Dunklenstein Monster

My second attempt at an AG recipe started with selecting a Dunkleweizen because it was one of my top 3 favorite extract recipes.  At my local supply store I made a few alterations based on what was in stock.  The recipe called for Hallertauer Hersbrucker; I chose German Hallertau.  The recipe called for Hefeweizen Ale yeast(WLP300); I chose Bavarian Weizen Ale(WLP351).

Here's where I screwed up: I heated 3.25 Gal water to 164F, dumped it in my mash tun and added my grain.  The water temp dropped to 142F and the recipe calls for 152F.  I heated another gallon of water to almost 170F and dumped it in the mash tun, which raised the temp to about 145F.  I resigned to leave it to mash and learn whatever lesson this mistake was going to teach me.  After an hour I took a gallon away from the sparge volume and went to it.  I came out with 6.25 gallons of wort at SG 1.022, while the recipe predicts 1.050.

Here's where I cheated: I brought the wort to boil then dumped in a can of Pilsen Light LME that a had in the back of the fridge.  The rest of the boil proceeded mostly normally.  I changed the aroma hops boil time from 20 min to 5, as I've been reading lately that hops loses all it's aroma qualities within about ten minutes of boil, and I like hops.

In the end I had 5.5 Gal in the fermenter; the recipe was for 5 Gal.
The recipe predicts an OG of 1.057.  Mine is 1.062!  I would have toned it down with some more water but didn't want to overfill my 5 Gal fermenting bucket by too much.  I cannot wait to try this one.

The reason you probably missed your mash in temperature so much, was because you probably didn't take into account the amount of heat the mash tun would take out of your strike water.  The water needed to be at 164F when you added the grain.  It was at 164F when you put it into your mash tun, and it probably lost about 10F and dropped to 154F.  You added your cold grain to it and this dropped you down to the 142F temperature.

My suggestion for the next time you miss your temperature low (we all do from time to time), is to drain out some water from your mash tun, and heat it up and add it back in.  This will keep your water to grain ration where you want it to be at.

You could use the mash adjust tool in BeerSmith.  I tried to guess at your total grain and plugged in 10 lbs.  I used the grain temperature of 142F, with a target temp of 152F.  It tells me to pull 2.47 quarts of water out and heat it to boiling and add it back in. 

This should get you close.  If you come up short, you can do it again.  Once you get your mash temperature to 152F, close the lid and start your mash timer.

I hope you found this helpful.

Scott, that is amazingly helpful.  Thank you very much!

It was my pleasure.

When I got home from work last night and opened my front door I was nearly knocked down by a skunky, sour, kinda sulfery odor that had filled my entire house.  I immediately suspected (because my dogs had been outside all day) and confirmed my fermenting Dunkle was the source.  I opened some windows and checked my fermenter (and air quality) about every 20 to 30 minutes.  I noticed after a few hours that the odor coming from the fermenter was becoming more tame.  Then, about an hour and a half after that, fermentation came to what looked like a full stop, and rather suddenly.
This batch fermented at a pretty rapid clip for about 2.5 days before stopping.  I have seen this once or twice before with an extract and those turned out fine.
I have NEVER smelled anything like that coming out of a fermenter.  I tried doing a little research on what the odor could have meant but couldn't find anything specific so I'm wondering if there's anything to be learned from it.  Perhaps it's typical to the Bavarian Weizen Ale yeast that I used?

WHEW!  That was FUNKY!