Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[Putzenbrau]

So, me and my friends have recently gotten into home-brewing. We started with some mead, and now we've moved to beer. Being young and cocky, we decided that we'd just jump right in to AG brewing, and skip extracts altogether. The local home brew store didn't have any German Red Wheat, so I bought 7# of American Red instead. Fortunately, they had all the other ingredients. We built a lautering tun out of a 10 gallon cooler, which we used for this brew.

After a little mishap that caused the strike water to be far too hot, we had to go out and buy new grain, but after that, everything went smoothly.

Mashed for an hour with ~3 Gallons of water. Strike temp was 160F
Sparged with ~5.5 gallons of water at 170F
Boiled for ~60 minutes, adding the hops at the appropriate times. Since we didn't have a large enough pot, the wort was split into two pots.
After 60 minutes of boiling, we poured the wort into an ale pail (ended up with just over 5 gallons of wort), and used a wort chiller to cool. We added a Wyeast starter, and then let it ferment.

We ended up with:
O.G. 1.052
F.G. 1.011

After ten days, the wort hit a gravity of 1.011, so we let it sit for another few days to see if it would ferment any more. After two days, the gravity was still 1.011. Not expecting any more fermentation, we siphoned the beer into a Cornelius keg, put it in the fridge for a day, and then attached a CO2 tank at 23 psi. It's currently still carbonating.

Before putting the CO2 tank in the keg, I tasted the beer. It was a tad sweet for a hefe - I'm hoping the carbonation will help a bit when it's done, but the F.G. is a bit higher than the OP's. Is this a sign that the strike temp was a bit high? Or is this brew supposed to be a bit sweet? The Hallertau has a rather low aa% - would something more bitter help?

 

[EdWort]

Let it carbonate for a week, then pick up a Franziskanner for a comparison.

What was your mash temp?

 

[AnOldUR]

. . . we poured the wort into an ale pail (ended up with just over 5 gallons of wort), and used a wort chiller to cool . . .

Your poured the boiling hot wort into a plastic pail?

 

[Putzenbrau]

Let it carbonate for a week, then pick up a Franziskanner for a comparison.

What was your mash temp?

156F

Your poured the boiling hot wort into a plastic pail?

No, the wort cooled a bit first.

 

[artbrewer]

made this beauty on july 18th.really enjoying right now...awesome beer wish i could post my photo of this delicious brew

 

[EdWort]

use ImageShack® - Image Hosting to host it for free.

 

[Putzenbrau]

The carbonation gave it just enough bite to counter the sweetness - quite nice. I get a lot of banana, not much clove. Overall deliciousness! Very nice recipe! Just the way a Hefeweizen should taste.

 

[NikolausXX]

I made this beer today. It was my second all grain. I just finished a 5 gallon rubbermaid (maiden voyage), with homeade braid. Boiled in aluminum stock pot 8 gallon (also first voyage, other than water boils). Had issues with real slow batch sparges, almost stuck. Ended up overhitting gravity with 1.061. Was dissapointed with stuck mash tun, I assume too fine of crush on the wheat because I tightened it when I crushed it. I also only pitched in about 1/4 pound of rice hulls? I did not soak them, do you just soak them prior to throwing in? Otherwise I guess my homeade bazooka screen is inadiquite somehow. Collected about 6 gallons of wort, I didn't want to fool with stuck sparges, and heating more water so I settled on that. Did boil with whole hops, and was not aware of this until I opened the package. Ended up racking the beer from the cooled boil kettle to ale pail, to filter the whole hops out. Hopefully that works because the boil left behind a mess of hops and goo. End product looks good, and with a little help from the cold north wind, ferment should be at 68 soon. Its about 75 right now in glass carboy but has only been in there a couple of hours. Its going to be 49 here tonight, and its about 75 or so in my house. Light cold air breeze into the fermenting room. It will be interesting to see how this turns out, with cheap new equipment we made.

 

[AnOldUR]

EdWort

I brewed a Weizen based on this recipe a month ago using the Wyeast 3068. I am getting a taste of it now. This weekend I had a Ayinger Brau Weisse on tap. Should there be any comparison between these two beers? To my uneducated palate, there were similarities, but the banana comes through much stronger in mine. Mine is good, but I liked the balance of the Ayinger a little more. Will mine mellow with time or is this the proper character for your recipe?

Thanks

 

[NikolausXX]

I love Ayinger Brau Weisse. My local beer store wants 4 bucks now for a bottle. I cant bring myself to buy it anymore. I am too hoping the recipe turns out similar to Ayinger. I also enjoy almost all imported heffes I can buy. Since this was my first wheat homebrew, and first wheat all grain. It should be interesting. I followed recipe exact, except I got 5 pounds red wheat from one lhbs, and 2 pounds of white rahr wheat from the other. Other than that it is spot on.

 

[AnOldUR]

I am too hoping the recipe turns out similar to Ayinger.

