wlp500 hefeweizen

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maida7

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Anybody ever try to make a hefeweizen type beer with wlp500 Trappist ale yeast? How did it turn out? What does everybody think of this idea?
 
Well it ain't gonna be a hefeweizen, but a lower gravity simple wheat with some coriander and orange peel and WLP500 sounds delicious to me! Haven't done it myself (yet) but it's on my list of things to try with belgian yeasts... maybe after the stout...

Surely someone has done something similar?
 
Unless you use a hefeweizen yeast you won't make a true hefe. The bananna and clove are essential in this style of beer. Sure you could make a 70% german wheat 30% pale malt and ferment it with any yeast on the market but it won't be a classic "hefeweizen" unless the yeast used is also hefeweizen or german wheat.

Your beer will taste good, but won't taste like a hefe u buy at the store
 
This isn't all that crazy of an idea. And, with respect to those who have said this won't be a true hefe or that it is a witbier, that just isn't true, although I can understand why they may think so at first.

To make a hefeweizen, you typically use at least 50% wheat malt and the remainder (50%) German pilsner malt. For a witbier, you typically use 50% unmalted wheat and the rest pilsner malt and the. Add coriander and curaçao orange peel. Additionally the aroma and flavor profile is quite usually different as a result of the yeasts used. There are also more distinctions as is evident by the BJCP guidelines.

The contention most people seem to have with using WLP500 is that you won't get the typical yeast contributions. Specifically and from the BJCP guidelines are,

"Aroma: Moderate to strong phenols (usually clove) and fruity esters (usually banana). The balance and intensity of the phenol and ester components can vary but the best examples are reasonably balanced and fairly prominent."

That said, you can adjust the esters and phenols produced by WLP500 by altering the few ration temp and pitch rate. I just finished a blonde ale made with this yeast that was underpitched and fermented at 74F ambient and got a moderate banana and clove presence. So, if you have this yeast on hand, I would suggest trying it put. I think you'll be very happy with the results.

Also, refer to the White Labs Belgian Yeast Chart: http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/belgianchart.pdf
 
I've had terrible results using the wlp300 hefeweizen yeast. I'm making a belgian blond now with wlp500 and the fermenter has this awesome banana smell. That's what gave me the idea.

I don't think I will use spices and just use a straight up German hefe recipe with the Trappist yeast and see what I get. I doubt it will be a true to style hefe but I have a feeling it will be pretty tasty in it's own right. Only one way to find out :)

FYI my blond ale started at 65F then free rose up to 68F the first day as fermentation took off rapidly. I held it at 68 with cooling. Then bumped it up to 70F on day 2. I will raise it to 72 on day 3 and hold it there for the rest of the week. Then slowly cool it to drop the yeast.
 
I have tried the hefe with wlp500. The blond was great. very fruity more like plum but with some banana as well. But... the 500 yeast does not floculate well at all and had a yeasty off flavor. I ended up using geletin in the kegs to get it to clear. After that I did the blond again with WLP550 in the hopes that it would floc better then the 500. It did and the beer was clear but it's much more phenolic and not nearly as fruity. Next I'm gonna try the 530 in the blond to see how that works out.
 
I just tasted a blonde ale split batch- half fermented with us05 and the other half with wlp500, both at 68f for 6 days before going to room temperatures. The wlp500 bottle I just tasted smells and tastes like a hefe- which is why I'm on the forum searching. I just started a dubbel a few days ago where I am ramping the temperatures up to 72 over a few days to hopefully get more of the expected esters
 
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