Help with Hefe brew, ingredient and re-using yeast questions.

I was planning on brewing two hefe's in a row. I have two main questions.

1. LHBS only had 8# of Wheat extract. I picked up 6# of regular extract. Can I make hefe's using 4# of wheat and 3# of light? What can I expect the final beer to taste like? Or should I just wait until I can go all wheat?

2. I was planning to bottle from the primary and re-using the yeast from the first brew. How do I go about doing this? Do I just pour my second batch on top of the yeast left over from the first brew? Or do I have to go with the method of trying to seperate of the yeast from the leftover, starting a new starter and re pitching?

1. You can certainly split the extract like that. A lot of the wheat extracts are already 50/50 or 60/40 splits of wheat malt and pale malt though so you could be getting quite a bit less wheat than you think (your LHBS should be able to tell you). So while it won't be a true hefe it should still be tasty (the flavour comes almost entirely from the yeast afterall).

2. Rack your beer off the yeast cake into your bottling bucket as usual, then seal the primary back up (airlock and all) and then just rack your new brew right on top when you're finished brewing. Personally I've let the primary sit for 2 days before brewing the new beer but I think same-day is probably best (don't want to tempt fate too long).

You should check, but most extracts labeled as "Wheat Extract" is actually something like 40% wheat and 60% 2-row. So, if this is the case you could use the wheat extract as 100% of your extract.

What would I get if I used plain DME and 3068 yeast? Would it be pallatable? Anyone ever brew such a concoction? Another option is to brew one batch using the wheat and another using light ME.

Thanks for the info guys. I was planning on brewing a hefe this weekend and I was splitting my extracts 50/50 between Vienna and Wheat. In checking Briess' site, their wheat is already 65% wheat and 35% barley. So in order to get back to my 50/50 I'm going to have to do some math. Thanks again!

tomek322 said:

What would I get if I used plain DME and 3068 yeast? Would it be pallatable? Anyone ever brew such a concoction? Another option is to brew one batch using the wheat and another using light ME.

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Depends on the DME. If you go with one of the wheat DME's you'll get a pretty nice hefeweizen (most of the wheat DME are 50/50 wheat/barley or 60/40 wheat barley). If you go with just standard pale DME you'll still get a nice beer (the flavour all comes from the yeast) but it won't be a hefe.

I'd split the malts in half (use equal amounts).

Much of the flavor is going to come from the yeast...especially if you use a German HW yeast.

bradsul said:

...Personally I've let the primary sit for 2 days before brewing the new beer but I think same-day is probably best (don't want to tempt fate too long).

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This is probably a good idea, though more than once I've done this after letting the cake sit in the carboy (with airlock) for over a week without any problems.

bradsul said:

2. Rack your beer off the yeast cake into your bottling bucket as usual, then seal the primary back up (airlock and all) and then just rack your new brew right on top when you're finished brewing. Personally I've let the primary sit for 2 days before brewing the new beer but I think same-day is probably best (don't want to tempt fate too long).

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I am getting ready to do the same thing and I just want to make sure that I am clear...Brew beer a, put it in primary and let it ferment....then transfer beer a to secondary or keg or whatever, then after brewing beer b, you just put it right on top of the trub that was left in primary from beer a? No sanitizing or anything?

cubbies said:

I am getting ready to do the same thing and I just want to make sure that I am clear...Brew beer a, put it in primary and let it ferment....then transfer beer a to secondary or keg or whatever, then after brewing beer b, you just put it right on top of the trub that was left in primary from beer a? No sanitizing or anything?

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That's about the size of it! No sanitizing necessary because it was already sanitized the first time you used it (I hope anyway!). If you don't have one you will definitely want to rig a blow off setup. Beer B will be a pretty energetic ferment.

bradsul said:

That's about the size of it! No sanitizing necessary because it was already sanitized the first time you used it (I hope anyway!). If you don't have one you will definitely want to rig a blow off setup. Beer B will be a pretty energetic ferment.

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I brewed a hefe before and the blow off was excessive, i think i lost almost a gallon... how much more blow off can I get?

1. My buddies and I brewed a sort-of-weizenbock that used a 4lb can of liquid malt extract- 60/40 mix- and a 3.3lb can of light LME. This beer was (as you would expect) a lot loghter than a weizenbock, and settled much more than a true wheat-beer. However, due to the yeast (WLP300), it still had the classic hefeweizen taste. I'd say go ahead, expect a lighter than usual beer that settles more than a wheat but still tastes great, though not traditional.

2. The above beer was the second batch, on top of the cake from the previous (true) hefeweizen. We even out a third batch (a true dunkelweizen) on the same cake with no problems. In fact, excellent results! Both beers took off much faster than the original hefeweizen. Although the residue on the sides of the carboy looked gross, we didn't have any sanitation problems with any of these beers. If you find a yeast that you like, I'd heartily recommend fermenting a couple batches on the same cake.

tomek322 said:

I brewed a hefe before and the blow off was excessive, i think i lost almost a gallon... how much more blow off can I get?

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It's hard to say, but do expect it to take off like a rocket. There won't be any real growth phase for the yeast so you'll see activity within a few hours usually.