The Ayinger I had on tap came with a lemon. I was thinking that it might help cut the banana flavor. There is a large "no fruit in my beer" camp here, but I think there are cases where the fresh flavor can contribute to the character in a positive way. Haven’t had the chance to try it with mine. What do you think?

 

[EdWort]

The amount of banana and clove will depend on fermentation temperature.

 

[AnOldUR]

The amount of banana and clove will depend on fermentation temperature.

Wyeast says of the 3068, "Dominated by banana ester production, phenols and clove-like characteristics." They don't go into any detail, but is it true that a higher fermenting temperature will produce more banana? What about the clove? The yeast has a pretty broad temperature range, 64 to 75. I kept mine in the 68 degree range.

 

[EdWort]

68 degrees ambient will be 75-78 degrees during fermentation due to the heat generated unless you have some method of temp control at the fermenter. I tape the sensor of my Love Controller to the bucket. Other folks use a thermowell.

The Weihenstephan strain is a banana intensive strain, truly from Germany and it makes a great Hefe.

This recipe is pretty close to a Franziskanner or Paulener Hefe.

 

[AnOldUR]

68 degrees ambient will be 75-78 degrees during fermentation due to the heat generated unless you have some method of temp control at the fermenter.

Amdient was around 70 degrees, but I used the pan of water/wet tee shirt/fan method. The probe taped to the side read in the 66 to 68 range, but during strong fermentation I wouldn't be suprised if the temperature inside the carboy got up to a little above 70. Would the higher temperature produce more banana flavors?

 

[EdWort]

Would the higher temperature produce more banana flavors?

That's my understanding.

 

[NikolausXX]

Ill let you know, Mine is about 68 abmient, and about 73/71 with the 2 tape stips on there. Has been fermenting like mad. Pitched Sunday at 7:30pm. Has been fermenting like mad until now. Still fermenting like mad. I cant wait to see the color change. Just a hair lighter than the haus pale ale at its age. The haus turned orange, then to the right color. Just waiting to see what color this turns out. I do the 1 week primary 2 week secondary method. As the Haus pale ale tuned orange, this one is turning a tan/light brown more. Hope it clears up.

 

[NikolausXX]

just gave her a taste, racking to secondary tomarow. It was 1.008 fg, still very cloudy brown color after a week. Tasted really good. Also tasted my first all grain Haus pale ale, very good color, and is going to be bottled tomarow. The Haus pale ale tasted wonderfull flat and warm! I cant wait for a couple weeks of bottle carb, to get the real deal. The heffe tasted good too, still tasted a little young. Still has a bunch of foam on the head. Could taste some banana but not overly powerfull, tasted like good heffe that sat out for too many hours . Waiting game sucks.

 

[artbrewer]

heres a camera phone shot of this sweet recipe

 

[NikolausXX]

Bottled first batch sunday, tasted the half bottle instead of capping it. Banana taste is present, taste like good heffe. I used 1 cup corn sugar for 5 gallons. Should have pretty good carb here soon. I brewed another batch, but changed the recipe a little. I used 6 pounds pills, and 5 pounds wheat, put the whole ounce of hallertaur hops in at 60 minutes. We will see, its still fermenting, also brewed sunday, beer temp right on 68. Had my first boilover

 

[dp69_2001]

Brewing this Friday or Saturday. Depending on if I get time Friday. I love edworts recipes. I'm brewing this because my father told me how much he missed the beers in germany. which leads me to my only question. If I wanted to make this a crystal wiezen with very little equipement could I use gelatin? I don't care if all of the cloudiness fades I'm just looking to clear it up a bit.

Oh and I ended up with Weyermans (or something like that) malted wheat. Which isn't what I ordered. But, it's what the nerdy guy decided to give me. I probably won't be ordering anything from the HBS in salt lake anymore as it's progressively gotten worse. They keep putting my grain in grocery bags. Which, don't hold up so well during the long ride home.

 

[dp69_2001]

errr... help... I got only got one ounce of hallertau, 4%AA and I'm showing in beersmith that I'll only get 7.2 IBU's. I 've already got it mashing, should I boil them longer to get 10 IBU's?

 

[dp69_2001]

wooo! 1.052 right on the nose. I would have had much better efficiency but while sparging I lost about a gallon of wort right onto the ground because my first runnings started creeping up my BK while I was vorlaufing and I ran outside and left the pitcher to fill up, forgot about it while getting the boil under control and the freakin thing sat and ran over untill I caught it. It was lame! For some reason I got the right boil amount. Must of been because I poured a bunch of water in with my rice hulls. I didn't rinse the rice hulls. I hope it doesn't make much difference. My immersion chiller would only get it down to 75f so I pitched at 75 and am trying to cool it down.

Oh, and I just followed the boil schedule as per the recipe. Beersmith has been inaccurate in the past so I trust edworts judgement.

