Wheat Beer Season has now Officially Begun!

Had all my grains pre-measured in the tuns. Had all the water and the newly-refilled propane tanks and turkey fryers out on the patio. Had a couple 2-liter mega-starters ready to roll. Woke up at 4:45 on Saturday morning. Doughed-in for both batches by 5:10. Had coffee coursing through my veins by 5:15. Cleaned up and aerating by 11:00. Hell yes.



Both are, as you can see, happily fermenting away. The Steffiweizen is a PM hefeweizen(2/3 grain, 1/3 LME), the Wit is AG. I exceeded my expected efficiency on both batches, by alot. As you can see, the OG is a little high for those styles, but so be it. Steffi somehow had 86% efficiency? I thought the hydro was off, but I calibrated it, and it's fine. Wit had 76%, which is still damn good. I was figuring on about 70%.

So, anyway, quick question about these brews: I've heard you can just bottle wheat beers straight outta primary. I've always secondary'd them, but I was thinking...damn, I need some hefe/wit soon. So, how long would you give them? I know, obviously, wait till there's no change in SG for a few days, but regardless of that...just to be safe, what do you think?

I'd wait 2 weeks.

Evan! said:

Had all my grains pre-measured in the tuns. Had all the water and the newly-refilled propane tanks and turkey fryers out on the patio. Had a couple 2-liter mega-starters ready to roll. Woke up at 4:45 on Saturday morning. Doughed-in for both batches by 5:10. Had coffee coursing through my veins by 5:15. Cleaned up and aerating by 11:00. Hell yes.

*snip*

So, anyway, quick question about these brews: I've heard you can just bottle wheat beers straight outta primary. I've always secondary'd them, but I was thinking...damn, I need some hefe/wit soon. So, how long would you give them? I know, obviously, wait till there's no change in SG for a few days, but regardless of that...just to be safe, what do you think?

Click to expand...

Sounds like an awesome brew session. Multiple batches in the same session is always great! :rockin:

As for secondaries for wheats, I just bottled my weizenbock last night after 13 days in primary, because I can let it age as long as I want in the bottle anyway, and I'm going to have cloudiness. I think it'll be just fine.

And here I am brewing a porter. I must be crazy. Still, a blueberry half-wit is next up, so I'm kinda on track for the summer.

WHOO HOO! I just bottled my first AG hefe on saturday and brewed up my first PM big hefe the same day.....and I'm thinking of doing a third when this one is done!

Gotta find some time for BierMuncher's Blue Moon clone though!

I've been leaving them in primary for 2 weeks then bottling.

Evan! said:

Both are, as you can see, happily fermenting away. The Steffiweizen is a PM hefeweizen(2/3 grain, 1/3 LME), the Wit is AG. I exceeded my expected efficiency on both batches, by alot. As you can see, the OG is a little high for those styles, but so be it. Steffi somehow had 86% efficiency? I thought the hydro was off, but I calibrated it, and it's fine. Wit had 76%, which is still damn good. I was figuring on about 70%.

Click to expand...

Cool! I am gearing up to do a Hefe soon. My Dunkel came out spectacular, and I can't wait for more wonderful wheats. Sometimes you just get better efficiencies .

Lookin good!

I'd say 2 weeks as well...wheat beer is best young.

I'm going to make a B's Honey wheat again this year....but I'm adding watermelon to it also.

Dude said:

I'd say 2 weeks as well...wheat beer is best young.

Click to expand...

So true

Ive been having great results with 10 days in the primary then 2 weeks in the keg.

Chimone said:

So true

Ive been having great results with 10 days in the primary then 2 weeks in the keg.

Click to expand...

Yeah to third the motion, my Dunkel was awesome @ 3 weeks. It hasn't really improved/changed much since then.

Anyone have a good dunkel recipe? I may have to use the yeast cake from this batch for that...

Here's my weizenbock recipe, if you're interested. It was my first partial mash.

014 Doublethink Weizenbock

7 lb Wheat Liquid Extract
1.5 lb Caramunich Malt
1 lb Munich Malt
1 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
1 lb Vienna Malt
2 oz Chocolate Malt
2 oz Hallertauer [3.20%] (30 min)
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.075 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Color: 18.7 SRM
Bitterness: 14.5 IBU
Alpha Acid Units: 1.3 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 7.3 %

Nothing is better than a good wheat beer on a hot summer day.. I hope mine turns out good its been fermenting like crazy.

Yeah, I am almost out of my last hefe, and my cassis wit supply is dwindling too. That's why I did 2 of them. Gonna go quick, especially with the parties and barbeques.