Newbie Here. Pls give advice for first Hefeweizen Brew.

[vashthestampyd]

After brewing 2 Mr. Beer beers. (2nd still in carbonating phase) I've decided to step it up and brew a hefeweizen. Here's the recipe as follows.

German Hefeweizen
Malt Base: 5 lbs Wheat Dry Malt Extract OR 6 lbs Wheat Liquid Malt Extract
Specialty Grains: ½ lb Flaked Wheat, 1/2 lb Flaked Oats
Hops: 1 oz Hallertau Hop Pellets(bittering)
Yeast: White Labs 300 Hefeweizen

Steep grains in muslin bag in 2 gallons water heated to 160 degrees for 20 minutes, remove and discard grain bag. Stir in malt extracts, return to heat and bring to a boil. Add hops and boil 60 minutes. Put 3 gallons very cold water into fermenter then pour in hot wort. Cool below 80 degrees, then pitch yeast, attach cover and attach air lock. Ferment until final gravity remains constant 2-3 days apart, then bottle. Fermentation temperatures above 72 degrees will enhance banana flavors, below will enhance clove flavors.

I've read that steeping flaked wheat and oats together do not break the enzymes in them to make them fully effective. I was wondering if I can add some torrified wheat in there to make it nice. Is this true?

Also, any advice? Any advice that will help me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm scaling this down to a 2 gallon batch so I can ferment in my Mr. beer keg.

Thanks guys!

 

[MrE_the_Great]

I can't speak to the flaked grain questions, but I can give you a great piece of advice!

Use a blow off tube. Hefe yeast is a beast!

Good luck!

 

[vashthestampyd]

I can't speak to the flaked grain questions, but I can give you a great piece of advice!

Use a blow off tube. Hefe yeast is a beast!

Good luck!

I'll be using a mr. beer keg so i don't know if i'll be able to put a blow off tube in it. i'll let mother nature decide my fate! But thanks for the advice man.

 

[MrE_the_Great]

I'll be using a mr. beer keg so i don't know if i'll be able to put a blow off tube in it. i'll let mother nature decide my fate! But thanks for the advice man.

My bad, should have read more closely.

 

[dmtaylor]

You are partially correct -- neither flaked wheat nor oats contain any enzymes. If you brew the recipe the way you have it right now, you would be making a starch soup, which is not a good way to make beer -- beer yeast cannot eat unconverted starch (although wild critters can). One easy way to make this work -- ditch the oats (not traditional), and instead add a half pound of wheat MALT with your flaked wheat. You'll need to crack the wheat in a mill or in your blender. Then what I would do is steep the grains at about 150 F for 30 minutes -- 160 F would work but 150 F is even better. Finally I would advise you to ferment cool, around 63-65 F would be best, or the coolest place you can find in your house or whatever. This enhances the clove -- there won't be much clove if any if fermented above about 70 F. Actually if you really want to use the oats, you don't need to delete them from the recipe, just steep with your other wheats. But it isn't a traditional grain in a hefe. Do what you like.

In any case, it will be wild. Hope it doesn't foam all over the place. Put it in a bin of some sort in case the yeast wants to foam all over.

Cheers!

 

[vashthestampyd]

You are partially correct -- neither flaked wheat nor oats contain any enzymes. If you brew the recipe the way you have it right now, you would be making a starch soup, which is not a good way to make beer -- beer yeast cannot eat unconverted starch (although wild critters can). One easy way to make this work -- ditch the oats (not traditional), and instead add a half pound of wheat MALT with your flaked wheat. You'll need to crack the wheat in a mill or in your blender. Then what I would do is steep the grains at about 150 F for 30 minutes -- 160 F would work but 150 F is even better. Finally I would advise you to ferment cool, around 63-65 F would be best, or the coolest place you can find in your house or whatever. This enhances the clove -- there won't be much clove if any if fermented above about 70 F. Actually if you really want to use the oats, you don't need to delete them from the recipe, just steep with your other wheats. But it isn't a traditional grain in a hefe. Do what you like.

In any case, it will be wild. Hope it doesn't foam all over the place. Put it in a bin of some sort in case the yeast wants to foam all over.

Cheers!

Thanks! Can I add torrified wheat instead of the the wheat malt when I steep? I don't have a blender. Can I use a ziploc and rolling pin? How small does the flaked wheat need to be?

 

[Minky]

I've read that steeping flaked wheat and oats together do not break the enzymes in them to make them fully effective. I was wondering if I can add some torrified wheat in there to make it nice. Is this true?

Also, any advice? Any advice that will help me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm scaling this down to a 2 gallon batch so I can ferment in my Mr. beer keg.

Thanks guys!

