My own weizenbock, recipe advice, please!

Hello All,


So, now I am working on the recipe for a wiezenbock next... and seeking your advice Plan on aging this one for my "fall seasonal" Hehehe...

First time making my own weizenbock recipe, however, I have kinda "cherry picked" bits and pieces of a bunch of recipes I have read over the past couple days.

I have 28 lbs of wheat malt and 28 lbs of pilsner left over from my last weizen brew a few weeks back. Here's what I (and Beersmith!) have come up with, so far:

25 Gallon Batch
72% efficiency
1.074 OG
1.017 FG
Color: 22.5
IBU : 22.6
ABV: 7.4% +/-

30 lbs (43.5%) wheat
28 lbs (40.5%) Pilsner
5 lbs (7.25%) Munich
2 lbs (3 %) Crystal 40
2 lbs (3%) Special B
2 lbs (3%) Chocolate malt

60 Min: 6 oz. Mt Hood (5.3%AA) 20.6 IBU

15 Min: 2 oz. Mt Hood (5.3%AA) 3.4 IBU

Mash at 150, 60 min
Boil 90 min
Pitch on washed / collected White Labs Hefe IV yeast.
Ferment low-mid 60's.

Seems pretty well within the style.

Whattaya think? Any input is greatly appreciated.

And a big thanks to Deathbrewer, who gave me some help with this one, so far.

Fellow Austin Zealot Kerry Martin's award winning Weizenbock, which was brewed as St. Arnold's Divine Reserve #7, is similar to what you have but uses a higher percentage of wheat in the grist. It was published in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Zymurgy magazine. He uses dark wheat malt, and toasts a small amount of the dark wheat malt at 350*F for 30 minutes to develop a little bit of nutty/biscuit character. A low fermentation temperature of 62*F resulted in a perfect balance of banana and clove from the WLP300. I've tasted two batches of his homebrew, both are f***in' epic.

DeathBrewer's Weizenbock is also quite good, and I think was better executed than the commercial reproduction of the Divine Reserve #7. I still have a bottle of DB's cellaring next to the Divine Reserve #7 in the closet, I'm pretty sure DB's will still win out over the DR7.

I can't seem to find my last recipe, but I do recall that it was not exactly to style, being too light in color...I think I used nothing but Pilsner and Wheat with a small amount of aromatic and WLP300. That being said, it was one of my favorite beers.

I would NOT suggest adding Special B to a weizenbock, however...these beers are best clean and smooth and I think the nutty, roasted, caramel flavor of Special B is just too much.

The chocolate malt would be good for color and a touch of flavor. I would switch some or all of the Pilsner Malt for Vienna...you need some bold maltiness in there. The BJCP guidelines actually suggest only Vienna and/or Munich with the wheat.

Mash low (148-150°F) as you planned to get good attenuation. The WLP380 will work really well with that recipe and the low 60s is a perfect ferment temp to make it nice and clean...the last thing you want in a big weizenbock is out of control esters.

Oh, and if you want something special, switch out that Crystal for some Belgian Caravienne...it gives this wonderful crisp sweetness that no other crystal can match.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

I know I have the Zymurgy mag.....gonna have to dig it out. Don't know how I missed that recipe in there...

Gonna drop the Special B.

As for the wheat and the pilsner malts, they are leftover from the last weizen I brewed, so I was trying to incorporate them into the recipe to use them. So - won't have the vienna malt. (or the dark wheat...)

Think it will be ok as is (minus the special B)?

I could definitely toast some of the standard wheat, though.

I think it will be good as-is. You could do a decoction (at least to mash out) for added color and complexity, although for a 25 gallon batch, that will be a big decoction.

You could always throw a tiny amount of Carafa II in there as well, just for color. Not that it matters, my last weizenbock was amazing as a light-colored brew.

Never toasted wheat before, but it certainly sounds tasty.

yeah...big decoction, indeed!

I have a direct fired recirculating mash set up, so usually just go that route to change mash temps.

Maybe a multi-step mash would be in order here?

I think the color will be dark enough for me at 22.5 SRM, looks good in beersmith, anyway!