Do you need to put wheats in a secondary? I was thinking of doing it just to filter a little of the trub and orange peel out (trying a Blue Moon clone), but since they're going to stay cloudy, if I were doing a hefe, would it be beneficial?
SteveM said:Additional item to keep in mind. Unlike other brews, Hefe's don't seem to age well (at least, mine don't, and I've heard this said by others). I suggest you drink them down while they are young.
todd_k said:You don't need a secondary but some put it in the secondary for a week just to let some more yeast drop out of it. Then, dump it down the drain since it is in fact a wheat beer.
the_bird said:Are you filling in for the good Pastor while he writes Part V of his tale?
That's one of the things I'm experimenting on RIGHT NOW!!!Baron von BeeGee said:You don't have to secondary any beer, but I believe a wheat will benefit from it just like other beers. It's not about clarification, it's about conditioning (and Hefeweizens have a lot of flavors going on). Some commercial brewers of traditional Hefeweizens go straight to bottle, but many go to a conditioning take for 5 to 28 days at a cooler temperature.
I believe they do it both ways, but lager yeasts for bottle refermentations are quite common since they provide a very clean bottle fermentation. It's also interesting to note for some of the newer Hefe brewers (since such a high premium is placed on 'cloudy' Hefeweizens which makes people not want to secondary) that most commercial German producers who referment with lager yeast actually filter their Hefeweizen first resulting in a very clear beverage with much less yeast. Nevertheless, the yeast which results from the bottle fermentation will settle out in the bottle and this is what results in the cloudy character when swished into solution and poured into the glass.homebrewer_99 said:We always read that the Germans bottle HWs with a lager yeast...so here I go...I'll keep all informed.
Paperface said:I dont think I understand what is meant by "referment with lager yeast". Do they use lager yeast from the get-go? or is it re-added at some stage to existing regular HW yeast?
I'm new to the scene, but I'm interested in finding out as much as I can about HWs. I lived in Germany for a bit (Ulm, to be specific) and, man, were the Hefe's delicious. Nothing beats straight out of the tap at the brewery. Yum.
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