Went to LHBS to get malt for a hefeweizen I’m going to brew soon. They had a problem with their recent supply order and had no pils malt in stock. I remembered (incorrectly as it turns out) that Kai had a hefe recipe with 50:50 wheat to Vienna malt. (Turns out its more like 75:25).
Anyway, I decided to get 5.5 pounds Vianna and 5.5 pounds wheat in the same bag unmilled.
Got home and realized Kai’s recipe was more like 25% Vienna. I could add more wheat and get the ratio to about 60:40 wheat to Vienna without getting the gravity too high. Anyone think that grain bill will make a decent hefe?
If not, would it possibly make a good dunkelweizen if I add a little caraffa II for color during the sparge?
Or should I bite the bullet and start over with wheat and pils like I originally planned? As it turns out, after he bagged the wheat and Vienna he told me he didn’t have the yeast I wanted, so I have to take a drive anyway.
Sounds like an excellent grist for a dunkelweizen. Add a little Carafa if you’ve got it and make the dunkelweizen!
Weizenbiers are pretty much all about the yeast anyway. The malt is important, to a certain point, but does not totally make the style like the yeast does. Use the right yeast and the malt bill doesn’t matter nearly so much.
Anyways, honestly, do you really need to care about style at all?? Are you entering this into competition?? If not, then who cares!!! It will taste awesome no matter what you do, truly it will.
I don’t think it has to be ALL ABOUT THE YEAST. I have a hefe on tap right now that is 55% wheat, the other half of the grist is equal amounts of vienna and munich. It’s awesome. It’s still pretty light in color but has a really nice malt character to pair with the banana/clove of the 3068 yeast. It’s one of the best hefes I’ve brewed.
And I think dunkelweizen typically should have Munich I or II in it, not Vienna. You want that malty sweetness from the Munich in dunkelweizen.
So, JohnnyB, I say go for it. You won’t be disappointed with the results.
I was thinking about saving the mixed Vienna/wheat grain for a dunkel and getting new grain for a standard hefe. But apparently some force wants me using this Vienna in the standard hefeweizen as I drove over 100 miles today and still couldn’t get my hands on any German pils.
So I got 2 more pounds of wheat, and I’m going to do a hefeweizen with what now works out to 60:40 wheat to Vienna.
Yeah, man, vienna and/or munich as the other half of the base malt for a hefe is amazing. It still turns out pretty light, I don’t know what all this talk about dunkelweizen is about. I have one on tap that is still about 5 SRM with about 60% wheat and 20ish percent each of vienna and munich, with a little acid malt for pH adjustment. It’s awesome.
It should taste great but with that much wheat don’t rush the sparge. It will work but it will be a bit gummy. To me it falls in the “patience grasshopper” category. ;D
I was going to use some Caraffa II if I decided to make it into a dunkel. I just thought the extra maltiness of that much Vienna might be better suited to a dunkel, which is how the idea got tossed around.
Going to brew it Sunday as a normal hefeweizen.
Plan to add about a half pound of rice hulls to help it drain well.
I bet it will make a nice Hefeweizen. My jefe last summer was just wheat and pils and although it was good, I highly it could’ve had some more malt character. I bet the Vienna would’ve done the trick.
One hint with all that wheat- double crush or adjust mill tighter for the wheat. Smaller kernels and no husk and if you don’t get a good crush you will likely see gravity of preboil wort few points lower than expected.
FWIW, a friend of mine who is very knowledgeable about weissbiers and have been to Germany several times told me that many German breweries use pale ale malt instead of pilsner malt in their grists. So, vienna malt may be truer to style.