Hefe with a hint of Killians?

One of my fraternity brothers wanted me to brew him a beer. He enjoys Brown's Hefe (reference for all of you who are near Albany, NY) and said he wanted something like that, but with a hint of Killian's.

Anyone have any ideas on a recipe for a Hefe/Irish Red?

I'm not even sure this would taste good, but he requested it. Any alternatives you can think of that would fit his choice that might taste better if this isn't a good combination?

I suppose you could throw some Toasted malt in with maybe some Cara-red or something to get some of that profile from the Irish end of it, but I would base it primarily on the Hefe recipe and yeast... Or you could always try blending two batches a hefe and an Irish Red.

I was thinking a blend... not entirely sure though. It does help that another fraternity brother will be brewing an Irish Red, I could just up his recipe to 6 gallons and take 1 for the Hefe...

So if I weren't to blend, just a little toasted and caramel malts could give it a slight irish red taste? That was the original plan, just wanted to get other people's opinions on if something like this was worth making, or if there was a better alternative sticking to the preferences.

I think that the blend should help as you want a hint... The problem is that Hefe yeast is very distinct and you might end up making almost a dunkel with adding those ingredients... I think a blend is going to give you best results...

I think something like a softer dunkelweizen could be interesting. I wouldn't concentrate so much on the Killian's part, but rather just focus on giving the hefe a little bit of amber color and caramel malt flavor. So maybe some caramunich (or crystal) and even a hint of carafa (or roasted barley) for color and a slight roasted dimension. Definitely not as dark as a dunkelweizen, but still with some mild malt flavor.

That's your best bet, IMO. I don't think any combination of these two styles will actually be very reminiscent of Killian's, since Killian's is a lager and will likely be dominated by the hefe character. But a dunkelweizen toned down to an amber/red color sure does sound tasty.

or even simpler yet... buy some killians and when you serve it pour a couple ounces in the glass with the Hefe lol

People associate hefes primarily with the yeasty spices/phenolics which don't require a specific recipe, just a specific yeast. Why not try brewing up a Killians clone but using a hefe yeast? Replace some of the base malt with wheat malt and it should get you in the ballpark.