Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

I haven't been able to get through this entire thread, but has anyone had any issues with DMS, considering the pils and the 60 minute boil? Also, are we using white wheat or red?

Bottled this on Saturday. The half bottle extra I had tasted delightful. Can wait to try it in a few weeks!

Still waiting to brew this. I might try tonight if I feel motivated but for some reason I'm just out of it today

Did a similar extract version of this, but added 1 lb flaked wheat and 1/2 lb caravienne, so it's probably a little darker than the original. It was fermented, kegged and carbed in 15 days. Perfect for Summer. Here's a pic to make you all drool. I called Wieheissensie Hefeweizen because I couldn't think of a name.

ArizonaDB said:

I called Wieheissensie Hefeweizen because I couldn't think of a name.

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I like it!

My kegs are full, any reason not to bottle this?

Also, do the 1/2 lb of rice hulls need to be washed & rinsed prior to mixing with the dry/milled grains?

BeachBeerBoobs said:

My kegs are full, any reason not to bottle this?

Also, do the 1/2 lb of rice hulls need to be washed & rinsed prior to mixing with the dry/milled grains?

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I bottled my batch. I prefer hefes bottled.

I soaked my rice hulls for a half hour then rinsed them and put it in when I doughed in the rest of the grains. I'd always recommend a soak so they don't steal wort from ya

Finally brewed this today. Pre boil gravity was way low (1.027) so I boiled off extra and ended with an OG of 1.050 at just below 5 gallons. Transferred it all to a bucket and will keg it next week. Excited to try this stuff

Opened a bottle last night after 1 week. I normally don't open stuff early, but I was dying to try this beer. Opened it at my birthday party. Everyone loved it. Of course it's young, but this beer is awesome

Whoops. Got 75% efficiency which gave an OG of 1.060. Hope the 1/2L starter I made is sufficient.

BeachBeerBoobs said:

Whoops. Got 75% efficiency which gave an OG of 1.060. Hope the 1/2L starter I made is sufficient.

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I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I *think* my starter was sufficient.

Only a 1/2L starter? I make a 2L starter for everything. This particular yeast with a hef will blow. It's very aggressive. Even without a starter.

Yea no doubt. 3068/300 is a blowoff tube every time.

NineMilBill said:

Yea no doubt. 3068/300 is a blowoff tube every time.

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Switched to a blowoff tube and all is well.

motleybrews said:

I bottled my batch. I prefer hefes bottled.

I soaked my rice hulls for a half hour then rinsed them and put it in when I doughed in the rest of the grains. I'd always recommend a soak so they don't steal wort from ya

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I never thought of that before. Terrific idea.

lemy said:

I never thought of that before. Terrific idea.

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Yea the first time I used them I didn't soak. Also didn't account for absorption. Wasnt a big deal, but i I figure they aren't contributing in any way other than helping create the filter, so they don't need to absorb wort either.

I have a feeling I'm going to be brewing another batch of this soon. It's been in bottles a little over a week, and it's phenomenal. A real crowd favorite. Finally found a beer that EVERYONE loves. I've opened 2 bottles, one on Saturday and one on Monday. That's it until they sit for at least another week/week and a half. But even super young this is a killer beer

motleybrews said:

Yea the first time I used them I didn't soak. Also didn't account for absorption. Wasnt a big deal, but i I figure they aren't contributing in any way other than helping create the filter, so they don't need to absorb wort either.

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Makes perfect sense

I am a convert!

Hey Guys,

I finally figured out some problems I've been having with a few of my hef brews.

To give a little bit of a back story, I've brewed this at least 4 times and have only had 2 great batches and 2 or 3 mediocre batches. It was really bothering me and I've PM'd 944Play a few times to get some other eyes on this as well.

It turns out that wheat malt significantly raises the PH of water and you need to accommodate this with your minerals (And probably acid malt). The first two brews were using spring water that I got from my local grocery store, and those were the two that turned out so well. In addition, I used 5.2 ph stabilizer.

However, with the last few batches, I used Reverse Osmosis water and used the EZ water calculator 2.x spreadsheet. When I used this spreadsheet, it told me that my ph levels were fine with the grain bill and water adjustments that I entered (5.52). This is why I decided not to use the 5.2 stabilizer anymore. Unfortunately, I just now realized that this spreadsheet didn't take specific types of grain into consideration when calculating the PH levels (Only 2.x and prior). Now that version 3.x is out, it asks which specific grains are in the grain bill and takes it into consideration.

