Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

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I was wondering if Ed or someone else could give me a breif description of the red wheat. There is no much online about it and i was just wondering what the difference in taste is between red and white. All the wheats i have dont are very crisp and a little bitter using white and was wondering if red might give me the slight malty sweetness im looking for
 
ekjohns said:
I was wondering if Ed or someone else could give me a breif description of the red wheat. There is no much online about it and i was just wondering what the difference in taste is between red and white. All the wheats i have dont are very crisp and a little bitter using white and was wondering if red might give me the slight malty sweetness im looking for
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I found this online.

Some Background: Hard Red Wheat vs Hard White Wheat
Hard white wheat was developed from hard red wheat by eliminating the genes for bran color while preserving other desireable characteristics of red wheat. Depending on variety, red wheat has from one to three genes that give the bran its red cast; in contrast, white wheat has no major genes for bran color. The elimination of these genes results in fewer phenolic compounds and tannins in the bran, significantly reducing the bitter taste that some people experience in flour milled from red wheat. Nutritional composition is the same for red and white wheat.
Spring wheat is planted in April to May, makes a continuous growth and is harvested in August to early September. Winter wheat is planted in the fall. It makes a partial growth, becomes dormant during the cold winter months, resumes growth as the weather warms and is harvested in the early summer (June and July).
Flour from hard red winter wheat is often preferred for artisan breads.
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I've also made fine Hefeweizens using Canadian Pils and Wheat, but do not know what Canada Malt's wheat is (red or white), but the last batch went very quick and German Hefe fans loved it.
 
so would that mean a red wheat beer would be more sharp and bitter than a white wheat? Have you noticed that in your brews?
 
Red and white wheat are interchangable IMO. I've used both and not noticed a difference. It is not sharp or bitter. I use the red variety more often as it is a staple in my house American Wheat.
 
Brewing this tomorrow.

Was it a bad idea to make the yeast starter with light DME instead of wheat DME?

Thanks.
 
hinke said:
Brewing this tomorrow.

Was it a bad idea to make the yeast starter with light DME instead of wheat DME?

Thanks.
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Shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't have a gallon of it.

I use wheat DME though myself. Got a starter going right now to split between three 5 gallon ferementers tomorrow.
 
Thanks.

I used a 750ml starter. It has blown out of the carboy :) Luckily I only had foil over the neck of the carboy. My chest freezer now has some beer in the bottom...
 
hinke said:
Thanks.

I used a 750ml starter. It has blown out of the carboy :) Luckily I only had foil over the neck of the carboy. My chest freezer now has some beer in the bottom...
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Me too. I have three buckets fermenters with only solid lids resting on top.

All three foamed over. Oh well. Happened last time too.

Nothing some hot water and a shop vac can't clean up. :D
 
I use a bucket fermenter and had about 3 overflows. Fortunately it only overflows to the top of the bucket lid. This still looked bubbly after 11 days and there was a lot of floating stuff, so I racked this to a carboy last night. The OG was about 1.056. Before I racked, 1.013. After I racked there was still some activity going on.
 
We hit 1.051 in OG. I have not taken any reading since then.

I am really hoping this will be done in 10 days, since I will be leaving for vacation for 2 weeks and wants to keg it before I leave.

It's been in my carboy for 6 days now, and I just increased the temp to about 72.
 
Mine took longer than 10 days. As I mentioned above, I went to secondary after 11 days (SG = 1.013). At 17 days, I was at 1.009, so I must be about ready to rack. I don't think I'll cold crash as I add speiss(?)/gyle and will probably bottle 3 pints when I keg. That means 3 rackings including the racking to secondary.

I'll probably add a tiny amount of sugar to each bottle - though I've never done it that way and I'm not sure how much to add. I guess I'll just look for the smallest measuring spoon amount.

[Edit] I just did the math and 2/3 Cup sugar per 5 gallons is about 2.4 tsp/Pint. So depending on how much I think the gyle will contribute to the head, I'll probably add about 1 tsp of sugar per Pint bottle.
 
