HefeWeizen

I decided to try my hand at a HefeWeizen last month. I was looking for an easy drinking beer that would be ready in less than 3 weeks. This seemed to fit the bill just fine.

In a bold move, I decided to craft my own recipe for this, despite having never brewed one before. I did some research and came up with a nice easy recipe. Don't be surprised if you have seen recipes very very similar to this around, this is a basic hefe and so it resembles a lot of other recipes.

The key ingredients to a HefeWeizen are: wheat malt, pilsner malt and yeast. That gives you the basic core of the beer. Hops are not a big priority here, just need a little for balance. I used German Magnums, and hopped it to 9.7 IBUs. Use a clean bittering hop for this, you don't want too much flavor coming through. I like Magnums because while they are very bitter, they are also extremely smooth.

For my HefeWeizen, I decided I wanted just a touch of something extra. So I added a small amount (1 lb) of Munich Malt. That adds just a touch of extra maltiness that goes very well with the style, in my opinion.

The yeast and fermentation temperatures make or break this beer. For the yeast I chose White Labs WLP380 HefeWeizen IV Ale. This is a more balanced yeast, giving a nice amount of both clove and banana flavors. It is supposed to be less fruity than other Hefe yeasts, but I found that it added a significant amount of banana aroma, especially while the beer was still young.

White labs lists the optimum temperatures for this yeast as 66°-70°, don't listen to them! If you ferment it that warm you will have a fruit basket on your hands. Make a nice starter for this (use www.mrmalty.com to calculate size) and pitch cold. Like 55-58° cold. Let the beer warm up naturally to 62° and hold it there. Give it lots of time, at this temp the Hefe IV is a bit slow, but worth the wait. In my case I let it go for 1 1/2 weeks and then I let it warm up to 67° to finish out.

The most important step here is controlling your temps, pitch cool, ferment cool and all will be well. If you ferment warmer it will still be drinkable, but in my opinion you won't strike that wonderful balance between flavors.

Here is the recipe:
for a 6 gallon batch at 70%
7 .00 lb White Wheat Malt
3.75 lb Pilsner Malt
1.00 lb Munich Malt
.30 oz Magnum (10.43%) @ 60
WLP380 HefeWeizen IV Ale

Mash at 152° for 75 minutes.

Use a 90 minute boil to drive off any DMS.

Should be ready to bottle keg in a couple of weeks. Enjoy this beer young!