i don’t brew hefe’s really, i have brewed one a few times using munich dry yeast and was a kit, it was ok. i got a request from a friend to brew a hefe, so i wanna impress. this go around im gonna use wy3068, 60% wheat and 40% pilsner and just a dash of noble hops, the advise i’m seeking is should i make a starter? i heard to get those trademark hefe characters you should stress the yeast a bit by underpitching, im looking for a balance between clove and banana. its a 5 gallon batch btw. whats the word? starter or no starter? what ferm temp? cheers thank you
Yes, make a starter. Pitching rate is a very uncertain way to control esters. Do it with yeast, mash schedule and fermentation temp.
Going to follow this one. My last attempt I made a starter, WLP300, went 60/40 just life you. Ferulic rest, fermented at 70, and got very light clove character. Not the balance I was going for. But it picked up a Gold in a competition, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. Just not the beer I was shooting for.
Edit: wait… looking at notes, maybe it was the other way around. I got the clove I wanted but not banana [emoji28] catch up brain!!
any special mash regime i should employ or is a single infusion good to go?
I did a 122, 145, 158. Not sure if that was totally necessary [emoji2369] but I did like the beer. Short rest at each. 15, 30, 30 before MO and sparge.
I an far from an expert on the style. I’d say use a ferulic acid rest, but someone else will likely have better info.
Use a b lo-off tube with 3068. It is a pretty agressive fermenter andwill overflow your fermentation vessel or push out the airlock. I know from experience!
I have made my best hefes with a lower pitch rate. I would recommend 1 pack of liquid yeast (no starter) for 5 gallons of a 1.045-1.050ish beer.
Ferulic acid rest at 113F. From there you can go to a single conversion temp if you want. I just put one on tap that I went all-out with rests at 113, 148, 153, 162 and 171, mainly because I just got a Foundry and wanted to play around. I don’t know if you need to go through all those steps, but I can’t complain about the body and head on that brew at all.
The thing about using a lower pitch rate how low? How do you know if you’re low enough, too low, or too high? One pack of liquid doesn’t take age and viability into account.
Just going by experience. I’m not the cell counting type, although maybe someone has some data on that. I just know that I’ve found the banana lacking when I’ve pitched a robust starter compared to no starter.
Agreed, but where’s the line between less yeast and not enough yeast?
To be honest, I’ve never run into a situation where I didn’t have enough yeast outside of lagers and barleywines. I’ve had way more situations with ales where I feel like I should have pitched less yeast. I think the concerns over underpitching a standard strength ale are generally overstated when it comes to modern yeasts that have been properly stored.
thank you everyone, reading about this yeast and being a top cropping yeast im thinking about rigging up a contraption to collect the blow off, as of now im working with glass carboys so i can’t simply scoop out yeast with a spoon. anyone ever collect yeast through the blow off? it seems very realistic to drill 2 holes in a jar lid, one for the blow off tube and one for a airlock. whatchu think?
https://braumagazin.de/article/brewing-bavarian-weissbier-all-you-ever-wanted-to-know/
Here’s a great article for thinking about some of the levers you can pull to tweak things when making Weissbeer.
In my opinion, the ferulic acid rest is over-rated. I think most of the yeast-derived characteristics will come from the yeast you use and the temperature at which you ferment. I always get too much banana, mostly because I ferment in the mid 60’sF. Go lower for more clove.
Do you “under pitch”?
Probably, if using the yeast calculators is any indication.
Recognize that some 4VG is going to exist in most cases and that’s going to contribute to some clove phenolics with a weizen yeast. But I am a proponent of conducting a ferulic acid rest to improve the creation of the base stock needed to produce a notable clove presence in the finished beer.
I find that brewers that don’t perform a ferulic rest produce unimpressive clove notes and more of those brewers performing the rest end up with a notable clove presence.
While we’re on the subject of clove, barley contains more 4VG precursors than wheat. I have heard from several sources over the years that you can increase clove character by increasing the barley percentage in the grain bill. I haven’t tested this myself yet, but I’m thinking of brewing a dampfbier using my Maerzen grain bill instead of my usual O-fest this summer to try this out.
i think i’m gonna make it a long brewday, start at a ferulic acid rest and decoct my way to mash out over the coarse of 1.5-2 hours or more, thanks everyone for the tips