Hefeweizen vs Belgian Wit

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

tbone

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
189
Reaction score
0
Location
Western PA
My third brew will be for my wife. (my first two- a Pale Ale and an IPA.) She likes Blue Moon and so do I on occasion so I am looking for a refreshing "lawnmower" type beer. Both of the beers mentioned in the title seem good. Can you guys help me out with the differences? I see a lot of "Hefes" being brewed here. Thanks.
 
I'm sure I saw a thread posted recently in the recipe section by someone he swore he brewed an identical beer to blue moon, so try a search for that.

Briefly, hefeweizen is a Bavarian style that tends to be dominated by aromatics (banana and clove) generated by the yeast. Low in bitterness and very effersvecent (sp?). Wits are Belgian, tend to have more of a wheaty flavour, and tend to be spiced/flavoured with things like coriander & curacao orange peel. We don't get blue moon here but I think it's a Wit. The most famous Wit is probably Hoegaarden.

Hefe's tend to be brewed a lot because they are very easy and cheap to do, and are also great summer beers.
 
If she like Blue Moon, then it sounds like a wit may be the way to go. If you're tending toward a hefeweizen, then have her try one first--if you're targetting her tastes, there's no sense brewing 5 gallons of something she's not really into.

My wife, who isn't much of a beer drinker, will occaisionally enjoy both of those styles, FWIW.
 
tbone said:
My third brew will be for my wife. (my first two- a Pale Ale and an IPA.) She likes Blue Moon and so do I on occasion so I am looking for a refreshing "lawnmower" type beer. Both of the beers mentioned in the title seem good. Can you guys help me out with the differences? I see a lot of "Hefes" being brewed here. Thanks.
Click to expand...

This might help

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24979&highlight=blue+moon
 
If you bottle, one reason to not go with a Hefe is that you really should have heavy bottles to safely contain the pressure required for one. Typically most standard craft brewed brown bottles are rated around 2.5 volumes of CO2. A Hefe is somwhere in the neighborhood of 3.5. A good alternate solution is to buy 16 oz. returnables (Like Straub if you can stomach a case of it) and use those. They are really thick glass, and this is what I use for my Hefe's. Either that or go through two cases of a commercial Hefe (Franziskaner is excellent and comes in 16 oz.), or an American Wheat (although carbonation with these may be lower so you can't be sure with the glass).
 
OK, so she likes Blue Moon. Does she like one or two, or would she be able to help you polish off 5 gallons before saying "I'm not in the mood for another one"??
 
Point taken Cheesefood. Another motive for brewing this type is to allow some friends to enjoy a homebrew. Most of our aquaintences are Coors Lite, Budweiser type drinkers. I think that they would like a Blue Moon type beer. Forget having them enjoy an IPA. And, as I said, I enjoy a Blue Moon or two every once in a while.
 
zoebisch01 said:
If you bottle, one reason to not go with a Hefe is that you really should have heavy bottles to safely contain the pressure required for one. Typically most standard craft brewed brown bottles are rated around 2.5 volumes of CO2. A Hefe is somwhere in the neighborhood of 3.5. A good alternate solution is to buy 16 oz. returnables (Like Straub if you can stomach a case of it) and use those. They are really thick glass, and this is what I use for my Hefe's. Either that or go through two cases of a commercial Hefe (Franziskaner is excellent and comes in 16 oz.), or an American Wheat (although carbonation with these may be lower so you can't be sure with the glass).
Click to expand...

Shoot now you've got me worried. Bottled my hefe last weekend. I think the bottles are good, I hope nothing explodes!:drunk:
 
my first two brews were a belgian wit followed by a hefe. the belgian wit, was a blue moon clone from AHBS and it turned out very good. basically a wheat ale, with coriander and bitter orange/sweet orange peel. i used half the coriander/orange in the boil, and put the other half in the secondary. i fermented the hefe at higher temps (70-72 degrees) to accentuate the bannana flavor/aroma and it is in week two of bottle conditioning, but i had a taste of it the other day, and it is turning out very nice also.
 
B.W. - Why not the whole orange/coriander in the boil? What advantage is there to doing it the way you described? Thanks in advance.
 
zoebisch01 said:
If you bottle, one reason to not go with a Hefe is that you really should have heavy bottles to safely contain the pressure required for one.
Click to expand...

