Hefe help

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ChadChaney

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I have brewed 2 versions of a hefe so far and have not been able to get that nice banana nose and taste I am looking for. Grist was near 50/50 white wheat and Pilsen, with a pound of Golden Naked oats in one batch and 2 lbs Munich in the second to get more color. Both were mashed at 152F single infusion, batch one was pitched near 65F and batch 2 about 70F and held there for 4 days. Both batches used WLP300. I get a nice earthy clove aroma and a hint of banana in both, almost Wit like, but really desire that strong banana character. Any suggestions?
 
I use Wyeast 3068 and intentionally do not do a starter and ferment at 68. Has always provided plenty of banana. I use the BeeCave Hefe recipe. I do a 60 min boil even with the pilsner malt. Not sure if any of these make a difference but it seems to work for me. I'm especially interested if you do a starter. That could definitely be a key difference.
 
Ferment a bit warmer, like 68-70 and pitch less yeast. I have only done 2, but both had great banana flavor.
 
biodarwin said:
Ferment a bit warmer, like 68-70 and pitch less yeast. I have only done 2, but both had great banana flavor.

The OP said he did ferment one batch at 70
 
Thanks all. I actually sent off an email to White Labs and was greeted with a GREAT response, I received an email requesting I call them and they could help me with the issue. After discussing the volume and SG of the wort, I was told that in a wort of 1.046 @ abut 5.25 gallons, do not make a starter. The representative I spoke to said this would be a bit of an underpitch and stress the yeast a little and create that nice banana character. he suggested fermenting at right about 68F if possible to avoid the off chance of the bubblegum flavor sneaking in there.

@BackAlley, looks like you were dead on, thanks!
 
BackAlley, here is a dilemma; I have a TON (15) vials of WL Hefe that is past due by a year. The yeast was stored in professional cooler at my LHBS and then in my fridge. I want to use some of it, how do I determine the right pitching amount, lol. Every online calculator I visit estimates the viability at zero, but I have had success growing other strains from this same situation just fine. I want to do the under pitch technique, but not sure if it will work in this situation.
 
That's uncharted territory for me so hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. What I might consider doing is making a starter well in advance, chill it down to settle out the yeast then pitch a desired volume of the settled yeast. What that volume is thought I don't know.
 
BackAlley said:
That's uncharted territory for me so hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. What I might consider doing is making a starter well in advance, chill it down to settle out the yeast then pitch a desired volume of the settled yeast. What that volume is thought I don't know.

Looking at the repitch section of Mr. Malty has a good discussion of yeast cells in a slurry. A quick read seems to indicate that a starter that's settled for a day might be about 2 billion cells per ml of slurry. Targeting a pitch of 100 billion cells for a 5 gallon batch means pitching 50ml of slurry.

Again this is not something I've needed to do so I'm hoping someone knowledgable will give more accurate info.
 
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