Hefeweizen Recipe - Looking for Delicious & Simple

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Jiffster

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I'm preparing to brew my 3rd AG recipe and I would love to brew a Hefeweizen.

Looking for a simple recipe, single infusion?, that has nice banana notes.....,

I've only had a couple of Hefeweizen's and I couldn't even tell you what they were. But I liked the smooth, fresh, easy drinking nature of them.

Appreciate your help!
 
156 seems high for a mash temp, and I usually ferment hefeweizens cooler (check out the BYO article linked above about why 62 is a good temp) but everything else looks good.
 
I would even out the pils and wheat, but that's just my tastes. +9000 on the lower ferment temp and mash temp
 
recipe looks good. Id keep in mind that fermentation temps are key in achieving what you are looking for in a hefe
Lower 60s = more clove
mid 60s = balanced
Higher 60s = more banana
 
Use 3068 yeast and ferment at 68 for lots of banana. Also, use a blow off tube. Fermentation will be quite vigorous.
 

I've decided to brew this recipe. I've got a couple questions regarding the mash and spare steps. I would like to do the Step Mash version (see below) but not sure I'm ready for that and I am using a 10 gallon igloo cooler as my MLT.

So, I've decided to go with the single infusion mash and I'm not sure how much water to strike with because "after conversion is complete" I'm supposed to "infuse the mash with near boiling water while stirring to raise the temperature to mash out at 160F". Then, "spare slowly with 170F water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is around 6.5 gallons and the gravity is 1.038".

The recipe states to target around 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain. That's easy enough to calculate but there are basically 3 different steps where I need to add water and end up with 6.5 gallons of wort.

Any advice you can provide would be very appreciated!

Harold-is-Weizen
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.049 (12 °P)
FG = 1.012 (3 °P)
IBU = 13 SRM = 3 ABV = 4.8%

Ingredients
4.85 lb. (2.2 kg) Great Western wheat malt (2 °L) (or similar)
4.85 lb. (2.2 kg) Durst Pilsner malt (2 °L) (or similar)
2.68 AAU Hallertau pellet hops, (0.67 oz./19 g of 4% alpha acids) (60 min.)
Wyeast 3068 (Weihenstephan Weizen) or White Labs WLP300 (Hefeweizen Ale) yeast

Step by Step
Mill the grains and dough-in targeting a mash of around 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain (a liquor-to-grist ratio of about 3:1 by weight). If you have the ability to do a step mash, start with a rest at 110 °F (43 °C) for 20 minutes and then raise to a temperature of 152 °F (67 °C) until conversion is complete. Otherwise, do a single infusion mash at 151 °F (66 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete. Infuse the mash with near boiling water while stirring or with a recirculating mash system raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Sparge slowly with 170 °F (77 °C) water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is around 6.5 gallons (25 L) and the gravity is 1.038 (9.4 °P).

The total wort boil time is 90 minutes, which helps reduce the S-Methyl Methiomine (SMM) present in the lightly kilned pilsner malt and results in less Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) in the finished beer. Add the bittering hops with 60 minutes remaining in the boil. I skip using kettle finings in this beer, unless making a kristallweizen. Chill the wort rapidly to 62 °F (17 °C), let the break material settle, rack to the fermenter, pitch the yeast and aerate thoroughly. The proper pitch rate is 1.7 packages of fresh liquid yeast or 1 package of liquid yeast in a 1.3-liter starter.

Ferment at 62 °F (17 °C) until the beer attenuates fully. With healthy yeast, fermentation should be complete in a week, but do not rush it. The cooler than average ale fermentation temperature can extend the time it takes for complete attenuation. Rack to a keg and force carbonate or rack to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and bottle. Target a carbonation level of 2.5 to 3 volumes.
 
That is a fly sparge description. If you are set up to fly sparge, fine, otherwise do a batch sparge which does not require the slow draining or the 170 mash out.
On the yeast... under pitch and ferment at specific temps for specific taste (bubble gum or banana). Search that yeast (I have never used 300) for specifics.
 
I just finished fermenting with WLP300 at 69F with no starter (just dumped the vile in) and I don't detect much banana in the beer. I'm hoping to get more banana after it carbonates.
 
That is a fly sparge description. If you are set up to fly sparge, fine, otherwise do a batch sparge which does not require the slow draining or the 170 mash out.
On the yeast... under pitch and ferment at specific temps for specific taste (bubble gum or banana). Search that yeast (I have never used 300) for specifics.

So I would just batch sparge at 168F?

I read on Hefe recipe where they said to batch sparge with water volume at a temp that would raise the mash temp to 168-172F.
 
IME, I've had to add my batch sparge water around 185-190 in order to hit the 168 mash out.. It's a matter of figuring out what works for your particular set up. Most of the time, I don't worry about hitting mash out temps though.
 
I just finished brewing this today. Missed my target OG (1.048) by .07 (1.041).

I undershot my mash temp (151F) 2 degrees (149F). Heated my 10 gal Igloo MLT with 1 gal 190F water for about 10 minutes. Dumped that water and striked with 3.67 gal 167F water.

Doughed in 8.75 grain + .5 rice hulls (both 67F) and ended up at 149F. I added 1 qt boiling water but didn't do anything.

