Saturday, April 12, 2008

Helluva Hefeweizen (Paulaner clone)

With the increased travel I have been doing lately, I had the need to come up with a fast batch. Ales are great for making a wide variety of beers with a large range of time requirements. This time, we decided that a good hefeweizen would fit the bill. It usually has a fast, vigorous fermentation, didn’t require crystal clarity, and with the use of the recently acquired kegs, the whole thing could be done easily.

I found a recipe at the local HBS with the available ingredients that day:

Helluva Hefe:

4oz Munich Malt
6.6# DME 55% Wheat 45# Barley
1oz Hersbruker 3.8AA
White Labs Liquid Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP380)

Steep the Munich malt for 30 minutes at 152º in 2 gallons
Add one gallon of water bring to a boil
Add the DME for 60 minutes
Add hops for 45 minutes
Bring water volume to 5.2 gallons
Cool to 74º
Add yeast

My OG was 1.052. I planned to ferment for 5 days. It was so vigorous that my air lock filled with wort and blew out after 2 days. I left off the airlock for 2 days and put the fermentor in a bucket to catch any overflow. After a messy 5 days, the bubbling slowed to a crawl. It was at FG 1.012.

I kegged the beer with 1 cup of priming (corn) sugar. I boiled 2 cups of water with the priming sugar and added it to a clean keg. I then added the 5 gallons of beer to the keg. I let the keg sit for five days and added the CO2 at 8psi. 3 days later, all was well.

The beer was the exact Paulaner clone I was looking for. It poured a very thick heady, cloudy yellow. Lots of spice, bubble gum, citrus, wheat nose. Lemony taste, yeasty, tingling bubbles. Light body, smooth, balanced with mild bitterness.

Overall, a great beer that was an easy (11 days from start to drinking) uncomplicated batch that created one of our favorite beers.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What temp did you ferment at? Any problems with rubber-shoe smell from the WL380? (I've had that with the Wyeast 3056)

Parrothead said...

I had a very close eye on the temperature for that batch. We started at about 75F to pitch the yeast. After a day, we dropped it to 68-70F for a week. I have experienced higher fermentation temperatures that resulted in a very banana (latex???) smell. I try to keep most ales 65-68F after the fermentation takes off.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried WLP300? I would be curious about how that went, if you have. I haven't gotten a chance to try 380, but I'm also trying to work out the kinks in my hefeweizen recipe. The two batches I've brewed so far haven't had as much clove (and banana?) as I'd like. My first batch was WLP300 @ 70F, but it was screwed up because I racked it too soon and messed up the hops. My second hefe attempt was WLP351 @ 65F. Second came out a bit better. Maybe I need to raise the temperature...

BTW, a trick that my homebrew store clerk taught me: until fermentation peaks and falls a bit (day two-ish?) you can have the lid on your primary bucket not quite sealed all the way. There's so much CO2 coming out that the chances of anything getting in are very slim, he said. My first batch was a huge mess, likes yours, so I tried this trick on the second and it seemed to work fine. No need for blowoff tubes or a container to catch the overflow. :)

-f

Parrothead said...

Hi Annon,

I have not tried WLP300 yest, I have only used the 380 and have liked the results to date. That said I am enthusiastic to tweak a recipe that I like and have made several batches so that I can evaluate my tweaks. Mrs. Brew Meister will like to see that there will be yet another Hefe in the works for this year.

Thanks on the open fermentor idea, I had to use that on the Belgian White that just came out of secondary. It blew the airlock off the first night and left a nice black residue on the area around the fermentor in my basement. After it blew off, I covered the top of the carboy with plastic wrap and a rubber band until things subsided.

Every batch is a learning opportunity.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

To balance the banana and clove, try fermenting at 62 degrees. Use Wyeast 3068 or WLP 300

Jim said...

I have made 5 batches with this recipe and have had excellent results every time. I used the WL380.