Wheat beer came out light

[mcurtis431]

My second all grain batch I attempted a Hefe. I followed a recipe I found here using 5# pale malt and 3.2# wheat malt. I hit my gravity almost to a tee so I assumed everything would be great. When I racked to the secondary I got a little nervous because it seemed a little light. I bottled couple weeks later. About 8 days in the bottle and decided to try one. The color is very light, similar to a Coors light and it taste like a light beer. I am trying to troubleshoot what I may have done wrong. There are a couple of things that I did not do and that is that I did not do a protein rest and and did not sparge with rice hulls. Being new to all grain brewing and brand new to brewing with wheat malt, any advice will be much appreciated.

 

[veritas524]

From your grain bill it sounds like the color is about right, the more important question is what type of yeast did you use as that is where you're going to get your flavor from.

 

[shanecb]

I've tried a number of hefe recipes that are just pale malt and wheat, and was never happy with them as well (much in the way you are describing). The grain bill just always seemed underwhelming, and really not that much like some of the best commercial hefes. The solution for me... Munich malt! Anywhere from 10-15% of the grain bill. It really helps get that rich color and malt backbone that I like in a number of commercial hefes. I don't have any of them on hand, but even some clone recipes I've seen use Munich (I think Paulaner was one of them).

 

[williamnave]

I'm no expert, and if I'm wrong someone chime in because I'd like to know.

Without the protein rest, you're giving away some of the 'hazy' character. Wheat beers 'seem' darker because they're so cloudy, not clear. Rice hulls generally are used with wheat because it's very 'gummy' in texture when you mash it, and very prone to channeling without the hulls to break up the mass.

As for flavor/aroma the yeast if the bulk of that. What yeast did you use?

 

[BucksPA]

it also seems like you mashed too low. i mash my wheats at 154 for more body (think blue moon or hooegaarden). Mash at 151-152 if you want less body. as mentioned above, rice hulls are only so you dont get a stuck sparge. I have found that over the years, brewing wheats have become more and more challenging to hit time and time again. I can nail an IPA 95% of the time, but ask me to brew a wheat twice with the same consistency and I won't be able to do it.

 

[WVbrewer]

In my experience a protein rest with wheat malt improves my extraction, and actually makes for a clearer beer...not hazy

 

[mcurtis431]

I used Wyeast Weihenstephan Weizen 3068. I mashed at around 152 so that could by part of the issue. I also agree that the grain bill is a little underwhelming. Does anyone have a better yeast recommendation?

 

[OLDBREW]

3068... that to me is the best bavarian banana/clove hefe yeast you could ask for.

if you want some apricot/pear/apple/bubble gum notes then try 3638

If you are making a german hefe you are way short on the amount of german wheat malt. try 60-70% wheat, then lesser amount german pils malt. don't try to sub american/canadian malts for a german hefe. Decoction is the best mash process, or use some melanoidin malt and go for a 90 min. single infusion rest of 150*F if you decide that you're not going to do a decoction mash.