Hefeweizen Recipe

Looking for a great Hefeweizen recipe. Made an all grain recipe I found on Northern Brewer. It was just ok. If there are any all grain recipes out there please share.

Hefeweizens are all about the yeast profile. (IMO anyway) If you didn't like the recipe try a different yeast. The hefe 4 from white labs is what they use at one of my favorite breweries in flagstaff for their hefe. A lot of people will use a kolsch yeast to make an american wheat too. As far as recipes the guidelines for a hefeweizen is is not less than 51% wheat.

EdWort's is a classic hefe recipe. I've brewed it and find it to be excellent, as I'm sure many others have.

When I brewed that recipe I fermented wy 3068 @ 62 (recipe says 68) for 10 to however-long-it-takes days and I thought the balance of clove and bananas was very nice. The first week in primary that yeast can produce some serious sulfur, but as the website says it does dissipate with time.

3868 is also great. I also like to ferment it cooler (62-64) and find that it produces some subtle flavors more characteristic of a classic English strain in the background. I could be crazy.

My go-to hefe recipe is this:

5 gallons:

6# wheat malt
3# pils (I really like Castle Belgian pils malt if you can find it)
.5# Vienna

wy3068 or wy3868

.75 hallertau (I also really like spalt or tett in my hefes, so you can substitute that if you like) @ 60 if you like a bit of bitter, @ 45 if you just want some of the flavor

.25 perle @ flameout

Ferment @ 60-68 depending on the flavors you want to pull out of the yeast.

Double_D said:

Hefeweizens are all about the yeast profile. (IMO anyway) If you didn't like the recipe try a different yeast. The hefe 4 from white labs is what they use at one of my favorite breweries in flagstaff for their hefe. A lot of people will use a kolsch yeast to make an american wheat too. As far as recipes the guidelines for a hefeweizen is is not less than 51% wheat.

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Over and under pitching plus temp control have a huge effect on how a hefeweizen taste.

I'm the Hefewiezen masta!

A traditional Bavarian Hefewiezen is:

5.5 gallon batch

6lbs Wheat
6lbs Pilsner

1.0 oz Hallertau @ 60

Wyeast 3068 yeast

I make pretty much all my Hefe's based on this standard recipe, and will add fruit, honey, and other additions from there. I made one with Camomille and Apricot Honey just last weekend. You can also substitute other NOBLE hops for the Hallertau or add small amounts (0.5-0.75 oz) of nice aroma hops @ 5 min or dryhop and keep a good balance.

My advise would be to make a basic one first to get a taste for the base style, then create your own recipes from there.

Also, subbing RED WHEAT for standard white wheat makes a very interesting Hefe, so try that sometime!

Good luck!

TopherM said:

I'm the Hefewiezen masta!

A traditional Bavarian Hefewiezen is:

5.5 gallon batch

6lbs Wheat
6lbs Pilsner

1.0 oz Hallertau @ 60

Wyeast 3068 yeast

I make pretty much all my Hefe's based on this standard recipe, and will add fruit, honey, and other additions from there. I made one with Camomille and Apricot Honey just last weekend. You can also substitute other NOBLE hops for the Hallertau or add small amounts (0.5-0.75 oz) of nice aroma hops @ 5 min or dryhop and keep a good balance.

My advise would be to make a basic one first to get a taste for the base style, then create your own recipes from there.

Also, subbing RED WHEAT for standard white wheat makes a very interesting Hefe, so try that sometime!

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thank you. How much honey do you add and when do you add it?

8 ounces - a pound max. My last batch I added 12 oz. When it comes to honey, it's the florals that matter. If you can smell the nector the honey comes from, it will show up in the beer. If it just smells like honey, you aren't going to get much from it. I find that the whole foods store honey that has dedicated floral varieties (orange blossom, wildflowers, apricot, blueberry, etc.) comes through the best (i.e., the honey farms have dedicated nector sources). Much more than a pound, and you're going to start drying out the beer too much and throwing things out of balance.

