Big fan of the Hefeweizen. I had one a few years ago while stationed in upstate New York and I could really taste the bananas and clove. My goal is to recreate something similar. Thoughts on what/when to add the necessary ingredients during the process? To give an idea of what I’m working with, I recently purchased an all-grain homebrew Hefeweizen recipe from my local homebrew store consisting of German Pilsen and Red Wheat. I’m using Hallertauer Mittelfruher hops from Yakima Chief and SafAle US-05 yeast. I’d greatly appreciate any advice.
It’s about the yeast and process, really. US-05 doesn’t create the phenols (clove) and esters typical of a Hefeweizen - look to White Labs WLP 300 or Omega Labs OYL-21. As to process, these yeasts are more banana when fermented on the warm end and more clove on the low end of the suggested temperature range. Under pitching is practiced by some, also, to slightly stress the yeast. Further a ferrulic acid rest added on the mash steps will assist with meeting your desired flavor profile. Last - drink this beer fresh.
Ynotbrusum explained it perfectly. The only point I would add is: don’t be discouraged if the end result is not exactly what you were looking for. In my experience, a good Hefe is not easy to accomplish especially if you don’t possess the means to accurately control fermentation temperatures. I attempted 4 Hefe recipes that were not successful until I got better control of my fermentation.
Well, it’s not just yeast. The yeast has to have the ferulic acid to start with to convert it into the clove flavor. As ynotbrusum pointed out a low initial mash temp at ~130*F will help create this acid from the grain.
Have you ever made a huge with extract? Those flavors are still there without any mashing at all. I have no doubt that the ferulic rest might make them more prominent, but you can get them without any mashing.
Here’s what Weyermann discloses about its wheat malt extract products:
“BAVARIAN HEFEWEIZEN •golden brown, unhopped extract with a high concentration, produced fromWeyermann® Wheat Malt, Weyermann® Pilsner Malt and Weyermann® CARAHELL®
•it is produced by a decoction mashing process
•the malt extract tastes very sweet with a well-balanced malt aroma
•Weyermann® Bavarian Hefeweizen Extract produces typical Bavarian Weizen Beers,Ales and Weizen Bock Beers”
Nothing specific about the step mashing, but I think it can be inferred that, since it is decocted, it likely involves some step mashing…one might think.
I made a table a while back that allowed you to enter certain weights of Briess Extracts and get a readout of the approximate percentage of the individual components of each extract. It was pretty interesting.