Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[Biscuits]

I used 3 Oz. corn sugar for 2 gallons...carbonation is near perfect for the style...haven't had any bottle bombs yet...been conditioning for 10 days now.

 

[ncbrewer]

To those of you who are bottling this - how much corn sugar do you use? Brewer's Friend calculator recommends carbing German Wheat's to 3.3 - 4.5 volumes. That would have been over 8 oz of corn sugar in my 5.5 gal batch!!! That kinda scared me (bottle bombs and such) but I want this beer to be carbed to style, so I went ahead and used 7.5 oz. Approx 3.0 volumes. I had never carbed a beer above 2.5 volumes before this one.

This link - http://homebrewanswers.com/?s=PRIMING+BY+STYLE&post_type=document - shows 2.9 volumes to be "Very High". I think with standard beer bottles it would be best to stay at or below this value to be safe.

 

[TxBigHops]

I used 3 Oz. corn sugar for 2 gallons...carbonation is near perfect for the style...haven't had any bottle bombs yet...been conditioning for 10 days now.

Thanks! Good to know. 3 oz per 2 gals equals over 8 oz for my batch sized, so I used slightly less than you.

 

[TxBigHops]

This link - http://homebrewanswers.com/?s=PRIMING+BY+STYLE&post_type=document - shows 2.9 volumes to be "Very High". I think with standard beer bottles it would be best to stay at or below this value to be safe.

So I skimmed that article pretty thoroughly. It's a pretty basic level bottling how-to, and I didn't see anything that said it would not be safe to go over 2.9 volumes. In fact, it referred the reader to the Brewer's Friend calculator that I used. I also found another online calculator that recomended 9.2 oz of corn sugar (4.04 volumes) for my batch size when bottling a German Hefe.

I gotta believe that carbing to these levels is not dangerous with this style of beer. Not sure exactly why a different style might make a difference, but I'm not going to worry too much. I'll report back here once I start opening these in about a week. (or less)

 

[ncbrewer]

You got me more interested, so I did a search and found this Pro Brewer thread: http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?35855-Maximum-carbonation-in-bottled-beer
Worthwhile reading.

 

[TxBigHops]

You got me more interested, so I did a search and found this Pro Brewer thread: http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?35855-Maximum-carbonation-in-bottled-beer
Worthwhile reading.

Interesting, sure, but still just two guys going back and forth with differing OPINIONS. While on the other hand, no warnings on any of the bottle priming calculator web sites, and plenty of recommendations to bottle Hefeweizens at well over 3.0 volumes.

Certainly I'm not going to position my eyes directly above the bottles when I open them, or shake them around more than necessary when handling. But until I have reason to believe otherwise, I feel it's safe to prime this beer as high as 4 volumes without undue concern.

 

[TxBigHops]

You got me more interested, so I did a search and found this Pro Brewer thread: http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?35855-Maximum-carbonation-in-bottled-beer
Worthwhile reading.

More reading material:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/glass-bottle-c02-threshold.174524/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=156902

About half my batch is in bombers and Grohlsch bottles. The rest in standard 12 oz longnecks. If I decide to go higher with a future batch, I'll make sure I have more higher quality bottles.

 

[thunderwagn]

I carb my hefe's at 3.4 vol. with no issues.

 

[TxBigHops]

Opened my first bottle Sunday night. Just 7 days since bottling, and nice carbonation already. Just a slight Pfffft when I popped the cap. This is a really good recipe. Thanks Edwort!

 

[Biscuits]

Ours look very similar TxBigHops

 

[TxBigHops]

Ours look very similar TxBigHops

Give mine another week of bottle conditioning and I'll have that much head too!

 

[Wiscohio_brewer]

Brewing this currently. Using WLP 380 because that's what was available, but I've read good results from it. 3rd time brewing this and it is always a favorite.

 

[MrAverageGuy]

This turned out very nicely - 3 weeks in the bottle, 2.2oz priming sugar for 2.5 gallons - nice carbonation, very good flavor!

 

[stever1000]

Brewed the extract w/ steeping grains again today. Somehow I messed up my extract + added too much top-up water at the end. Not a good start....

My OG came to 1.042.... could I add some boiled and cooled corn sugar water to bump up the gravity? I really don't want to drink a 3-4% beer
I assumed I was going to be around 1.060 so there is a lot of yeast in the carboy and I am worried about the fermentation
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[MrAverageGuy]

Well - if you don't have any more malt extract syrup on hand, or any light DME, you'll be able to bump up the alcohol content with the extra sugar, but will probably still taste a bit "thinner." Having plenty of yeast is a good thing!

