Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[mbaker33]

Its the same yeast, from the same brewery source I believe.

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[deliveryboy555]

Just brewed this up and hit 1.051 OG. Was a pleasure! FG, pics and tasting notes to follow when it's done!

 

[aqualung23]

Wow Ed, you must be psyched how many people have made and loved this beer! I'm doing a variation for my first AG batch today. Because my LHBS only had American wheat and pilsner and I'm using dry yeast, I guess mine will be an American wheat beer, but I'm expecting it to be very drinkable for my friends who are (gasp!) Bud/Miller/Coors drinkers.

 

[aqualung23]

Do not want to read 100+ pages...has anyone done an extract version of this?

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You can use straight wheat LME or DME, but I've made one using two cans of Muntons wheat LME for a 5 gallon batch with the hallertau hops and althought it was a decent beer, it did not taste like a hefe. It was also very dark. Maybe if you use that recipe with the yeast Ed recommended it would work. Easiest beer recipe ever:

6.5 lbs Wheat LME
1 OZ Hallertau @ 60 min
Add water to 5 gallons or target OG

 

[Hamaki]

Just brewed this up, hit my temps & got 'er in the ferm cabinet. Also kegged a batch of BCB IPA. I've tried other recipes and put together some of my own but it seems that when I stick with Ed's it's a hit every time.

 

[briord1]

I'm using this recipe for my first AG batch an really looking forward to it as hefes are among my favorites. Anyway, I'm having trouble figuring out mash/sparge volumes. I'm running a 10g cooler MLT w/RIMS tube/controller. I'm very pumped to finally brew on my new setup as it's taken me a long time and a lot of money 😉. I'm also liking for some pointers for my yeast starter. Any help would be appreciated.


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[smurdock1]

Brewed this yesterday. My first attempt at AG. The homemade mash tun with SS braid worked great. I hit all temps and FG was right on the money. Thanks to all the great info on this site, I couldn't have asked for a smoother day.


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[cherbhy]

I'm using this recipe for my first AG batch an really looking forward to it as hefes are among my favorites. Anyway, I'm having trouble figuring out mash/sparge volumes. I'm running a 10g cooler MLT w/RIMS tube/controller. I'm very pumped to finally brew on my new setup as it's taken me a long time and a lot of money 😉. I'm also liking for some pointers for my yeast starter. Any help would be appreciated.


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For mash and sparge water check this site out: click here . I'm not familiar with RIMS so you're on your own there.

Some helpful tips for determining volumes:

1. typical mash thickness is 1.25 qts/lb. Decoction mashes are generally a bit thinner.

2. losses in your system are inevitable. Determining your evaporation rate when boiling is as simply as taking a volume measurement pre-boil and then post-boil. I use a simple wooden dowel with markings for 3-8 gallons.

3. scaling up your recipe slightly is never a bad idea, so long as your fermenter has enough volume to accommodate it. With my system, the appropriate volumes for a 5 gallon batch will very rarely give me a full five gallons (my evaporation rate is too high).

4. pre-heat your mash tun to reduce temperature losses.

5. take meticulous notes your first go around. Measure how much wort you lose to trub at the end of your boil and how much wort you lose to grain absorption or other factors in your mash tun. These figures are very helpful when using the site i listed above or other forms of brewing calculators.

As for the yeast starter:

100 grams light dme (pilsen) per liter of water. So, if you're making a 1.5 liter starter, you need 150 grams dme.

-Boil for ten minutes
-chill
-pitch your yeast
-cover loosely with sanitized foil
-put on stir plate or agitate (swirl) occasionally

 

[briord1]

Well, I brewed my first AG batch using this recipe yesterday and my numbers were way off...my first runnings after a 90 min. RIMS mash was at 1.062 and after batch sparging was down to 1.030?! Looks like I still have a lot of learning to do... After the boil I ended up w/about 4.5 gallons at 1.032. Oh well. Any ideas on where I may have gone wrong?


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[Hamaki]

Well, I brewed my first AG batch using this recipe yesterday and my numbers were way off...my first runnings after a 90 min. RIMS mash was at 1.062 and after batch sparging was down to 1.030?! Looks like I still have a lot of learning to do... After the boil I ended up w/about 4.5 gallons at 1.032. Oh well. Any ideas on where I may have gone wrong?


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I'm guessing you went with the grains & volumes in Ed's original recipe. Possibilities include too coarse a grind on your grain, measuring hot wort gravity without correcting for calibration temp on hydrometer, mash temp significantly off - possibly due to thermometer not being calibrated, doughballs or even dry areas in the mash from inadequate stirring, mash pH way out of the ballpark... Any of these seem like a possibility?

