3 ?'s about my upcoming Hefe

Never done a Hefe before and the wife wants me to make one for her...so.....

1. Now that morebeer offers Pilsner LME, should it be added to my upcoming Hefe? I see that ag versions have this in them. Or just stick to the wheat extract? How about flaked wheat?

2. The DME says "DME - Bavarian Wheat (Powder Form)" no option for 60/40..... where the LME says "60% Wheat, 40% Barley". No option for 100%. What's up with the difference? Opinions on which to use?

3. She really likes the bannana flavor/nose on them. Does the Wyeast 3068 or the White Labs 300 give more of it (yea, I know the warmer, the more you get. Probably going to ferment at 74).

Okay, my last heffe was 40% Pilsner and 60% wheat... the issue with extracts is that the WHEAT extracts are generally 50-60% WHEAT only. I used the WLP300 and it fermented at say... 71F and it has a nice banana qulaity to it... it is awesome! It has been bottled for 2 weeks and is carbonated perfectly. I do AG... someone who does extract will have to guide you on the extract to use... 60% wheat should be good and use a blow off!!!!!

Pol

Just go with LME. It is easier and cheaper. Just use about 6 lbs for a 5 gal batch. Then a small amount of the hops of your choice. The weinstephan strain produces more banana esters.....I beleive that is 3068. Good luck.

Wheat DME is usually 60/40 or 55/45 so it's what you want.

Use about 1 oz Hallertau hops...in the 3.4-3.8 range.

Any German strain of Weizen yeast will make a good brew.

6 pounds wheat DME
1 oz hallertau
Yeast.

Boom.

Sorry to offer conflicting advice but I would go with all DME.

LME has a limited shelf life. I question the freshness of the LME even coming from the high sales HBS (Austin Homebrew, etc.). Old LME will be darker in cooler and has off flavors. Also, even fresh LME has been know to add a "twang" to the beer.

DME is a little more expensive but you can safely (no aging) store the left-overs and use later (for priming, etc.).

Also, for a hefeweizen I would recommend adding most (90%) of the extract to the boil with 15 minutes remaining. This will reduce the caramelization and give you a a hefeweizen that looks like a hefeweizen. Search for "late boil extract addition" if you are interested.

My story:
I bought a hefeweizen kit and didn't get around to making it until about a year later. I did not know that LME aged. I have a hefeweizen that looks like a brown ale and has a very distinctive "twang" luckily that can be explained away by it being a hefeweizen. I just tasted my most recent brew, Kolsch-style, made with all DME. Very light in color and tastes great (even after 10 days in the primary).

EDIT: I would go with Cheesfood's recipe. I would propose adding 1 lb of DME at the beginning with .75 oz of Hallertau (assuming 2 gal boil and 5 gal end volume). Add the rest of the DME at 10-15 minutes remaining. But, again, this is optional.

Also, (I am full of it tonight), I used the Wyeast 3068 and fermented around 74 and have very little banana, maybe it is over powered by the 'twang' but. . .if it is available and the same price I would go with White Labs'.

Never used the 3068 yeast, but I assure you the WLP will produce plenty of banana... my wife loves this brew

if you get the german hefeweizen kit from more beer it comes with:

6 lbs bavarian (60% wheat 40% barley)
.5 oz northern brewer hops 6.8
4 oz corn sugar (at bottling)

I've brewed this recipe numerous times and it came out delicious every time. theres no LME and no grains. and as far as yeast goes use WLP300. and ferment around 72-74 for the banana flavor and aroma. you'll love it and so will your wife.
Good luck.

Cool. All sounds good. Are all the hops going in at bittering? No flavoring additions? I know there aren't aroma ones. I always use the late LME/DME addition when I am looking for a lighter beer like this one. My last batch was an APA and I used 6 lbs LME and 1 lb DME at flame out and it is a great light color without as much "twang". Thanks for the help, all.

I did 6.6# lme, 1oz hallertauer (3/4oz at 60, 1/4oz at 15), and used WLP300 German Hefeweizen. Fermented a little too warm starting around 70F and ended up finishing around 78F. Banana was almost overpowering the flavor, it's mellowed off some as it's sat around for 1 1/2 months. Second problem was using John Bull Wheat LME, came out darker than I had planned, 10 SRM when i wanted 5-7. Still planning on making this same brew again just keeping temperatures controlled more to reduce the banana and using DME.

mmmforbiddendonut said:

I did 6.6# lme, 1oz hallertauer (3/4oz at 60, 1/4oz at 15), and used WLP300 German Hefeweizen. Fermented a little too warm starting around 70F and ended up finishing around 78F. Banana was almost overpowering the flavor, it's mellowed off some as it's sat around for 1 1/2 months. Second problem was using John Bull Wheat LME, came out darker than I had planned, 10 SRM when i wanted 5-7. Still planning on making this same brew again just keeping temperatures controlled more to reduce the banana and using DME.