Other idea, though not true to the OP's recipe, would be to add some honey and make a honey wheat...that way you would get some additional sugar to ferment, but also some additional flavor...

 

[stever1000]

Well - if you don't have any more malt extract syrup on hand, or any light DME, you'll be able to bump up the alcohol content with the extra sugar, but will probably still taste a bit "thinner." Having plenty of yeast is a good thing!

Other idea, though not true to the OP's recipe, would be to add some honey and make a honey wheat...that way you would get some additional sugar to ferment, but also some additional flavor...

I like the honey idea. How do I figure out how much honey/water to add to bring my OG from 1.042 to 1.052 or higher?

 

[MrAverageGuy]

I'm getting the impression you're underway with this and need to act - an accurate calc of how much honey to add to get to your target OG is a bit beyond my ability to crank out rapidly, but - presuming you're making a 5.5 gallon batch (like the OP), with the equivalent of an 11 lb grain bill, here's another recipe from the same area of the recipe forum - looks like 1 lb of honey out of a total of 9 lbs of grain+ other fermentables: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=470698. Guess I'd go with a half-pound to a pound of honey, with just the minimum amount of water needed to get it dissolved - and see how it turns out...

Hope this helps some - good luck, friend.

 

[stever1000]

Yeah it's already in my carboy! I'll try dissolving some honey in some water and add it in

 

[MrAverageGuy]

If you wouldn't mind posting the outcome, that would be appreciated - been thinking about a honey wheat, and this recipe is the one I would start with.

 

[stever1000]

I added 1 lb of honey with a small amount of water, heated it until the honey dissolved, then cooled. It poured like a syrup so I'll be interested to see how it turns out.
I will post my results in a couple weeks

 

[LastChanceBrewing]

I just brewed this yesterday, but I used US Hallertau. Is that OK? Maybe I didn't look hard enough but I didn't see any other kind of Hallertau at the LHBS.

 

[billsteiner26]

I just brewed this yesterday, but I used US Hallertau. Is that OK? Maybe I didn't look hard enough but I didn't see any other kind of Hallertau at the LHBS.

You'll be fine. Hops takes a back seat to yeast in a weizen.

 

[stever1000]

Brewed the extract w/ steeping grains again today. Somehow I messed up my extract + added too much top-up water at the end. Not a good start....

My OG came to 1.042.... could I add some boiled and cooled corn sugar water to bump up the gravity? I really don't want to drink a 3-4% beer
I assumed I was going to be around 1.060 so there is a lot of yeast in the carboy and I am worried about the fermentation
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Gravity reading is about 1.006 which would be 4.7% excluding the honey addition to the carboy

Now to figure out how much a pound of honey effected my OG of 1.042...

 

[TxBigHops]

Gravity reading is about 1.006 which would be 4.7% excluding the honey addition to the carboy

Now to figure out how much a pound of honey effected my OG of 1.042...

Do you use a recipe program like Brewer's Friend or Beersmith? Just add it in as an ingredient. I just input a pound of honey to a 5.5 gal recipe I'm working with and the OG went up 0.008.

 

[stever1000]

Do you use a recipe program like Brewer's Friend or Beersmith? Just add it in as an ingredient. I just input a pound of honey to a 5.5 gal recipe I'm working with and the OG went up 0.008.

I have not used those programs, but I will start now

 

[shelly_belly]

I am brewing this again today but my home brew store only had dark wheat malt.

 

[TxBigHops]

I am brewing this again today but my home brew store only had dark wheat malt.

The 6.5 L? I believe that is what EdWort uses, and that's what I used. See pic in post 1359. It will be great!

 

[shelly_belly]

The 6.5 L? I believe that is what EdWort uses, and that's what I used. See pic in post 1359. It will be great!

Roger that. I used the pale wheat (2L) the first time I made it. Picked up a gold medal at the Alabama State homebrew competition with it last year. This batch will be going on an upcoming snowboard trip. Nice pic!

 

[TxBigHops]

Roger that. I used the pale wheat (2L) the first time I made it. Picked up a gold medal at the Alabama State homebrew competition with it last year. This batch will be going on an upcoming snowboard trip. Nice pic!

I can believe that! This is the most spot on, in style beer that I have brewed. Virtually indistinguishable from the very best commercial examples and better than all the rest.

 

[HowlingHog]

Temps are supposed to hit 40 or so next week - I'll open the garage and brew 20 gallons. Going with Pale Whet and Two Row, with a German Yeast.

This will be my 3rd batch, and I've decreased wheat and upped 2 row. Can't wait!