Franziskaner Hefe-weisse Clone

[Jsmith82]

I found this around the internet and thought I would share the recipe here, I love Franziskaner Hefe and it's my wife's favorite beer so if this turns out even remotely close to the actual brew there's a pretty much guarantee it will be pipelined around my place - if not, it still looks like a good wheat beer:

Original Clone Recipe: click here

Franziskaner Hefe-weisse Clone (5 gallon batch)

7.00# German Wheat
2.75# German Pilsner
0.25# Aromatic Malt
1.00# Rice hulls
2.00oz Acid Malt
2.00oz Malto Dextrine

Mash @ 150 for 90 minutes

60 min boil:
[60] - 1.00oz Hersbrucker
[15] - 0.25oz Spalter
[15] - 0.25oz Pearle

Ferment with Wyeast #3068 (Weihenstephan Weizen)

Seeing as I've already got all the ingredients ordered from NB I'm all in on this one and will post back the results around May when we crack open the first beer.

Cheeers!

 

[j1rubin]

mmm - good beer. had this in Munich over the summer. let me know how this turns out.

 

[CarlsbadBrewDog]

Very excited to hear how this turns out - love this beer, had it at Oktoberfest in 2007 and drink regularly here at home. One of my wife's favorite beers as well!

 

[bdgrfrisch]

Please let us know how it turns out compared to Franziskaner.
I've done something similar in the past, but generally just kept it to 60-70% german wheat & 30-40% german pilz. The acid malt is basically there to help with mash ph since these are such light beer.
The malto dextrine is an interesting addition.

 

[Weizer]

I'm literally doing this beer right now. I have a very similar recipe but I didn't know what temp to mash at. Thanks for that!

Btw, how did it turn out?

 

[Jsmith82]

Actually I've had a ton of stuff going on lately and have yet to brew this one even though all the elements are sitting at my house. Hopefully Sunday, I'll probably keg it first or second week of May then reply back then with my opinion and some pictures..

My prediction is a damn fine wheat, but will it.. CAN it live up to a Franzi...........

 

[BenjaminBier]

I've made this recipe (it's from mark & Tess the authors of CloneBrews). It was excellent. Mine came out a little lighter-bodied than franziskaner even with the maltodextrin. I wouldn't change anything from the recipe doing it again.

I brewed a version of this beer using the wyeast Canadian-Belgian blend and just legged thus weekend. The mark & Tess recipes tend to be pretty good.

 

[jad814]

All,

I know this is a fairly stale post, but I just wanted to write (relatively new to the forums and have only brewed 3-4 batches so far) that I'm brewing this recipe as we speak, and I'll be sure to reply back when I can drink this and let everyone know how it turned out.

Also, thanks to the original post for this recipe. Regardless if it tastes spot-on to Franzy or not I am confident I'm going to end up with a good German wheat.

More to come...

 

[Jsmith82]

FINALLY brewing this. Got about 8 minutes left on my mash, hit 150 right on the nose, love it when a mash goes smooth.

I'll be kegging in about 3-4 weeks, definitely will snap a photo of the first pint.

 

[FlemingsFinest]

Please do! I'm excited to try this recipe, just want to hear your thoughts on it first.

 

[BenjaminBier]

The batch i brewed using the Canadian-Belgian yeast was excellent. It was served at a garden party to a group of 10 people and about half the keg was gone in a few hours. It is sessionable for me but some, who do not drink a lot of beer, said they felt the alcohol in it.

 

[Jsmith82]

Fantastic, great to hear Ben - thank you for sharing your notes. How long did you wait before kegging? Sunday will be 2 weeks for me in the bucket, I'm thinking 3 before it goes in the keg (wheat tastes better young to me)

Thoughts?

 

[Weizer]

Mines been in the secondary for a couple weeks now. Bout to throw that sucker in the keg. The gravity reading was perfect(my 2nd all grain batch) and it tasted absolutely delicious without carbonation. Can't wait to carb it.

