Open Fermentation
  

SESSIONS
Jan, 2016