AG Hefe - suddenly my confidence wanes

[Weizguy]

my 2 cents... I have been known to brew a few weizens, and my last keg went to the BItter and Twisted festival for the Hunter United Brewers club stand. It was well received, and the first keg to run dry on a warm Summer day.

I like the Wyeast W3638, but also had success and fun with W3068 and W3056.

I generally use a 60/40 wheat/barley grist (basic weizen, or sometimes add Munich/Vienna or Caramunich for complexity) and about 14 IBU of German noble hops, and a multi-step infusion mash, with a rest at 38°C to create some ferulic acid, a short rest at 52°C (IIRC) to break down the excess protein, and a final sacc. rest at 63°C, with a 76°C mash-out.
Ferment around 17-20°C and allow plenty of headspace (at least 30%).

The recipe I use for a Schneider-weisse style beer is in the recipe section and seems to be well-regarded by those of superior taste. lol

I believe the use of dextrose was mentioned as being particularly useful as a precursor for isoamyl acetate (banana character). Not sure of the link, but it's in AHB.

 

[beerbog]

allow plenty of headspace (at least 30%).

You're not wrong there, that's for sure.............. B)

 

[Kiwifirst]

Thanks for that link JD. Very interesting. I will think about running a single decoction on the next hefe based on that.

 

[Kiwifirst]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I enjoyed the discussion and hope to brew a better Hefe next time round. Thought I'd send you an update with the current batch being in keg for 2 weeks. Lovely colour, big creamy head and a perfect mix of banana and clove. Certainly not overpowering. I would consider this ideal for someone who hasn't tried Hefe's before or someone who has had bad experiences trying over powered bottle Hefe. Now just need my German friend to come round and try it to get a second opinion.

Things to improve on, slightly more banana, the opposite of what i was expecting and more body, it is slightly too thin. Currently drinking it at 8-9c which seems about right.

I was trying to add photo to this comment, but it was saying that jpeg wasn't an extension that was allowed?

Cheers everyone.

 

[carniebrew]

Without reading this entire thread (sorry if someone's called it out already), I highly recommend you under-pitch your yeast, 75% or less, and ferment at 17C. It makes for a fantastic hefe, almost identical to the commercial versions.

 

[Kiwifirst]

Yep been lots of talk about 17c and i think that I'll run a decoction rest on the next one to try and get some body..\

 

[Dan Pratt]

I listed my recipe on page 2 of this thread....grain to glass in 7days. Bloody tasty wheat beer.

 

[Kiwifirst]

Nice looking. I am enjoying mine as well. Needs a bit more body, but happy with the flavour. Tried to upload an image but it said it wouldn't accept a the jpeg format? Are you supposed to load to a gallery here first?

 

[Dan Pratt]

When I make my next one, Im sure to add 2% melanoiden malt to increase the body of the beer.

Also I willl be using th Mangrove Jacks M20 Bavarian Yeast strain to see how that goes as I collected one of these when i picked up the WB06, hope it ferments the same.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Nice looking. I am enjoying mine as well. Needs a bit more body, but happy with the flavour. Tried to upload an image but it said it wouldn't accept a the jpeg format? Are you supposed to load to a gallery here first?

nope just make sure its smaller than 2Mb

 

[Ditchnbeer]

I am really interested in making a great AG hefe and after much research I can suggest:
- adding a ferulic acid rest to yr mash schedule 43-45 degrees
- pitching at 17
After that its fiddling with small amounts of speciality grains to go with the pilsner & wheat malts, and different yeasts to build up on what you have created so far.

 

[Kiwifirst]

Pretty happy with this

Found out what i was doing wrong with the image. i was shortening the url link and it drops the .jpg which caused the site to not accept the extension (which there wasn't one on the shorten).

 

[Ditchnbeer]

nice one Kiwifirst...funny thing is that I have very similar photos of my brews

 

[Sprungmonkey]

quick question - I have never brewed a ag Hef but want to. Is there any reason why people use pilsner malt and not pale malt with the wheat? I currently have quite a bit of pale and was hoping to use some up making hef's

 

[carniebrew]

It'll make little difference, the Pilsner malt is mainly to keep the end colour light, as a hefe normally is. Go ahead and make it with your pale malt, especially if you're doing something like 60% wheat/40% pale. Keep in mind too most extract brewers use light DME/LME to make a hefe, rather than pilsner/extra light.

 

[Sprungmonkey]

Cheers carnie brew

 

[Kiwifirst]

Just thought I'd finish this thread with my tasting thoughts.

Backstory: never like Hefe or wheat beer in general. Went to Germany and had a very fresh Hefe and loved it. Realised totally different from bottled stuff.
Made my own, see above and drank it.

Result: the first three to four weeks worth were delicious and every thing I hoped for in my first Hefe attempt. After 4 weeks it started to go somewhat like bottled stuff, by the end of the keg I couldn't wait for it to end.

So, I either need to:

A: have more friends help with drinking the keg

B: drink more myself during that first four weeks

C: make less

But one thing is certain, a fresh Hefe is way better than a aged one.