Hefeweizen contest

[OldSoup]

Someone invited me to a friendly "brew-off" and the selected style is hefeweizen. I brewed a couple batches last year with great success.

Now I'm trying to build my own recipe and looking for some pointers from all you masters.
Any recommendation for a unique yeast?
Any grain or hop suggestions?
How about a post boil steep of herbs/zest?

Thanks.

 

[PseudoChef]

When the topic of Hefe comes up, I like to point everyone to what Gordon Strong had to say on the matter, at this year's NHC:

I like to keep it below 65F. Preferably starting in the upper 50s and letting it rise to 62F or so.

We did a tasting of hefes at the NHC in San Diego that were fermented at different temperatures and mashed differently. The best flavor came from the one fermented cool (62F) and with a single decoction. Harold Gulbransen made them; he's also medaled in this category in the past. He knows what he's doing, especially in this style. So I'm convinced he made all test beers equally well.

I was on the tasting panel, and the difference was fairly clear. A warmer ferment gives a less clean flavor. It still tastes good, but it doesn't taste best. If you can't control your fermentation temps, try brewing it during a different part of the year when the ambient temperature is more suitable. The warmer one had more banana but it also had more of other flavors; the increased esters added an acidity, it seemed, including an apple-like flavor. Without running an analysis on the beer, it's hard to say what all was in there, but I just know what I tasted.

I'm convinced cooler fermentations produce cleaner tasting weizen beers. Don't misinterpret that statement. I can see some people saying, "but I don't want cleaner, I want banana and clove". Meant cleaner relative to that yeast. At cooler temps, you still get banana and clove. You just don't get other things. At higher temps, you do (or more appropriately, you increase the odds that you will).

...because I'm sure someone's going to come in here and say to underpitch and ferment hot

 

[944play]

Hefeweizen recipe is dead simple. Minimum 50% wheat malt and balance pils to around 1.050, noble hops to around 15 IBU, and Weihenstephan 68. Deviations should be considered "experimental," "specialty," or "fruit beer" and not hefeweizen, IMHO.

The variables to play with are water, pitch rate, mash schedule, and ferment temp profile.

 

[TimTrone]

Hefeweizen recipe is dead simple. Minimum 50% wheat malt and balance pils to around 1.050, noble hops to around 15 IBU, and Weihenstephan 68. Deviations should be considered "experimental," "specialty," or "fruit beer" and not hefeweizen, IMHO.

The variables to play with are water, pitch rate, and ferment temp profile.

Agreed

 

[TyTanium]

~3% melanoidin makes a decent facsimile for a decoction. A good friend of mine (and excellent brewer, btw) did a side-by-side with decoctions & melanoidin. Definitely still distinguishable, but melanoidin gets you darn close with minimal effort.

Red wheat, not white wheat
I like a bit of German Munich (light or I), maybe a pound

And agreed with 944Play...Skip post boil herbs/zest.

Because it's so simple, you have to nail your water. Make sure your Ca & Cl are high enough, and you have enough acidity in your mash.

 

[whitehause]

Hefeweizen recipe is dead simple. Minimum 50% wheat malt and balance pils to around 1.050, noble hops to around 15 IBU, and Weihenstephan 68. Deviations should be considered "experimental," "specialty," or "fruit beer" and not hefeweizen, IMHO.

The variables to play with are water, pitch rate, mash schedule, and ferment temp profile.

Yep...it's a 2 grain recipe. Rest at 111deg for 15 mins, then up it to 150. Ferment cool....I use WPL300 in mine, though I have a vile of 380 Hefe IV I got at 1/2 price I'm going to try next.