Protein rest necessary when making hefeweizen?

I'm planning on making a hefe as my next batch, but I've never used wheat before. I've done three barley-only batches thus far as PM using just a conversion rest at 152-154, and plan on doing this one as a PM batch as well using 55/45 wheat/barley LME as the balance of the fermentables. I don't have my recipe on hand at the moment (it's at home), but the mash will involve a little more than 3 lbs of German wheat malt and about 2 lbs of pilsener malt and a small amount of rice hulls.

Is a protein rest necessary when using wheat malt and making a hefe since the finished beer will be cloudy regardless, or should I just do a conversion rest and not bother?

You'll get a little better efficiency with a protein rest, as well as breakdown some of the larger proteins you don't really want, but it's not really a big deal. For a partial mash I probably wouldn't worry about since you'll get lots of fermentables from the LME.

Incidentally, a finished Hefeweizen can be pretty clear if it conditions sufficiently...the cloudiness really comes from swishing the yeast in the bottom of the bottle into suspension and pouring it in the glass. IIRC, protein content of malted barley is ~11% while wheat is ~13%, so it has more protein, but not incredibly more. Those #'s could be out of whack, too, I don't take responsibility for that

Just to add about the clarity, my hefeweizen has been in the keg a while and it pours crystal clear. All of the yeast has settled out in the cold.

there is a big thread about this on the northern brewing forum, the consensus on there is to skip the protein rest as modern wheat malts are well modified.










Dave