Meisters of Brew - Dragonslayer Weizenbock Recipe

Dragonslayer Weizenbock

This Weizenbock recipe was loosely derived from another recipe on the Meisters of Brew recipe page. It uses Dry Malt Extract (DME), is heavier on the honey (which is added much later in the boil), and has a MUCH higher original gravity... this is a BIG beer. A lot of the recipe came about by miscalculation and accident, but thankfully detailed notes were kept. This is NOT your typical Weizenbock, and has the high alcohol content to prove it - it even includes two different pitches of two different yeasts at two different times. This isn't a recipe for most civilized homebrewers. It is not discussed in polite company. Give serious thought before even reading the recipe, much less attempting this beer.

If you were to try it, it's definitely not the kind of beer to enter in a competition. It's not a typical brew that can be judged as a Hefeweizen (even a Weizenbock). No, this one's a monster... the kind of monster that comes alive, runs amok, and starts killing innocent villagers, and they have to fend it off with torches and pitchforks, in fear for their very lives. Yep, it's that kind of monster.

Seriously... step away from the beer. Nothing to see here... keep moving... move along...

Ingredients:
5 lbs. Pale Dry Malt Extract
3.5 lbs. Wheat Dry Malt Extract
3 lbs. Clover Honey (raw, unfiltered)
boiling hops: 1 oz Saaz Hops 2.6 Alpha (60 min)
aromatic hops: .25 oz Saaz Hops 2.6 Alpha (10 min)
1 tube White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast #WLP300
1 tube White Labs San Diego Super Yeast #WLP090
.5 cup Corn Sugar (for carbonation)

Procedure:
Wait a minute - what are you doing? You were warned against trying this beer... turn around now! Run away! Run away! Belgian Triples are big beers, stouts can be big beers, but Weizenbocks are simply not big beers! Leave this one alone now - seriously. Forget that you were ever here. Go find a nice, gentle wheat recipe to make and abandon any thoughts of this brew. Don't tell anyone that you were ever here, and we won't say anything about it either. You have been warned!

1. A yeast starter is recommended for both yeasts, which are pitched at different times. Read all of the instructions before beginning.

2. Pour 2.5 to 3 gallons of distilled water into your brew pot and bring to a boil. Remove the brew pot from the fire and add the pale & wheat dry extracts, stirring. Return to the fire and bring to a boil.

3. Add 1 oz. Saaz bittering hops and boil for 50 minutes.

4. Add .25 oz. Saaz aromatic hops and boil for another 5 minutes.

5. Remove the brew pot from the fire, add the honey, stir in well, and then return to the boil for a final 5 minutes.

6. Remove from burner into an ice bath, and chill to ~80 degrees. Pour into primary fermenter, and add distilled water to bring to 5 gallons.

7. Pitch the Hefeweizen yeast, which you've done a yeast starter with the day before.

8. When fermentation slows (4-7 days), you are ready to go to the secondary.

9. At this point fermentation will have come to a stop because of the alcohol content, so it's time to pitch the Super Yeast. Allow the beer to ferment out in the secondary for as long as it takes to reached the final gravity.

10. When ready to bottle, boil 2 cups water and add priming sugar. Cool mixture down in an ice bath.

11. Siphon beer into bottling tank, add priming sugar mixture. Stir well.

12. Bottle, and allow to condition for at least 4 weeks before drinking. As with any big beer, however, you'll find that it changes with more bottle time, becoming more complex and delicious. Enjoy!

Starting Gravity: 1.090
Secondary Gravity: 1.060
Bottling Gravity: 1.020