Belgian Golden Ale #2

My first Belgian Golden Ale turned out REALLY well...I opened one recently for my wife and almost didn't give it to her, I wanted to just keep smelling the aroma coming off of the head of that glass!  Once she had it, she wasn't about to let me have another one!

This time around I wanted to try something a bit different, by doing a first wort hop of LemonDrop (AA: 4.4%) hops.  I also wanted to use up the rest of the Clarity Firm I had available.

Brew Day: 30 Jan 2016

~ 15 hrs after pitching yeast

Partial Mash:
9 oz Belgian Munich Malt
3 oz GoldPils
1.5 oz flaked wheat

I followed my usual partial mash procedure.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Munton's Extra Light DME
4 oz corn sugar
7 g LemonDrop hops (FWH)
Clarity Firm

Yeast: T-58

I followed my usual process for pitching the yeast (and Clarity Firm).

Addendum, 31 Jan: I added the picture (above) of the fermenter about 15 hrs after pitching the yeast.  Lots of activity, and a rhythmic "thumping" of the bubbles in the blow-off bottle.  The yeast has plenty to eat and keep it happy with this one.

Addendum, 2 Feb: Things are moving along nicely, replaced the blow-off tube with an airlock today.

Addendum, 13 Feb: Bottled with 1 oz of table sugar dissolved into 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Got nine good bottles out of it.  Really looking forward to trying this one in a couple of weeks.  I'll need to remember to hold on to one of the first Belgian Golden Ales to do a side-by-side comparison, and see the difference between the hops, and the hopping method.

LemonDrop Hops

I've been working on a collaboration brew with Mr Rufus Brewing, and as part of that, I'm starting off a test brew using LemonDrop hops, which I was able to get from NikoBrew.  As part of this brew, and because my partner recommended it, I wanted to try something new...first wort hopping (FWH; articles are listed below).  The consensus seems to be that this works best for low alpha acid hops, and that one should use 1/3 of your total hops for the boil in the FWH.

It will be interesting to compare the final product to the Stone Brewing Delicious IPA, which apparently uses Nugget (bittering), Calypso, LemonDrop, and El Dorado hops.  I tried one recently, and it's very good.  Also, the beer itself is crystal clear, and the box says that it's crafted to be gluten reduced; sounds to me as if they added some Clarity Firm or something similar to their process.

Oh, that reminds me, my Calypso IPA will be ready in another week!

The malt bill I'm using for the brew is:
65% Pils  (20.8 oz)
30% Vienna   (9.6 oz)
5% flaked wheat  (1.6 oz)

Since I'm doing a partial mash, 20 oz of Pils is covered by the 1lb of Pilsen DME I'll be using.  That leaves 9.6 oz of Vienna malt (or 10 oz to round it out and cover the remaining 0.8 oz of Pils), and about 1.5 oz of flaked wheat.  I have been using CaraPils for head retention, so it'll be interesting to see how the flaked wheat turns out.  Who knows, I may like it and change things up.

I'm sure you noticed the addition of flaked wheat to the malt bill; that was something new to me, as well.  What Mr Rufus shared with me is that this will add to foam stability, due to the protein added by the wheat.

Brew Day: 23 Jan 2016

Partial Mash:
10 oz Vienna malt
1.5 oz flaked wheat

I used my usual partial mash process; bring 2 qt of water to 156 deg F, pour it into a 1 gal cooler, and add the grains in a muslin bag.  Let sit for about an hour.  Prior to the end of the hour, bring 4 qt of water to 170 deg F in the brew kettle; at one hour, drain the grain bag and move it from the cooler to the kettle, and let it steep for 10 min.  Then drain and remove the grain bag (I know some chickens and horses who'll enjoy that), and add the wort.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME

Hops:
5 g LemonDrop Hops (FWH)
7 g LemonDrop Hops (15 min)
7 g LemonDrop Hops (0 min, 10 min steep)
2 dry hops, each with 7 g of hops, each for 3 days

Yeast: DanStar Belle Saison

At the end of the boil and steep, I placed the kettle in an ice bath in the sink until it got to 80 deg F.  I then transferred it to the fermenter, aerating and pitching the yeast in my usual manner.

< 12 hrs after pitching yeast

Addendum, 24 Jan: About 12 hrs after pitching the yeast, the beer is furiously bubbling away!  This is a vastly different color of beer than what I've normally brewed, and it's going to be very interesting to try this one when it's done.

