I’m planning to start kegging soon and am curious how to handle kegged hefeweizen since swirling the settled yeast is standard practice when serving from a bottle. Do you somehow agitate your kegged hefe prior to dispensing to get the settled yeast back into suspension? Seems like you will draw too much yeast otherwise since the keg pulls from the bottom.
Only when it starts to clear.
I try to drink it before that ;D
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I try to drink it before that ;D
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+1
I heard some where that Pyramid stores their kegs upside down, so when bars start serving them they get cloudy again. Nobody likes a cleare Heffe! 
i wouldn’t shake any keg. its gonna make it foamy and then eventually ruin your head retention. i think the maybe storing it upside down might be a decent idea, but a pain for serving.
i’ve never actually paid any attention to the cloudiness of my hefes from the keg. never noticed too much or too little yeast in suspension. it just seems to work itself out. i think really [though a yeast whisperer would have to confirm this] that the hefe yeast doesn’t flocculate so really it stays in suspension fairly indefinitely. what i can say i’ve noticed is that my hefes taste awesome, but they definitely don’t last all that long. 6 weeks and the flavors start to muddle.
How about periodically switching your gas-in disconnect to the liquid out post blow some CO2 through the long dip tube to stir the bottom? It really only applies to Ball lock unless you get a liquid disconnect and attach it to a spare gas line to to the same for pin lock…It might stir it up enough to re suspend some of the yeast and what not. All without adjusting the CO2 pressure. Just disconnect the other gas line draw a pint to allow some gas to go in?
+1
Except the two fittings on ball lock kegs are not interchangeable. If you are going to do a hefe on a regular basis, put a black, liquid QD on one of the gas lines. It may also help in quick carbing a keg . . so some believe.
Beer gets trucked all over the World and the head retention is fine.
I do agree that Dunkel/Hefeweizens kinda go away after a month or so.
Something I have been thinking of is a non-return valve on the CO2 side and that would allow a beer tube to be used for the CO2 side, might help keep the yeast in suspension by moving it around every pour.
while beer gets trucked around the world, unless a keg is mistreated, its still not going through anything like a homebrewer shaking it like a british nanny. my understanding from listening to jamil and john palmer is that head forming proteins only work once. as i see it, if you’re vigorously shaking your keg to splash the beer around inside, you’re probably affecting your head formation.
some places like morebeer sell carbonating stones that go in your keg. [its basically a modified corny lid with some tubing and a diffusion stone on the bottom. you could likely modify that so that the diffusion stone sat in the bottom of the keg right where the yeast would settle.
Here is some food for thought:
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In Germany Weissbier kegs are oftentimes delivered and stored upside-down. The are turned right-side-up for dispensing.
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When I visited Weihenstephan I was told that the best way to get cloudiness into a Weissbier is not yeast but protein haze. Such haze is more stable and doesn’t cause the problems you may get with yeast (autolysis, flocculation causing unsightly clumps etc.)
Kai
I regularly rock and roll kegs to force carbonate and experience no head retention issues.
Methinks the head proteins needs to be experimented on. A soda bottle would be a good choice.
The issue with having anything delivering CO2 into the keg is beer backing up into the CO2 lines.
Something like the last one on this page attached with a short piece of beer line should do the trick
This has come up quite often in the past and while I don’t disagree I’d like to see data on how much less head retention you get if the beer experiences excessive foaming during the process. It may just turn out that this is just like the HSA debate that we had for a while where everybody agrees that it is harful for your beer but not to the extend that you have to keep O2 away from your hot wort at all costs.
Kai
I’m thinking a carbonator cap on a 1 liter bottle and shaking it daily.
Pour it and the same beer and take notes on head retention.
I usually tip my hefe/dunkelweis kegs upside down for a few minutes prior to serving. Judging by before and after-tipping pours, any yeast on the bottom of the keg goes back into suspension for a while. I’m too lazy for keg shaking and prefer to save my energy for 16 oz. curls.