 

[briord1]

I'm guessing you went with the grains & volumes in Ed's original recipe. Possibilities include too coarse a grind on your grain, measuring hot wort gravity without correcting for calibration temp on hydrometer, mash temp significantly off - possibly due to thermometer not being calibrated, doughballs or even dry areas in the mash from inadequate stirring, mash pH way out of the ballpark... Any of these seem like a possibility?

The grain and volumes were as the recipe stated. My temps were very tight. And the stir was good. Could have possibly been hot wort. Did not know it needed to be cooled nor do I know how to calibrate the hydrometer. The only other idea I had was possibly some channeling due to a fast whirlpool? Or the crush can be off...I crushed it at the brew shop.


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[Hamaki]

If your hydrometer is calibrated for 68F the wort would have had to be about 160F for your OG to read 1.032 and actually be 1.052. LHBS crush is typically fairly coarse but alone I would not expect that much difference. A combination of factors may be the case.

Not sure what you mean by channeling with regard to whirlpool - I think of whirlpooling at the end of the boil but am not familiar with a mash related whirlpool?

 

[briord1]

Hmmm...how do I know what temp my hydrometer is calibrated for? He "whirl pooling" I'm referring to is in my mash tun. As I recirculate, the wort is delivered back into the MLT via a hose that swirls it around over the top of the grain bed.


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[Hamaki]

From Beersmith.com:

Hydrometers are all calibrated to be accurate at a standard temperature. For most home brewing hydrometers, the calibration temperature is 60F (20C), though a few laboratory hydrometers are calibrated to a different temperature (usually 68F/20C). The calibration temperature is usually printed on the scale of your hydrometer in really small letters.

If you can't find anything printed on your hydrometer check what it reads for distilled water at 60 degrees vs 68. One should be 1.000 and the other a bit off.


I'm familiar with what your talking about with the recirc return to the mash. I do the same thing with my ghetto herms setup and I've noted as much as 5 degrees difference between the area near the return & the opposite side of the tun. I move the hose around quite a bit during the mash & stir several times to try to minimize the temp differential. I think I need to make a sparge arm or ring or something to even things out on the return.

 

[briord1]

Thanks for the input Hamaki. You've been a great help.


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[Edbert]

My hydrometer was set for 60 degrees, but i never tested it.

Based upon advice here i now use a refractometer, best $20 i ever spent on equipment. No more guessing and can pull a sample right from an active boil.

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[AndyMac81]

What do you think about swapping 1/2 pound of base for 1/2 pound of cara pils malt?


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[Hamaki]

Swapping in the carapils...I suspect Ed would say that it would probably be good but it would be a different beer.

I'm brewing another batch of this recipe; boiling as I type. I read in another thread that high percentage boil off produces different results due to maillard reactions (I think it was). Since my typical boil off for a 5.5gal batch is just over 2 gallons I'm doing this one with a low boil, targeting 1 gallon loss, so that I can compare color and flavor side by side. Bottled my last batch last night. My son, with a better palate than me, tasted the gravity sample and said it was pretty full bodied and balanced. Also drinking BCB IPA while brewing...thanks, Ed!

 

[gmcqueen]

I've been looking for a great hefeweizen recipe for a while now and I'll be christening my new mash tun with this on Sunday. Here's hoping it's as good as everyone says.

 

[bunt1828]

I plan to brew this on Sunday as well. I'm thinking ill brew it exactly, but after it is kegged I think I might enjoy a gallon or so as is, then dry hop with Amarillo and see how that goes. Anyone tried dry hopping yet? Any suggestions for how much to add to ~4 gal? I was thinking starting with 1-1.5oz but I don't have much experience with dry hopping yet so I'm not sure if hat is enough/too much.


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[Hamaki]

I plan to brew this on Sunday as well. I'm thinking ill brew it exactly, but after it is kegged I think I might enjoy a gallon or so as is, then dry hop with Amarillo and see how that goes. Anyone tried dry hopping yet? Any suggestions for how much to add to ~4 gal? I was thinking starting with 1-1.5oz but I don't have much experience with dry hopping yet so I'm not sure if hat is enough/too much.


