Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[bmason1623]

Has anyone ever tried a decoction mash for this recipe? I have been reading that many of the German beers are better with a decoction mash, but others say it's not necessary with today's highly modified malts.

I have done one decoction mash (a lager) in my life and didn't think it was worth the effort. $0.02

 

[mbaker33]

Has anyone ever tried a decoction mash for this recipe? I have been reading that many of the German beers are better with a decoction mash, but others say it's not necessary with today's highly modified malts.

I almost always make it with a decoction just because "that's they way they do it in Germany" but I don't think it adds a significant amount of character or anything that I can tell. I made one last week for a party this weekend that I will be kegging tomorrow. I did not decoct this one because it would have taken too long, and I was already looking at being up until 1 am after cleanup. So far, it seems to be fine, but we will see for sure on Saturday.

If I remember, I'll try to let you know how it turns out.

 

[TTodd]

How crucial is the crash cooling for this beer? I brewed a 10+ galolon batch and it has finished fermenting. Was planning to keg 5 gallons and bottle the rest tonight. If I skip the crash cooling and just do that tonight - will I be OK? Or should I put it in the fridge and then do the kegging\bottling on Saturday?

Oh - and when I taste tested after grabbing the gravity reading - it was amazing (even uncarbonated and at 68 degrees). I can't wait!

Thanks

 

[KaSaBiS]

Has anyone ever tried a decoction mash for this recipe? I have been reading that many of the German beers are better with a decoction mash, but others say it's not necessary with today's highly modified malts.

I just reciently brewed this and planned a double decoction mash, turned into a tripple decoction when I missed my step from a protien rest. I also used a few lbs of munich for the 10 G batch as well. the beer turned out pretty good but a little thin from too long of a protien rest. this is my 3rd batch and it is noticably richer than the prior, though I dont know if it was from the decoction or from the munich.

 

[KaSaBiS]

How crucial is the crash cooling for this beer? I brewed a 10+ galolon batch and it has finished fermenting.
Thanks

if its a hastle or doesnt meet your schedule, or even if your impatient, I wouldnt bother, my last batch I dropped the temp for a day and kegged. if you did a 10 gallon batch to keg all your yeast will drop out, perhaps a bit too much. the trick is to store the 2nd keg upside down, so when you tap you will mix the yeast back into suspension. Which is the point of this style.

 

[HomebrewDaddy]

I brewed this yesterday, brewed a 11gln batch. Starting gravity at 1.048. Fermenting at 62° as I am not a big banana fan, going for clove. The yeast is going crazy (see pic) and my garage smells amazing! I am excited to try this.

 

[HomebrewDaddy]

Sorry pic didn't attach on my last post:

 

[SirBrewsAlot]

Brewed this yesterday & woke up to this. I've had some vigorous fermentations in the past but never any blow offs lol

 

[JSGT09]

I brewed a batch of this on Sunday. I missed the mash temp my a degree or two because my soaked rice hulls were cold and I should have taken that into account. I think my efficiency suffered a little bit due to that, ended up with 1.048 but pretty close to the original recipe.

Brewed with WL300 as my LHBS was out of the Wyeast 3068. Decided to go with a blowoff tube this time because I think I got lucky using an airlock the last time I brewed with 3068.

 

[FlemingsFinest]

I ordered the ingredients from Northern Brewer yesterday. They had a few german wheat options but I went with their pale german wheat (weyerman's). That oughta be fine right?

 

[FlemingsFinest]

Brewed this up last night with new all-grain equipment. Hit the mash temp right on the money, boil went well. Came in a hair above Target OG, though, and I'm pretty sure it's because I didn't account properly for the dead space at the bottom of my MLT, so my volume when everything was said and done was lower than necessary. Just added some more water, got the beer to the target OG (still a little under-volume tho), and pitched my yeast. Woke up today and this thing is fermenting like crazy! Used a blowoff tube and good thing! Can't wait to try this in a few weeks. Thanks for the recipe EdWort. Here's a short vid to see the bubbling in the blow-off bucket:

 

[FlemingsFinest]

6 days into fermentation and bubbling has stopped, took first hydro reading. Was at 1.010, and tasted great. Letting it sit for 4 more days, then bottling.

 

[spenghali]

Just got 2nd place in category 15 at the Oregon State Homebrew Comp with this beer, with a few minor alterations:

Grain bill the same

WLP300 yeast (2nd generation)

1/4 oz perle @ 45
1/2 oz perle @ 15

First 5 days of ferm temps: 72, 75, 72, 68, 68

90 minute boil

Sat in primary for 2 weeks, then kegged and sat at 70 ambient for another 2 weeks.

I have brewed this beer 5 times now, usually only changing the hops and fermentation temperatures (no temp control), I am very impressed every time. Thanks for the recipe Ed!

 

[WeissGuy]

Just tasted after 10 days in bottles (got antsy), tasted GREAT. Can't wait for it to finish up a bit. Great recipe Ed.

 

[MacrosNZ]

Made this with a few small gain changes. Swapped in a little bit of dark wheat and Munich malt. Very tasty thanks Ed!

 

[JordanThomas]

I just did a search within this thread and couldn't find an answer, so forgive me if it was covered already...

According to Wyeast, this yeast has a max attenuation of 77%, which, if my math/methodology is correct, means this could only attenuate down to 1.12. How do the extra 3 points go away? Is it just better than Wyeast claims?

Also, I'm quite concerned with bottling this, as the style calls for about 4 volumes of carbonation. Normal bottles are only rated for 3. Does anyone have suggestions as to how to bottle this?

