Drunkel Uncle Dunkelweizen

Written By Mark Fernandez

This turned out to be one of my all time favorite brews which isn’t really surprising…I am an avid fan of most German beer (bier?) styles! Tasted this w/ my brew buddy as we were mashing our Safe Word Stout (see next post, another winner!). Total slam dunk: strong banana aroma & flavor smacks you in the face with subtle clove notes on the finish. The maltiness of this Dunkel compared to it’s brother the Hefeweizen gives it a depth of flavor that will keep you sipping. It’s no surprise these bottles didn’t last long. Sadly we weren’t able to take a final gravity reading but with an OG around 1.048 I’d estimate it at around 4% ABV making its drinkability less of a safety concern!

Grain bill

  • 5lbs white wheat (47.62%)

  • 5lbs dark Munich (47.62%)

  • 2oz Carafa II (1.24%)

  • 6oz Caramel 20ºL (3.57%)

Hops

  • 2oz Hallertau Hops

Yeast

  • WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

Protocol

  • Mashed in with 3.5g of water at 164ºF, hitting target mash temp of 151ºF

    • Held for 1 hour (sidenote for my nerds out there: did not do a ferulic acid rest and the result was noticeable—less of a clove character in the final product. This worked well for this recipe in my opinion).

  • Vorlaufed until grains stopped coming through the mash tun, probably should have gone until color shifted more.

    • Transferred to boil kettle.

  • Batch sparged with 5g of water at 170ºF, resting for 15 minutes.

  • Transferred to boil kettle—preboil volume ~7.5 gallons.

  • Boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops (2oz) at the very beginning.

  • Cooled, transferred to primary fermenter, & pitched yeast. Shook to aerate. Incubated for 2 weeks at around 62-64ºF

  • After primary, transferred brew to bottling bucked with 1 cup of priming sugar dissolved/boiled in some water.

    • The final product ended up being slightly undercarbed. I will definitely use more corn sugar next time.

  • Bottled for 2 weeks at 62-62ºF.

Mark Fernandez
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