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Not sure it would be anything like a hef dry hopped like that. Personally I enjoy the fruity & spicy flavors with minimal hop bitterness in the background but do it and report back how it turns out. :beard:

 

[browder]

2nd batch in the bucket 1st batch on C02 I'll know how it tastes in 7 or eight days--had cleaner batches of Dunkel and more beer in the bucket--OG on this batch was .056 in a bag--first batch was .052-1st tasted good when I put it in the keg a few days ago

 

[gmcqueen]

Brewed it today. I don't usually do a single stage fermentation but I'll try it with this. I guess I'll find out in 10 days how it all went.


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[MedBrewer]

Was reading about this and I would love to try. I would be scaling it back to one gallon, but I'm concerned about the fermenting temp. If I were to ferment this recipe at around 72F would that cause problems? I don't have a temp control fridge and average temp in our home is 72F. I have read quite a few posts about this recipe having a "sulfur" smell? Will the temp have an effect on that? If so will it vanish on its own? Thanks

 

[Loodachris]

I have made this recipe and a real close variation of it (just added 1lb of munich malt for color) at least 15 times now and the sulfur smell is hit and miss and for some reason I can't pin point it to anything. I have used both 3086 and wlp300 so I dunno. As far as the temps 72 is warm and will have lots of banana. I usually go for 68 in my ferm chamber

 

[MedBrewer]

I don't mind banana at all, thanks.

 

[Edbert]

I've been fermenting ales at 72 to 75 for years and they taste great to me and others. Of course I also have no problem with banana, and prefer lower IBU than most around here.

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[MedBrewer]

Do I need a yeast starter for a 1 gal batch? Or will it be ok to pitch yeast right from the pack?

 

[browder]

1 Gallon???????? Man I spill that much on the kitchen floor--No you don't have to make a starter----
I tasted my 2nd batch of this yesterday while boiling my third batch needs to sit on the Co2 a few more days don't think it's gonna be as good as my 1st batch was--

 

[bunt1828]

Grain to glass in under 9 days! Cheap, easy, quick, and delicious. Thank you for this, EdWort.

Not sure if ill dry hop this batch - this is so easy, I might just brew another batch and dry hop that.




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[MedBrewer]

That looks beautiful! I can't wait to brew it later this week!

 

[browder]

Have my first batch of this on tap along with Bee Cave Haus Ale--just about the only recipes I've boiled in the last couple months have been Bee Cave recipes--have a bucket to get in a can today and another to do when I get back from a trip to Missouri

 

[bunt1828]

Okay, so this beer tastes awesome. But it smells sumthin fierce. I've had to start waiting for the head to drop out before drinking (does not happen quickly) because it smells so funky. Anyone else have this issue, or know what causes it? Did I keg it too soon?


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[Hamaki]

I've brewed this recipe few times and never experienced an unpleasant aroma. Can you describe it?

 

[nmarshall87]

Hello all,

This is my first actual post. I've been lurking on this forum for months and had started brewing about two years ago, and more actively brewing for about the past 3 months. Thank you to everyone who posts on the forum for your numerous recipes, questions, answers, and infinite knowledge/information/experience. I brewed this hefeweizen with a friend yesterday and this was my 5th batch (6th if you count the Parti-Gyle I did off of my last batch). Everything went super well on brew day, I even exceeded my expected original gravity. I pitched a starter made with Wyeast 3068, got some good bubbling airlock action going after about 12 hours and later this afternoon while I was at work my wife came home to this:

Ahhhh! My first exploding bucket! I promptly cleaned and sanitized everything and replaced the airlock with a blow off hose into a sanitizer bucket. I hope this beer turns out okay. It smells awesome in my apartment with yeasty banana/clove aromas...That beast is pumping out CO2 and krausen. I'll post my results after we bottle. Thanks again to all and Edwort for the recipe!

P.S. Anyone's experience with similar situations is appreciated, so maybe I can know what to expect end result-wise.

 

[AndyMac81]

I've had overflow before, especially with wheat beers. Don't worry about it; as as you didn't scoop the blow over back into the bucket you should fine. You may want to look into a blowoff tube if you do a lot of wheat brewing. You can make a cheap one from a three piece airlock and 1/2" rubber tube.


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[nmarshall87]

Thanks. Yeah, I cleaned and sanitized the lid and airlock and made sure nothing that left the bucket got back in. I actually ended up doing just that, and making a blow off tube with my 3 piece airlock.

 

[AndyMac81]

Nice looking krausen on that despite the boom


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[nmarshall87]

It just kept growing. Wyeast 3068 is a beast. I'm definitely going to try to harvest some of the stuff back for future brews.


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[MedBrewer]

I'm brewing ONE gallon of this recipe tonight, should I mash for the 90 min the recipe calls for or will 60 min be ok?