With almost every other style besides Hefewiezens/Wheats (I like to taste the wheat malt), whenever I add honey I supplement it with 0.5 lbs of honey malt.

I add honey at flameout and stir it in. Honey seems to burn/carmelize really easily, so you really don't want to add it when the burner is on.

Good luck!

TopherM said:

8 ounces - a pound max. My last batch I added 12 oz. When it comes to honey, it's the florals that matter. If you can smell the nector the honey comes from, it will show up in the beer. If it just smells like honey, you aren't going to get much from it. I find that the whole foods store honey that has dedicated floral varieties (orange blossom, wildflowers, apricot, blueberry, etc.) comes through the best (i.e., the honey farms have dedicated nector sources). Much more than a pound, and you're going to start drying out the beer too much and throwing things out of balance.

With almost every other style besides Hefewiezens/Wheats (I like to taste the wheat malt), whenever I add honey I supplement it with 0.5 lbs of honey malt.

I add honey at flameout and stir it in. Honey seems to burn/carmelize really easily, so you really don't want to add it when the burner is on.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the advice.

TopherM said:

8 ounces - a pound max. My last batch I added 12 oz. When it comes to honey, it's the florals that matter. If you can smell the nector the honey comes from, it will show up in the beer. If it just smells like honey, you aren't going to get much from it. I find that the whole foods store honey that has dedicated floral varieties (orange blossom, wildflowers, apricot, blueberry, etc.) comes through the best (i.e., the honey farms have dedicated nector sources). Much more than a pound, and you're going to start drying out the beer too much and throwing things out of balance.

With almost every other style besides Hefewiezens/Wheats (I like to taste the wheat malt), whenever I add honey I supplement it with 0.5 lbs of honey malt.

I add honey at flameout and stir it in. Honey seems to burn/carmelize really easily, so you really don't want to add it when the burner is on.

Good luck!

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One last question. How long do you ferment?

Hefewiezens are best young. Ferment about 2 weeks, bottle/keg carb for 2 weeks, then drink! If you are good about paying attention to your gravities, it is not unheard of for a Hefewiezen to go grain to glass in 10-14 days with a force carb kegging setup, so just keg/bottle as soon as you reach FG.

TopherM said:

Hefewiezens are best young. Ferment about 2 weeks, bottle/keg carb for 2 weeks, then drink! If you are good about paying attention to your gravities, it is not unheard of for a Hefewiezen to go grain to glass in 10-14 days with a force carb kegging setup, so just keg/bottle as soon as you reach FG.

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TopherM
I just had my first glass of the hefewiezen recipe with honey. It is outstanding!!! I used orange honey from whole foods like you said and also used the honey wheat. Can't wait to share it with friends. Thank you again.

I just made a batch of this not too long ago and it is STUPID good. You could adjust the timing on the hop additions to make it more traditional, but I like the way this one tastes! The lb of acid malt gives it the slightest tart edge which makes it very refreshing!

For 5.5 Gallons/Partial Mash:

3 lbs Wheat DME
3 lbs German Pils
1 lb Acid Malt

Yeast: Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068

Hops:
20M: 1 oz German Select
10M: 1 oz German Select
Flameout: 1 oz German Select

acidrain23 said:

I just made a batch of this not too long ago and it is STUPID good. You could adjust the timing on the hop additions to make it more traditional, but I like the way this one tastes! The lb of acid malt gives it the slightest tart edge which makes it very refreshing!

For 5.5 Gallons/Partial Mash:

3 lbs Wheat DME
3 lbs German Pils
1 lb Acid Malt

Yeast: Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068

Hops:
20M: 1 oz German Select
10M: 1 oz German Select
Flameout: 1 oz German Select

Click to expand...

I'm going to try your hop selection. It's teally good, but it needs a little more umph. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. In hind sight, an additional standard 60M addition would not have been amiss.
I think my tastebuds must be shot from years of smoking too, because anything under 20 IBU's I can barely taste. Thus the later additions!