Dry or canned wheat?

I love love love Heffes especially the banana phenols produced but have not had much luck reproducing such a beer. So I was thinking about trying dry wheat as opposed to the canned liquid wheat extract. Looking for opinions on which has given best results and what yeast was used.

Thanks!

The malt source has nothing to do with the banana esters. The yeast has EVERYTHING to do with the flavor your desire. Try White Labs WLP300.

Yuri_Rage said:

The malt source has nothing to do with the banana esters. The yeast has EVERYTHING to do with the flavor your desire. Try White Labs WLP300.

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+1. It's all about the yeast. White Labs WLP300 is ideal for a true Hefeweizen.

That being said, DME will get you closer to the proper color for a Hefe, so dry is the better way to go.

I just did a dunkelweizen with DME tonight. It's only my second batch, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. I used 3 lbs at 60 min, another 1.5 at 30 and a final 1.5 at 15. Late addition really helped with the color.

I did a hefe that's about to go in the bottle. It was a partcial mash using German Pils, a pound of malted wheat, and then 3lbs. of dry wheat extract. I used Wyeast 3068 mostly fermented at 68F. My brew closest smelled like bananas for a week!

It came out lighter in color than the Pauliner Hefe that I was drinking when I took a hydro reading on it. The sample was really tasty even warm and flat. Can't wait for it to be in the bottle for a couple of weeks. Should be really, really good then!

kyleobie, if you're using a grain of salt, you'll ruin the beer!

I just did an extract hefe. I used wyeast 3333. The color does not look darker than usual. I did use the late extract addition technique though.

talenos said:

I just did an extract hefe. I used wyeast 3333. The color does not look darker than usual. I did use the late extract addition technique though.

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The late extract addition is a great method for getting the proper color, but a late addition along with a full boil will give you exactly the color your looking for.

If you can close your eyes and not worry about color(as I can) you'll be fine with a good liquid hefe yeast with any FRESH wheat extract. I now do full boils but last July I served a concentrated boil hefe that everyone loved. I use WLP300, but the other strains will also work well. Just make sure you're set up with the canning stuff to wash the yeast when you're done so that you can save $5+ on subsequent batches. You'll want more.