Bannana Wheat

I decided to try out my first all-grain wheat recipe last weekend. It's really not all the different from all-barley, except you need to remember to include rice hulls so that the sparge doesn't stick.

I'd been wanting to use a bunch of VERY ripe bananas that my wife had sitting around in a beer. I had also recently had a "Banana Bread Ale", so I knew I wanted to throw them in. My wife hates banana smell or taste that's not from real bananas (like artificial flavor or esters from yeast), so I was hoping to get some of the type that she likes in there.

Recently, when visiting my LHBS, I sampled a wheat made with a London Ale yeast, which left it very clear and with a really nice taste. I had wanted to use that yeat on my beer, but they were out when I went to pick up ingredients. So, I got the Wyeast 1098 British Ale instead (London is part of Britain, right?). We'll see what this turns out like.

The recipe I found came from HomeBrewTalk.com (which I recently joined - I'm antiteam):

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.50 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 5.00 %
5.50 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.00 %
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.00 %
1.15 oz Hallertauer [3.00 %] (90 min) Hops 13.8 IBU
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 90.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Safbrew WB-06 (Fermentis #WB-06) Yeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
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Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Mash In Add 4 gallons of water at 172 F 154.0 F


Notes:

My typical mash schedule of 10 pounds of grain, 4 gallons of 172 degree strike water and two 2-gallon sparges of nearly boiling water.

Sorry, this is probably the least expensive and most simple recipe to win. The two things that make this good, in my opinion, are the higher mash temperature and lower fermentation temperature. Many of my Hefes have been a bit thin, even watery when I mashed at the standard 149/150. After reading many of Biemuncher’s posts and recipes I noticed some higher mash temps and fuller bodied beers. I now mash most of my beers at 154 or higher for a full 90 minutes.

Total price per 5 gallon batch is probably less than $15 and even less with bulk grains and by salvaging a quart of US-06 slurry. It’s a simple single infusion mash at a slightly high temp and whatever you do- don’t forget the rice hulls.

The only deviation that I took from this recipe (aside form the yeast) was to limit the Hallertauer to 1 oz, since I wasn't goign to buy another ounce of hops just for the additional 0.15 ounces.

I mashed at 156 F, which fell to 154 F by the end of 90 minutes.  I put the bananas in at 15 minutes, along with the Irish Moss.  My original gravity was 1.052, and I only got 4 gallons at that.  I really need to figure out my efficiency issues.  I'm thinking it might have to do with my sparging technique.  I think I'm going to go back to a batch sparge next time and see if that helps.  It's in the primary right now.