Addendum, 2 Feb: Dry hop #1 was on 30 Jan, dry hop #2 was today.  I'll bottle on Thu afternoon.

Addendum, 4 Feb: Bottled today, with 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  I got 8 full bottles and one partial.  The beer smelled wonderful while I was bottling; I can not wait to try it!


There was something else I wanted to add to this post, that has to do with the airlock.  I know that you can't watch the airlock and use it as a determination of fermentation action, but I wanted to make a note of an observation in case it has an impact on the final product.  I did the first dry hop while the beer was still actively fermenting...this is a choice I made based on some reading I'd done regarding IPAs; one of the tips was to add the first dry hop during active fermentation.  I did so, and as expected, the airlock cap was floating a good bit, but I attributed that to the sanitizer foam dissipating, as about a day later, the cap was resting flat on the airlock post.

Now, when I sanitize the muslin bag for dry hopping, I cover the bag in water and boil it in the microwave.  Sometimes I'll do this more than once, to ensure that any residual stuff if boiled out.  Then, after draining the water off after the last boil, I'll cover the bag in a small amount of sanitizer solution until I'm ready to use it.  As such, I'm pretty sure that the bag is sanitized.

Anyway, after adding the second dry hop, in a clean fermenter, I noticed that the airlock cap was floating; actually, it was riding pretty high.  Again, I've done enough reading to know that this is not an indicator of fermentation, but I wanted to note this observation here because (a) it's different, and (b) I wanted to be able to refer back to my notes if something about this beer came out different.  Like I said above, the beer smelled fantastic while bottling, so I don't anticipate any problems.

Addendum, 16 Feb: Wow.  That's all I've got to say...wow.  Or, rather...WOW!

Last night, I'd gone into the tub where I keep my bottled beers (in case of an explosion) and pulled out the partial fill of this beer and put it in the fridge.  I wanted to try one, but was prepared for it to not be "ready".

As you can see from the recipe above, this beer was a little lighter body than some of the beers I've been brewing.  The pour as a nice lemon yellow color with a mild head.  The picture to the left was taken after the beer had been in glass for a few minutes.  There was some mild, non-persistent lacing.  The initial aroma was floral, as was the initial taste on the palate.  However, a lemony-citrus flavor immediately pushed through.  It wasn't bitter like grapefruit, nor was it sweet, like oranges; it gives the impression of drinking a tart lemonade.  What was really fascinating about this was that the lemon tartness persisted on the palate, but not as a dank aftertaste.  There were a couple of times where, minutes after taking a sip, I was smacking my lips because I could still taste the tartness.

My wife really enjoyed this one...a lot.  I'm definitely keeping this recipe as it is, not only to make future batches, but to also make the raspberry lemonade saison.  I'm guessing that the eventual addition of raspberries is going to add a bit of tartness and a mild sweetness to this beer, but it will be fun to taste, nonetheless.

Addendum, 15 Mar: Last week, I had planned to be near Jay's Brewing, and in  a previous conversation with Jill, I'd told her that if the lemondrop saison turned out really well, I'd bring one by; if it didn't turn out too well, I'd bring them all by!  Anyway, I dropped off one of the beers for her to try, and this morning, this is the response I got:

OMG, Harlan. I loved that Lemon drop hops! I was pleasantly surprised by the actual lemon flavor I got from it! Needless to say, the beer was phenomenal! Thanks again:) -Jill

Well, there you go.  Thanks, Jill, for the wonderful feedback!

Addendum, 6 Jul: I had a couple of these left over, and decided to our one after putting in a couple of hours of yard work.  Wow!  The beer poured nice and clear, with a dense, pillowy head that thinned quickly.  The beer had a wonderful flavor to it; the IPA bitterness had dissipated and the flavors from the saison yeast really came through.  Very, very good!

Some articles on first wort hopping
BeerSmith
HowToBrew 
BYO
Beer and Brewing

Name Change

Today I changed the name of this blog to "Mad Dawg Brewing"...the URL remains the same for the time being...all I changed was the title.

Part of the reason for the name change was that I've been engaging with other home brewers, and recently decided to do a collaboration brew with Mr Rufus Brewing Co, and saying it was a collaboration between "Mr Rufus and some guy in his kitchen" is just weird and unwieldy.  No, I'm not a big commercial brewing company, nor am I a commercial entity of any kind.

