Tips for improving a wheat beer

[thisispants]

Hi, so I'm going to attempt my first wheat beer, a Hefeweizens to be precise.

It's a basic recipe, as it seems there's not as much room for experimenting if you want to make it to style.

Here's my recipe......

Holy Moly Hefeweizens (Weizen/Weissbier)
Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 3.5 (EBC): 6.9
Bitterness (IBU): 14.0 (Average)
50% Pilsner
50% Wheat Malt
0.9 g/L Hallertau Tradition (5.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 65°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes
Fermented at 20°C with Safbrew WB-06

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

Give me some tips! Please!

 

[manticle]

You chasing clove? Banana? Any commercial favourites you want to emulate?

 

[manticle]

Switch yeast to one of the liquids. There are a few - 3068 from wyeast, I can vouch for.

 

[thisispants]

Liquid yeast? cool, I've been meaning to try one for ages.

Do I have to make a starter for the white labs yeast? For a 14 litre brew it seems I can just tip it in with wyeast.

I have very little experience with wheat beers, however I drank a lot of it in Germany and enjoyed it....I guess I just want a fairly typical german wheat beer.

 

[slcmorro]

Just use a fresh Wyeast or Whitelabs pack will be fine. I tend to underpitch my wheats anyway, because stressed wheat yeast throws out awesome flavours (note - this doesn't work for 99% of other styles). If you want banana, ferment at 22-23c. If you want clove, ferment at 18-20c. If you want both, sit her at 21c and you'll be laughing. The yeast will grow like mad at any of those temps too, so I wouldn't stress about infection from lag time. Be prepared for a massive krausen!

I love me a good, fresh wheat beer.

 

[manticle]

Grist and hops looks spot on by the way. Yeast makes it, decoction helps.

 

[thisispants]

I'm doing a bit more research now, has anyone had good results from a single infusion mash?

I'm reading a lot of posts saying wheat beer benefits from a lower mash temp for 15-20 minutes before bringing the temp up....but will it be really terrible if I mash the whole way at about 65C?

 

[slcmorro]

It wont be bad at all doing single infusion. It could just be better doing a step mash and decoction. Go for it I say. I've done single infusion mashes before on wheats and they've come out great.

 

[warra48]

I've done both single infusion and single decoction mash, and each of them will give you good beer.

A decoction just deepens the maltiness of your beer. Depends what you are chasing. I don't like doing an early step mash, as I find it encourages too much clove.

Personally, I prefer to ferment at about 17 to 18ºC for a balanced beer between clove and banana, using WY3068.

I recommend a blow off tube, you will end up with a massive kraeusen.

 

[manticle]

I'm doing a bit more research now, has anyone had good results from a single infusion mash?

I'm reading a lot of posts saying wheat beer benefits from a lower mash temp for 15-20 minutes before bringing the temp up....but will it be really terrible if I mash the whole way at about 65C?

No not terrible at all. Yeast is key. Go the grist and hops you have, change the yeast (or use the wb dry) and tweak next time to preference. You can't know how to improve unless you know what you want to improve.

 

[Matplat]

Funnily enough i am planning the exact same recipe for this weekend except i have got munich yeast for the occasion. How have people attached a blow off tube without having to permanently put a hole in your fermenter lid? I am doing 23l in a 30l FV in the hope that the krausen won't make it...

 

[Dave70]

You can Amreicanize this recipe with Amarillo and US05 also. Fruity refreshing deliciousnesss. Good for folk who find wheats a bit - erm - 'yeasty', or in other words, guests.

 

[Screwtop]

For a big Bavarian Style Weissbier you grainbill and single infusion is fine, 16 IBU's from one 60 min addition. A single FRESH pack of 3068 and ferment at 22C for that nice banana and slight bubblegum ester.

German Beer Regions
German beer making has taken different paths in different parts of the country. Broadly speaking, beers become maltier as you travel from north to south and hoppier as you travel in the reverse direction. In addition, some styles have more than one, often regional, name. http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/styles.html

Screwy

 

[Coodgee]

For a big Bavarian Style Weissbier you grainbill and single infusion is fine, 16 IBU's from one 60 min addition. A single FRESH pack of 3068 and ferment at 22C for that nice banana and slight bubblegum ester.

how do you reckon 20 grams of simcoe dry hopped for the last 4 days of fermentation would go in this beer? seems like a nice combo of passionfruit and banana?

 

[slcmorro]

It'll probably taste nice, but certainly won't be a Euro style weizen. Euro styles use nothing but noble hops like Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang etc. What you'd end up making is a US hoppy wheat with Euro style yeast characteristics.

 

[Adr_0]

Amarillo and US05. Great, what a way to ruin what was a perfectly good wheat beer.

Assuming you use the 3068 or something similar, anyway.

I was going to make a couple of suggestions, but the best suggestion I have is to brew it as you have it above and enjoy the hell out of it.

 

[warra48]

How have people attached a blow off tube without having to permanently put a hole in your fermenter lid?

You need a hole to insert a grommet to hold a blowoff tube, or to insert it directly into the hole.Unfortunately, there's no other way.

I don't see it as a problem, as the only time I use my lid is for wheats. For other brews I use a couple of layers of clingwrap.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Amarillo and US05. Great, what a way to ruin what was a perfectly good wheat beer.

no, its a great way to make a wheat beer, american style. Personally I enjoy AW ale, its an excellent beer just doesn't have the euro aroma's. Mind you the Banana and clove sure does have its pro's.

 

[Weizguy]

You can Americanise this recipe with Amarillo and US05 also. Fruity refreshing deliciousness. Good for folk who find wheats a bit - erm - 'yeasty', or in other words, guests.

Can also modify by late hopping Amarillo and keeping the German yeast, as per a Vienna Weizen recipe from BYO magazine about 10 years ago.

I have used WB-06 only a few times and it never threw enough esters for my tastes.
Real German weissbier is generally formulated with 60-70 wheat malt, fwiw.
Your mash schedule appears fine.
Good luck and report your results here. Add your recipe to the database if you're happy with it.

 

[time01]

Also interested to hear how this turns out, seems like a very easy style to brew. One the best hefeweizen I had was in Prague funnily enough, and I'd just travelled through Bavaria