Since carbonation is based on the amount of sugar you add to the bottle not the style of beer you made (assuming you wait for fermentation to completely finish before bottling), this is assuming that you actually add more priming sugar to the batch than you would any other batch. I made a hefe with my usual 3/4 cup of corn sugar for priming and it turned out great. No more carbonation than any of my other beers, but plenty. It's actually all my friends' favorite.
 
zoebisch01 said:
...Franziskaner is excellent and comes in 16 oz...
Click to expand...
Half liter bottles actually...0,5 l. :D

P3120039-00.jpg
 
tbone said:
B.W. - Why not the whole orange/coriander in the boil? What advantage is there to doing it the way you described? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


actually, i did it this way due to the advice of someone else off of here. they said that putting the whole amount in at the boil wouldn't give enough "orange" flavor for a fan of blue moon, and recommended me doing it half and half. i think it turned out good, although being my first, i'm not sure what difference it made. maybe next one i'll try all in the boil, then do one with all in the secondary.
 
gruntingfrog said:
Since carbonation is based on the amount of sugar you add to the bottle not the style of beer you made (assuming you wait for fermentation to completely finish before bottling), this is assuming that you actually add more priming sugar to the batch than you would any other batch. I made a hefe with my usual 3/4 cup of corn sugar for priming and it turned out great. No more carbonation than any of my other beers, but plenty. It's actually all my friends' favorite.
Click to expand...

What I was getting at though, is that to really hit the carbonation levels that I am familiar with in a Hefe it should be around 3.5 volumes...which turned out to be something like 6 oz. of corn sugar (vs. the 4 oz which is roughly 3/4 C) for 5 gallons @ around 60 °F.
 
paranode said:
Shoot now you've got me worried. Bottled my hefe last weekend. I think the bottles are good, I hope nothing explodes!:drunk:
Click to expand...

To clarify (stemming from a point made by gruntingfrog ;) ) is that if you primed with the standard 4 oz. per 5 gallons (~3/4 C) corn sugar then you'll get 'normal' homebrew carbonation levels safe for regular pop tops. If you prime to what is typical in a commercial example (app 3.5 volumes or so), this turns out to be about 6 oz. per 5 gallons @ app 60 °F and is really pushing the limits as to what you bottles can hold!
 
zoebisch01 said:
To clarify (stemming from a point made by gruntingfrog ;) ) is that if you primed with the standard 4 oz. per 5 gallons (~3/4 C) corn sugar then you'll get 'normal' homebrew carbonation levels safe for regular pop tops. If you prime to what is typical in a commercial example (app 3.5 volumes or so), this turns out to be about 6 oz. per 5 gallons @ app 60 °F and is really pushing the limits as to what you bottles can hold!
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, I primed with a cup of cane sugar to bring it to about 3.6-3.8 volumes of CO2 as per the style. :D

So far no trouble, I hope it stays that way!
 
might consider a Klosch for a next time beer as well. You bud and coors friends would probally really enjoy that style as well.
 
zoebisch01 said:
What I was getting at though, is that to really hit the carbonation levels that I am familiar with in a Hefe it should be around 3.5 volumes...which turned out to be something like 6 oz. of corn sugar (vs. the 4 oz which is roughly 3/4 C) for 5 gallons @ around 60 °F.
Click to expand...


I figured you were talking about the carbonation volumes which would be true to style, but I was mostly responding to Paranode since he seemed worried about having bottled his hefe already. I was only trying to point out that unless he took pains to make the carbonation to style he had nothing to worry about. Now that I see he did add more priming sugar... DUCK!!! :D
 
zoebisch01 said:
If you bottle, one reason to not go with a Hefe is that you really should have heavy bottles to safely contain the pressure required for one. Typically most standard craft brewed brown bottles are rated around 2.5 volumes of CO2. A Hefe is somwhere in the neighborhood of 3.5. A good alternate solution is to buy 16 oz. returnables (Like Straub if you can stomach a case of it) and use those. They are really thick glass, and this is what I use for my Hefe's. Either that or go through two cases of a commercial Hefe (Franziskaner is excellent and comes in 16 oz.), or an American Wheat (although carbonation with these may be lower so you can't be sure with the glass).
Click to expand...

Don't mean to bring up an old thread, but I am wondering about the proper priming when I bottle my honey weizen this week? brown bottles withstand more than 2.5 volumes of CO2 don't they
 
flabyboy said:
Don't mean to bring up an old thread, but I am wondering about the proper priming when I bottle my honey weizen this week? brown bottles withstand more than 2.5 volumes of CO2 don't they
Click to expand...

I bottled a dubbel to 3.5 volumes of c02. None exploded, but some of the necks broke off while opening so I am assuming I am stressing them pretty good.
 
Has anyone tried "UFO Hefeweizen" before? I tried it, and it was really good... but I want to make sure it actually tastes like a real Hefe.
 

Similar threads

advaitbanga
Belgian beer with cascade (leftover)
Replies
0
Views
221
advaitbanga
advaitbanga
PashMaddle
Brewday got postponed.
Replies
22
Views
906
sibelman
sibelman
SteveM
Not a New Member Exactly
Replies
6
Views
416
madscientist451
madscientist451
VTMongoose
Excessive sulfur (H2S) production during Hefeweizen fermentation with W68 (WY3068/WLP300/OYL-21) that lingers
Replies
23
Views
1K
AlcheMania
AlcheMania
Clint Yeastwood
Celis White Better Than Hoegaarden?
Replies
2
Views
533
lmaa
lmaa

Latest posts

Back
Top