A pale, spicy, fruity, refreshing wheat-based German ale.
Germans prefer to call the brew Weissbier (pronounced "vice-beer"), while North Americans prefer the term Hefeweizen (pronounced "hay-fuh-veyt-sssenn"). "Hefe" means yeast, and "Weizen" means wheat, so Hefeweizen is "yeast wheat".
Weissbier is golden yellow in color and so much lighter than the typically dark German ales that it came to be called “white beer”. Weissbier contain around 5% of alcohol by volume, and lightly hopped. The beer is cloudy as it is unfiltered and uses a yeast that stays readily in suspension.
Using the right yeast is key to brewing this correctly as it is the yeast that gives the beer its unique banana/clove character. Fermented warmer the taste pushes towards banana, fermented cooler and the taste leans towards clove.
To quote Wyeast on the usage of their WY3068 yeast:
Quote:
The classic and most popular German wheat beer strain used worldwide. This yeast strain produces a beautiful and delicate balance of banana esters and clove phenolics. The balance can be manipulated towards ester production through increasing the fermentation temperature, increasing the wort density, and decreasing the pitch rate. Over pitching can result in a near complete loss of banana character. Decreasing the ester level will allow a higher clove character to be perceived. Sulfur is commonly produced, but will dissipate with conditioning. This strain is very powdery and will remain in suspension for an extended amount of time following attenuation. This is true top cropping yeast and requires fermenter headspace of 33%.
Heed the warning about headspace. You'll need a lot of room in your fermenter as it develops a sustantial krauzen (foam) during the first few days of fermentation. A blow-off tube is recommended as well.
Jamil Zainasheff gives some good advice on fermentation temperature for Wyeast 3068 from his Brewing Classic Styles book which I follow: Ferment at 62F. It's just below the recommended 64-75F range but it works great and produces a really clean tasting beer with a nice balance of banana/clove flavours.
Brew up a batch and let me know how you like it!
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Weizen/Weissbier (batch #115)
Size: 12.0 gal (post-boil)
Efficiency: 95.0%
Attenuation: 76.0%
Calories: 167.11 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Notes:
Add 500mg potassium metabisulphite to 20 gallons water to remove chlorine/chloramine (as required).
chlorine/chloramine (as required).
Water treated with brewing salts to: Ca=50, Mg=10, Na=16, Cl=71, S04=69
(Hit minimums on Ca and Mg, keep the Cl:SO4 ratio low and equal).
1.5 qt/lb mash thickness. Single infusion mash at 152F for 90 mins. Mashout to 168F.
60-90 min fly sparge with ~6 pH water. Collect 14.9 gallons in boil kettle.
Boil for 90 minutes. Lid on at flameout, start chilling immediately.
Cool wort to 62F and aerate well. Ferment at 62F until complete.
Do not add any kettle finings during the boil (such as Whirlfloc) as the beer is supposed to be cloudy.
For the same reason, do not use any finings prior to packaging (such as gelatine).
Package as you would normally. This beer should be served at higher than normal carbonation, around 2.5 to 3.5 volumes of C02.
Variations:
I'll often brew a split batch with this beer and do 5 gallons using 12 grams of Safale US-05 dry yeast fermented at 68F. This is a very neutral ale yeast and the result will be something more along the lines of an American Wheat Beer. Try it side by side with the Weissbier yeast to see just how much difference the yeast makes.
*Wheat malt does not have a husk so the natural filter bed in the Mash/Lauter Tun is greatly reduced as the recipe is 60% wheat. Brewers with systems that are prone to stuck sparges should add rice hulls at a rate of about 20:1 wheat to rice hull ratio to avoid stuck sparges. We do not need to use rice hulls with our electric brewery setup. More information.
Joined: 14 Mar 2011 Posts: 298 Location: poland, Ohio
Link Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 6:31 pm Post subject:
Have you personally had luck with getting any really really strong banana flavors? That is what i was looking for when I brewed a similar recipe and i couldn't achieve that. I tried to ferment at higher temps around 70 but I just get a hint of banana. I read that under pitching brings the banana flavor out too. Any advice?
Joined: 12 Dec 2010 Posts: 2776 Location: Ottawa, Canada
Drinking: Torpedo Extra IPA, Fullers ESB, English Pub Ale, Janet's Brown Ale, Czech Pils, Hopslam, Ruthless Rye IPA
Working on: Electric Hop Stand APA, Belgian Wit
Link Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 6:41 pm Post subject:
I don't think you can get really strong banana flavours out of WY3068 yeast (or any other yeast for that matter). It's more about balance.
As mentioned above, Jamil Z. gives some good advice on fermentation temperature for Wyeast 3068 from his Brewing Classic Styles book which I follow: Ferment at 62F.
What this does is remove a lot of the esters and other flavour bi-products you'll normally get when fermenting at ale temps which in turn helps to not mask the clove/banana.
But to get strong banana flavours you just can't get it IMHO. Even Wyeast themselves say that this yeast strain produces a "beautiful and delicate balance of banana esters and clove phenolics". Key word being delicate.
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