Hefeweizen cloudiness

All,

I recently brewed my first german Hefeweizen...very basic recipe (10 gal) with 10lb wheat, 10lb pilsner with Wyeast 3068. I had it in primary for 2 weeks and secondary for 2 weeks as well. I kegged from there.

The taste was great, the beer was mostly clear however. I am brewing another batch soon and since I am somewhat of a traditionalist I want the next batch to actually look the part as well.

Do you guys have any ideas as to how to accomplish? Do I skip secondary? Do I add lagering yeast? If so, when?

What is odd is that I also make wheat IPA and they are much more cloudy then the hefeweizen ever was...

any ideas would be great

 

Definitely skip secondary. The secondary is to drop the yeast which is actually the opposite of what you want in a Hefeweizen. Go straight to the keg as soon as fermentation is done. I go grain to glass in 14-17 days with mine, which use a nearly identical recipe.

It also helps to periodically disconnect the gas and upend the keg just to keep the yeast in suspension.

 

Given enough time the yeast will settle out of solution; resulting in krystallweizen, while delicious it does taste different than hefeweizen. I think the only way to keep yeast in solution would be to turn the keg over once in a while or drink it faster .

Cheers,



-Brian

 

Personally, I like this! Hefe's and wheat are meant to be enjoyed young and often...my American wheat usually stays cloudy for about 3 weeks then it's clear as a whistle...which does sometimes change the flavor but not so much that I don't still enjoy the beer.

Cheers!

 

Thanks guys!

Since I am making 2 5 gal batches and do not keg them at the same time I may still have a clear second batch (I have to get it out of primary to free up).
But at least for the first batch I will go straight to keg after 2 weeks or so...then turn keg now and then. For the second batch I may add some lagering yeast before kegging to see what happens.

 

Agree with skipping the secondary

But ive come across another really interesting mehtod to create a permanent cloudiness in addition to adding some nice body to the beer. Add some flour to the mash and boil. I've found 1/4cup works wonders. Its basically negligible to the OG addition but really works great. It doesnt even clear after months in a keg

 

Hefe/Dunkelweizens are the only beers I bottle carb, just to keep the yeast in there.