Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[EdWort]

I soak and rinse mine. I don't want any dirt in my beer or the rice hulls soaking up any wort. 30 minute soak followed by a rinse works for me.

 

[RonRock]

Thanks Ed. That one is answered. Easy enough.

 

[mrburnsbud]

Thanks for the recipe Edwort!!! Mine has been in the fermentor for about 16 hours and it is going crazzzzy. So much foam and co2 that I had to switch to a blowoff. The yeast starter you recommended must have made a huge difference.

Do have a question though. My OG was ~1.042 with the same ingredients except American grains instead of German. Though thought this was a little low....so I went and looked at the spent grains I poured in the woods. They are frozen now but it looks like quite a few grains are still intake, mostly the wheat.

There is an old lady that runs the HBS. Nothing against old ladies, but i think the rollers might be too far apart. She uses a motor driven roller crusher. Seems to be a very nice one. But do you think that the rollers need to be adjusted based on my final gravity. Possibly to far apart for high efficiency crush?

 

[EdWort]

Wheat is a bit smaller than barley, so this most likely the cause of your efficiency being a bit low. Ask her to run through twice next time.

 

[mrburnsbud]

ooo thanks EdWort. Didn't know that wheat is a little smaller than barley. That makes alot of sense. There is actually a station set-up at the HBS. So ill probably mill the pils seperate from the wheat, and mill the wheat twice.

I was thinking that she may not know that the mill even needs to be adjusted. So with time and lots of milling, the rollers may seperate and need adjustment. Who knows, maybe I'll ask her the next time I visit and see if she'd ever measured the gap.

Nevertheless, can't wait for this one. I may try to do some yeast freezing or reuse the yeast cake and brew another. Thanks again!!!

 

[ChemE]

Any advantage to subbing out some of the red wheat for white wheat? If AHS and BeerSmith are to be trusted, it should slightly increase the maltiness and substantially increase the head retention. Or are both red and white wheat sweeter and maltier than raw wheat and subbing out some red for white is useless?

 

[magnj]

I'm trying a baby batch of this soon 1.5 gal to be precise. This is mostly a trial run for what will be a big batch more near to summer. The batch will be split in two, each with different yeasts. 3068 and 3638. Do you have any experience with the latter?

 

[DirkDiggler]

Do you have a recommendation for an extract or partial mash EdWort?

 

[Hikeon3]

Putting the bill together as we speak over at brewmasterswarehouse (love the build a brew tool, and they actually have hallertau in stock)

Haven't been able to stop drinking hefe lately. On my second 12'er of Franziskaner after having polished off a 5L of Paulaner w/ some buddies last Friday and receiving a gift-shipment of Tucher from a buddy stationed in Germany.

Also gotta put the new AG setup to the test. Here we go...

 

[springer]

Ed I have everything ready to brew this but one question the yeast is in a smack pack did you smack it and let it swell before pitching or just smacked it and pitched it into the starter ?

 

[EdWort]

Ed I have everything ready to brew this but one question the yeast is in a smack pack did you smack it and let it swell before pitching or just smacked it and pitched it into the starter ?

I smacked it, let it swell, the pitched it into a starter.

 

[springer]

Thanks Ed..

 

[herbler]

Simply delicious, Ed. Bravo!

 

[magnj]

I brewed 5 gallons of this, a little modified this weekend, thanks for the inspiration.
I did:
#5 Pilsner, #5 White Wheat,.75 oz Hallertau @ 60min. Split it up into 2 fermenters, one with Wyeast 3068, one with 3638.

I figure 2 weeks to ferment then straight to bottle or is that too fast?

 

[bergman1118]

just picked up the ingredients to brew this the other day, although i was unable to get 3068 from the hbs so i picked up 3944 (belgian witbier).. hopefully it turns out as good as ed's recipe (i'm thinking it will). I also plan on adding about 0.5 oz of coriander and 1.0 oz of bitter orange peel about 10 mins before flameout to compliment the witbier yeast. I'll be back with results on this one, can't wait!

 

[magnj]

I brewed 5 gallons of this, a little modified this weekend, thanks for the inspiration.
I did:
#5 Pilsner, #5 White Wheat,.75 oz Hallertau @ 60min. Split it up into 2 fermenters, one with Wyeast 3068, one with 3638.

I figure 2 weeks to ferment then straight to bottle or is that too fast?