 

[dp69_2001]

Bubbling away! Due to the recent temperature change in my neighborhood it is fermenting really cold. In the past I had to change out 4 ice bottles every 12 hours just to keep it in the 60's. I threw in the 4 ice bottles with this one and the next morning it was 58! changed out 2 bottles. That night, 58, changed two bottles. Now it's at 52! So I pulled the partially thawed bottles and changed out 2. So now I'll probably come home to a beer explosion. Hopefully I don't get too many strange flavors from fermenting too cold. I can't believe the yeast are still going in there. I'll bet they're cold.

 

[NikolausXX]

I did mine at 72 or so, and it came out wonderful. I bought some store bought, and I like mine better. Now for this second batch. I changed the recipe, and added gelatin to make a krystal type only in clearness, I cant find a true recipe. My brother lives in germany and he told me the krystalweizens are crystal clear, and lighter, and more pilsner tasting than heffeweizen. I changed the recipe to 6lb pils, 5lb wheat, added all my hops at 60 minutes. Added gelatin. We will see how this turns out, my expectations are low! But it did ferment at 68! Seems to have taken a little darker color with more pilsner than wheat, and the gelatin made it look more dark, but its still clearing as we speak. My tasting at racking, was well bland, and not heffe tasting, so it might turn out to be FRANKENBEER.

 

[dp69_2001]

I did mine at 72 or so, and it came out wonderful. I bought some store bought, and I like mine better. Now for this second batch. I changed the recipe, and added gelatin to make a krystal type only in clearness, I cant find a true recipe. My brother lives in germany and he told me the krystalweizens are crystal clear, and lighter, and more pilsner tasting than heffeweizen. I changed the recipe to 6lb pils, 5lb wheat, added all my hops at 60 minutes. Added gelatin. We will see how this turns out, my expectations are low! But it did ferment at 68! Seems to have taken a little darker color with more pilsner than wheat, and the gelatin made it look more dark, but its still clearing as we speak. My tasting at racking, was well bland, and not heffe tasting, so it might turn out to be FRANKENBEER.

I'm just going to try racking this guy onto some gelatin. If it doesn't totally clear, oh well. But, if it does, I'll hope it's close.

By guy I mean beer.

 

[EdWort]

Kristalweizen is usually filtered. A Hefeweizen is just that, a wheat beer with yeast in it. The yeast is part of the flavor profile. It will never taste like a pilsener.

If you rack it to a keg and let the keg sit for a month or so, it will clear up pretty well on its own, till you move the keg, but it won't be like a Kristalweizen. Run it through a filter, and then you will have it.

 

[NikolausXX]

Ed, you should come up with a krystal weizen recipe! I made an experiment switching the grains up to test my equipment. I know my experiment is not the real thing. I was thinking to make a heffe, use irish moss, and then use a secondary clearing, cold crash, then filter. I think that would come close. Like I said there are no posted recipes that I can find for a Kristal Weizen. The gelatin seems to have made the heffe if you can still call it that, a lot darker than the previous batch. It almost looks like a pale ale in the secondary. Like I said, I changed the ratio first to check my equipment due to stuck sparges and what not. Flowed well with more pills in there, so I can count on my bazooka screen for now. I was reading about gelatin, and the first heffe by your recipe turned out wonderful, and was per style, so I figured lets see what the gelatin does to it! So I might have got a real far out FRANKENBIER. Hopefully it still tastes somewhat like heffeweizen! Its all for the learning. First part for the equipment, second for clearing effect of gelatin. I should have keg system up and running after christmas. So we will see what I can make for a kristalweizen after then, all plans are scraped until I find a way to filter it. As for this recipe all thumbs up, tasted better to me than the commercial brews I have taste tested against. And cloudy seems to be the way my all grain brews have been so far. Experiment being 3rd all grain, and second on this equipment.

DP69 I would not suggest using gelatin. It will not be heffewiezen, it should be cloudy and the gelatin will ruin that for you. You do not want it to be clear. I was commenting on an experimental beer I am making off this recipe, that is probably going to turn out so so, I am thinking. Or at least crossing my fingers! I have gone into unknown territory for my brewing experience.

 

[greenbirds]

Brewed this recipe, but I could not get my hands on any liquid yeast. HBS had the Safale WB-06 dry wheat beer yeast, and I fermented at 68-70F. As reported elsewhere, there's not a whole lot banana there, but the beer is great anyway. Just a little different than your usual hefe.

 

[EdWort]

Ed, you should come up with a krystal weizen recipe!

There is no recipe for Kristallweizen. German brewers use a filter to eliminate the yeast. Just make this beer and run it through a filter like this.

MoreBeer | Plate Filter Kit - Deluxe

Personally, I am not a fan of Kristallweizens. I enjoy the yeast in a good Hefe and will swirl the bottle to get the last bit into my glass.