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First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 8:59 am
by Invalid Stout
My first wheat beer, hopefully if I start practising now I can get good at them by the time summer comes :D

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*

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:00 pm
by mysterio
Go for the decoction :D

Good luck with it, what yeast ?

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:22 pm
by 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.

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 8:41 pm
by WishboneBrewery
and the hops would be...??? Hersbrucker? :)

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 11:13 pm
by Invalid Stout
errrr ... Nelson Sauvin and Liberty. Not authentic I know, but it's not hoppy beer anyway so I hope nobody will notice :oops:

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:57 am
by WishboneBrewery
well at least Liberty has its parentage in Germany ;)

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:38 pm
by 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!

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 5:17 pm
by coatesg
micmacmoc wrote: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!

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:22 pm
by 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

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:38 pm
by 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.

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:47 pm
by WishboneBrewery
4 Bottles of Schneider Weisse in the fridge waiting to be cultured up :)

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:38 pm
by mysterio
Definately going to try culturing up some Schneider for my next wheat... that's what i'm after, an intense wheaty hit

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:38 am
by Invalid Stout
ironically enough the beer has cleared better than some of my pale ales!

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:00 am
by 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.

Re: First Hefeweizen 2009-12-10

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:28 am
by mysterio
Schneider do indeed bottle with their primary strain, I was surprised to learn this too :)