Mashed for 75 minutes at 149F. Temp remained the same.

At the end of the mash I added .55 gal 190F water to achieve what was intended to be 1/2 my pre-boil volume. (Got the calculation from Dennybrew.com).

Let that sit a few minutes and vorlaufed. I collected 2.75 gal from my first runnings. Was targeting 3.25 gal.

In order to achieve my 6.50 gal pre-boil volume, I sparged with 3.75 gal of 200F water & mixed the hell out of it.

This brought my mash temp up to 170F.

Vorlaufed and collected final runnings.

1st running SG = 1.056
2nd runnings SG = 1.021

Total pre-boil volume collected = ~6.3 gal

My MLT headspace with pure water is .13 gal.

I might have missed it because I stopped at the 6.5 gal mark. However, after it cooled to 143F while I was preparing for the boil, taking readings, etc, it dropped a little. I went to collect a little more wort and nothing would come out.

Pre-Boil SG (combined 1st & 2nd runnings) was 1.038.

Put lid on kettle to help speed up to boil temp and hoping to get an accurate boil of rate. Took 18 min to go from 143F to boil.

Take lid off, added hops and boil 60 Min.

After boil and chilling to 75 F my remaining volume was 5.25 gal.

5 gal went into carboy. Remaining was trub and wort below drain in kettle. This measured at 850ml (.22 gal).

Tested wort at 67F. OG with hydrometer and refractometer:
Refractometer = 1.041
Hydrometer = 1.040 + .001 for temp = 1.041

Now I hope I can use these figures to enter into Beersmith and fine tune my system so I can hit my OG and volume targets easier.

Any advice - I am all ears folks!
 
Based on your recipe, it looks like you got a mash efficiency of 61%. You can use this value in the future to calculate what your expected OG for a given recipe would be, or back out what your grainbill should be sized to based upon an assumed OG.

Either way, beer will be beer. I like my hefes and most wheat beers young and quaffable. Looks like a good one.
 
Thanks Specharka. Beer smith says my efficiency was 55% after I entered my numbers from the day.

So, how can I get better efficiency? 55% seems so low and I don't think I made many mistakes.
 
Thanks Specharka. Beer smith says my efficiency was 55% after I entered my numbers from the day.

So, how can I get better efficiency? 55% seems so low and I don't think I made many mistakes.


Yeah, I took the wrong grainbill from the other posted recipe. Makes sense.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=334813

Everything in that thread bears consideration. An easy way to get a huge boost in efficiency is control over your grain crush. My guess is that's where your problems are. Additionally, step mashing (or at least performing a mash out) will increase sugar solubility and invariably result in better mash efficiency.
 
Yeah, I took the wrong grainbill from the other posted recipe. Makes sense.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=334813

Everything in that thread bears consideration. An easy way to get a huge boost in efficiency is control over your grain crush. My guess is that's where your problems are. Additionally, step mashing (or at least performing a mash out) will increase sugar solubility and invariably result in better mash efficiency.

I was just reading about improving efficiency and came across this:

"Most beginners attempt to sparge their mash much too fast. Sparging too quickly leaves insufficient time for the hot water to extract the sugars in the grain bed. Limit the flow out of your mash tun to just above a trickle. It should take 30-50 minutes to fully sparge a 5 gallon all grain batch."

I think it took me maybe 10 minutes. Could this have been it too?
 
No, batch sparging doesn't care if it's slow or fast. If you stir well enough, the concentration of sugars should be uniform. That advice is for fly sparging, where there's a gradient.
 
Just realized this was supposed to be a 90 min boil & I did 60. Hmmm...
 
Took a gravity reading today. 11 days at 62F.

OG 1.041
FG 1.018 Refractometer reading

Brewers Friend Refractometer Calculator inputs states compensated for alcohol my FG is actually 1.008.

It tasted pretty good. Just a tiny sip.

I was planning to keg this weekend ,making it 14 days total fermentation time at 62F. I am going to check it again in 2 days as well.

Any thoughts, concerns, etc?

P.S. Hefe's just get kegged - no cold crash, correct?
 
Took a gravity reading today. 11 days at 62F.

OG 1.041
FG 1.018 Refractometer reading

Brewers Friend Refractometer Calculator inputs states compensated for alcohol my FG is actually 1.008.

It tasted pretty good. Just a tiny sip.

I was planning to keg this weekend ,making it 14 days total fermentation time at 62F. I am going to check it again in 2 days as well.

Any thoughts, concerns, etc?

P.S. Hefe's just get kegged - no cold crash, correct?

I think it should be good. I always like to ramp up the temp at the end of fermentation just to make sure the yeast finishes and cleans up as best as it can. If that Refractometer Calculator is accurate (which it sounds like it probably is), then you should be in good shape w/ an FG of 1.008. Cold crash is not typical for hefes.. keep it hazy.
 
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Here's simple...

1/2 two row
1/2 wheat malt
Mash at 149f
4-6 IBU's Hallertaus
Safbrew WB-06 yeast - ferment at 66f for a week and then ramp up to 68f over two days, check that it's done after two weeks.

I drink a LOT of this... :) OG 1.044
 
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