The name "Mad Dawg" is a nod to my experience in college...at VMI, I was in "Mad Dawg Delta Co." throughout my cadetship...as well as to my time on active duty in the Marine Corps.  This will also allow me to showcase some of my brews on Untappd.

For the time being, I'm going to stick to small batches.  That may change one day, but for now, it's good.

Fruit-forward IPAs

Experimenting with hops, I've found that I like fruit-forward IPAs; in this instance, what I'm referring to is fruit aromas and taste that derives solely from hops, not the addition of fruit to the beer.  An IPA doesn't need to be overpoweringly bitter, with in-your-face pine resin or grapefruit-citrus.  Sure, some like an IPA that way, and I've enjoyed a few myself that are that way...they usually come with names like "hop-pocalypse" or "molotov hop-tail".  

I ran across this recipe for a juicy-fruit IPA, and I recently had an opportunity to try the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Tropical IPA, based on Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado hops.

I've done a couple of fruit-forward IPAs myself...the still unnamed IPA (I'm referring to it as "hop bomb" at the moment), a Melon + Galaxy IPA (huge thanks to Mr Rufus Brewing for the recipe idea...), the Mandarina IPA, and most recently, a Calyspo IPA.  Each of these has come out really well (still waiting to do dry hop #2 for the Calypso IPA, so it will be a bit longer), and I've enjoyed them without the addition of fruit (juice, rind/zest to the beer).  These beers have been sort of my version of DuClaw's Hop Continuum series, with beers often being described as "unique".

I haven't always done just straight hopped-up beers.  I really enjoyed the first grapefruit IPA I brewed, and that was a combination of hops and grapefruit zest.

So, the "hop bomb" IPA I made turned out really well...and I mean, REALLY well.  Several of the folks who've tried it all have two things in common...they don't care for IPAs, and they really liked it. The consensus has been that both the aroma and flavor of the beer are rife with berries, and on the sweet fruit side.

From NorthernBrewer:

Mosaic - "Mosaic™ is so named because it gives a range of aromas and flavors which are complimentary to other common hop aromas. Everything from citrus, pine, earth, herbal, mint, bubblegum, blueberry, lime peel, black pepper - the character seems to change depending upon the conditions it is in."

Brewer's Gold - "German Brewer's Gold is a moderate alpha bittering hop with spicy, fruity, and black currant character."

HBC-438 - "Expect prominent tropical and stone fruits, herbal, spicy, a subtle cedar note in the aroma."

Being a small batch home brewer, the "reviews" pretty much mean that that beer is all gone (I tend to average about 9 bottles per gallon), so I thought that with some time I have available, I'll make two batches.  I'm going to use the same recipe and hopping schedule for both batches, and I'm also going to continue with the two-step dry hopping (started with the Calypso IPA) and see how that affects the final results.

Brew Day #2 Starting off...

Brew Day #1: 7 Jan 2016
Brew Day #2: 8 Jan 2016

Music To Brew By
Something else to add...while watching an episode of BrewTV, Wil Wheaton mentioned that along with his brewing notes, he also makes a note of the music he listens to while brewing.  I have my workout music on my iPod, and I like to listen to some of the music while brewing and bottling, so here goes:

Disturbed - Sound of Silence
FatBoy Slim - Weapon of Choice
AC/DC - Thunderstuck

I've also got a mix of Van Halen (NOT "Van Haggar"), Poison, Ozzy (Crazy Train, and Close Your Eyes Forever with Lita Ford), Linkin Park, Family Force 5 (Zombie), and Skillet.  I've even got the entire soundtrack from Highlander (all Queen/Freddie Mercury) mixed in there, as well.

Partial Mash:
8 oz Rahr 2-row malt
4 oz Gambrinus honey malt
4 oz Munich
1 oz CaraPils

*I followed my usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Munton's Plain Extra Light DME
6 g Mosaic (AA: 12.1%) (@ 60 min)

Hop Schedule:

	15 min	0 min	DH #1	DH #2
Mosaic             (AA: 12.1%)	4 g	4 g	5 g	5 g
HBC-438         (AA: 15.7%)	4 g	4 g	3 g	3 g
Brewer's Gold (AA: 5.9%)	4 g	4 g	7 g	7 g

Yeast: Safbrew US-05

*I followed my usual process for cooling the wort and pitching the yeast.

