Hefeweizen DME 2.5 Gallon Batch

[zyx345]

I have some leftover ingredients on hand and I'm considering trying a Hefeweizen Extract small batch (2.5 gallons) with the following ingredients:

- 3 pounds Wheat DME
- .50 oz Sterling @ 60 minutes
- .25 oz Stirling @ 10 minutes
- White Labs WLP300 14 days

Would the above make a decent full bodied Hefe? Any suggestions are welcome as well. Thanks.

 

[azezpz1]

It looks like you're going to have around 32 IBUs which is double the IBUs for the hefeweizen style. If you're going to something to style I'd tone down the hops, but you should be good for a full bodied hef (1.052 OG).

 

[New Brew]

If you're going going for a german style hefe, you'll also probably want to eliminate the flavoring hops. They typically only have buttering hops, and as was said, even those are at a low level (10-15 IBU) only just enough to balance the malt. The flavor in a traditional weizen comes from the yeast byproducts, and not hops or adjuncts.

 

[Monkey55]

What hops and schedule would you guys recommend?

Also, what would the abv?

Thanks
E

 

[New Brew]

Hefes are usually brewed with one of the German "noble" hop varieties, most often Hellertau/Hersbrucker and/or Tettnang. Because they're only used for bittering and not as flavor hops, the most important thing is that they're all low alpha (3-5.5%), while you're Sterling is high alpha (6-9%), so it has a lot more bittering power.

Since you want to work with ingredients you have on hand, you can probably brew a to-style Hefe with Sterling, but you'll have to cut the amount. If you don' care if it's to style, you can do whatever you want (of course).


Hop schedule is going to depend on how you brew (full/partial boil, early/late extract addition, etc), if you want to get an idea of what you'll get out you can go enter your conditions in the beer recipator:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

Putting your recipe in as an extract-only, w/full 2.5 gal boil and assuming avg attenuation (FG = 1.012) gives me:
OG: 1.052 (5.1% ABV)
SRM: 2
IBU: 35

That's going to give you a light, bitter, wheat. If you want something closer to style, cut the sterling hops to a single addition: 0.25 oz for 60 min. If you're not doing a full boil, you'll have to adjust things a bit to figure it out, but you want 10-15 IBU, not 30+.