 

[mcbethenstein]

I hit 1.011 every time. It seems to be terminal gravity for this style for me. No matter what my starting gravity was. I bottle carb to about 3 volumes.... When I bottle. 4 just seems dangerous and unnecessary and almost detracts from the beer when all you get is foamy mouth from a sip.

 

[JordanThomas]

I hit 1.011 every time. It seems to be terminal gravity for this style for me. No matter what my starting gravity was. I bottle carb to about 3 volumes.... When I bottle. 4 just seems dangerous and unnecessary and almost detracts from the beer when all you get is foamy mouth from a sip.

Thanks!

 

[japhillips87]

I am new to brewing completely. This will be my first brew ever. I'm completely skipping extract. This may not be the best idea but I'm willing to take the risk. I really like hefe's and I can't wait to brew this. I'm still in the process of building my equipment and will probably brew this a week from Sunday. Thanks for the recipe and this awesome and informative thread.

 

[mbaker33]

I am new to brewing completely. This will be my first brew ever. I'm completely skipping extract. This may not be the best idea but I'm willing to take the risk. I really like hefe's and I can't wait to brew this. I'm still in the process of building my equipment and will probably brew this a week from Sunday. Thanks for the recipe and this awesome and informative thread.

I have made dozens of batches and still struggle with this recipe from time to time because of the amount of wheat. You really should do at least a handful of extract or at least partial mash kits before jumping into this. The simpler kits allow you to refine your process before jumping to all grain which has too many variables to count.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

 

[Outofhand]

Just brewed this. Sitting in a cube waiting for a carboy to free up.

 

[ShinyBuddha]

Brewed this on Saturday. The color looked pretty dark coming from the mash tun and stayed dark into the fermenter. Hopefully the yeast will clean it up. Will post a photo when it's done.

 

[fatboy34]

This was my first AG batch, I've done dozens of extract brews and several hefe's using extract and the wyeast 3068 but never had one smell like this. It was in the primary for 10 days, last Wednesday I transferred to a keg, then chilled it for a night and then started carbonation. I noticed at the time I transferred it, it smelled horrible but I could detect the wonderful aroma of a good hefe as well so I figured I should stick to the plan and continued w/kegging. A few days ago a pulled a few ounces to get a taste and see how the carbonation level was and it has a very distinctive sulfur rotten egg smell...and taste.
Any advice on what I can do? Should I let it sit cold in the keezer or should I bring it up to room temp and let it condition a few weeks?
Seems like with this recipe and according to the hundreds of posts here this one should be ready to drink pretty quick.

Or since it taste bad, do I toss it out? If there is hope I'll let it sit, but else I'm tempted to toss and move on.

 

[JSGT09]

Brewed this on Saturday. The color looked pretty dark coming from the mash tun and stayed dark into the fermenter. Hopefully the yeast will clean it up. Will post a photo when it's done.

Did you snap any pictures before you started fermenting? I don't remember my wort being all that dark, but it did have an off color to it which I mostly attributed to the fact that I didn't use a straining bag for my hops (lost it). It came out a perfect color after 10 days though.

Or since it taste bad, do I toss it out? If there is hope I'll let it sit, but else I'm tempted to toss and move on.

What temperature did you ferment at? A few of the others might be able to chime in, but I would give it a little while to rest in the keg before calling it a bad batch. Mine definitely gave off some funky odors when fermenting...bring tears to your eyes sort of stuff when sticking your head in the fermentation chamber. But it never had any off flavors to it.

PS...I had to use WL300 instead of the Wyeast as my local shop was out of the Wyeast. Supposedly the same strain though.

 

[fatboy34]

What temperature did you ferment at? A few of the others might be able to chime in, but I would give it a little while to rest in the keg before calling it a bad batch. Mine definitely gave off some funky odors when fermenting...bring tears to your eyes sort of stuff when sticking your head in the fermentation chamber. But it never had any off flavors to it.

PS...I had to use WL300 instead of the Wyeast as my local shop was out of the Wyeast. Supposedly the same strain though.

I fermented around 66-68 according to my ferment thermometer (taped to bucket). I used the Wyeast 3068 (I think it was the last one at my local shop, which judging by your location is probably the same as your local shop!)

 

[JSGT09]

Ha, I didn't even see you were in Omaha! Small world!

You are in the range for the 3068, might have produced a little more banana than clove flavors but nothing that would make it taste funky. You could have an infection if the taste doesn't clear up. I know there is probably a cause behind rotten egg taste (ie. bandaid taste is usually from chlorine) but I couldn't tell you what it is.

PS...all of the yeast I have got from the local Omaha shops haven't been all that fresh so I would make a starter for them if you haven't been. Good practice even with really fresh yeast. I prefer to order all my ingredients online but sometimes if you are in a rush the local shops are the only option.

 

[japhillips87]

Got it boiling now. Pretty much hit mash temps (153 for first half hour. Stirred and had to add hot water to get back to 151-152). Waiting for the sample to cool to see pre-boil gravity. Overall a pretty smooth first brew.

 

[japhillips87]

Brew day is over. Pre-boil gravity 1.042. OG of 1.051. Can't wait to finally taste it. This is my first time brewing and I don't think things could have gone any smoother. Thanks Ed and everyone that has contributed to this thread. It really helped a lot.
Josh

 

[questionasker]

Edit: Just found out the answer to my question. Sorry for the pointless post...

 

[StittsvilleJames]

Drinking my version of this today, pretty decent! I think next time I may underpitch the yeast though, stress those little f**kers into some more esters. Stupid yeasts.

Thanks Mr. Wort.