Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[WhoDatDad78]

I narrowed down the terrible off flavour to stressed yeast.
I don't know why they stressed but they did. I Since made a Weizenbock with same strain that turned out wonderful.

Did you use a starter? Perhaps you needed more yeast? Or maybe the temp was too high? Oxidation could also be the culprit. I've had a few beers where I know they were sanitary, they were exposed to air via auto-siphon and turned out with the dreaded cardboard taste.

On a side note, how long does one keep Hefe's? I love them but at ~60 bottles they tend to stick around for a while. Often they end up with a putrid aftertaste.

 

[Horseflesh]

I have never had a problem with hefeweizen sticking around too long.

"Putrid" is a pretty bad off-flavor, do you have any other brews that turn out the same? In my interpretation that sounds more like spoilage than staleness.

 

[skraeling]

I narrowed down the terrible off flavour to stressed yeast.
I don't know why they stressed but they did. I Since made a Weizenbock with same strain that turned out wonderful.

maybe bad yeast from the get go?

 

[safcraft]

maybe bad yeast from the get go?

I don't know if its possible to get "bad yeast" from a Wyeast pack.
If it is (because it was summer , and it did get 5 days to get here ), then i would blame the yeast in the first place.

I did make a starter. I made a 2L starter and decanted the yeast from it ( yeast starter for 3 days, refrigerated for 2 days, then decanted)

I used a different Yeast pack to make a WeizenBock and i had NO problems.
Maybe it was the bloddy yeast pack. I do know the yeast was stressed...horrible taste, never subsided . Threw 50 botlles in the trash can.

I keep a bottle of yeast , harvested from the Weizenbock , in the fridge.
I will try another time, doing a Hefe with this i a future window.

For now...i am too busy brewing Red Ales, Australian Pales and Vienna Lagers !!

 

[WhoDatDad78]

I have never had a problem with hefeweizen sticking around too long.

"Putrid" is a pretty bad off-flavor, do you have any other brews that turn out the same? In my interpretation that sounds more like spoilage than staleness.

I did have one last summer that went that direction. "Spoilage" as in being kept too long? Like it expired?

 

[safcraft]

Not kept too long but I only get this yeast ordering online. so I have about 5 days in transit times. in the summer it can get hot.

 

[marc1138]

Just brewed this up today. First AG batch and fourth hefe and boy was it fun. Used WLP300 cause thats what my lhbs carries and I've used it before. OG of exactly 1.052. I'm going to ferment in the mid 60's and possibly ramp it up to 68-70. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Brewed this on Nov 12, FG reached 1.012 and stayed there so I bottled on Nov 28th, I carbed to 3.7 volumes with 8oz table sugar according to brewers friend. Now I'm reading that 3.7 is kinda high for standard bottles. Most of them were the standard homebrew type that microbrews come in, several were .5L German weizen bottles, a couple 22oz. bombers, but its the case and a half of sam adams bottles that have me worrying. How many days should I wait to start sampling? I'm planning to weed out the weaker bottles to chill and drink first, trusting the rest will be strong enough to handle the final pressure.

 

[jpLV]

Had fun brewing this yesterday and now have a new thing to figure out. I mill my own grain and never have had a problem with efficiency however for this one my mash gravity was low. I ended up adding some light dme I had on hand to bump it up. Ended up with an OG of 1.050 so should end up being fine. I did read that I might want to double mill my wheat malt to help with this type of issue. I've never made a beer AG that was primarily wheat so that might explain why I've never had this happen. I also noticed later that this recipe has a 90 min mash. Again something I've never done. Anyways, live and learn. Sure it will turn out great.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Had fun brewing this yesterday and now have a new thing to figure out. I mill my own grain and never have had a problem with efficiency however for this one I was my mash gravity was low. I ended up adding some light dme I had on hand to bump it up. Ended up with an OG of 1.050 so should end up being fine. I did read that I might want to double mill my wheat malt to help with this type of issue. I've never made a beer AG that was primarily wheat so that might explain why I've never had this happen. I also noticed later that this recipe has a 90 min mash. Again something I've never done. Anyways, live and learn. Sure it will turn out great.

Wheat kernels are smaller than barley, so if your mill is set up to crush barley it won't crush wheat as well. You could tighten up the roller gap or mill the wheat twice. You could also compensate the reduced efficiency with more grain.

 

[HowlingHog]

Brewed a 22 gallon variation using 30 lbs. wheat and 14 1lbs. 2 row, Hallertau and 4 dry packages of Danstar Munich Yeast.

I did adhere to temps, mash times and hops additions - per Ed.

The brewery I buy grain from sells specialty malt for $1.50/$1.75 but doesn't carry German Pilsner. I get 2 row for .50 cents a pound so I use it as my primary base malt for nearly everything I do.

The OG was 1.048.

Took off like crazy after 36 hours and it's been 6 days at 65 degrees in my basement and has settled down a bit.

