Style Of The Week 13/9/06 - Weizen

[Weizguy]

I have bottled in PET with this style and it seems OK to me.

Even with a contaminated beer, never had a PET bottle of weizen explode.

Also use 500 ml Euro-stubbies. Have also used reserved/frozen wort to carbonate weizen. Seems to improve foam/ bubble quality.

 

[kaiserben]

Cheers guys!

Have also used reserved/frozen wort to carbonate weizen. Seems to improve foam/ bubble quality.

During my research I saw you mention this and I reckon I'll give it a go.

Is there a formula/way to figure out how much I should use to achieve a certain volume of CO2?

 

[Weizguy]

Cheers guys!

During my research I saw you mention this and I reckon I'll give it a go.

Is there a formula/way to figure out how much I should use to achieve a certain volume of CO2?

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but cannot be bothered to look.

I usually check the amount of malt that is required to produce the desired carbonation level for my volume of beer, in Beersmith (or other beer calculator). Call it x grams.
Then I measure the s.g. of the reserved wort, and create a new beer recipe with only malt extract and the volume of the reserved wort and keep adjusting the amount of extract until the 'new beer' recipe is the appropriate gravity at the relevant volume.
Then it's some simple maths to work out how much of your reserved wort is required to provide the x grams of reserved wort to carbonate your beer to the desired level.

Volume required = Weight of malt required/ Weight of malt in the reserved wort X Total reserved wort volume

 

[kaiserben]

Could anyone (Les perhaps?) gimme a quick rundown of your preferred yeasts and what sort of cell count is required?

I'm brewing this weekend and haven't organised my yeast yet. Dunno that a liquid yeast (<100bn cells) will be a large enough pitch and might be pushing it for time to create a starter.

I was looking at WLP351 (seemed to be popular amongst the strains I can easily get my hands on).

 

[Matplat]

I pitched a smack pack of 3068 into 23l of 1.046 without a starter, finished at 1.008 with no effort. Smack pack was 2 months old....

 

[Topher]

I use wb06 dried yeast. Tried one of the whitelabs and didn't care for it. Too sweet and bananary.

Last one with the wb went down to 1006 and I just chucked it in the cube for ferment - no oxygen, no transfer to fementer, not even any rehydration. I take alot more care with my other beers......but hefeweizens with this yeast seem to love the abuse.

 

[Reman]

I've used wb06, wlp380 and wlp400 (wit) all direct pitched without a starter. All used a 42-67-78 step mash.

Wb06 and wlp400 turned out very good, nice clove. Wlp380 went wild on the bubblegum. So it may depend on what sort of hefe you like.

As topher said, I think hefe yeasts like a bit of abuse and under-pitching seems a regular practice for those who brew them often.

 

[Weizguy]

Could anyone (Les perhaps?) gimme a quick rundown of your preferred yeasts and what sort of cell count is required?

I'm brewing this weekend and haven't organised my yeast yet. Dunno that a liquid yeast (<100bn cells) will be a large enough pitch and might be pushing it for time to create a starter.

I was looking at WLP351 (seemed to be popular amongst the strains I can easily get my hands on).

Any of the appropriate wheat beer yeasts (weizen or wit, depending on what you want to brew). I find the WB-06 yeast underwhelming, and mostly have experience with the Wyeast range (W3068 and W3638). Although, I really enjoyed the James Squire wheat, brewed with WLP300.
Just pitch a single starter bag or tube, after sanitising the outside packaging.
That should be a good start. WLP351 will do the job as well as any...

 

[kaiserben]

Cheers everyone.

I've used WLP300 in a Roggenbier (happy with that, but it wasn't exactly a sessionable - though that was probably more to do with the viscosity from 50% rye rather than the yeast/ferment). I'l, probably try the WLP300 again at some stage, but keen to try the WLP351 this weekend.

Red Hill Wheat Beer is the only Australian-made wheat that has really impressed me. Generally I'm a fan of German dunkelweizens, but Stortebeker Roggen-Weizen would have to be my favourite of anything mostly wheat.

