Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

Thanks for the info. I wonder what I created, too bad it will be a couple weeks before a good tasting. The stuff in my secondary is clear as clear can be! That gelatin worked a wonder on it. Hope it tastes good. If not, hope I can choke it down! BTW I was not looking for a pilsner taste out of this. Was just trying to make a clear "Kristallweizen" without a filter. I guess I will see what ends up soon. Hopefully it bottle carbs ok, it looks clearer than any beer ive ever made.

Just got back from AHS with ingredients for BCB Hefe.

The Hallertau is a miserable 1.5%AA, so I got one ounce of that and an ounce of US Spalt at 2.6%. Spalt was what came with my previous two (AHS recipe) hefeweizen kits, so should sub in ok. BeerAlchemy gives me:
for 12.7 total IBU. Should I stick with that schedule?

No, you don't want hop bitterness in the Hefe, you only want a bit of it and very light aroma. Try your 1 oz. Spalt at 45 and 1 oz. Hallertau at 15 which will give you 12 IBUs.

Thanks, Ed. That makes it simpler for me too.

I'm cooling the starter wort now!

Edit: I got 5.5 gallons at 1.051 in the bucket! :rockin: Closest I've ever come to a gravity target.

Due to ****ty timing. (Out of beer!) I'll be bottling this tomorrow. Without racking to gelatin. Temp stayed too cold throughout. Warmed it up to room temp after fermentation finished though. I'm almost as excited to add this yeast to my mason jar collection as I am to drink this beer. Okay, not even.

PEEEEYEEEWW!! I'm fermenting this at 62F per Jamil, and it's kicking out loads of sulfur. I'll let it roll up to 68 when it slows down....

Well I just bottled my kristall gelatin experiment. The secondary looked so much clearer than the regular heffeweizen batch. But the sample 1/2 beer left over after bottling, looked and tasted just like my first batch. Ed your the man, I guess ill need to figure out a filter if I want to try this, as I cant buy any around here. I really dont want to blow 50 bucks or more on a filter just to make a beer I may or may not like. The gelatin beer doesnt have as much yeast taste, but there is still yeast, so it should carb ok. Will see if it clears some when it cools in fridge after bottle condition.
My brother who moved to germany, loves the kristall. He likes the pils better. He won 100 euros over there in a beer chugging contest! He chuged 1 liter of Kolmbacher pils in like 30 seconds. Its double or nothing tonight, 2 liters. I dont think he will make it to work tomarow. I think last night and today are his birthday celebration Oct 15. So I know he didnt go to work today, after last nights drunk fest. Thats all he does over there, is drink there beer. He says they dont have ANY american beer over there other than special bars that server Miller and Coors.

Well, I know its a little off subject but this beer with gelatin, produced a VERY clear beer. I named it Redneck Kristallweizen on my label. I am impressed, my first gelatin beer, this is the clearest batch ive ever made, 4th batch ive made personally. I sampled one of the 6 day bottle carbing beers. The gelatin seems to have not stoped the bottle carb. I did no moss, and no filtration. Taste is like the first batch I did with no geletin, but without the yeast flavor being so thick. Seems a little lighter tasting, with less yeast taste, and best of all Kristall clear. It has very little sediment, and the yeast in the bottles is thin, and stays in, you can pour almost the whole bottle out. Im sure a couple more weeks bottle carb, and some time in fridge will reward me well.

NikolausXX said:

Well, I know its a little off subject but this beer with gelatin, produced a VERY clear beer. I named it Redneck Kristallweizen on my label. I am impressed, my first gelatin beer, this is the clearest batch ive ever made, 4th batch ive made personally. I sampled one of the 6 day bottle carbing beers. The gelatin seems to have not stoped the bottle carb. I did no moss, and no filtration. Taste is like the first batch I did with no geletin, but without the yeast flavor being so thick. Seems a little lighter tasting, with less yeast taste, and best of all Kristall clear. It has very little sediment, and the yeast in the bottles is thin, and stays in, you can pour almost the whole bottle out. Im sure a couple more weeks bottle carb, and some time in fridge will reward me well.

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Congrats! Now we need a picture.

Mustangj said:

Last glass.

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I'm drinking some now..

Ill add a pic after there done carbing, and refridgerated better. I broke my crappy camera and all I got is the fancy camera. A couple of weeks.

I just brewed this beer this weekend. It was easy to make, just had some minor hiccups but I'm a beginning brewer. I just have some simple questions.

1. What is crash cooling? I guess I'm supposed to put this in the fridge? I don't have any way of doing that. Can I accomplish this another way? Can I put the bucket in a tub with ice?

2. Do I want to use a secondary? I don't have a kegging system and will have to bottle this.

I'm really excited about this. I haven't tried a beer this style, so I can't wait!

I bottle my beer. Crash cooling is usually for keggers. I made this beer with a week in primary, a week in secondary, and started drinking 2-3 weeks into bottle carbing. This beer shouldnt require and crash cooling or clarity as its supposed to be cloudy. Unless your makeing a Kristall style. If its your first time, id just make by the 1-2-3 rule. 1 week primary, 2 week secondary, 3 week bottle condition. After the bottle condition it will have some age on it and taste good and be fully carbed. You will like it. Especially if you got the 3068 yeast. I really like the taste of the yeast in my heffe.

