The Most Unconventional Hefeweizen You've Heard of

[daksin]

Funny to see this thread, I actually wrote a recipe for a smoked hefeweizen that I haven't brewed yet. I wanted to make a classic Bavarian hef first so I can harvest all that tasty tasty yeast for the smoked hef and some roggenbier. I think it's a great idea, and if we like it, maybe we'll put it on tap at the brewery.

 

[TopherM]

I put a BMW ornament on my Honda Civic hood last night. It doesn't have the BMW engine, or the BMW rims, or the BMW interior, or the BMW body.....in short it isn't what one would call a traditional BMW, but it says BMW right there on the hood....clear as day....so it's a mf'n BMW!

Lol, sorry, I couldn't resist!!

 

[sidepart]

Funny to see this thread, I actually wrote a recipe for a smoked hefeweizen that I haven't brewed yet. I wanted to make a classic Bavarian hef first so I can harvest all that tasty tasty yeast for the smoked hef and some roggenbier. I think it's a great idea, and if we like it, maybe we'll put it on tap at the brewery.

You planning on using smoked grains for it? I'm really not sure if I'll get any smoke flavor out of the hops with this recipe.

I put a BMW ornament on my Honda Civic hood last night. It doesn't have the BMW engine, or the BMW rims, or the BMW interior, or the BMW body.....in short it isn't what one would call a traditional BMW, but it says BMW right there on the hood....clear as day....so it's a mf'n BMW!

Lol, sorry, I couldn't resist!!

How about this: I call it a Davidweiss with the specific rules that it needs to be a wheat beer, use high AA hops but have low IBUs, contain some smokiness, and also contain a cluster **** of random flavors?

 

[daksin]

You planning on using smoked grains for it? I'm really not sure if I'll get any smoke flavor out of the hops with this recipe.

Yea, I'm not sure either. My recipe definitely has smoked malts- I don't really have the ability right now to smoke anything, so smoked hops are out.

 

[sidepart]

I have another update on the Smokey Al. Just racked it to the secondary fermentor. The highly active Wyeast strain left a lovely gelatinous ring around the top of my bucket.

I cold smoked the hops for a couple of hours prior to racking the beer. The citra smelled fantastic, nice citrus aroma. I smoked them with applewood chips, and it surprisingly did change the aroma profile of the hops. They really do smell like apples and lemons now. I think they're going to add a great aroma and flavor to the beer. We'll see how smokey it makes the flavor.

Here's a picture of the cold smoking process. At first it didn't seem to be doing much. Later on I got a spray bottle and spritzed the hops with some water. I figured the smoke would stick better then. After completing the process they were completely dried out again (which is good I think).

The sample of the beer that I took, came out to be at about 1.018 SG, so we're almost to my final gravity. I'll let it condition in the secondary for this week and see if it ends up where I want it. Bottling happens next week. The sample also tasted amazing, I was very surprised. I don't think I've had such a tasty (hefe)weizen before. I almost wanted to bottle it right there and hope it wouldn't change during the bottle conditioning phase. The blunt Simcoe punch was considerably muted as I had hoped. The citrusy flavors still remained however. It was accompanied by cloves and sweeter flavors (plum?), and maybe just a hint of banana. I honestly didn't detect much at all unless I aerated it (I got bubble gum all of a sudden, and I was certain of the previously vague banana flavor when I did that).

Hoping the dry hopping goes well, the smoke particles concern me, and I hope they don't infect the beer. If it does, I'll have made a huge mistake.

Also in process of making a label. It's not quite finished yet, but here's where I'm at.

 

[sidepart]

I nearly made the decision to bottle today but I'm going to wait. Took another sample. Still tastes fantastic. There might be some smoke but very hard to tell. I wanted subtle but it's maybe too subtle. So I'm going to leave it in the secondary for more time. I read 10 days minimum for dry hopping...it's only been 4.

Still getting 1.018 sg. The yeast is probably done. I might try a starter next time to see if I get better attenuation.

 

[sidepart]

Hope people don't mind me punting this thread by giving these updates. If it's not appreciated, I'll add them to the original post in the future.

Going to bottle tomorrow. Surprising the gravity dropped to about ~1.015 last Friday. I noticed the sample I took tasted even more smokier than it had previously. It's still subtle but it's not an uncertain flavor anymore. If you aerate it, you really do get the idea that there's smoke in the beer. I'm honestly surprised it worked.

Label is also finished...pending the final name for my "brewing" operation. Grillen is just the German version of my last name...not sure it's catchy enough.

Label (it's a little large).
Label on bottle (used the milk method).

 

[sidepart]

It's been at least 2 weeks since bottling and I've already run out of a full case of this stuff. I thought it was decent but I figure I'm biased. Everyone else friggin' LOVES this stuff, I had no idea it'd be this popular. Didn't even mention the smoked hops to people, I wanted to see if they could detect it, and everyone could. It was subtle and just right was the consensus. I thought I was just imagining things. The two "worst" responses I got were that the beer was "confusing" but in a delicious way.

Had some concerns early on because I primed the bottles for 4vols of CO2 (that's what I wanted, but too much for bottles to handle I later found). I ended up venting all of my bottles 3 days in to avoid bottle bombs. Still turned out great. Guess it's going to be around 3vols of CO2 it's really fizzy, but that's what I wanted.

The Knox gelatin adhesive I made for the labels is also working perfectly. Some labels are staying on even in the cooler (those that don't only partially come off). Soaking in hot water, they come off in minutes.

I fermented at about 77-78F...too hot, I couldn't control it. I can taste the banana (didn't really want that), but apparently it's not overpowering and people like the flavor it's at right now. I kind of want to try again with better temp control (get more clove flavor), but I'm not sure I want to fudge this recipe since it turned out to be a hit. Glad I documented EVERYTHING in my journal. This one's going into the folder of regular recipes.

If anyone wants to try my recipe for themselves, feel free. Reply or PM me if there are any questions.

Also...I did some research on the hole BJCP guidelines I was being pigeon holed on earlier. I can call this a hefeweizen with it having at least 50% wheat. I'm using a hefeweizen yeast. Those are the guidelines. It's a smoked hefeweizen. If it's not, show me where it says so: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style15.php

 

[ghpeel]

Fantastic! Congrats!

 

[rafaelpinto]

Right on, dude. I like the way you think. Ignore those bjcp guidelines. Make great beers and thats all. As Brewdog guys says: join the revolution!