I noticed that wheat malt is by far the grain with the greatest influence on PH increase out of any on the list. Once I put my old water additions into the new calculator, my ph showed 5.87! Well above the recommended for good efficiency and also to ensure that tannins aren't extracted from the husks. Needless to say I'm kind of pissed and relieved at the same time. It's starting to make sense why I had such a significant drop in quality. Since my other beers don't use wheat malt, my old additions from the 2.x spreadsheet still came within the recommended PH range.

Long story short (too late), do one of the following for this brew (and any others that use wheat):

1. Use acidulated malt to decrease mash PH (only 8 oz in my case)
2. Update your spreadsheet to 3.x if you are using EZ water clalculator to help with the proper adjustments
3. Use spring water from the grocery. If your PH levels need adjusting, use 5.2 stabilizer or mineral adjustments on the fly

I hope someone learns something from my mistake.

I will be brewing this again with the proper adjustments in the coming weeks. I'll keep you all up to date with how this next brew turns out.

Ok, heating up my water for this recipe right now. My first all grain EVER! So I'm excited and a little nervous. Good thing I'll have some homebrew IPA on tap so I can officially RDWHAHB. Wish me luck!

EDIT: Everything went pretty good. Mashed @ 152.5, ended and 150.5 after 90 min mash. 7.5g pre-boil volume. Ended up with a little over 5.5g in the ferm bucket and a little more than a 1/2 gallon of trub in the kettle. Post boil gravity of 1.047 or thereabouts. The brewers friend calculator said I hit 69% efficiency. Not too shabby for my first all grain. Took a little over 4 hours from start to finish.

Used 6# german wheat, 4# german pils, 8oz rice hulls and 1.25 oz of Hallertauer (3.1% aa for appx 12 IBU) @ 60 min as my only hop addition. Super pumped that everything went well and none of my DIY equipment leaked! I love it when a plan comes together!

Can someone tell me the BJCP category of this beer?

Petho said:

Can someone tell me the BJCP category of this beer?

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I would more than likely say according to the 2008 BJCP guidleines that this falls into the 15A category

13 days in the fermenter and I checked my fg before cold crashing. 1.009 on the nose. Tasted wonderful.

It's been hot the last few days and the closet I normally ferment in has been at a steady temperature. Not overly worried about this beer because I'm pretty sure it was done prior to the heat stretch but I have a maple wheat ale next to it that was mid fermentation that I'm worried about the temp being so high.

Looking forward to kegging and carbing this euro the weekend for my new kegerator

ArcticBear said:

13 days in the fermenter and I checked my fg before cold crashing. 1.009 on the nose. Tasted wonderful.

It's been hot the last few days and the closet I normally ferment in has been at a steady temperature. Not overly worried about this beer because I'm pretty sure it was done prior to the heat stretch but I have a maple wheat ale next to it that was mid fermentation that I'm worried about the temp being so high.

Looking forward to kegging and carbing this euro the weekend for my new kegerator

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This beer doesn't mind higher than normal temps. How high are you talkin?

seedubxj said:

Ok, heating up my water for this recipe right now. My first all grain EVER! So I'm excited and a little nervous. Good thing I'll have some homebrew IPA on tap so I can officially RDWHAHB. Wish me luck!

EDIT: Everything went pretty good. Mashed @ 152.5, ended and 150.5 after 90 min mash. 7.5g pre-boil volume. Ended up with a little over 5.5g in the ferm bucket and a little more than a 1/2 gallon of trub in the kettle. Post boil gravity of 1.047 or thereabouts. The brewers friend calculator said I hit 69% efficiency. Not too shabby for my first all grain. Took a little over 4 hours from start to finish.

Used 6# german wheat, 4# german pils, 8oz rice hulls and 1.25 oz of Hallertauer (3.1% aa for appx 12 IBU) @ 60 min as my only hop addition. Super pumped that everything went well and none of my DIY equipment leaked! I love it when a plan comes together!