I tried a bottle of each this weekend, 3 weeks from brew day, 1 week in bottle. They tasted a little young but pretty good. The 3608 bottle fizzed up a lot and had some junk floating around hopefully not an infection. I will update next week.

 

[springer]

going to crash it this Thursday and keg this weekend looks great so far ...

 

[hukdizzle]

Kegged this up this past Saturday and had a glass last night, very tasty and great recipe Ed.

 

[Opherman47]

brewed this beer, this past weekend, got a newer grain mill so still working out my eff. i ended up with 4 gallons at 1.070...... pitched a smakpak 3068 straight into the carboy no starter..... used a wine stir on a drill for oxygenation.... the thing is going mad.... ive got like 8 inches of foam...... would have needed a blowoff if i had put 5.5 gallons in..... i hope it finishes out and isnt too sweet, we shall see...... wyeast's website says 3068 has a 10 percent alcohol tollerance...... but i did under pitch.... i am fermenting at 68 to 70 ambient temp..... any thoughts guys? any guess's to how low it will finish out?

 

[Brutus Brewer]

My water profile here is real hard. If I were to buy some spring water from the grocery would that produce a better beer for this recipe?

 

[magnj]

brewed this beer, this past weekend, got a newer grain mill so still working out my eff. i ended up with 4 gallons at 1.070...... pitched a smakpak 3068 straight into the carboy no starter..... used a wine stir on a drill for oxygenation.... the thing is going mad.... ive got like 8 inches of foam...... would have needed a blowoff if i had put 5.5 gallons in..... i hope it finishes out and isnt too sweet, we shall see...... wyeast's website says 3068 has a 10 percent alcohol tollerance...... but i did under pitch.... i am fermenting at 68 to 70 ambient temp..... any thoughts guys? any guess's to how low it will finish out?

I also hit close to 1.07, it's a little sweet but could be from a range of other variables including not stirring my priming sugar too well :-/.

 

[Opherman47]

just so everyone knows.... i pitched only one smak pack into 4.5 gallons on 1.070 wort..... welp it fermented vigorously for 7 days straight..... and my house got cold cause the wife left the windows open...... ill take a gravity reading later today..... but has anyone else had this kind of seemingly never ending fermentation?

 

[AnonyBrew]

Going to brew a 10g batch of this on Sat. What's a good water profile to use? Munich's?

 

[bierhaus15]

I brewed this hefe again for the second time and have run into the same problem - the beer has a very unpleasant sulfur aftertaste. I followed the recipe to the letter and fermented as per WY3068 specs... 68' for 15 days then bottle carb'd for 2 weeks.

I know 3068 is notorious for rhino farts but what is up with the sulfur taste in the beer - Has anyone else had a similar problem? I have brewed other hefe recipes using 3086 and have not had this problem.

 

[springer]

had my first pint last night... followed by two more . Ed this is fantastic I am brewing this again in the next few weeks as this keg isn't going to last long.

 

[EdWort]

I brewed this hefe again for the second time and have run into the same problem - the beer has a very unpleasant sulfur aftertaste. I followed the recipe to the letter and fermented as per WY3068 specs... 68' for 15 days then bottle carb'd for 2 weeks.

I've never had that problem. Are you fermenting at 68 degrees ambient? If so, then the hefe is really fermenting at 78 degrees for the first day or two due to the violent process generating heat.

I ferment in a chest freezer with a digital LOVE controller. I tape the sensor to the side of my bucket and set the temp to 68 degrees. There will be a 10 degree delta in ambient (ie, 58 degrees in the chest freezer) for the first few days, then it will equalize as it settles down, but it does ferment at 68.

 

[bierhaus15]

I've never had that problem. Are you fermenting at 68 degrees ambient?

I ferment in a chill box set at 60 degrees. The actual ferm temp usually is somewhere between 65-70, so I don't think the temp went too high. Though, might I have stressed the yeast by fermenting too low? My first batch of this also fermented at 60 ambient, though I dumped the batch after three weeks in bottles due to the same problem.

I'll just let it sit a while longer and see if improves, or just drink it with lots of lemon to cut the sulfur bite. Thanks,

 

[jamest22]

does anyone have any advice in regards to bottling this beer? I bottle my beer and this will be my first hefe. Should I let the beer spend some time in a secondary before bottling? Or could I crash cool and bottle it after ten days in the primary? Any advice would be most appreciated.

 

[jamest22]

I brweed some of this last weekend. Also pictured is an extract Porter i am brewing.

