Hefeweizen cloudiness

[olstones]

All,

I recently brewed my first german Hefeweizen...very basic recipe (10 gal) with 10lb wheat, 10lb pilsner with Wyeast 3068. I had it in primary for 2 weeks and secondary for 2 weeks as well. I kegged from there.

The taste was great, the beer was mostly clear however. I am brewing another batch soon and since I am somewhat of a traditionalist I want the next batch to actually look the part as well.

Do you guys have any ideas as to how to accomplish? Do I skip secondary? Do I add lagering yeast? If so, when?

What is odd is that I also make wheat IPA and they are much more cloudy then the hefeweizen ever was...

any ideas would be great

 

[JonM]

Definitely skip secondary. The secondary is to drop the yeast which is actually the opposite of what you want in a Hefeweizen. Go straight to the keg as soon as fermentation is done. I go grain to glass in 14-17 days with mine, which use a nearly identical recipe.

It also helps to periodically disconnect the gas and upend the keg just to keep the yeast in suspension.

 

[bschot]

Given enough time the yeast will settle out of solution; resulting in krystallweizen, while delicious it does taste different than hefeweizen. I think the only way to keep yeast in solution would be to turn the keg over once in a while or drink it faster .

Cheers,



-Brian

 

[Sammy86]

drink it faster .

Personally, I like this! Hefe's and wheat are meant to be enjoyed young and often...my American wheat usually stays cloudy for about 3 weeks then it's clear as a whistle...which does sometimes change the flavor but not so much that I don't still enjoy the beer.

Cheers!

 

[olstones]

Thanks guys!

Since I am making 2 5 gal batches and do not keg them at the same time I may still have a clear second batch (I have to get it out of primary to free up).
But at least for the first batch I will go straight to keg after 2 weeks or so...then turn keg now and then. For the second batch I may add some lagering yeast before kegging to see what happens.

 

[m00ps]

Agree with skipping the secondary

But ive come across another really interesting mehtod to create a permanent cloudiness in addition to adding some nice body to the beer. Add some flour to the mash and boil. I've found 1/4cup works wonders. Its basically negligible to the OG addition but really works great. It doesnt even clear after months in a keg

 

[singybrue]

Hefe/Dunkelweizens are the only beers I bottle carb, just to keep the yeast in there.