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Congrats. You picked a great beer to be your first. Glad everything went well. 4 hours including a 90 minute mash is pretty impressive! And 69% is great considering it's not only your first AG but also the amount of wheat

motleybrews said:

This beer doesn't mind higher than normal temps. How high are you talkin?

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Temp was between 78 and 80. My other brew is using the wyeast Belgian witbier yeast

Brewed this recipe on the first of June, bottled on the 14th, and it is already carbed enough to be delicious. (not at 4 volumes yet, but still DAMN tasty).

Yeah so I used about a cup of corn sugar and now these puppies gush. The first one i chilled and it didn't explode immediately the second wasn't chilled was akin to a champagne bottle. Ya think I could chillem pop em open and immediatley reseal them to lessen the carb level? They are grolsch swingtops so hopefully i can salvage them.

suicider said:

Yeah so I used about a cup of corn sugar and now these puppies gush. The first one i chilled and it didn't explode immediately the second wasn't chilled was akin to a champagne bottle. Ya think I could chillem pop em open and immediatley reseal them to lessen the carb level? They are grolsch swingtops so hopefully i can salvage them.

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how long since it was bottled? I think the longer you let sit or chill the less it will gush when opened.

Been bottled for a week. Chilled one and tried it and it didn't gush immediately but flamed over after a few seconds. Immediately chilled the rest. I hope once they are cooled they react the same way so i can vent. But will venting cause adveres effects? I would think the escaping co 2 would prevent oxidation.

suicider said:

Been bottled for a week.

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It takes more than a week to carb fully. Try after another week or two and should improve.

OOPS.
I used a dry Safbrew yeast. I mean there are a LOT of pages to this post and I missed that part about the yeast not being authentic.
The datasheet for the WB-06 shows the Ferment temp as being 59-75F, any suggestions as to where I should aim for the average temp? I use a swamp cooler.
Its only a 3 gallon batch so no harm no foul if it is not right.

Seems like there should be some summary page that gathers all of the salient information dispursed amongst the 60+ pages on one easy to read page... BLURG.

duhviz said:

It takes more than a week to carb fully. Try after another week or two and should improve.

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i was under the impression that keeping themin the fridge would halt fermentation as this is an ale yeast.

suicider said:

i was under the impression that keeping themin the fridge would halt fermentation as this is an ale yeast.

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Yes that is true. I would carbonate around 70 degrees for at least two weeks an then chill. However if you have carbonation but it's over flowing when you open, then chilling in the fridge will help with that, especially when it's newly carbed.

I was very tempted to try this recipe because it seemed beautifully simple. Brewed this one up, hit ALL the numbers provided. Fermented for 3 weeks (i meant to bottle at 2 but things come up....). Even the FG was almost spot on to the original recipe. Out of the fermenter it tastes great, i look foreward to trying this one once its carbed, thanks edwort!

Brewed this yesterday and am excited to try it. I got 65% efficiency but I was pretty happy with that for my 3rd all grain. I used WLP300 instead of the Wyeast 3068 since thats what my brew store sells. Cant wait to try this after its fermented and carbed! Im surprised this thread is still going.

Thanks Edwort!

brewed this 2 months ago. all i can say is AWSOME!! very simple and easy. will make this a yearly session.
thanks EdWort

Mine has a taste of phenols in it. It's gotten better over time but it's still there. Probably due to the fact that I had the conical in the garage and the temp swings between day and night were too great. Yeast probably weren't happy with me.

Now I can do temperature controlled fermentations and I have an aeration kit so i'll brew this up again and see how it goes.

Just a FYI for everyone in here. IF you brew this recipe exactly and add 3 cups of pureed watermelon in the fermentor the resulting beer will make EVERYONE happy and get a 100% full keg killed in one afternoon. Ask me how I know

Seriously if you want a watermelon wheat beer use this recipe!

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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Hmm.. I am brewing a ten gallon batch this weekend. so far I have made a 1 liter starter at 1.040og
I was going to step it up with another 1.5L starter with same og but I see you are recommending to do about half that.

underpitching 50% per mr. malty for a 10 gallon batch makes me nervous. I know underpitching causes more strain=esters but that seems a bit too much of an underpitch. am I misunderstanding something? Im not doubting you, just clarifying.

I must have read this wrong. your saying pint for 5 gal, then step up to a L for 10g, or just a straight 1l starter?