Looking for a simple German Crystal Weitzen recipe!

[JOHN51277]

I have a buddy who sometimes brews with me and he has been wanting me to make a Crystal Weitzen like he used to drink the hell out of in Germany when he was stationed over there. I want to get an all grain recipe together, and ordered and surprise him next time he comes over and helps brew. I want to let him pretty much brew this himself and go through the process. Then I am going to send most of it home with him once bottled.

I have done some searching but cannot come up with a solid recipe. I am under the assumption that it is just a regular hefeweitzen with Crystal malt in there? Am I correct?

 

[DerBraumeister]

Nope, far from it. Kristallweizen is just filtered Hefeweizen. So unless you can filter post fermentation, you cant make it....

I would suggest brewing a normal Hefeweizen, with a lot of vorlaufing and a healthy dose of irish moss. (perhaps using a english yeast for the esters??????)

 

[homebrewer_99]

I lived in Bavaria for 9 years...and only had 1 Kristall, just to see what it tasted like. Been drinking HWs ever since...and that was 1975. :rockin:

The Kristall here means "clear" as opposed to cloudy (mit hefe).

I can get my HWs clear without filtering. I just use a secondary.

If you can set your secondary in a fridge for a week or so it'll get clear also. This is called crashing.

Just brew a HW as you normally would then use my advice here.

It'll be as close to a kristall as you can get without filtering.

 

[DerBraumeister]

But then you will have the problem of the unflocculant hefeweizen-yeast. It is easy to pour a half a glass of clear bear, but it starts to get cloudier from there, even if you leave one to half an inch behind.

 

[DerBraumeister]

But on the brighter side, most Germans (and mr Homebrewer 99) dislike the Kristallweizen and prefer the Hefeweizen so you might be doing your friend a favour by introducing him to a proper Hefe. (But that would require step mashing to build up ferulic acid which is a precursor for the 4-Vinylguajacol phenols (clove aroma))

 

[JOHN51277]

But on the brighter side, most Germans (and mr Homebrewer 99) dislike the Kristallweizen and prefer the Hefeweizen so you might be doing your friend a favour by introducing him to a proper Hefe. (But that would require step mashing to build up ferulic acid which is a precursor for the 4-Vinylguajacol phenols (clove aroma))

I have no idea what you just said, but ok!:rockin:

 

[chucke]

I lived in Bavaria for 9 years...and only had 1 Kristall, just to see what it tasted like. Been drinking HWs ever since...and that was 1975. :rockin:

The Kristall here means "clear" as opposed to cloudy (mit hefe).

I can get my HWs clear without filtering. I just use a secondary.

If you can set your secondary in a fridge for a week or so it'll get clear also. This is called crashing.

Just brew a HW as you normally would then use my advice here.

It'll be as close to a kristall as you can get without filtering.

+1
That's the ticket.

Use this recipe and follow the instructions above.

 

[homebrewer_99]

But then you will have the problem of the unflocculant hefeweizen-yeast. It is easy to pour a half a glass of clear bear, but it starts to get cloudier from there, even if you leave one to half an inch behind.

Knowing how to pour is the trick. Even a commercial HW comes out of the bottle clear until you rouse the yeast by swirling, table roll, whatever your technique to get the foamy yeasty head.

With enough time (1-2 weeks) in the secondary and cold crashing there won't be any unfloculated yeast...it'll be clear...and in your case we will RECOMMEND using Irish Moss (something we'll never do with a real HW).

All of my HWs become clear in the secondary (I do not cold crash) so I suck up some of the yeast into the keg/bottling bucket to get it cloudy again. It makes for a much smoother, tastier beer with less yeast.

OP: Check out my HW recipe to the left < < < under Recipes.

 

[kuphish]

Knowing how to pour is the trick. Even a commercial HW comes out of the bottle clear until you rouse the yeast by swirling, table roll, whatever your technique to get the foamy yeasty head.

With enough time (1-2 weeks) in the secondary and cold crashing there won't be any unfloculated yeast...it'll be clear...and in your case we will RECOMMEND using Irish Moss (something we'll never do with a real HW).

All of my HWs become clear in the secondary (I do not cold crash) so I suck up some of the yeast into the keg/bottling bucket to get it cloudy again. It makes for a much smoother, tastier beer with less yeast.

OP: Check out my HW recipe to the left < < < under Recipes.

Same here. If I use Irish Moss/Whirlfloc and give my HWs plenty of time to clear (and settle in the bottle), I can pour the entire thing out until the last 1/2 inch without any yeast. This is with WY3068 Weihenstephan strain.

 

[pjj2ba]

Another trick I have succesfully used is to, when transfering to a secondary, at the same time, pitch in a highly flocculating yeast. I had hoped this would help pull down the German wheat yeast, and it did just that.