9 Jan: Fermenters

Addendum, 9 Jan: Checked in on the fermenters during my morning routine; was greeted to a cacophony of bubbling.  The two "hopbombs" have the blow-off tubes; the one in the back is #1, and has been there for about 36 hrs.  The one in front is #2 and has been there for about 11 hrs at this point.

The other two fermenters are doing well.  The golden one in the back is the abbaye, and the one to the far left is the Calypso IPA, due for dry hop #2 soon...like today.

Addendum, 18 Jan: Dry hop #1 for both fermenters today.  Both were pretty clear, and a nice golden red color when I transferred them into clean, sanitized fermenters and on the hop pellets.  I've got the hops for dry hop #2 measured and ready to go.

Addendum, 20 Jan: Dry hop #2 for both fermenters; bottling on Fri afternoon.

Addendum, 22 Jan: Bottled tonight, each with 1.1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water; got almost 18 bottles out of it.  From the first fermenter, I got one bottle that was almost completely full, and from the second I got one bottle that was just over half full.  I'm really looking forward to tasting this in two weeks, although I still don't have a name for it.  I wrote "BG" on the labels, for "Brewer's Gold", but maybe after I taste it I'll come up with a name.

Current Brews

As of 7 Jan 2016:

Bottles
Keep in mind that for small batches, I generally get 9 - 10 bottles out of a batch, so when I say that I have something "available" below, all it means is that there's at least one 11 oz bottle of it sitting in my fridge.

Azacca IPA (original, and gluten reduced)
Melon (Galaxy + Melon IPA, based on a recipe shared by Mr Rufus Brewing)
HBC-438 ('38 Special)
Mandarina IPA
Hefe 
22 oz bottle of Tripel

Grumbler
LCpl's Tears - still have the 32 oz grumbler of this one; get a chuckle out of Max's cartoon while you're wondering about the name of the beer

Conditioning
Rye Saison - first taste test, 14 Jan
Belgian Golden Ale - don't touch until at least 18 Jan

Dry hopping
Calypso IPA - dry hop #2 on 8 Jan, bottle 11 Jan; first taste on 25 Jan

Fermenting
Abbaye - plan to bottle on or about 14 Jan

Calypso IPA

In keeping with the hops I've been using lately to make IPAs with characteristics of fruit (Melon, Mandarina, Brewer's Gold "hop bomb"), I added some Calypso hops to a recent order (which arrived on 23 Dec, thank you, NorthernBrewer guys and gals!)

Calypso is described as imparting dried apple, pear, and citrus.  I've tried mandarin/tangerine, melon, and berry so far, and I've really liked everyone of them so far.

I also wanted to try something a little different with the dry hopping, as well, based on what I read on Derek's Ain't No Hallertauer Girl post, and subsequently stuff I read on the Bertus Brewery blog (specifically, here and *here).

Brew Day: 28 Dec 2015

Partial Mash:
1 lb MaltEurop American 2-Row Pale
1 oz Carapils

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Golden Light DME (@ 60 min)
4 oz table sugar (@ 60 min)
7 g Warrior AA:14.5% (@ 60 min)
14 g Calypso AA: 13.3% (@ 10 min)
14 g Calypso AA: 13.3%  (@ flameout)

Yeast: Safale US-05

Dry Hop: 2-Step dry hop, 14 g Calypso at 3 days each.

Addendum, 5 Jan: Dry hop #1 tonight.

Addendum, 9 Jan: Dry hop #2.  When I transferred the beer into it's second secondary (kind of reminds me of the Hobbits' "second breakfast"), the beer was a nice golden color and very clear...things had really settled out.  It looks like I'm going to get even more settling with this second phase, which should be good.  I'm considering bottling on Mon or Tues evening, and it should be ready for a first taste before the end of the month.

Addendum, 12 Jan: Bottled today, with 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.

Before we start...

I thought I'd add more pictures as I went through this process.  To the left you can see the beer in the fermenter following the second dry hopping.  I tried to capture the color as best I could.  The next step was to sanitize a clean fermenter, put the priming sugar in the second fermenter and let it cool, the siphon the beer on top of the priming sugar.  I usually have plenty to keep me busy for about 15 minutes or so while the beer settles...cleaning and sanitizing the siphoning equipment, sanitizing bottles, getting labels ready, etc.  I like to get everything set up so that once the ball starts rolling, we get through the bottling process with as few hiccups as possible.  Right now, the point where problems tend to occur is if I don't position the capper over the cap properly.