Click to expand...

Your brew will always be darker with LME.

Kayos said:

Cool. All sounds good. Are all the hops going in at bittering? No flavoring additions? I know there aren't aroma ones. I always use the late LME/DME addition when I am looking for a lighter beer like this one. My last batch was an APA and I used 6 lbs LME and 1 lb DME at flame out and it is a great light color without as much "twang". Thanks for the help, all.

Click to expand...

Yes, the hops are usually used only for bittering with HWs.

Yeah, my Heffe turned out really bright... 3-4 SRM... ODDLY, after a week in the bottles, even chilled, it SUPER clear... no chill haze, have to stir up the yeast to get it back into suspension during the pour. It is odd, never had a brew this clear before after only a week in the bottle... Used WLP300

Sounds like maybe a week and a half in the primary and no secondary then straight to bottle.

Yah, I had 12 days in the primary, no secondary, a week in the bottle... never seen any beer clear so quickly....

My AG hefe was in the primary for 9 days prior to being kegged tonight. I'll drink it in a week or two.

Same when I did it extract. Super simple recipe, yet the best hefe you'll ever drink. And I love the 3068 strain.

I have to start reducing my grain bills... most recipes are not predicated on 81% eff. and I am ending up with higher alcohol contents than I really want... what a drag!

The Pol said:

I have to start reducing my grain bills... most recipes are not predicated on 81% eff. and I am ending up with higher alcohol contents than I really want... what a drag!

Click to expand...

Braggart. My eff sucks. What's your secret?

I dont know... it jumped from 76% to nearly 81% with my new 10 gallon Gott system... I fly sparge, step mash, mashout and have pretty long sparges. I really don't know. I grabbed a Helles recipe and had to reduce the grain bill by 2lbs to hit the target OG.

Kayos said:

Never done a Hefe before and the wife wants me to make one for her...so.....

2. The DME says "DME - Bavarian Wheat (Powder Form)" no option for 60/40..... where the LME says "60% Wheat, 40% Barley". No option for 100%. What's up with the difference? Opinions on which to use?

3. She really likes the bannana flavor/nose on them. Does the Wyeast 3068 or the White Labs 300 give more of it (yea, I know the warmer, the more you get. Probably going to ferment at 74).

Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing (60/40 blend in extracts), but found that all the extracts I was looking at were already 60/40. Just check the packaging when you're at the store. Me and my buddies just made a hefeweizen: super simple recipe, we used l2 cans of wheat LME from a store with high turnover (hopefully meaning the extract was fairly fresh) and WLP 300. Very banana-y and clove-y, fermented at ~70 degrees F. We didn't find the temp needed to be particularly high to get the flavors, the yeast will give you that on its won!

7 days in fermenter, then straight to bottles, carbed with DME, and tried some 2 days later- it was great after that little time!

You'll both love it. I chose the 300 over the 3068 because the White Labs page (http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html) says 300 has higher clove AND banana flavors. Great beer to drink super-fresh, I don't know that there is such a thing as a"green" hefeweizen!

I left my first batch of hefeweizen in primary for 10 days, bottled and 8 days later i had a perfectly carbonated delicous beer.

I used corn sugar to carb mine, added 8oz to carb, per the "how to brew" carb chart... it is AWESOME.

The Pol said:

I used corn sugar to carb mine, added 8oz to carb, per the "how to brew" carb chart... it is AWESOME.

Click to expand...

8 ounces??!!!!! 5 gallon batch??!!!!

And it isn't erupting?


I did 5.5 ounces of corn sugar in my hefe and it's practically leaping out of the bottle after less than a week!

No, no gushers, no explosions... I got it from the chart on www.howtobrew.com Seemed plausible, since Heffes are highly carbonated beers...

The Pol said:

No, no gushers, no explosions... I got it from the chart on www.howtobrew.com Seemed plausible, since Heffes are highly carbonated beers...

Click to expand...

I found that nomograph that I think you were referring to. That's great info... I'll have to play around with it some more...

No, that is not the serving temp... that is the carbonating temp. There is a volume of CO2 still in the beer after it ferments, the colder it is, the more CO2 is still dissolved in the beer, thus needing less sugar to carbonate. It was at 70-75 degrees when I primed and bottled... yes

OK you just changed your post...

I know. Sorry about that. I misread the nomograph a little bit. But 8 ounces still seems pretty high to me.

Seemed like it to me too, but huffes have about 2x the carb that most ales have...