Sounds good to me, I'll stick with the 1-2-3 rule. I did get the 3068 yeast.

I might make another batch on Friday. I do have half a pound of rice hulls to use up. Wouldn't want to waste anything!

save the yeast out of your primary for your next batch. Do an advanced search for yeast washing. It would be rather expensive to go and buy another smash pack. This is very affordable beer to make. I think I will brew another soon also. The rice hulls were a must for me, I did not use enough in the first batch and had stuck sparges, but was rewarded with a out of style high gravity heffe

Hi all, I want to make this over my weekend. My problem is which hops to substitute. I currently have on hand: marynka, goldings, fuggle, willamette, cascade, centennial. I don't know if this is a lost cause. The marynka believe it or not has got a pretty nice aroma. Thoughts?

SRTBREW said:

Hi all, I want to make this over my weekend. My problem is which hops to substitute. I currently have on hand: marynka, goldings, fuggle, willamette, cascade, centennial. I don't know if this is a lost cause. The marynka believe it or not has got a pretty nice aroma. Thoughts?

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Perhaps going lightly on the willamette. The Bavarian Hefe needs a German Noble hop, and you don't list any. Watch the IBUs.

Thank you Ed, I'll post how it goes.

Actually I could pic up some german select pretty reasonably. What do you think?

Mine came out very, very yeastie. With quite a bit of sweetness. It tastes good... but the sweetness throws me off. Is this supposed to have very much sweetness? My HBS sent me some funny malted wheat instead of what I ordered (left a note stating they were out) ... I may think about buying from AHS in the future... I washed 4 jars of this yeast so I might be trying it again soon...

Well Ed, you asked and you shall recieve. I took some pics of the "Redneck Kristallweizen" Basicaly your recipe with gelatin added. No irish moss, no filtering.

Image of Redneck Kristall w/flash - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting



If you look there is another pic with no flash in the albulm, along with some other brewing stuff ive done lately. I got this new camera but dont know how to work it so its just set to auto. My wife can take amazing photos with it.

Another note, since I bottle condition my beers, there is yeast in bottom, if you shake up the bottom of bottle and pour into your beer, you will have a decent cloudy heffeweizen. It wont be as flavorfull as the origional recipe as there is not as much yeast but you wll get alot more of the yeast flavor. It took me a few days to get a beer that sat in my fridge without getting knocked over by my 2 year old and 1 year old that ravage the fridge .

Looks pretty good! Congrats.

Totally robbing the cradle -- 5 days in the bottle! Still yeasty/bready, but there's some nice subtle ester and phenol notes coming through. 1.051 -> 1.009.

The flash photo does not reflect that this is the lightest-colored beer I've brewed by far. Straw, not even yellow. Wow, if this comes around, it'll rival Live Oak Hef, my fave.

Edit: 3 weeks in the bottle now. It is coming around!

I too robbed the cradle too much on my origional hef. Its all gone now . I need to restrict my kristall intake so they last as well. This recipe is too good. Definatly another batch in the roster in the next 2 or 3.

Should we boil for 90 minutes to decrease DMS?

I brewed this last night and ended up with SG of 1.050.. not that far off .. I used Wyeast 3068 without the starter, just did the smack pack thing and let it sit a couple of hours before pitching straight to the wort.. I've been reading that this style usually ferments very vigorously with this yeast yet there is only a slight foam on the top of the beer in the carboy and it's been almost 24 hours.. is this alright? should it pick up or can this still ferment slowly without crazy krausen

BlackTieBrewing said:

I brewed this last night and ended up with SG of 1.050.. not that far off .. I used Wyeast 3068 without the starter, just did the smack pack thing and let it sit a couple of hours before pitching straight to the wort.. I've been reading that this style usually ferments very vigorously with this yeast yet there is only a slight foam on the top of the beer in the carboy and it's been almost 24 hours.. is this alright? should it pick up or can this still ferment slowly without crazy krausen

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Give it time. If you had made a starter, it would be going gangbusters by now.

Thanks Ed, I jumped the gun on that one. Just checked and it's starting to take off. Great recipe by the way, I tasted the hydrometer sample and this is going to be a great one.

Any reason you don't recommend the Danstar Munich yeast in this, Ed?

I have a dunkel weizen on the go with the Danstar because it was the closest I could find to the 3068 on short notice.

Bembelschlabberer said:

Any reason you don't recommend the Danstar Munich yeast in this, Ed?

I have a dunkel weizen on the go with the Danstar because it was the closest I could find to the 3068 on short notice.

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No dry yeast will make an authentic Bavarian Hefeweizen. If you want a German style wheat beer, use a real German liquid strain. Weihenstephan is the worlds oldest brewery, founded in the year 1040. They make some awesome beer and their strain for hefe's is the shizznet.