The VP of Consumption at the Howling Hog loves her Wheat Beers, and I think she will like this!


Thanks, Ed!

 

[jpLV]

Was able to taste the batch I made this weekend. I did pick up a little residual sweetness that I'm guessing came through having to use the DME to bump up the gravity. Still was super tasty. I had a lot of people compliment me on the NEIPA I also did but the hefe keg kicked first. Guess that tells me it was hit.

 

[Surfanarchist]

Brewing tomorrow

 

[trevelynzx]

Brewing this again tomorrow with 12oz C40 added to inch closer to Franziskaner. 11gal.

 

[trevelynzx]

Still dialing in my BIAB approach so ther was an inordinate amount of squeezing and muttering. mash ph hit 6.1 - i’m thinking the wheat - so i added 26ml of lactic 88. had this same issue last time and failed to properly account for it. hopefully it won’t tart up the final product too much. note to self, look into acidualted malt for next time...

BS was way off on its PH prediction too. wonder what that’s about...

 

[trevelynzx]

Been in the fermenter for over a week now. Gravity’s at 1.022 but it hasn’t been moving very quickly for a few days now. worried I have a stuck fermentation. Use WLP 300 for the first time and got a crazy sulfur smell over the course of the first week. Is this normal and should I just wait a few more days? Or pitch another vial?

 

[nathliea]

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

I decided to use this as my first all-grain batch. It's ready to bottle (which I'll do this weekend) and tastes great. Thank you, EdWort!

 

[TxBigHops]

Been in the fermenter for over a week now. Gravity’s at 1.022 but it hasn’t been moving very quickly for a few days now. worried I have a stuck fermentation. Use WLP 300 for the first time and got a crazy sulfur smell over the course of the first week. Is this normal and should I just wait a few more days? Or pitch another vial?

Definitely leave it in longer.

I once brewed this with a yeast other than 3068. Once! Never again. 3068 rules with this beer.

 

[trevelynzx]

haha crap! i’ll use that next time. did that the first time and must have under pitched, came out a bit weird.

but this one seems to be shaping up. has a slight rubber hose flavor, wondering if that’s from over/ under pitching. ugh. hopefully that’ll clean up. it’s not too bad but i’m pretty critical.

 

[nathliea]

This came out really good. Very different from American hefs but I feel the style is represented well. Coincidentally, I have a single glass from a Bavarian Brewery. I have no idea how this glassware came into my possession, but I thought it fitting to drink this beer from it.

 

[jpLV]

I brewed this again on Saturday. I purchased a different grain mill that allowed me to grind the grain a lot finer. I BIAB so it I dont have to worry about stuck sparges. With the finer crush my SG was right on target like my normal non-wheat beers. Was really happy that resolved my low SG issue I had with the previous batch.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I brewed this again on Saturday. I purchased a different grain mill that allowed me to grind the grain a lot finer. I BIAB so it I dont have to worry about stuck sparges. With the finer crush my SG was right on target like my normal non-wheat beers. Was really happy that resolved my low SG issue I had with the previous batch.

Post back if you notice a flavor change after switching to the finer crush. I too BIAB and have always had a husky, grainy flavor that I suspect is caused by too fine a crush. My cereal killer is tightened down all the way, and although I get good efficiency, I suspect there may be an impact on flavor.

 

[jpLV]

Post back if you notice a flavor change after switching to the finer crush. I too BIAB and have always had a husky, grainy flavor that I suspect is caused by too fine a crush. My cereal killer is tightened down all the way, and although I get good efficiency, I suspect there may be an impact on flavor.

What sort of gap are you using? I set mine to 0.032 since I heard that is good starting place for finer crush.

 

[k-brews]

How does this look for a double batch? I want to use Pale instead of Pils malt, but I'm not sure about the ratio. I assume it'll work...

1.00 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 5.00 %
14.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 70.00 %
5.00 lb Pale Ale (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 25.00 %
0.45 oz Magnum [12.75 %] (60 min) Hops 9.9 IBU
0.25 oz Magnum [12.80 %] (10 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
2 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300)

I know this thread is really old but how did this turn out using the 2 row?

 

[Mike COusineau]

Holy hell just followed Ed's recipe to the T and after 18 hours I woke up to the lift cracked open and fermentation is rocking along. How screwed am I that the lid was fully opened up?

 

[SDJay]

Just clean up and brew on! That yeast is a beast.

 

[Mike COusineau]

Just clean up and brew on! That yeast is a beast.

I just replaced the lid and airlock, I guess next time I'll be using the soda bottle option for an extra insurance

 

[Horseflesh]

How screwed am I that the lid was fully opened up?

You are probably fine.

The last time I did a hef, I even tried an open fermentation.

 

[Mike COusineau]

You are probably fine.

The last time I did a hef, I even tried an open fermentation.

Holy ****, okay I dont feel a bit f'n worried now

 

[Horseflesh]

I did cover it after fermentation slowed down... but yeah, I don't think you need to worry.