You heard correctly that flaked wheat and oats need to be mashed to break down starches. Torrified wheat won't help because it also needs mashed also. This could be done with a small amount of base malt, but probably more of a hassle than it's worth.

Resist the temptation to steep these grains because the starch mess you will get is not the same as the yeast haze in a hefeweizen.

Stick to published recipes until you have more experience. I ruined many a batch early on trying to get fancy before I fully understood the process.

Here are a couple of articles dealing with mashing and steeping that will help you.

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/great-grains-mash-or-steep/2/

http://byo.com/malt/item/1582-what-...basically-involve-soaking-grain-in-hot-water?

 

[meatcleaver]

why do you feel you need the flaked/torrified wheat?
wheat beers have great head formation/retention anyway...

 

[dmtaylor]

why do you feel you need the flaked/torrified wheat?
wheat beers have great head formation/retention anyway...

It will add flavor. I think it's a great idea.

Torrified wheat also has no enzymes. Need to use malted wheat or barley for this steep (which is actually a mash).

A bag and a mallet or heavy pot will crack the grains for you. A rolling pin tends to just make kind of a mess -- you'll want to use a smaller heavier object to crack the grains. A hammer would work although it's a bit too small. Somewhere in between is good.

 

[meatcleaver]

It will add flavor. I think it's a great idea.

Torrified wheat also has no enzymes. Need to use malted wheat or barley for this steep (which is actually a mash).

I agree that adding fresh grains is a great way to improve an extract kit, that is why I do biab mini-mash.
I was asking the OP why they think they need it.
also to the OP... how big is your kettle?
you could do a 2 gallon ag batch biab with a 5 gallon stock pot.

 

[vashthestampyd]

Thanks guys for the advice! I found this recipe online and I thought it was a great easy recipe with minimal ingredients. i just want to make a decent beer and i'm such a beginner.

I wanted to stick close to the recipe I found which I found here: http://www.homebrewing.org/How-to-Make-Wheat-Beer_ep_36-1.html

It says to steep the flaked oats/wheat - then boil for 60 minutes. Wouldn't that 60min boil break down the starches in the oats/wheat?

So sorry, I'm so inexperienced. Please help. Anyone want to write me a step by step on how to do the recipe?

Thank you so much!

 

[dmtaylor]

Wouldn't that 60min boil break down the starches in the oats/wheat?

No, not really. The starches will get dissolved into the wort, but they won't turn into sugars that your beer yeast can ferment. Only base malts have the necessary enzymes for conversion of starch into fermentable sugars. Base malts include (but are not limited to): 2-row, pale malt, pilsner malt, Maris Otter, wheat malt, rye malt, oat malt (yes this exists but it can be hard to find), etc. Basically anything that is listed as "malt" and was kilned for a short time and remains pale in color will have enzymes for conversion. Otherwise, like I said before, you would just be making starch soup, and that's not really brewing. For instance, you *could* make beer out of potatoes, or wheat flour, or rice, or any other kind of starch -- HOWEVER, you would need to add at least a pound or two of malt in order to convert those starches into fermentable sugars. It's a chemical process and without it, wild bacteria are likely to find and eat all the starches and thus sour the beer. You don't want to make sour hefeweizen, do you? Actually it would probably turn out fine as long as you drank it young, however it's not the right way to brew. Not the best recipe, but easily fixed with a little extra malt to get the necessary enzymes for proper conversion.

I think you already know all the steps. Like I said earlier, you should crack the malt, and steep with all the specialty ingredients at about 150 F for at least 30 minutes. Then remove the bag, add your extract, and brew like normal. It's so easy a caveman can do it..... and actually, cavemen probably DID do it! Or at least the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians were smart enough to figure it out like 6000 years ago!

 

[vashthestampyd]

Thank you sir! I will do that!

 

[yeastylad]

The best Hefe Ive made was all wheat extract (dried, I think), no steeping grains and Weihenstefan yeast fermented at 66F. It was grain (extract) to glass 14 days. I took it to a friends Oktoberfest party and most folk said they preferred it to the Paulaner Hefe keg that was there. I really don't think you need steeping grains TBH, but its up to you.

 

[IchLiebeBier]

Hefeweizen is my favorite beer style, hands down (Aventinus is my favorite Weizenbock and Gutmann's was my favorite Weissbier when I lived in Germany).

The unfortunate thing about it is, it has a fairly short shelf life because of the wheat (really only about 4 months after bottling).

So, my advice is that if you're going to make a lot of it, either drink it fast or share it.

 

[Minky]

Thanks guys for the advice! I found this recipe online and I thought it was a great easy recipe with minimal ingredients. i just want to make a decent beer and i'm such a beginner.

I wanted to stick close to the recipe I found which I found here: http://www.homebrewing.org/How-to-Make-Wheat-Beer_ep_36-1.html

It says to steep the flaked oats/wheat - then boil for 60 minutes. Wouldn't that 60min boil break down the starches in the oats/wheat?