Once we're done...

The image to the left illustrates the final results.  As is about usual for a gallon batch, I get about nine regular bottles, or as in this case, two 22 oz bottles and six regular bottles.  I can't wait to try this one...it smelled REALLY good while I was bottling

The bottling music for today was the soundtrack for Highlander...thank you, Freddie Mercury!

Chistmas Eve Abbaye

I have a package of Safbrew Abbaye dry yeast available, and I wanted to see how it compares to other yeasts I've used, in particular the DanStar Belle Saison.  In particular, I'm considering working on a variant of DogFish Head's Sah'tea, and I wanted to see which yeast gets me the closest to the flavor. So far, my wife says that the ginger saison has the closest flavor, but I still have the rye saison on the way, and I want her to try this one, for comparison.

Brew Day: 24 Dec 2015

Partial Mash:
1 lb Munich malt (from Jay's Brewing)
1 oz Briess CaraPils

*I followed my usual partial mash process

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME (@ 60 min)
6 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)
7 g German Perle hops (@ 60 min)

Yeast: Safbrew Abbaye

*I followed my usual process for cooling the wort and pitching the yeast.

I placed the fermenter (along with the blow-off tube/bottle) in the fermentation location I use.  As today is supposed to reach a record high temperature (they're calling for 72 deg F, on Christmas Eve), I turned the A/C on in the house this morning, so the temperature is going to be a pretty steady 71 deg F (or so) in the basement for the next couple of days.  The temperatures are supposed to take a big drop on Monday, but I'm looking at keeping the temps right around 70 deg F.  As this is a high gravity beer, I'll likely leave it in fermentation for about 3 weeks, and then let it sit for 4 weeks after bottling.

Addendum, 25 Dec: I was downstairs this morning (part of my daily routine) and I could hear a rhythmic, steady thumping through the wall. As I finished up my chores, I checked on the Abbaye, and yes, the blow-off bottle was the source of the thumping sound.  I keep all of my fermenters in the bathtub in the basement bathroom, and I keep the door closed.  When I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was the smell of the yeast, which wasn't the usual bready, yeast roll odor that I usually get.  The aroma from this yeast is very different from what I've experienced with other yeasts (dry or liquid) to this point. Very interesting.

Addendum, 14 Jan: Bottled tonight, with 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c. of boiling water.  The beer was really clear, and a nice golden-red color.  I ended up with 9 bottles.

Belgian Golden Ale

I was doing some reading last week and found a recipe for a Belgian Golden Ale (about the middle of the page, second recipe), and I figured that I have some T-58 yeast, so I'd give something like it a shot.  I don't have the exact hops to match the recipe, so I just used some Czech Saaz that I had available.

Brew Day:  21 Dec 2015

Partial Mash:
8 oz Rahr Pale Ale Malt
4 oz GoldPils
3 oz Gambrinus Honey Malt
1 oz CaraPils

*I followed my normal partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME (@ 60 min)
3.5 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)
 7 g Czech Saaz (@ 60 min)

Yeast: T-58

*I cooled the wort and pitched the yeast using my usual process

12 hrs after pitching yeast

Addendum, 22 Dec: It's been about 12 hrs since I pitched the yeast, and the bubbles flowing through the blow-off tube into the bottle are beating out quite the rhythm!  I also noticed that the color lightened out a bit...with the honey malt, the partial mash wort came out a little darker than I would've liked, but I knew it would lighten up a bit in once I added it to the boil with the DME.  Overall, the yeast seems to be pretty happy...you can't see in the picture to the right, but there thousands of little bubbles rising up through the fermenter to the foam at the top.

Addendum, 4 Jan: Bottled tonight, with just a bit more than an ounce of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Ended up with 9 bottles.  I'm looking forward to trying this one...it's not the first time I've used the T-58 yeast, but I'm looking at bottling some variation of this recipe (or a hefeweizen) near the summer in small soda bottles, so I can take them with us while tubing.

Addendum, 19 Jan: Tasting.  Wow, this one turned out really well!  Nice golden color, good carbonation, very light lacing.  Smells and tastes like a Belgian ale.  On the next rendition, I'm going to take a look at backing off of the malt bill for the partial mash just a bit, and do a first wort hop with about 7 g of German Perle hops.  The T-58 yeast handled the extra sugar very well; by the time I got to the bottom of my glass, I knew I'd had a Belgian-style ale.

