Help With My Hefe Pls

[Mickthe]

Hi all,

I've been doing lots of reading on here to help get up to speed and have been able to get up to an extract for Brew 9 - a Belgian Ale in the fermenter atm.

Besides being a grand hobby, i have turned to Brewing my own as i have expensive tastes in speciality beers and having been to Europe could not put up with commercial Oz beer for another second.

Anyhow stop waffling......it's Brew 8 i need help with!!

My Hefeweizen turned out ok but i think it has some flaws, it started out a Morgans GS Wheat Kit + 750g Dry Wheat Malt (55% wheat and 45% barley malt) + 300g Dextrose + Hersbrucker finishing Hops. Tbs of dissolved flour and Wb-06 yeast with 20c primary ferment temp. No racking and then Carbed after 2 and a bit weeks on 20/01/10 with carb drops as i wanted plenty of bubbles.

Taste samples were initially good, and colour came out perfect cloudy of course, and aroma seemed not bad.

BUT i knew something was not quite right on first taste this week, hadnt had a wheat for ages, so got a Schofferhoffer and did a side by side tasting. Wow, what a beer it is!! :icon_drool2:

It was a lot creamier than mine, spicier aroma with less dominant banana, fuller body, creamy....did i mention creamy.... ever so slight clove/nutmeg taste and hop taste i can't discern with my simple palate.

My beer has a very definite banana aroma, a good head is present if not great for a wheat, and initial taste is ok but then a very crisp finish i don't like, damn that....is that the Dextrose? It is very def drinkable though.

I know that you can't brew something like the commercial version without maybe doing AG....BUT....what can i do to improve my next attempt?

A) Drop the Dex and sub in all Wheat Malt or use 200g Maltodextrin?
B Ferment at 18c (if possible in summer with no brew fridge)
C) Use a liquid yeast? ( I do like the simplicity of dry yeast so far, have used US-05, S-04, WB-06, T-58 etc )
D) Grain steep?
E) Ditch the kit and do extract which i am comfortable with...... Hallertau/Northern Brewer for bittering....etc
F) Just ask Santa for a case of Schofferhoffer for XMAS instead.......no scratch F it's too far away is xmas!

Thanks in advance, and thanks already to all for recipe bits that i used to make a damn nice pale ale and 2 stouts so far, in only 8 brews. (My first two were horrid but i hadn't seen this site or even been in a LHBS at that stage)

Mick.

 

[Flash_DG]

A) Drop the Dex and sub in all Wheat Malt or use 200g Maltodextrin? yeah ditch the dextrose add wheat or barley malt
B) Ferment at 18c (if possible in summer with no brew fridge) I brewed my wheat at 20c and it was a fantastic beer
C) Use a liquid yeast? ( I do like the simplicity of dry yeast so far, have used US-05, S-04, WB-06, T-58 etc ) Liquid!!! I use Wyeast Weihenstephan Weizen 3068 and love the flavours it imparts.
D) Grain steep? if you like
E) Ditch the kit and do extract which i am comfortable with...... Hallertau/Northern Brewer for bittering....etc as long as the kit isn't pre-hopped I don't see a problem
F) Just ask Santa for a case of Schofferhoffer for XMAS instead.......no scratch F it's too far away is xmas! Do it anyway

I did this recipe Wheat , Very easy and simple beer

 

[aking]

looking at doing a similar thing (extract) at the moment the local HBS said that due to its very nature wheat beer is the hardest to pull off without going all grain. You can get a number of attributes but will never pull off the real thing like you can with some other styles. So i will update this as we go but doing it with 2 cans of morgans wheat but apparently all the wheat stuff you buy off the shelf even the dry stuff is only 60% wheat at best. Using some pale grain for steeping and using a whitelabs liquid yeast.

Hope the weather stays calm and my old school towel and water fridge system works.

 

[Mickthe]

Thanks for the tips guys

This might be a dumb question but with the 3068 liquid (Weihenstephan) i wouldn't get flavours going well towards an actual Weihenstephan?

It's a very interesting beer to taste but i find it quite overpowering in it's aroma and flavours. In addition to 3068 i think there is also a Bavarian Wheat liquid yeast - which one has less prominent banana tones (like the schoff) ??

Cheers

Mick.

 

[Flash_DG]

Thanks for the tips guys

This might be a dumb question but with the 3068 liquid (Weihenstephan) i wouldn't get flavours going well towards an actual Weihenstephan?

It's a very interesting beer to taste but i find it quite overpowering in it's aroma and flavours. In addition to 3068 i think there is also a Bavarian Wheat liquid yeast - which one has less prominent banana tones (like the schoff) ??

Cheers

Mick.

Yeast alone isn't going to make it taste like another beer

I haven't tried the Bavarian yeast yet

 

[goomboogo]

Welcome aboard Mick. I would disagree that you have a simple palate. The flavour descriptions are quite detailed and you seem to have a clear idea of what you want in a particular beer.

You didn't mention the finishing gravity but if the beer is a little thin on the finish then definitely sub out the dextrose. Equal weight sub with dry wheat extract.

As far as yeast goes I am a little surprised that you got so much banana from the Wb-06. You are right about the existence of the Bavarian Wheat (wyeast 3638) but you may find this throws significant amounts of banana/bubblegum. Another liquid option is 3333 German Wheat. Fermented at 18c as you mentioned, it will give a more subtle flavour profile. Also, it may attenuate slightly less which may suit your goal.

Keep tweaking your extract beers but I get the impression from your posts that mash brewing may in your near future.

 

[aking]

i am going to try mine with the following yeast

WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale Yeast
Large clove and phenolic aroma and flavor, with minimal banana. Refreshing citrus and apricot notes. Crisp, drinkable hefeweizen. Less flocculent than WLP300, and sulfur production is higher.
Attenuation: 73-80%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 66-70F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

So will find out how it goes

 

[Mickthe]

Thanks again,

Just did another tasting and the banana is actually not strong in tasting, to start with i might just do a smaller extract batch with no Dextrose, i think it may be close to what i am after.....

If it isn't i will try one of the liquid yeasts, and then i can compare flavours.

Mick.

 

[aking]

so thus far 2 cans of goo mogans wheat extract, one boiled for 60mins with 20g of hallertau and another 20g for 10 mins an added the last can just before flameout. dropped it down to 21deg and pitched sitting at 18deg now in a wet towel and cold water. OG was 1060 which seemed high but will see what the yeast can do with it.

So will keep updating as it goes.

 

[aking]

so it went into the fermenter sunday and there is pressure building in the air lock so by the end of today it should be bubbling away, these liquid yeasts have been generally slow to start but then power away.