Bavarian Hefe

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 3:49 pm

I'm thinking about brewing a Hefe this weekend. I've looked at a few recipies and can't find exactly what i want so I modified one. Any comments on this recipe?

Bavarian Hefe

(10 gallons)
OG 1.056 FG 1.015

Ingredients:
13.5 lbs. Munich wheat
7 lbs. pale two-row malt
1.25 lb. cara-pils (dextrin) malt
1.5 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker for 60 min.
1.0 oz. Tettnanger hops for 30 min.
1 tsp. yeast nutrient for 2 min.
Wyeast 3068

Mash at 155, sparge at 170.

Post by **brahn** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:17 pm

What's the cara-pils for? It's not that I necessarily think it's bad, I'm just not sure why you'd need it.

Other than that, it looks like a good traditional hefeweizen to me. With that yeast I'd definitely try to avoid the higher temps like you had on some of your other recent batches. When it gets warm it will give you a lot of banana.

[edit] On second thought, maybe you shouldn't take my advice on working with that yeast since I've had pretty horrible luck with it. I brewed one really good beer with it and several that were mediocre to bad.

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:30 pm

Isn't the car-pils to keep it from finishing too low?

As far as the higher temps go, I should be picking up a fermentation fridge tomorrow night and hope to avoid the rotten bananas.

PMR · Post by **PMR** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:41 pm

Not to be too simplistic, but I like hefeweizens with 55% soft white wheat, and 45% pilsner malt (or 2-row). I wouldn't add the cara-pils, but might put in 10-20% Munich malt (replacing Pilsner / domestic 2-row) if you want more body / color and don't feel like doing a decoction mash. If you have some time, a decoction mash and a simple recipe should work nicely for you.

3068 is a great yeast. Try 62-65 for fermentation temp.

Post by **brahn** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:42 pm

Yea, cara-pils will add unfermentable dextrins and body to the finished beer. I guess it depends on your system as to whether you'd need it or not. You're mashing a good bit higher than I normally do which will have more or less the same effect. If your system will yield a very fermentable wort with that mash temperature, the cara-pils is a good idea.

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:06 pm

PMR wrote:Not to be too simplistic...

What's wrong with being simplistic? How else am I going to learn?

I appreciate your input, guys.

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:32 am

Ok, so it didn't go quite as planned, but here's where it ended up:

13.5 lbs wheat malt
6.5 lbs pale malt
1 lb of carapils
1.25 Hallertauer for 60 min
1 oz Tettnanger for 30 min

Actual OG 1.049

So here's where it went wrong: I had someone pick up th yeast for me and didn't realize until after I popped the packs that it was Wyeast 3944 (Belgian Wit). I think it will come out ok, but I didn't have any orange peel or coriander on hand for a quick change. I'll just call it a Hefewitzen.