Thinking about next brew

The 2 brews I have in my primaries are going to be ready for bottling in the next few weeks.Be nice to establish a good pipeline.. and trying to figure out what types of beer to brew next- types that aren't too difficult but would fit the winter weather well.

Thinking a coffee stout would be nice to have in my 1 gal primary and maybe a Hefeweizen in my 5 gal primary. I believe I've seen in other threads on this site that hefe's can be pretty tricky to brew- if that's the case, what are some alternatives that I might try?

Generally I'm a big fan of pale ales, IPAs in particular as you can tell from my signature. However, a few years back I lived in Munich for one summer and I've found that there isn't much that can beat a good Hefe, particularly the Weihenstephan and Franziskaner ones. Especially if it's a thirsty summer afternoon and you make a Radler out of it. So despite the fact that winter is coming up, I'm interested in making a good hefe- are there any particularly good recipes out there, or am I better off just finding a kit?

Also, does anyone have any good information/threads that roughly describe the beers that are best quaffed earlier in their bottling life (within a month) as opposed to one that is better after some aging/cellaring (over months, maybe even close to a year).

Hefe's aren't particularly tricky to brew, there are just a couple extra factors to consider.

1) A true Hefewiezen is at least 50% wheat with the rest of the grist being primarily Pilsner malt. A large part of the signature taste of a Hefeweizen is the wheat proteins, so you really don't want to filter the beer at any point during the brewing process, and even want to make sure a bit of the trub from primary makes it into the keg/bottle.

2) Traditional Hefeweizens have a single 60 minute noble hop addition, typically German Hallertau (1 oz hops per 5-5.5 gallons wort).

3) You HAVE to use a Hefeweizen yeast for your final product to be a Hefeweizen. The other must have signature taste of a Hefewiezen is actually purposefully stressing out the yeast to produce off flavors. At the lower temp range of the yeast, they will produce clove phenol off flavors that are desireable. At the higher temp range of the yeast, they will produce banana esters that are also desireable, and more typical of most commercial Hefes. You can ferment in the middle of the range to get a mix of both clove and banana flavors. Also, as mentioned previously, you want to rack some of the trub over from the primary, as the flavor of the actual yeast is also part of the signature taste. Also, I have found that the dry Hefe yeasts are pretty muted when it comes to the production of the clove/banana off-flavors. Liquid yeasts are much better in a Hefe.

That's really the only unique processes to a Hefe. All my Hefe's go grain to glass in 21 days, so it is a great young beer. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me!!

Nice, 3 weeks is perfect for the holidays! My brothers enjoy a good wheat beer as well. I'll look up some recipes for a good Hefe.. now to decide if I want to wait ~2 weeks until my 5 gal primary is done or if I want to get started on brewing a 1 gal in the next few days.

TopherM said:

All my Hefe's go grain to glass in 21 days, so it is a great young beer.

Click to expand...

Wait wait wait, grain to glass as in grain to bottling, or grain to "Hey kids, did I ever tell you about the time your grandmother and I smoked a doobie?"

Hmm, anyone got a good Hefeweizen recipe to recommend? Since the Hefe yeast (the Wyeast 3068) seems to be the best when put in liquid form (unless there's an easier way to use only a portion of a liquid yeast package for a 1 gal), I may just wait until the 5 gal primary is freed up in about 2 weeks from today to get started. Then I can gift the bottles to family and tell them not to open one for a week or two. Or something.

Have you checked out the recipe section of this forum? You can find some great recipes on there, usually with feedback from others who have brewed it and/or tasted it. You can always search for a Jamil recipe, too. I'd offer one up but I don't do Hefe's.

Yeah, I've looked but haven't really ventured much to the other forums. At the moment, I'm reading these recipes and it sounds like there are some great Hefe's on there which posters say aren't terribly difficult to do.

A traditional German Hefe is just:

5.5 gallon batch:

6lbs White Wheat (try Red Wheat for a bit more color and complexity)
6lbs Pilsner
(OPTIONAL - some people add 0.5 lbs Acid Malt to give the Hefe a slight tartness on the end of the palate)
Mash @ 150F

90 Minute Boil (important to drive DMS from the Pilsner Malt)
1 oz Hallertau Hops @ 60

Cool to ~70F, pitch Wyeast 3068

Ferment for 7 days @ 66F for banana esters, 59F for clove phenols (I perfer banana)

Bottle or keg, slow force carb or naturally carb for 14 days to ~2.8 atmospheres CO2 (a little higher than ales).

Remember the tips above to keep some yeast and wheat protein in the beer, don't filter it out!

DRINK!

Thanks for the recipe- it looks like a perfect 50/50 mash which I think is traditional. Going to gather up the ingredients next week and brew it the week after! Can't wait!

Got 5.25 gal of Hefe sitting in the primary now. Been keeping it in a swamp cooler for the last 6 days, maintaining a temp of 62F. Looking forward to bottling soon- I took a SG yesterday and got 1.018; probably going to check again tomorrow to see where it's at. I think I'll probably wait a few days extra (for a total of 10-12 days) to make sure it's done though.

Wonder if I should keep it in the swamp cooler for the rest of it. It's definitely slowed down and most of the fermentation is done so do I really need to keep swapping out iced water bottles in and out to keep the temp down?