Be CAREFUL with the sugar. Hefe is notorious for strong fermentation and you might end up with beer bottle grenades if you add too much. Hefe is also not a very carbonated style so I would really do some homework before you go scooping sugar in.
 
ImperialLover said:
Hefe is also not a very carbonated style so I would really do some homework before you go scooping sugar in.
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Hefe is actually a pretty highly carbonated style, even up to 4.4 volumes on the high end. Compare that to a Pale Ale that about 2.8-3.0 vol on the high end.
 
Yeah, I thought that the big hefe glasses were supposed to handle the big hefe head.

Assuming Wikipedia is correct:

"The hefeweizen style is particularly noted for its low hop bitterness (about 15 IBUs) and relatively high carbonation (approaching four volumes), considered important to balance the beer's relatively malty sweetness."
 
My mistake everyone. I took my own advice and did some homework. It seems I've been carbonating very low for hefes. Just goes to show you to not get all of your information from one source. Thanks for the correction!
 
Hefeweizen sunday coming up this weekend. Here's to hoping the LHBS has the stuff at a decent price otherwise I'm going to start ordering from Austin.
 
Just smacked the smack pack, brewing up a starter in a few hours. Also managed to lose about a quarter of a pound due to a hole in my bag. My cars backseat was covered in yeast flower, that I tried to scoop but the crap that made it to the driveway was a no go to scooping since I park my pool trucks there all the time.
 
Few little mess ups but all done.

Switched to a new cooler where the drain spot is recessed into a trench at the bottom (aka no dead space) but for the love of god I couldn't keep a mash temp no matter how hard I tried.

Mashed in with water 5 degrees hotter than what beersmith said to because it's what I use to do with the other cooler. 153, good enough for me. Came back in half an hour and it was down to 149...... Boiled some more water. Back to 154. Came back in half an hour again to stir and check, 150 again...... Boiled some more water, back to 153. So now I've gone from 1.25qt/lb to 1.7qt/lb. So no mash out.

Ended up over sparging by 3/4 of a gallon so I boiled for 90 minutes to get rid of the extra water.

Got a beautiful whirlpool going to find out I couldn't get the auto siphon to catch. So it all went into the carboy.

OG 1.056
 
Has anyone ever tried this recipe with fruit. I have 5 pounds of blackberries that I want to use. I was thinking about brewing this hefe, which looks great, and adding them to the secondary. What do you think? With the banana and cloves taste.
 
the only Hallertau i can find is from New Zealand and is 8.1% AA. should i just half the amounts at the same inputs? got a starter going to brew this tomorrow :)
 
couldn't keep my MLT at 153 for 90, it dropped a bit. tried to hook the Immersion Chiller up in the MLT like a HERMS, but my March pump doesn't seem to want to push very hard so it was a waste of time... SG suffered a bit (SG = 1.044), but everything else went smoothly.

we'll see what it's like in a couple weeks. :)
 
roaring fermentation this morning! air lock full of junk so i went to the LHBS and got my first blow off tube. i may have overfilled the carboy a bit, but i wanted to make sure i get every last drop of sweet, tasty heffe.

Thanks Ed for the recipe!
 
Turned out great!

I had it sitting in the keg for 2 weeks to carbonate. Should I have shaken the keg a little bit to make sure the yeast was in suspension? I am asking this since the first pint was really white...I am thinking I lost some of the nice flavor from the yeast.
 
hinke, usually you want the yeast to settle out into the bottom of the keg. that way the first pint or so is cloudy, but then you've removed all the yeast from the keg and the rest of the pours are clear.
 
slakwhere said:
hinke, usually you want the yeast to settle out into the bottom of the keg. that way the first pint or so is cloudy, but then you've removed all the yeast from the keg and the rest of the pours are clear.
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It is personal preference, IMO, because a Hefeweizen is supposed to have yeast in suspension.
Hinke, if it is not yeasty enough for you, then shake away! I believe EdWort reported doing that every few weeks if the Hefe was getting too clear.
 