So sorry, I'm so inexperienced. Please help. Anyone want to write me a step by step on how to do the recipe?

Thank you so much!

Wow! It's REALLY strange that recipes like that appear on a homebrew supply website! I would just do the extract and forget the flaked grains if I were you.

 

[vashthestampyd]

I decided to brew the beer without any specialty grains. I used 2 lbs wheat dme and .4 oz of hallertau and boiled for 60 min. i only got a gravity reading of 1.035 though i didn't have a thermometer so i'm not sure if that's an inflated number or deflated. maybe, i should've used more dme? some recipes use 6lbs so scaled down it would've given me 2.4 lbs. would it have helped if i added some honey or corn sugar to it?

i put it in the fermenter and yes, omg, the yeast, was crazy. it's calmed down now and the fermenting is going 3 days later.

i'm just wandering if i should have used less yeast because i only did 2 gallons and the yeast is enough for 5 gallons.

any recommendations for bottling and conditioning? i've read people have bottle conditioned for about 4 weeks before even opening them.

 

[dmtaylor]

Your beer will turn out great. If you want more alcohol, then dissolve about 0.33 lb cane sugar in a cup of water, boil and cool and add to your beer. This will jack up your alcohol by roughly another percent.

Conditioning should only take about a week with this beer, not 4 weeks. It's best consumed young as well, so this could be a very fast turnaround beer for you. Hefeweizen is one of the fastest styles to ferment.

 

[vashthestampyd]

I bottled in about 10days ago and I tasted it after 1 week. The carbonation was great, the color, and the retention were all better than expected. The taste however was not all there. The flavors felt subdued and the finish weak. The banana was present but not too crazy. I decided to wait another week to try again. I put half of the batch in this fridge and the rest out in my closet. I'll update later on this week. Thanks guys for all the great advice!

 

[GHBWNY]

The best Hefe Ive made was all wheat extract (dried, I think), no steeping grains and Weihenstefan yeast fermented at 66F. It was grain (extract) to glass 14 days.

Yup, me too.

Briess Bavarian Wheat DME
WLP380
Hallertauer

Bingo! Instant hefe and SOOOOO good.

 

[dmtaylor]

I bottled in about 10days ago and I tasted it after 1 week. The carbonation was great, the color, and the retention were all better than expected. The taste however was not all there. The flavors felt subdued and the finish weak. The banana was present but not too crazy. I decided to wait another week to try again. I put half of the batch in this fridge and the rest out in my closet. I'll update later on this week. Thanks guys for all the great advice!

Maybe you used too much yeast? Did you make a starter? Was this a 2-gallon batch? Did you pitch the entire pack of yeast into 2 gallons? Any of the above might have been too much for a hefeweizen. This is one of the few yeasts that needs to be underpitched and stressed out in order to produce the most desirable flavors. About 1/4 pack would have been enough for 2 gallons. If you used the whole thing or made a starter, yeah, that's what happened. I'm sorry if we didn't tell you this before.

Also fermentation temperature matters a lot with this yeast. What was your approximate fermentation temperature in the primary?

 

[vashthestampyd]

Maybe you used too much yeast? Did you make a starter? Was this a 2-gallon batch? Did you pitch the entire pack of yeast into 2 gallons? Any of the above might have been too much for a hefeweizen. This is one of the few yeasts that needs to be underpitched and stressed out in order to produce the most desirable flavors. About 1/4 pack would have been enough for 2 gallons. If you used the whole thing or made a starter, yeah, that's what happened. I'm sorry if we didn't tell you this before.

Also fermentation temperature matters a lot with this yeast. What was your approximate fermentation temperature in the primary?

Aww man. Yes I used the whole pack of yeast. Next time I'll use only a quarter. Too bad I have another hefeweisen fermenting and I also used the whole pack.

I fermented around 68-72 in the closet. Not sure exactly.

 

[vashthestampyd]

Maybe you used too much yeast? Did you make a starter? Was this a 2-gallon batch? Did you pitch the entire pack of yeast into 2 gallons? Any of the above might have been too much for a hefeweizen. This is one of the few yeasts that needs to be underpitched and stressed out in order to produce the most desirable flavors. About 1/4 pack would have been enough for 2 gallons. If you used the whole thing or made a starter, yeah, that's what happened. I'm sorry if we didn't tell you this before.

Also fermentation temperature matters a lot with this yeast. What was your approximate fermentation temperature in the primary?

Aww man. Yes I used the whole pack of yeast. Next time I'll use only a quarter. Too bad I have another hefeweisen fermenting and I also used the whole pack.

I fermented around 68-72 in the closet. Not sure exactly.