Help with article in Magazine

[daveooph131]

I was reading an article on brewing a hefeweizen. The recipe given calls for 2 packs of yeast. 1 for primary fermentation, the other for "inoculating speise".

As I understand it "speise" is basically wort that was pulled before the primary and refrigerated for later use.

My question is when would you add the 2nd pack of yeast to this "speise". Anybody familiar with this technique that could help me out????

 

[Edcculus]

Never heard of this method. It seems like a waste to me. For a true Hefeweizen, I'd go with a liquid yeast though. I like Wyeast 3068.

 

[rocketman768]

Forget the speise. Use the 3068 like Edcculus suggests, and just follow normal fermentation and bottling procedures.

 

[BobOscarBob]

Since you'd use the speise for 'secondary fermentation' (read that as 'priming for carbonation' and not 'secondary for clarifying or further conditioning the fermented beer), the type of yeast seems moot to me. If you like, use a liquid, create a starter, and harvest some to use later in the speise.

Pitch the yeast into your speise, and prime the batch as fermentation starts (in the speise...the yeast is already starting and is less likely to stress out when added to finished beer). The addition of yeast (rather than just using speise as a source of unfermented sugars) is to ensure 'repeatable bottle conditioning performance'. I would think you'll get the 'right' amount of yeast in the bottom of the bottle - if I correctgly (and oh so fondly) remember the cases and cases of hefeweizen consumed in Augsburg...

Me thinks Eric Warner covers this in the 'German Wheat Beer' volume of the Classic Beer styles series...