This is my second attempt at beer brewing. As you can see I came out a little short because of the size of my boil pot and a loss of about a half gallon through the blowoff tube, so i am looking at 4-4.5 gallons. But otherwise everything looks good. I ended up with an OG of 1.043.

 

[ifishsum]

does anyone have any advice in regards to bottling this beer? I bottle my beer and this will be my first hefe. Should I let the beer spend some time in a secondary before bottling? Or could I crash cool and bottle it after ten days in the primary? Any advice would be most appreciated.

I didn't crash cool or secondary...just went straight to the bottling bucket after 14 days in primary. I even made sure to pick up some extra yeast with the siphon tube, it's supposed to be cloudy.

I used almost 6 oz priming sugar and started drinking it after 2 weeks in the bottle, yummy. Great recipe Ed!

 

[jamest22]

Thanks.

My hefe has now fermented steadily down to 1.006. I have maintained a 68 degree room temp +- 3 or four degrees for the past nine days. There is a prominent sulfur aroma which I have heard at least one other person who brewed this experienced. I think it will age out after a couple weeks in secondary. Also detectable though is a great banana flavor and aroma. I am going to rack it tomorrow.

 

[Gregredic]

Has anyone tried to use WLP380 in this recipe?

3rd Place winner of the 2007 Alamo Cerveza Fest

Bavarian Hefeweizen 5.5 Gallon

7# German Wheat
4# German Pils
.5# Rice Hulls (if needed to prevent stuck mash)

Mash for 90 minutes at 153 degrees.

.75 Hallertau @ 45
.25 Hallertau @ 15

Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068 with starter.

Ferment 10 days at 68 degrees then crash cool & keg.

O.G. 1.052
F.G. 1.009

5.6% abv

 

[syd138]

Just a question for anyone who has brewed this..

is there a difference in taste due to not using Torrified Wheat?

 

[AnonyBrew]

My 10g batch was at 1.011 at bottling yesterday after 16 days in the primaries. Tasted good. Can't wait until it's ready.

 

[xxHelderxx]

I just bottled this recipe and I've got some questions for you senior all-grain brewers. This was my first AG batch and I ran into some interesting issues (for me at least). My pre-boil gravity with this was about 1.020, which I'm assuming is pretty low. Is there a way to extrapolate what one's pre-boil OG should be based on the post-boil OG posted by EdWort? (1.050) I mashed in with about 5 gallons of water, was this too much? I then sparged about 2 more gallons to get me to 7-7.5 gallons. Seeing that my OG was low, I added 1 LB of bavarian wheat DME and the OG after the boil was pretty good- right at about 1.050.

Fermentation started very vigorously but slowed after about 36 hours and continued to fall off until it was barely fermenting at the 8 day mark. Today when I bottled, I tested my FG and it was still at 1.020. Should I have let this ferment more? The beer in my carboy barely had any foam atop it, and looked quite inactive.

Where do you guys think I went wrong? I intend on brewing this one again after I see how this current batch turns out. Wanna perfect it before moving on. Thanks a lot in advance everyone- great recipe!

-H

 

[jamest22]

You should be mashing with about 11 quarts of water (~2.75 gallons) and sparging with about 5.5 gallons.

 

[xxHelderxx]

I've seen different figures when it comes to how much water to mash with.. 1.25qt/gal, 1.5qt/gal, etc. So if I was to use a smaller volume, say 2.75-3 gallons, when mashing was complete would I add sparge water until the water level was a few inches above the grain bed and THEN start draining off the mash tun?

 

[Ryno]

With my equipment I mash with 4 gals water and do 2 batch sparges of 2.5 gals @ 180 deg. Seems to work for me. My ferentation will go up to 73-75 on the temp strip.... I'll keep it there for a couple of days then I'll place it in a water bath at 65-68 for the remaining 14 days. This is a great recipe. oh I also use washed yeast with no starter and 30 sec O2 injected into wort. Nice banana/clove profile. Thanks ED!!

 

[springer]

I've seen different figures when it comes to how much water to mash with.. 1.25qt/gal, 1.5qt/gal, etc. So if I was to use a smaller volume, say 2.75-3 gallons, when mashing was complete would I add sparge water until the water level was a few inches above the grain bed and THEN start draining off the mash tun?

After your mash drain the mash water then add your sparge water stir let sit a minute or two then drain.

 

[springer]

I love this beer