First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

[Invalid Stout]

My first wheat beer, hopefully if I start practising now I can get good at them by the time summer comes

Just doing 14L this time, partly because it's an experiment, but mostly because it saves on maths: I can have a grist of 1kg lager malt and 2kg wheat malt, hardly even need to get the scales out for that.

Giving it its first rest at 54º now. Then shall heat it up either by decoction or adding hot water, haven't decided yet. Wow, wheat malt smells weird. And why has my mash liquor turned to milk?

Mashing in a grain bag, so no fear of a stuck mash *taps side of nose sagely*

[mysterio]

Go for the decoction

Good luck with it, what yeast ?

[Invalid Stout]

Yeast is kidnapped from a bottle of Schneider Weisse

Waiting for it to cool now, haven't built a cooling coil yet but shouldn't take too long in this weather.

[WishboneBrewery]

and the hops would be...??? Hersbrucker?

[Invalid Stout]

errrr ... Nelson Sauvin and Liberty. Not authentic I know, but it's not hoppy beer anyway so I hope nobody will notice

[WishboneBrewery]

well at least Liberty has its parentage in Germany

[micmacmoc]

What recipe are you using? I made some for this 'summer' and its a bit disappointing but I'm wanting to have another go. I think I did something along the lines of 50/50 wheat malt and maris otter with hersbruker and munich yeast. I hink I may have fermented it a bit warm. I do want another go so any tips would be gratefully received!

[coatesg]

I do want another go so any tips would be gratefully received!

Use liquid yeast to get the required flavours - 3068/WLP300 is good stuff - great banana and clove. Control the temperature carefully - come prefer lower temps (eg pitch 13 and allow to rise to 17C), some higher (eg constant 19C-20C all the way through).

At least 50% wheat malt is the general rule - even 70/30 wheat/pilsner is fine though you may find it a bit tricky to sparge with higher percentages. You can add a touch of munich or melanoidin in there too.

Drink young and fresh!

[Invalid Stout]

Seems to have got wheat proteins burnt onto the element The beer in the sample tube tastes slightly scorched.

But I'm saving up for one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smmcude-8mU

[Invalid Stout]

Started drinking this at New Year. It's very intense, almost too wheaty for me really, it's quite amazing how much flavour the Schneider yeast can get out of the beer. Also extremely pale — I think I'll add some dark malt next time.

[WishboneBrewery]

4 Bottles of Schneider Weisse in the fridge waiting to be cultured up

[mysterio]

Definately going to try culturing up some Schneider for my next wheat... that's what i'm after, an intense wheaty hit

[Invalid Stout]

ironically enough the beer has cleared better than some of my pale ales!

[Barley Water]

Are you guys sure that the yeast used to carbonate is the same one used during the primary fermentation? The reason I ask is that a previous poster mentioned that his beer cleared which would be fairly rare if say WLP300 was used in primary. I was under the impression that some of the heffe producers in the Fatherland use lager yeast to carbonate their beers although I don't know what the situation is with that particular brand. For what it's worth, I add a little Munich malt to the grist when I make my heffe plus I also decoct which of course darkens it up a little also.

[mysterio]

Schneider do indeed bottle with their primary strain, I was surprised to learn this too