Hefeweizen

Today I used the following recipe to brew a Hefeweizen:

http://www.ratebeer.com/Recipe.asp?RecipeID=142

5 lbs Pilsen Malt
4 lbs Malted Wheat
1 lbs Light Munich Malt
1.6oz Hallertauer (bittering)
0.8oz Hallertauer (aroma)
Wyeast 3056 (Bavarian Weissen)

Note: The original recipe called for 3068 (Weihanstephan Wheat), but the store was out of this.

1. Prepare yeast starter 2 days in advance. I started with one liter and stepped up to 3/4 of a gallon.
2. Mash grains for 90 minutes at 148-155F with 2 gallons of water. Add water as necessary to keep mashing temps.
3. Recirculate until wort clears, drain this into the mash tun.
4. Sparge with another 3 gallons of water to rinse remaining sugars.
5. Add 1.6oz of bittering hops and boil for 90 minutes.
6. Add .8 oz of aroma hops at flame-out.
7. Cool to 78F and pitch yeast starter. The beer should be almost completely fermented in 48 hours.

For some reason, I forgot to mill the grain at the homebrew store, so I had to improvise. My old food processor did a reasonable job of the barley malt, though the wheat malt could have been crushed better.

Deviations from the above Method:

1. I didn't bother with a starter - I just smacked a smack pack the previous day.
2. 2 gallons of mash water seemed a bit short. I probably used more like 3 gallons. I mashed for 80 minutes, as the iodine test indicated all starch was converted by this stage.
4. I sparged with about 6 gallons. Plenty of this gets lost by absorbtion into the grist, and evaporation during the boil. I collected about 7 gallons of wort, which reduced to 6 gallons after boiling.
5. Since the wort took a long time to come to the boil, I boiled for 45 minutes.

Personally, I think this recipe is a bit heavy on the hops, for a Hefeweizen, but we'll see.

OG was 1030. Rather low. Probably because of the sub-optimal milling of the grain.