Amount of priming sugar for Hefeweizen

Hi guys,
I have a hefeweizen from AHS 1 day in the primary and was starting to think about how much priming sugar I would need. I have about 5.5G so after we siphon off the top, I'll have around 5-5.25G to bottle. The kit came with 4.5oz of priming sugar (corn sugar). I've checked out the online calcs and want to run these number by you guys because they seem high, and I dont' want bottle bombs! So the temp of fermentation is 72 and I want about 4.0 units of CO2. According to that, I would need about 8 oz of sugar which seems crazy high. Since I have 4.5oz of corn, i was going to add 3.5oz of table sugar. Does this seem right?
Thanks!

4.0 vols of CO2 is really high (which is why you are getting such a high weight of sugar). Normally you go for 2.4-2.8 vols of CO2 in hefe's which would leave you about 4.25 and 5.5oz of sugar.

If you like the higher carbonation, add an extra oz of sugar, more and you may be risking bombs (I'm not sure what the bottles are rated for, I'm sure somebody will chime in later)

I use 5.5 to 6 ounces corn sugar to bottle a 5.5 g batch of hefe, turns out great. I'd add 1 ounce of cane sugar or to your 4.5 ounces of corn sugar as Parker suggests. I wouldn't use much more than that myself.

Thanks for the input. Im using the Wyeast 3068 yeast with this one, and in the description it mentions that 3.2 volumes of C02 is good for this one. The CO2 calc websites have said 4 volumes of CO2 though, that's why i was aiming so high. I'll just add an extra ounce of cane sugar as suggested.

The Beer Recipator - Carbonation

I had this site bookmarked and it lists weizens as 3.6 - 4.5 vols CO2

I make a 5.5G hefe with 3068. Several times. Always used 3/4 cup, which is about 4.4 oz. If anything, it is overcarbed, but I like lots of head on the hefe.

Weird, that's only 2.3 vols of CO2.

Anyone else have insight on this? Most of the calculators I'm seeing say 4.0+ volumes of CO2.. which ends up being 7+ ounces of sugar. This is crazy, recently I tried to make one of my pale ales more carbonated with 6.5-7 ounces and it was extremely overcarbonated, to the point where it was unserveable. Each and every bottle overflowed the glass immediately upon pouring. I had to open all of them slowly and re-cap to try to fix the issue, and then they ended up all being flat .

I'm bottling a hefe tonight and I'm going to shoot for around 5.5 ounces of cane sugar.

Traditionally, it's really carbed. When I lived in Bavaria, you learned real quick how to pour a Hefe so it wouldn't explode over the glass. Doing so in a bar means you have to get the next round.
Cold beer, sloooow pour on a severely tilted glass. The right glass is important too.
As for your carbing sugar, sounds about right for a room temp fermentation.

Shoot guys i was going off brewersfriend.com guideline and another site on volumes of c02 for hefeweizens and both stated that they should be between 3.3-4.5. I thought i'd be safe going in at 4.0 which gave me 9.2 oz of corn sugar. Looking at all of the forums i now see that that seems insane. bottled my hefe's on friday and its only been 2 days and theres insane carbonation happening already. Should i open them up and recap them to release some c02 or would that ruin the beer?!

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I'm going to try 1/4 cup. I think that will give me almost unservable beer for too much head.

brewista_may said:

Shoot guys i was going off brewersfriend.com guideline and another site on volumes of c02 for hefeweizens and both stated that they should be between 3.3-4.5. I thought i'd be safe going in at 4.0 which gave me 9.2 oz of corn sugar. Looking at all of the forums i now see that that seems insane. bottled my hefe's on friday and its only been 2 days and theres insane carbonation happening already. Should i open them up and recap them to release some c02 or would that ruin the beer?!

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I did a batch 5 gal. with 9.1 oz corn sugar and did not get bottle bombs or over carbonated beer. I usually leave my hefe/wit at room temp and only move to fridge before drinking (for ~1week).

Maybe move them to fridge after 7-10 days instead of after 2 weeks?

I've primed many batches at 8 oz cane sugar to 5-5.5 gallons of hefe. It's a lot of carbonation but has not caused any problems for me. Just 6 oz would be good too. (IMO bottle bombs are more about bottling before FG is reached.)

I carb my hefe's to 4vols, but I spund so I don't add sugar, just allow them to naturally carb themselves.

That is what mine look like. Nice creamy head with fine foam and good head retention.

But I tend to carb my wit higher for summer and stick more to Belgian style in all other seasons...

How do y'all get that fine, creamy head on your beer. I opened up a dunkelweizen that was carbed only 7 days and it had a nice sized head on it. Matter of fact I couldn't pour the whole beer in the glass because it would've over flowed. But the head had really course bubbles and retention wasn't all that great. It ended up being about 4 gallons primed with 6.3 oz of corn sugar.