What is wrong with my wheat beers!?

[YeastintheEast]

Hi all,

I've been brewing for several years now, but I have had very limited success with wheats. I love wheats, so I'd really like to correct this problem. I brew 17 liter batches, and I use about 2kg of wheat with 2kg of pale 2 row along with a few other grains for color/added abv. Always use wheat yeast; specifically Safbrew WB-06. I'm set up for batch sparging and typically sparge by hand for about 15 minutes. I should probably sparge longer, but time is always an issue with kids, family, etc. Anyways, I have very few problems with all other styles of beers. They all turn out great! But wheats always pose an issue for me. They never seem to turn out right. I bottle my home-brews, usually rack to secondary and give it about 3 weeks to a month fermenting time. When I finally get to crack one open, the color seems a bit off. The wheats look almost to have a pale tinge of green to them. It's barely perceptible, but something is just wrong with the way they look. Looks aside, the taste is the real problem. It's really hard to describe the taste and mouthfeel, so I can't specifically identify what off flavor I'm having. They taste a bit... thin? The alcohol is there, but the mouthfeel is just a little weak. They also seem to lack any character and kind of similar to carbonated water. They certainly don't taste good. I'm tired of wasting batches of wheats! Anyone have good experience with wheats or any tips I could try? Really appreciate it!

 

[Chrispy92]

I have two questions that I'm curious about,

What's your mash temp?

What's your fermentation temp?

Both of these will effect the mouthfeel and ester production (flavour characteristics) in wheats...

 

[Sammy86]

Along those lines I'll chirp in and ask why are you racking a wheat to secondary? They are supposed to be cloudy to begin with so my guess it you are losing a lot of your wheat beer flavor by racking.

 

[YeastintheEast]

Thanks for the replies. I try to keep my mash temp at about 67-69C. Fermentation temp is around 12C or so I'd reckon. As far as racking to secondary, I just find it easier for bottling later; didn't think it would affect the flavor or fullness of the beer that much. My other beers never seem to lose flavor from the secondary. Either way, ive hadn't issues with this when I don't rack to secondary as well.

 

[oldstyle69]

id say your temp on your fermentation is low. wb-06 can ferment at 12c, but ideally you want it up around 18. 12 is the lowest. id even go up to low 20s. with your mash temps, you should get a med body, maybe double check your equipment and make sure your temp probes are correct.

 

[Redtab78]

When u find out, let me know, because that is about the only style I just can't get down.

 

[chickypad]

Since the beer tastes watery I'm wondering if you're hitting your OG? Due to the smaller kernels wheat sometimes needs to be crushed finer, or double crushed to get good efficiency. What about your water/pH? Just trying to think of reasons why your wheats specifically would be a problem and since they are pretty much all base malt wondering if it's to do with high pH.

 

[Sadu]

I haven't made a good wheat yet either, despite being able to nail other styles.
I'm brewing one tomorrow. Going to try WLP300 this time, I'm sure my issues are yeast related. I did an OK wheatbeer with wb-06 but if you are having problems I think you should try WLP300 or Wyeast 3068 which are the goto strains.
Also, doesn't hurt to brew small when you are trying to dial in a recipe. I do 5 litres at a time until everything is right.

 

[motosapiens]

are you trying to make a bavarian style hefeweizen, or some other crappy boring wheat beer? I can't stand other wheat beers, so I don't know anything about them, but i have had good success with real hefeweizen, so the following tips are ONLY about real hefeweizen, not crappy boring wheat beer.

first, what is your OG, and FG, and what do you expect them to be?

i go about 60/40 wheat to pils (or munich), but 50-50 works fine too.
I do a phenolic rest at 111* for 20 mins before raising the temp to 152. Beers usually taste fine without this, but they have a little more character with it.
I ferment at 62*F. I've tried warmer, and it's fine, but more banana starts to show up. I've never tried lower than 62 (16 or so of your degrees), and I'm not sure why I would ever want to.
I only use 3068, because I lived not far from weihenstephan monastery, and I liked the beers in that area.

fwiw, regarding PH, hefeweizen (even light ones) are pretty tolerant of high mash ph that would make an esb taste very husky and tannin-ish. I wonder if LOW ph could be a problem.

to try to solve the problem I would do the following:
measure the OG and FG if you're not already doing so, and compare them to what is expected.
Ferment at a higher temperature.
Check your mash ph.

those are imho more likely to be the problem than the yeast, but if all those things check out, I would look at yeast too.

 

[Sadu]

are you trying to make a bavarian style hefeweizen, or some other crappy boring wheat beer? I can't stand other wheat beers, so I don't know anything about them, but i have had good success with real hefeweizen, so the following tips are ONLY about real hefeweizen, not crappy boring wheat beer.

Totally agree. For years I didn't know about this "American wheat" crap, and I'd buy beers that said "wheat beer" and wonder why they sucked most of the time compared to how I remember them in Germany.

Actually, even now that I do know what to look for it's still hard to get a good one. Even Paulaners and Franziskaners aren't always great by the time the make the voyage to New Zealand and sit in someone's hot warehouse for a few months.

Anyway, just finished brewing one tonight, 1G batch with 20 min rest at 111f then 1 hour at 152f. OG came a bit light at 1.043, I'm not sure why but I always get crappy efficiency when doing a step mash. pH landed at 5.5 so not too bad. Fermenting at 63f with WLP300, no aerating the wort. If this doesn't come out good I'm running out of ideas.

 

[Steveruch]

Anyway, just finished brewing one tonight, 1G batch with 20 min rest at 111f then 1 hour at 152f. OG came a bit light at 1.043, I'm not sure why but I always get crappy efficiency when doing a step mash. pH landed at 5.5 so not too bad. Fermenting at 63f with WLP300, no aerating the wort. If this doesn't come out good I'm running out of ideas.

Stop doing step mashes?