Simple Hefeweizen recipe + questions

[HopIt]

I am going to do a simple Hefeweizen recipe for the first time. Previously done mostly american style pale hoppy beers.

Lager Malt 2.5 EBC 2500 grams 50%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 2500 grams 50%

Liberty Whole 4 % 60 mins 30 grams 60%
Liberty Whole 4 % 10 mins 20 grams 40%

Danstar Munich

Saccharification rest 66.7°C / 152°F - 60 minutes
Mashout 76.7°C / 170°F - 10 minutes

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 5% ABV
Bitterness: 15 EBU
Colour: 5 EBC

I have a few questions:

1) What ph should the mash be done at? I'm assuming about 5.1-5.5, same as normal pale ales

2) Should I try and stress the yeast to produce some desirable flavours? Think I've heard that under pitching and/or pitching cold (12°C then raising to normal temps for the main ferment) will benefit the flavour. Are there any simple things I can do around this area? I don't want the complexity of a multi step mash.

3) I assume the general fermentation temp should be around the 18/19°C mark?

4) I assume I need to crash cool quickly the same as with pale ales before pitching?

[Kev888]

I'm not sure about the PH, I tend to use about 5.5 for mine but thats based on no knowledge really. I do however under-pitch - they reckon something like 0.75 million cells per ml per degree plato for ales, I go with 0.2 for hefes - though thats with WLP300 I'm not sure how other yeasts would like it. I also try to pitch lower as you say (in my case say 15c) and then warm to 20c - though with my setup and batch sizes its hard to do that in the summer so sometimes its a bit warmer to begin with.

Rapid crash cooling the hot wort often isn't possible for me in any case, but I go through the usual motions with the IC as for a bitter or something. On the one hand its not supposed to be clear so theres no point trying to obsessively make it sparkle, but on the other hand I like to at least delude myself that the haze is mostly from the yeast. I don't tend to crash cool the finished beer before bottling, though.

Cheers
Kev

[HopIt]

I will be using dry Munich yeast but don't know too much about controlling pitching rates. i've never made a starter. Usually I hydrate the yeast for 30 mins (with no stiring apart from to suspend it at the end). Perhaps i should pitch less than the whole packet? Not sure whether to hyrdate it first either.

[Barley Water]

Just a couple of comments, doing a heffe correctly is a bit more complicated that it would seem on first blush. I don't know anything about dry munich yeast but (and I know this is going to sound very harsh) if it is not a true heffe yeast frankly, I wouldn't even bother. Here is my reasoning for what it's worth; a heffe should have pretty strong flavors of cloves and bananna with maybe a little vanilla thrown in there. Only a heffe yeast is capable of doing that to the beer, really there are no substitutes. My personal go to strain is WLP300 and yeah, I am a big proponent of underpitching and trying to stress the yeast to maximize flavor. If you don't use a heffe yeast you are going to get a very insipid and underhopped wheat beer, not very interesting. Also, fermention is everything with this style, besides using the correct yeast you need to ferment at the correct temperature to get the right flavors. Generally, the higher you ferment the more bananna you are going to get. If you run too hot however, you'll get fusels which will ruin the taste. I would not go higher than 68F personally. If you ferment lower, around 62F you'll get more cloves. My experience has been that a balanced flavor profile will do better in contests but if you don't mess with that just brew up what you like. I would probably add a bit of Munich malt to your grist, especially if you opt not to decoct (and I certainly would myself, it really makes a noticable difference). There are a bunch of other little tricks to this style and I can go on all day but just brew some up and see what happens, after that you can tweek things to make it better. Oh, and if you have alkaline water you are going to have issues anytime you make a pale beer, I use that 5.2 buffer stuff religiously since I have moderately hard water.

[HopIt]

BTW in the end I did get a decent amount of banana. I underpitched and I feremented really high 23 degrees from memory (don't trust that! Might be lower!), and I'd say the beer was okay, but I'm not used to young homebrew beers (usually I condition to smooth out the rough edges) and personally it didn't quite work for me although the missus really enjoyed it. Perhaps it was the yeast, or the water, or the stuck and slightly dodgy mash, or some other thing I did, but in terms of banana I'd like others to know that I can't complain - I got lots of bubblegum banana.

Next time I'd use a liquid yeast, but considering the responses and what I read on other sites and how worried I was for the brew, I was reasonably happy with the Munich for a first attempt. I reckon it is a hefe strain.