 

[kaiserben]

Update:

I bottled the hefe the other day and there was hardly any yeast on the bottom of the fermenter (still obvious yeast there, just not even close to the amount with non-wheat yeasts). Gravity had got all the way down to 1.007 from 1.044. That's apparent attenuation of 84.09% and seems way too high.

My main mash step was 63C, and that seems way too low (used WLP351), so now I was worried it might be infected. Ferment temps were 3 days at 17C, then 10 more days at 24C.

I had been sipping on a saison, and started to convince myself that the weizen had the same smell/taste about it. Hopefully it was my mind playing tricks on me. I bottled anyway and will give it 1 week before putting the lot in a fridge and drinking asap.

Thoughts?

 

[Droopy Brew]

Low mash temp will give you the high attenuation so a finish at 1.007 doesnt appear to be extrordinary.

The saison qualities are likely to be due to the phenolics thrown by weizen yeasts (although I have no experience with this strain) I would have thought with 10 days at 24C you would be getting a lot of banana esters overpowering the phenols.

Or it could be infected with lacto giving you the sour /spicy characers. Hard to tell without tasting it. See if it gets worse I guess.

 

[kaiserben]

Yeah. Although the first few days of intense ferment activity was controlled temps at 17C. So it might just be that I didn't treat the yeast poorly enough for banana.

 

[kaiserben]

Next one will be a dunkelweizen and I'll have it at 24C from go to woah.

 

[Fendercaster]

Hey All,
First time post for me. Been brewing for a little now (extract on a keg setup) Looking at putting a wheat brew down this week and would love some input.
Any recipe suggestions or a base to work on.
I am looking at doing a partial mash (steep) for this one too as i haven't done one yet but the process looks strait forward with a good result.
Cheers

 

[kaiserben]

Update 2:
Now drinking the batch and the resulting hefeweizen is spectacular.

 

[Weizguy]

Hey All,
First time post for me. Been brewing for a little now (extract on a keg setup) Looking at putting a wheat brew down this week and would love some input.
Any recipe suggestions or a base to work on.
I am looking at doing a partial mash (steep) for this one too as i haven't done one yet but the process looks strait forward with a good result.
Cheers

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU

3.20 kg DME Wheat Bavarian (Muntons, or other brand) (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 100.0 %
28.00g Saaz [4.00%] (60 min) Hops 14.1 IBU
10.00g Saaz [2.50%] (5 min) Hops 0.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) [Starter 500 ml] Yeast-Wheat

No need for a partial mash with this one, especially if you only plan to steep, as there will be little to no benefit. Can substitute other wheat yeast varieties, but this is the Classic yeast (same as WLP300- WhiteLabs)

 

[Weizguy]

No-chilled for 2 days, and pitched with a 1 litre culture today, and into the fridge (not absolutely easy to lift 40+ kg about a metre high into a fridge, as the SS olive oil fusti is too large for the fridge door to close when on the lower shelf ).

Should be ready to keg by the new year... Yay!

 

[Fendercaster]

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU

3.20 kg DME Wheat Bavarian (Muntons, or other brand) (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 100.0 %
28.00g Saaz [4.00%] (60 min) Hops 14.1 IBU
10.00g Saaz [2.50%] (5 min) Hops 0.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) [Starter 500 ml] Yeast-Wheat

No need for a partial mash with this one, especially if you only plan to steep, as there will be little to no benefit. Can substitute other wheat yeast varieties, but this is the Classic yeast (same as WLP300- WhiteLabs)

Really appreciate your reply. I came to the understanding of not needing to steep the further i looked into the wheat brews. I ended up getting an ESB brand extract. Bavarian style Wheat. My LHBS recommended it to me, all hopped ready to go. I grabbed a Wb-06 yeast. I think this should get me into a good starting spot for Wheat beers. Then maybe expand from here.

 

[Fendercaster]

So i have kegged my brew aftwr 2 weeks. Forced carbed. Cleaned very well. Pitched high, around 28c. Settled down to 22. Tasted it and its a nice start. Very wheat characteristics, but then i have a sour finish. Almost tart. Any thoughts?

 

[Weizguy]

Sour in what way, please? Acetic/ vinegar sour, or lactic/ yoghurt sour, or other (please describe)?