Wilsons said:
Ditto on this one if anyone has it please :)
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wilsons, i ended up just punching in a new recipe. took a little playing to get it right, but now i'm no longer a slave to only the recipes here on HBT that post BeerSmith recipes. take the plunge and learn how to USE BeerSmith. it's amazing what it'll do :)

or if yer a total freaking quitter let me know and i'll send it to you ;)
 
slakwhere said:
wilsons, i ended up just punching in a new recipe. took a little playing to get it right, but now i'm no longer a slave to only the recipes here on HBT that post BeerSmith recipes. take the plunge and learn how to USE BeerSmith. it's amazing what it'll do :)

or if yer a total freaking quitter let me know and i'll send it to you ;)
Click to expand...

Lol i just did the same thing. first time doing so, but to be honest id liek to see what you have to compare to mine if you dont mind sending it, and im not a quitter! :p :mug:
 
EdWort said:
I used 1/2 cup of Wheat DME and 16 oz. of water to make the starter wort. It will work fine for 5 gallons. Step it up to a quart if you are going to split it between two 5 gallon fermenters for a 10 gallon batch like I do.
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This method gave me a specific gravity of 1.071 which seemed a little high (I learned to shoot for 1.040 for starters). So it's ok to make a started with such a high gravity; it doesn't stress the yeast out?

I eyed some filtered water and dropped it to 1.042.
 
Bottled last night. FG was 1.013 and I fermented most of it in the mid 60s except for one day of over ice and one day of major blow off at low 70s. It tastes pretty damn good and banana with only a hint of cloves and gum.
 
I did another batch last Saturday. It fermented finished in 3 days, that's the fastest my batches has ever fermented. I used Wyeast 3068 this time, not yeast starter either. Will leave it in the carboy for about 10 days total, then keg it. Came in at 1.051, finished at 1.010. I am happy with that.
 
9 days in the bottle and this is by far the best damn beer I have made. I am seriously considering this one again but upping the temp to 70 degrees the entire ferment to just see how much different it comes out.

At bottling it had a slight clove/bubblegum. Now it is almost 100% banana wheat, smooth and bubbly. I am EXTREMELY happy with this beer.
 
Simplicity sometimes makes the best things!



So refreshing, and yet isn't even 3 weeks old! (force carbed for 3 days)

BTW I used Danstar Munich yeast, which is the same strain as Wyeast 3068.
 
Thanks for the recipe EdWort!!

I tried this for my first AG brew day. I hit 1.049 OG, I came in a bit low since I missed my mash temp by 6-10 deg F (I think beersmith's strike temp assumes the container is 153 deg F) and I only did one batch sparge instead of two. Oh well it's good enough and the wort tasted alright, not quite as sweet as I was expecting though.

Anyway I smacked my pack of 3068 about 6 hrs before the brew was done and this thing took off. You'd think there was a dorm full of guys with beer farts in my living room. Definitely recommend a blow off tube to the other new guys thinking about brewing this one.

Oh ya... another thing for new guys to keep in mind: you need a second container to sparge. If you use your big pot to catch the wort you need another pot to boil more water... luckily it was a 90 min mash and there was a nearby Walmart.
 
DNW said:
I'm not a pro, and I haven't actually made it yet, but here is my planned PM 6 gallon batch:

3# Wheat DME
4.5# German Red Wheat
2.5# German Pils

Since "wheat" DME is actually only between 50-75% wheat (depending on brand), I prefer to keep the proportion of grains the same as the original batch. Note that this is a 6 gallon batch - it's the same amount of work, and I bottle two sixers and keg the rest (usually about 4.5-5 gallons). I use an 8 gallon bucket for primary so I don't need to worry too much about blowoff.

For 5 gallons it would be:
2.5# Wheat DME
3.75# German Red Wheat
2# German Pils

Since I have some #3333 German wheat yeast I collected from earlier batches of all extract, that is what I'll be using. Even tho it's getting well past summer, I love Hefes...
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How did this turn out? I made a PM version of this using Beersmith and this is what I came up with:


3# briess bavarian wheat DME
4# Pilsner
2# Wheat malt

Plan on brewing this in a couple of weeks when I free up a carboy. If anyone has a suggestion please feel free. This will be my 8th batch and second partial mash. Thanks!
 

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