Addendum, 22 Jan: Opened another one of these for my wife tonight; got an AMAZING banana nose right out of the bottle, so much so that I almost kept it to myself just to smell it!  She really likes this beer, much more so than some of the stuff I've brought home from the store.  Definitely a keeper.

Addendum, 30 Jan: Went to pour one for my wife tonight, while she was watching TV in the evening.  I came around the end of the couch, and she was out cold.  Oh, well...one for me.  Definite scent of banana, and a bit of booziness from the alcohol content.

Addendum, 24 Feb: A chilly, rainy day, and an evening of coding and writing ahead.  Delicious beer, very tasty, like a smoother, less spicy Leffe blonde.  Still excellent body and flavor.  I'm going to hold on to one of these to try along side the LemonDrop variant when it's ready next week.

Rye Saison

I have some rye malts available, so I thought I'd give it a shot, doing a variation to the ginger saison recipe that my wife and I both really liked.  With this one, I'm going for a little spice from both the rye malt and the German Tettnang hops.

Brew Day: 17 Dec 2015

Partial Mash
8 oz Rahr Pale Ale Malt
8 oz Briess Rye Malt
1 oz CaraPils

*I followed my usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min)
1 lb Muntons Extra Light DME (@ 60 min)
3 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)
7 g German Tettnang hops (@ 60 min)

7 g German Tettnang hops (@ 10 min)
< 1 oz fresh ginger (thinly sliced, @ 10 min)

Once the boil was complete, I let the wort rest of 10 min before putting it in the ice bath to cool it down.  Once the wort had cooled to approx. 80 deg F, I followed my usual procedure for transferring and pitching the yeast.

Yeast: Danstar Belle Saison

Addendum, 31 Dec: Bottled, with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  This one should be ready to try NLT 14 Jan.

Addendum, 12 Jan 2016: First taste of this beer; initial impression is that is very spicy, definitely need to go with 4 g German Perle as a base hopping for this style of beer.  The body, color and head are very good, and it is very drinkable, just more hops than are necessary.

Addendum, 2 Feb 2016: Opened a 22 oz bottle tonight, thinking I'd just drink it to empty the bottle.  Nice pour, pillowy white head, moderate lacing.  Still kind of a straw-yellow color.  Not as spicy as previously experienced, seems the spicy bite has settled quite a bit.  Much smoother flavor, a touch of sour in the taste, and I definitely get a boozy warmth. I'm really enjoying this one now, much more than I did when I first tried it almost a month ago.  Definitely something to keep in mind, particularly when using more hops in the brew; give it time for the flavor to settle, and even out a bit...take the edge off.

As it turned out, my daughter came home from college for her mother's birthday, and "found" my rye saison.  She's more of a cider girl, but she really seemed to enjoy the rye saison, having two bottles of it that evening (no, she wasn't driving anywhere...).  It looks as if the key to this one was to let the beer sit for two more weeks before enjoying it.

Hefe

I was doing some research recently, looking at dry yeasts and I ran across a thread that mentioned getting different results from Safbrew WB-06 yeast; specifically, by under-pitching and then moving to secondary after a week, you could get more pronounced banana notes.  I've recently done a couple of hefeweizens using liquid yeast that turned out pretty well, but I wanted to give the dry yeast another shot.

Brew Day: 4 Dec 2015

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-Row
7 oz Rahr Red Wheat
1 oz CaraPils

*Used usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Bavarian Wheat DME (@ 60 min)
10 g German Perle hops (@ 60 min)

Yeast: Safbrew WB-06

At the end of the boil, I placed the kettle in an ice bath and got the wort temperature down to 80 deg F.  I filled the fermenter about half way and started aerating the wort.  I then pitched the yeast, and aerated a bit more, after which I added the rest of the wort.

I'll keep an eye on the beer over the next couple of days, and next week I'll transfer it to a clean fermenter for another week to 10 days.

Addendum, 5 Dec: Things really took off last night!  The blow-off bottle is all full of krausen, with lots of foamy material coming out of the bottle.  I'll more than likely have to change the bottle near the end of the weekend.

Addendum, 12 Dec: Transferred the beer to a clean fermenter today.

Tasting notes: I tried transferring the beer to a clean fermenter early in the fermentation; the lesson learned here is that WB-06 is a good wheat beer yeast, but not the best hefeweizen yeast.  Definitely go with a proven liquid yeast when brewing a hefe.