Three questions about brewing Wheat Beer

[JCU]

It's my first attempt at brewing a basic wheat beer (Hefeweizen style). I'd like to use the simplest brewing method to reduce problems and I have three questions:-

Ingredients for a 65 Litre batch size using a 90 litre Mash Tun stock pot with grain filtre, there is a team of three brewers here!
-6.25KG Wheat (UK)
-6.25KG German Pilsner malt
-50g Hallertau Hersbrucker hops

Q1. Which dry yeast would you recommend; Safale, Danstar or Mangrove Jack?

Q2. Are there benefits/issues using Pale Maris Otter malt in place of the German Pilsner malt?

Q3. Do I have to perform a step-mash?


Thanks

JCU

[Will.1973]

Watching this with interest as my first brew will be a wheat beer in Grainfather

[Sadfield]

Q1. Which dry yeast would you recommend; Safale, Danstar or Mangrove Jack?

Danstar Munich and MJ Bavarian Wheat M20 have both worked for me in the past.

Q2. Are there benefits/issues using Pale Maris Otter malt in place of the German Pilsner malt?

If it saves buying in Pilsner, it will do the job.

Q3. Do I have to perform a step-mash?

A single step infusion will work. An easy and better idea is a step infusion with a Ferulic Acid rest around 45c for 10-15minutes, that will enhance the phenolic spice, then add more water to hit mash temp around 66c. Protein rests are not required with modern grain and a full on decoction mash is probably more trouble than its worth.

[Rookie]

Q1. Which dry yeast would you recommend; Safale, Danstar or Mangrove Jack?
Q2. Are there benefits/issues using Pale Maris Otter malt in place of the German Pilsner malt?
Q3. Do I have to perform a step-mash?
Thanks

Q1. Why not split it into thirds and use each on a third?
Q2. Either one will work
Q3. No

[Jocky]

Q1. Which dry yeast would you recommend; Safale, Danstar or Mangrove Jack?

Q2. Are there benefits/issues using Pale Maris Otter malt in place of the German Pilsner malt?

Q3. Do I have to perform a step-mash?

1. I think you'll get good results with any. I quite liked the Safale when I used it, but I haven't used the others.

2. MO has a stronger, deeper flavour than pilsner - not overpowering, but it makes a slight difference. MO will still make a wheat beer, but it won't be just like a traditional hefeweizen.

3. No, you don't have to.

You may have seen a suggestion to do either a 'protein rest' or a 'beta glucan rest' when using wheat.
Wheat malt as is traditional in a hefeweizen does not need either of these.
It's only unmalted wheat such as flaked or raw wheat that may need a beta glucan rest to help avoid it gumming up the mash, and possibly a quick protein rest to avoid an overly heavy body... but I've never found it an issue myself, even when brewing with 45% flaked wheat and 5% oats in a brew last year.

The only thing I might suggest is getting some oat husks from the malt miller (or another shop) and throwing in 200g of those. Wheat malt has no husk itself, and using a lot of it can cause a stuck mash, so adding the husks helps. If you can't get them don't sweat it, just lauter slowly to avoid suction on the mash compacting it and forming a solid block.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I have not used a dry wheat beer yeast that I did not like. WB06 made my best one, but I have made good beers with mauribrew Weiss in the past.

Check your liquor ratios. I BIAB, and 90L vessel isn't enough to yield 65L into the FV.

You are doing a sparge so you should be fine, but double check your liquor calls.

[Frothy]

My favourite beer (free raw wheat from the barn)
Get a good crush on the wheat, its a PITA with my Corona hand mill but many hands make light work etc.

Either malt is good, I tend to use pale as it's what I've got to hand and my beers are generally a bit ale-y but if you like the commercial stuff go as light as you can.

I do a simple double infusion mash, mainly to try and get my efficiency up rather than to avoid a stuck mash (never had one even with my basic copper manifold coolbox mash tun even and 50% raw wheat)
1st infusion 1L/kg to get 50oC+ for B-glucan rest for 45 minutes. Then 2nd infusion, using boiling water to keep the total vol <2.5L/kg, 65oC for 1hr.
65oC is enough to gelatanize the wheat starch in situ without pre-cooking and I've had success with just single infusion for 1hr at 65oC.

My favourite yeast or a generic whear beer is Safale T-58, has some good complex taste but I think for a true hefe you want a yeast that is low flocculation and will drink in the glass.

Whats your target IBU's? I go low <15IBU's for a my 5% beer.



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[gnorwebthgimi]

I just brewed my first proper Wheat beer (I had some trials long ago)

A couple of points for you:

1) I used pale malt, no problem for flavour but I noticed it upped the EBC on the recipe whereas pilsner will give you a lighter colour beer. I was worried about issues with stuck mashes I have heard about with pilsner and I couldn't be bothred to make the effort to get in pilsner malt specially for this.

2) my recipe was over 55% wheat malt, 9% torrified wheat and 36% pale malt. It has a deep tatse of wheat, the colour is still a bit deep but I hit over 5% abv.

3) I brewed it quite warm (hitting about 22'c). Not only did the WLP300 climb out of the damn fermenter like nothing I have seen before but it also gave of some very strong banana aromas. However it's way more clovey and wheaty in taste (still early days though).

4) I used hallertauer mittlefruh hop, quite subtle. I was tempted to use Saaz.

The only fault I have is unlike most of my other beers this one lacks head, and I mean this beer has no head!

Many of the beers I normally make have to be poured carefully or they can turn to a pint of cloud. I have attributed this to a lack of body in the beer (it's hitting about less than 1.010, whereas I normally make full bodied ales with body between 1.015 to 1.020 (and about 6% abv).

If I were to try and improve it:

Mash a few degrees hotter, dial back on the wheat malt a little and add sugar to make up a bit of the alcohol lost to higher final gravity.

[roscoe]

just to echo the point have some oat husks or rice hulls to aid mash circulation, how much depends on how fine the crush is, or if crush your own grain you could condition the wheat/pilsner a bit but I fine that too much faff and rollers need cleaned/dried to avoid mould ball forming

with the GF you really want to keep an eagle eye on first part of mash to see the bed is formed and there is flow, last batch I did had the mud pie effect and the thermal cutout tripped before a good stir & extra husks were added.

WB-06 as dried yeast has good results, never tried the other dried ones you mention

[DaveGillespie]

From my experience

1 - None of the dry yeasts are really adequate for a Hefeweizen. You would be best off doing a direct pitch with a liquid yeast (eg. WLP300), don't bother making a starter.

2 - Are there benefits/issues using Pale Maris Otter malt in place of the German Pilsner malt?

Pilsner malt is less well modified and so will allow you to get something from a couple of lower temp steps in you mash schedule (Rests around 43c and 55c).

3 - Do I have to perform a step-mash?

Ideally, yes. Hefeweizens are very simple beers in terms of the recipe and to get the best out of them you really need to be doing steps below 60c. My efforts never really hit the mark until I started step mashing. However, you'll still produce decent beer if you don't.

[JCU]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

We brewed as simply as possible; with German Pilsner malt, Danstar Munich dry yeast (5 packets for 65 litres FV), no step-mash.

The result is a bog standard wheat beer, nothing flash but a good start. However, the beer has turned from Hefeweizen to Kristallweizen. I've read on websites and forums that the keg should be shaken to reointroduce the yeast sediment back into the beer, would you recommend this and does it work?

Thanks agan,

JCU