Danstar's Munich will make a bland American wheat beer.

dp69_2001 said:

Mine came out very, very yeastie. With quite a bit of sweetness. It tastes good... but the sweetness throws me off. Is this supposed to have very much sweetness? My HBS sent me some funny malted wheat instead of what I ordered (left a note stating they were out) ... I may think about buying from AHS in the future... I washed 4 jars of this yeast so I might be trying it again soon...

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Weyerman is a german malted wheat. I shop at The Beernut (where I'm assuming you went. I just bought some Weyerman organic malted wheat there the other day for a dunkelweizen (actually a weizenbock due to OG of 65 or so) I made on Thanksgiving. It's close to this recipe but just adds 2 pounds of Munich and a QP of chocolate malt. I use 5 lbs. of six row and six pounds of weyerman malted wheat also. Your wheat will work fine. Also, make sure you triple bag the grain when you buy it at the Beernut. They do use those cheesy grocery store bags and they rip easy!

It is now 10:30pm, CST on a Wednesday. I am one hour and a half past my bedtime because of brewing this beer. I haven't brewed in awhile, I have people coming in this AND next weekend, and I just needed to make beer. You know that feeling? You just NEED to make beer? Anyway, I digress...

I took your recipe, EdWort, with the best of intentions in following it precisely. But for a number of reasons I made a different beer. This is what I did:

7# White Wheat from B3...apparently the only kind they had
4# Pils, B3
.5# Rice Hulls
AND .5# Crystal 15L

Let me explain the 15. I mean for it to be a 40 or 60 to impart the "dunkel" characteristics into it, but upon examination of the cupboard, there was none of either to be found. So I thought, what the hell. I put it in.

My hops schedule is different as well. Just because this is what I had on hand.

.3 oz Perle 8.2% (45 min, 8.4 IBU)
1 oz Hallertau 1.5% (15 min, 2.8 IBU)
For a grand total of 11.2 IBU's...I guess within your 10 - 13 range.

I also used a decanted pint of 3065 I washed from my FIRST batch of this that I didn't get to taste thanks to hose clamps (whole other thread on this if you want to read it).

I went to boil with about 6.5 gallons and after 90 minutes just a HAIR over 5 gallons went in the jug. OG was 1.058. I think it was high because I had too much boil off...what's the deal with the 90 minute boil? Any advantage?

I drank my hydro sample and all I could think was "WOW, that's sweet." The hops were there (literally, floating in the sample) but the main event was SWEET SWEET SWEET. I liked it.

I know this was long, but I'm long winded. Unashamedly so. But do you think this will be anything near what you intended? I know I made beer, but did I make a hefe or a wheat beer or what?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the recipe EdWort. I look forward to putting this on the gas weekend after next.

Deacon

I'm trying to put this recipe into ProMash. I can't find a Style that seems best. BJCP 15-A, or 15-C either sound possible. Either of them right?

It would fall under 15-A. That's where it was placed when it took 3rd place at the Alamo Cerveza Fest.

Am I thinking correct? ProMash shows my Hallertauer 3.9%. Using .75 & .25 total IBU's 7.9. If I start with 1oz then .25 the IBU's come to 10.4. Is this the best way to get the IBU's where they belong?

I've been drinking this now for a week or two and it is good. It came out STOUT...around 7.5% ABV...so it hammers pretty quick. There's a definite "alcohol" taste to it, but after 2 or three it smooths out. Lots of banana. Light on the clove. It fermented at 66, so I'm not sure what I should have expected.

Overall it's very good. I prefer it to a Blue Moon, but that could just be me, a proud papa, talking.

I am planning on brewing this tomorrow, and of course I need some help today.

I got my Wyeast 3068, and some Wheat DME to do a starter. As suggested earlier in the thread.

Trouble is I don't know exactly what to do with them. I did a search but by the time I studied all of the results, I'd miss my opportunity to brew.

So can anybody tell me how to do my starter this evening for tomorrows brew?

EdWort said:

I used 1/2 cup of Wheat DME and 16 oz. of water to make the starter wort. It will work fine for 5 gallons. Step it up to a quart if you are going to split it between two 5 gallon fermenters for a 10 gallon batch like I do.

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OK I went back and started over. Is it as easy as mixing 1/2 cup DME with 16 oz water with the 3068 yeast smack pack? Sorry first time with a smack pack. Should this be in a container with an airlock?

RonRock said:

OK I went back and started over. Is it as easy as mixing 1/2 cup DME with 16 oz water with the 3068 yeast smack pack? Sorry first time with a smack pack. Should this be in a container with an airlock?

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Sanitized piece of tin foil. You want air exchange; yeast need O2 to grow.

Boil the DME and water for 10 minutes, cool to pitching temps, pitch yeast. Shake furiously and regularly, like it owes you money. Remember, starters are for making yeast, not making beer.

Thanks, flyangler. I got that much. Now how long does it have to set?

And as long as I got your attention. It is recomended that I add Rice Hulls. I have some for the job. But not certain what to do with them for sure. It is suggested that they are soaked before use. Should they be soaked for any length of time? Should they be mixed with the rest of the grains? Before, or after crushing?

So much to learn! I love it.

Thanks