heckler73

Recipes 

Hi all, I've been lurking around here since I started brewing in December, and I'm on my 6th batch now, brewing partial boils with extract, fresh hops and grains.

My first Hefeweizen is now in the secondary, and I need to decide if I should wait the full 2 weeks (1-2-3 has been my mantra).

I'd like it to be a cloudy hefe once bottled, and am worried too long in the secondary will let it settle too much and it'll end up clear.

Hefeweisen O.G 1.045-1.050 7.25 lbs wheat Malt Extract, 0.65 lb Wheat malt, 0.65 lb pilsner malt, 0.65 oz Perle whole hops (60 minutes)

Yeast is 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen smackpack

OG was 1.050 and at day 7 was 1.010. I racked it to secondary on day 9, and now on day 12 the FG is still 1.010.

Can I bottle on day 12 to keep some of the cloudiness, or is that asking for trouble? Should I mix up the yeast that's in the bottom of the secondary to bump up the cloudiness?

Thanks!

heckler73

Recipes 

One thing I did notice is that day 9 the krausen was still on the surface of the primary when I racked it to secondary. Next time, should I wait till the surface is clear?

jester5120

Recipes 

give it 2 weeks at it's fg then bottle. hefeweizens dont need a ton of aging time. They don't really need a secondary either but it's at the brewers discretion. after bottle conditioning (which i assume you're doing) you'll have plenty of yeast in suspension and at the bottom of the bottles that you can swirl up for some haziness

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SecondaryOud Bruin, Roese Kriek, Fuzzy Naval Berliner Weisse
Bottled Hip Hop IPA, Burton Ale, Wet Hopped RyePA, Burt (burton ale second runnings), Saison, "Grimm" RIS 18.5%, "Beast" Barleywine 11%, NB's "Golden Dragon" 10.5%, Chocolate Stout,"Warrior" IIPA 17%, "Oaked Warrior" IIPA 17%
Kegged Milk Chocolate Stout , Wild American Wheat, Red Brick Blonde Ale

GySgtLynn

Recipes 

There is no need to secondary a Hefe... with that said, you don't have to worry about it clearing in the secondary as Hefeweizen yeast don't clear well. I keep most beers in primary for 3 weeks however, with wheat beers I do 10 to 14 days.

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Liquid Medication Brewery

Primary: IIPA, Scottish EDxport 80, and Cream Ale

Secondary: None

Bottled: None

Keg: Hefeweizein and Crap-Tober-Fest

heckler73

Recipes 

yup, bottle conditioning - 3 weeks at 70 F, which has worked perfectly so far.

the other catch is that my primary bucket is also my bottling bucket, although I have two secondary carboys on the go.

If I let the hefe sit in the carboy and brew my next batch today, it'll be day 21 that I can bottle the hefe, which works OK, but I had read hefe's are quick to be ready to bottle (thus 10-14 days in primary as SgtLynn says). I'd love to be drinking it a week sooner (wouldn't we all).

gtlaw10

Recipes 

bottle it now...hefe's aren't supposed to be clear unless it's a krystal version. it'll look semi=clear in the bottle, but a simple swirl of the trub and you're back in hefe normality. it'll be carbonated in around a week and tasty as all hell. keep anything past carbonation stage somewhere cool (~50F) to maintain their freshness.
i'm drinking one of my hefe's that i bottled at day 8 and started drinking a week later - delicious and crisp. enjoy!!

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On Deck ~ filthy mongrel;
Bottled ~ Abbot 12 - belgian dark strong; duesseldorf alt; honey nut brown; zombie puke - ABA; maori warrior - NZIPA
Creamy,thick,velvety head. - unionrdr

heckler73

Recipes 

gtlaw - sold. sanitizing my bottles now.

tastybrew priming calculator says to use 6.6 oz of priming dextrose to get 3.45 CO2 volumes for a Berliner Weisse and 8.1 oz for a Bavarian Weissen. My other beers have all been 4 or 5 oz of dextrose, but were IPAs and pale ales.

Is 1.5X to 2X the priming sugar right for a Hefe?

gtlaw10

Recipes 

yea i was shocked when i used tastybrew at bottling time!! so i did some searching around the forum and while what tasybrew tells you is stylistically correct - it's also potentially dangerous since 12oz bottles are rated for only 3 volumes of CO2, compound that with the fact that a lot of us homebrew folk use recycled bottles with questionable integrity - it's just not something i was willing to do. people here seemed to suggest that just priming as close to 3 volumes as possible was the safe and logical choice. so i did just that, primed to 3 volumes of CO2. my hefe is quite effervescent and petty close carb-wise to german examples i've had.

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On Deck ~ filthy mongrel;
Bottled ~ Abbot 12 - belgian dark strong; duesseldorf alt; honey nut brown; zombie puke - ABA; maori warrior - NZIPA
Creamy,thick,velvety head. - unionrdr

jester5120

Recipes 

yeah i'd only carb that to about 2.8 myself. I've seen some of those ones that get bottled at 4-5volumes and they have to be in a thicker bottle. usually something like a swingtop or wine bottle.

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SecondaryOud Bruin, Roese Kriek, Fuzzy Naval Berliner Weisse
Bottled Hip Hop IPA, Burton Ale, Wet Hopped RyePA, Burt (burton ale second runnings), Saison, "Grimm" RIS 18.5%, "Beast" Barleywine 11%, NB's "Golden Dragon" 10.5%, Chocolate Stout,"Warrior" IIPA 17%, "Oaked Warrior" IIPA 17%
Kegged Milk Chocolate Stout , Wild American Wheat, Red Brick Blonde Ale

JoeyChopps

Recipes 

+1 last months byo had a recipe for a heffe and I tried it out and they said carb 2.5 to 3 and I went with 2.75 and it turned out perfect