 

[jad814]

Best of luck guys! I got this bottled up now, and will be trying one next weekend. I tasted the beer (less carbonation of course), and I was highly pleased. More to come next weekend.

I'm very excited to get to try this!

 

[oparea]

Updates?

 

[BenjaminBier]

Fantastic, great to hear Ben - thank you for sharing your notes. How long did you wait before kegging? Sunday will be 2 weeks for me in the bucket, I'm thinking 3 before it goes in the keg (wheat tastes better young to me)

Thoughts?

sorry i didn't reply earlier - i let it go for the full 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in the bottle. it sounds like you are just about ready to start drinking these

my experience with wheat beer is they carbonate and mature faster than other beers, but i think this yeast it has a bit of a bite when you drink em early. still tastes good though

 

[ackatack]

Sorry to revive a catatonic thread but how has the beer turned out? I'm looking to brew a Franziskaner clone this weekend.

 

[Jsmith82]

I'm still in the bucket, ackatack, or I'd fill you in - life won't let me get this beer into my keg. Hopefully soon. Everyone that has brewed it stated it's a delicious wheat, nobody has done a side side comparison yet with the Franz though (I will if I ever move the damn thing).

 

[Jsmith82]

Officially in the keg. Blasting it at 30psi right now, hopefully I'll get to try a pint Friday. Yahoo!

 

[BrewingChemist]

Looking forward to hearing what people think of this recipe! I love franzi! Would love to make a clone!
Subscribed

 

[Jsmith82]

I have to say, it's a great wheat beer - my review is based strictly judging this as a clone.

Let's start with color, it pours a very brilliant warm yellow, a slight hint of orange tint. It's pretty close however I kegged my batch, it's missing the "cloudy swirl and pour" that you are supposed to do when you open a bottle of Franz since there is yeast sediment in their bottles (open beer, pour all but 1 inch, swirl remaining 1 inch to get the yeast off the bottom of the bottle, pour remaining inch into glass and watch the cloud explode into your beer). Without this cloudy yeasty addition to the pint, I think it may be why my color is a little lighter. It still pours hazy though the comparison shows an obvious difference in clarity.

I am also thinking without the yeasty swirl, this is where I'm missing a little bit of nose. The clone has a great maltly scent to it, the beer is definitely what I would call a "sniffer" haha. However, the cloves are faint, the malt is faint, and it doesn't really saturate your sense of smell like the original. Again, I'm in a keg, not a lot of additional yeast or trub was transferred so it's a lot cleaner. I also let my clone sit a little longer than expected so some of this could easily be blamed on the wait as in my own opinion, wheat beer should be consumed at a young age.

Flavor is the same as my other comparisons above, a little weaker than expected but still very good and has that Franz flavor. I'll again blame age and the keg, let it sit, no yeast swirl, the elements that make an unfiltered wheat a dirty banana clove bomb are slim. The hops however feel right smack on the nose.

So all in all, this is a great wheat beer. I think consumed at a younger age, a lot of the elements that make a Franz what it is would be more present, also perhaps not kegging and bottle conditioning would actually help the flavor tremendously.

6-7 out of 10 for this batch. You're definitely in for a good batch of wheat regardless.

If I find the time I'll take a video and do a side by side.

Changes I will make next time I brew / recommended tips if you decide to brew:

1. 3 weeks in the bucket, then bottle. Go young (take consecutive measurements to be sure your fermentation is done though lol, durr)
2. Skip the keg unless you're needing beer on the fly, I recommend you bottle this the old fashioned way. 5oz corn sugar to 5 gallons beer (or 3/4 cup)
3. Definitely follow the "pour, stop, swirl, finish pour" method. Get that sediment into your beer.

I'll post back next time I brew this and how the changes affected the flavor, nose, and color.

 

[Tarks]

I just placed an order for ingredients so I can brew this. Thanks to Jsmith82 for posting the recipe. I am a big fan of Franziskaner and excited to see how this compares. Cheers!

