Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier

[Lugsy]

Hi all

I'm planning on brewing my first wheat beer on Saturday to make a change from my usual hop-driven brews. I got "Clone Brews" for my birthday and the Paulaner looked like a good place to start. The recipe calls for 2400g malted wheat, 2200g Belgian pale malt and 113g dark Munich malt for a 19 litre brew length. My first question is can I substitute Pilsner malt for the pale? I have Weyermann's Bohemian Pilsner malt and also Weyermann's Premier Pilsner malt to choose from or I could go with Maris Otter.

I have a vial of White Labs WLP300 (my first liquid yeast!) on its way from the Malt Miller, it has an expiry date of 6/8/11 according to the website. I've read advice on here that stressing the yeast by pitching the vial rather than making a starter produces better flavours, any thoughts?

Lastly, what temperature is best for the ferment? I have an aquarium heater that I use in a water bath that I put my fermenter in, this is in my cellar so I can control temperatures down to about 14C with an accuracy of about +/- 1C. Am I best off fermenting at the recommended 20-22C or keeping it lower at 18C or so?

I do BIAB so there's no need to worry about stuck sparges and rice hulls

Cheers!

[greenxpaddy]

Morning

Bohemian Pilsner Malt will make a lighter colour wheat beer. Premier not quite so light but still lighter than pale malt.

I wouldn't use Maris Otter for weissbier if you want a classic taste.

My latest wit I started at 14 degrees c for 3 days slightly underpitched as I use a std 5gallon pitch for a 7 gallon FV. day 4-5 16 degrees c. Now rising it to 19 degrees.

this is based upon advice given on this board for may last brew and it turned out very nice indeed.

[borischarlton]

Lugsy,

The belgian pale malt that I have in is EBC 9, I believe this is standard. So it is quite allot darker than any Pils or Maris Otter. I have just kegged an English style beer with it and it is far removed from Maris Otter,more malty. This is only my initial findings and the beer is not up to condition yet.

Rob

[ChuckE]

Ah- hefe weissbier!
I always come back to my first love.
A staple in my house... and there's one fermenting at the moment.

Sure you can use pilsner malt.
Many weizen recipes actually call for it.

Fermentation temp- for this yeast-
-if you want more clove flavors, ferment @ 17 degrees.
-if you want more banana flavors, ferment @ 21 degrees.

Warning- this yeast can be explosive.
You may want to use a blow-off.

edit- drink it fresh for better flavor.

[Hamish]

The good thing about wheat beer yeast is the flavours it throws off when fermented at different temperatures. I think you'll get the desired flavours without stressing it and just by controlling the temperature.

If you consider WLP300 isn't commercial brewers yeast that is fermented in ideal conditions and constantly being re-pitched, also the manufacture date and time its taken to travel, I think when you pitch it'll be stressed enough.

Temperature control is something I've just started to play about with. My latest wheat beer was fermented at 16°C give or take 1°C. Its still maturing but smells more like a German wheat beer than any other I've brewed and tastes pretty good too, quite clove like.

[Lugsy]

Thanks for all the replies. So, if I'm using pilsner malt instead of the Belgian pale should I add more of the dark munich to boost the maltiness and the colour a bit? Maybe double it up to 226g or even more? Pitching the vial of WLP300 without a starter will be fine then? Now all I have to decide is whether to go with the cloves or the bananas. Or maybe make a second batch in a couple of weeks so I can try both fermentation temperatures

[symptomlesscoma]

Did that exact recipe from clone brews myself last year, gonna do it again in a couple of brews. It turned out great.
I used Pilsner Malt instead of belgian pale, I'd just leave the Munich malt at the amount it says on recipe otherwise it'll turn out quite a bit different than Paulaner.
But if u dont want an exact Paulaner clone, what the hey, throw more munich in. It'll still end up great.

[Lugsy]

Hi symptomlesscoma

Thanks for that, I'll just substitute the Belgian pale for Premier pilsner and leave the munich alone. I don't really want to play around with too many variables all at once TBH, next time I'll try to get my malt order right though and not do it all in a rush

[Lugsy]

Well, I brewed this yesterday but made a couple of really stupid errors

Firstly, I used CaraMunich III which I had assumed was what Dark Munich is, only to find out this morning that they are entirely different. It's only 113g so I'm hoping I'll get away with it although the colour is going to be darker.

Secondly, I set up my fermenter in a builders trug water bath in the cellar and then couldn't find my aquarium heater . It was getting late by this point so I gave up looking and left it to it until this morning. I checked the temperature this morning and it was down to 15C, finally found my heater and realised that it only goes down to 20C! So it looks like I'm going for a more banana flavour on this one, not the clove flavour that I'd decided on.

Oh, and my efficiency was well down for some reason and I only ended up with 17 litres at 1.052 instead of the 19 litres at 1.054 that I'd hoped for. Not the best brewday, especially as I had a friend over who I was supposed to be showing how easy AG is!

Now I'm waiting for any sign of yeast activity and hoping I haven't screwed up too badly

[Lugsy]

Well my first signs of yeast activity took until Monday when a thin krausen developed. Just did my first hydrometer sample, I'm down to 1.022. It turns out that my aquarium heater is a little off the mark so when it's turned down to 20C I'm getting a temperature reading of 18C which is better for me, I'm getting a lot of clove but more pineapple than banana. I was going to rack to secondary tomorrow but now I'm thinking of leaving it to drop a little lower and rack it to secondary on Monday before bottling next weekend. Any thoughts?

[Beer O'Clock]

Any thoughts?

Not much between the meaning of life and the origin of the Universe

[leedsbrew]

Itll still be a cracking beer matey. I've got two wheats ready for the bottle, a jefe and a dunkel. I used caramunich III in the here and it's turned out great. You'll have down yourself a favour by not sticking in the heater straight away. I always chill my here wort down to 15 then pitch as it stresses the little buggers to throw off some great flavour. I think it was brave not making a starter but it seems to have paid off!

Your efficiency is down because of the volume of wheat! I always knock my expected efficiency back to 70-75% when I'm doing a wit or hefe!

I don't usually bother with a secondary until it's reached FG then transfers to the bottling bucket!

Hope it turns out well!

LB

[Lugsy]

Well it looks like the beer gods were looking after me with this one then if my mistakes were all in the right direction!

I have to admit I was getting a bit nervous when there was still no visible activity after 36 hours! My yeast was really fresh (many thanks to Rob at themaltmiller) and actually had a best before date of early September so it can't have been more than three or so weeks old so I decided against making a starter. I've just got ten 1/2 litre Erlenmeyer flasks off ebay for £20 so I'll be making my first attempt at yeast harvesting when I come to bottling. I'm too mean to justify using a liquid yeast for just one beer when it costs as much as the malts!

Thanks for the reassurance leedsbrew, I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

[Lugsy]

I did a second hydrometer sample on Sunday and it was only down to 1.020, I've just checked again and it's dropped to 1.014 so not far away from bottling now. It still has a fair bit of krausen, do I need to wait for it to drop before I bottle or will it just hang around for ever like US-05?

The taste is almost overpoweringly cloves, a bit like TCP Is it worth cranking up the heat to say 21C or is it too late to change now? I'm hoping it mellows out pretty quickly as I'm not sure I like it much at the moment but then it is only 10 days old.

[ChuckE]

No need to wait for the krausen to drop.
The hydrometer will tell you when it's done.

And sure, bump up the temp a bit.
Most of the fermentation is done, but you may still get some bananas....
It's not gonna hurt-

I went the other way with my weizen.
Too much banana- not enough cloves.