 

[Tarks]

What fermentation temp and length did you go at? I think you said 3 weeks? Cheers!

 

[Jsmith82]

What fermentation temp and length did you go at? I think you said 3 weeks? Cheers!

73-75 degrees F is my next temp goal.

This yeast strain has a window of 64-75 however I think taking to the upper level of this window will produce more esters familiar with this style of beer.

As for time frame, again my own plan is to bottle after 3 weeks in the bucket provided back to back to back gravity readings show fermentation has subsided. I'm a firm believer that wheat beers taste their best at a young age and my first batch of this, well I ended up having everything you can think of in life thrown at me at once - needless to say this was months late getting into the keg so I lost a lot during that "wait".

I will say this, once in the keg it didn't even last a week. It's a good beer.

Edit: I do recommend carbing this up the old fashioned way if you're a kegger. From a tap you miss the yeast "swirl and dump" that you get from a bottle conditioned unfiltered wheat. 3/4 cup corn sugar added to 2 cups boiled/ing water, stir well, dump in bucket, rack your beer directly on top of the sugar solution, bottle it up.

Post back your results if you don't mind, good luck!

Also (because I'm not trying to steal thunder), I didn't develop this recipe - found it on the internet however I figured no hurt in posting it here on HBT. If the taste of the clone is not close enough, this is definitely the community that will move it in the right direction. Cheers!

 

[Tarks]

Good stuff! Thanks.

I plan on brewing this in a few weeks, and I will post up the results. I agree with you on bottling this style, which I will do.

Cheers!

 

[BeardedIdiot]

73-75 degrees F is my next temp goal.

This yeast strain has a window of 64-75 however I think taking to the upper level of this window will produce more esters familiar with this style of beer.

As for time frame, again my own plan is to bottle after 3 weeks in the bucket provided back to back to back gravity readings show fermentation has subsided. I'm a firm believer that wheat beers taste their best at a young age and my first batch of this, well I ended up having everything you can think of in life thrown at me at once - needless to say this was months late getting into the keg so I lost a lot during that "wait".

I will say this, once in the keg it didn't even last a week. It's a good beer.

Edit: I do recommend carbing this up the old fashioned way if you're a kegger. From a tap you miss the yeast "swirl and dump" that you get from a bottle conditioned unfiltered wheat. 3/4 cup corn sugar added to 2 cups boiled/ing water, stir well, dump in bucket, rack your beer directly on top of the sugar solution, bottle it up.

Post back your results if you don't mind, good luck!

Also (because I'm not trying to steal thunder), I didn't develop this recipe - found it on the internet however I figured no hurt in posting it here on HBT. If the taste of the clone is not close enough, this is definitely the community that will move it in the right direction. Cheers!

Nice to hear you think the 73-75F range would be great for fermenting this beer, as that is where my fermenting room (laundry/furnace room) has been sitting steady at for the last month.

I am building a fermenting chamber to control temps better, but looks like I could go ahead and brew my Franzi clone as soon as I get some time to...

 

[Jsmith82]

Jsmith, did you do this as a BIAB?

No, regular all grain brewing - mashed, sparged, boiled

 

[Tarks]

I finally got around to brewing this up yesterday. I came up short by 4 points on my OG. I ended up with 1.048 so my abv might be a tad lower in the end. I'm really looking forward to tasting this in a few weeks.

 

[Tarks]

Update. I bottled after 23 days in primary, carbed up to 2.8 volumes and conditioned for 4 weeks before I tried it. OMG, this beer is so friggen good. Great mouth feel and just enough banana that it doesn't overwhelm you. It's been a while since I have had a Franziskaner so I'm not sure how close this came as a clone. But it doesn't matter, I love it and will brew this again without doubt. Thanks again Jsmith82! Cheers.

 

[unionrdr]

I've always tasted very little clove/banana in Franziskaner weissebier. Always struck me as being brewed a bit cleaner than a hefeweisen,which are more floral/nectary. Good stuff,gotta try this sometime.