Extract-only hefeweizen

[Cassius]

I've made the Coopers Hefeweizen recipe twice now and the latest one is very underwhelming. I'm not sure if it's been the same both times and maybe my other brews have gotten better. Either way I've been meaning to start doing some half-batch extract-only brews and figured a hefeweizen was as good a place as any to start. I'm going to aim for the BJCP guidelines, which also made me realise that the Coopers recipe has an IBU of 20 (it's actually 25 but I'll leave my longstanding frustration between the Coopers recipes and their own bittering calcs out of this), when the Hefe guideline is a max of 15 IBUs. My planned recipe is below.

Would love some critique from the gurus and if someone could please just confirm that wheat malt can be used instead of light malt for a bittering boil.

TIA, Cassius.

[Hairy]

It looks good. And you can use the wheat malt for the boil.

[Cassius]

15 minutes ago, Hairy said:

It looks good. And you can use the wheat malt for the boil.

Some of the recipes I've seen have a wheat malt steep. But then other comments say it's not needed for the style. I guess a grain steep in any of these extract recipes is just to add some of that grain freshness.

[Hairy]

Just now, Cassius said:

Some of the recipes I've seen have a wheat malt steep. But then other comments say it's not needed for the style. I guess a grain steep in any of these extract recipes is just to add some of that grain freshness.

Yes. Unless you are going to do a half grain partial mash I wouldn’t bother. Focus on the yeast and fermentation.

[Cassius]

On 3/4/2020 at 6:00 PM, Hairy said:

Yes. Unless you are going to do a half grain partial mash I wouldn’t bother. Focus on the yeast and fermentation.

Speaking of yeast, I was planning on using WB-06, but hoping to use only half the packet as it's a half brew. Is it alright to just clamp the sachet and put in the fridge? I've read a few places that with hefeweizen it's alright to pitch a low amount as the added stress will increase the phenols, which I really like a lot of in my hefes.

[Hairy]

6 minutes ago, Cassius said:

Speaking of yeast, I was planning on using WB-06, but hoping to use only half the packet as it's a half brew. Is it alright to just clamp the sachet and put in the fridge? I've read a few places that with hefeweizen it's alright to pitch a low amount as the added stress will increase the phenols, which I really like a lot of in my hefes.

You could clamp the yeast packet and put it back in the fridge. It will probably be fine but it isn't without risk.

And slightly under-pitching is fine. but you still need to pitch enough to get the job done. My experience with WB-06 is that it is fairly mild with respect to esters and phenols so that may assist. Also do some research on the results of different fermenting temps for this yeast to get what you desire. 

[Cassius]

20 minutes ago, Hairy said:

You could clamp the yeast packet and put it back in the fridge. It will probably be fine but it isn't without risk.

And slightly under-pitching is fine. but you still need to pitch enough to get the job done. My experience with WB-06 is that it is fairly mild with respect to esters and phenols so that may assist. Also do some research on the results of different fermenting temps for this yeast to get what you desire. 

Yeah I used MJ20 the first couple of times because I'd heard WB-06 was a bit mild, but I'm struggling to get the necessary attenuation out of MJ20, hence the switch. Hefeweizen seems to be one of the few styles where there is more or less universal agreement that the Wyeast 3068 and WLP300 are necessary to get the proper hefeweizen character, but I'm loathe to pay $16 for a 10L brew, even if I manage to re-use the yeast.

[Hairy]

I have only used WB-06 twice before in some extract brews and they turned out quite nice.

My favourite is Wyeast 3068 though. I did stuff it up once by fermenting quite warm and producing so much banana it wasn't overly pleasant to drink.

I have also used Wyeast 3056 before which produced a nice, albeit more subtle,  wheat beer.

[Red devil 44]

On 3/6/2020 at 8:18 AM, Cassius said:

Yeah I used MJ20 the first couple of times because I'd heard WB-06 was a bit mild, but I'm struggling to get the necessary attenuation out of MJ20, hence the switch. Hefeweizen seems to be one of the few styles where there is more or less universal agreement that the Wyeast 3068 and WLP300 are necessary to get the proper hefeweizen character, but I'm loathe to pay $16 for a 10L brew, even if I manage to re-use the yeast.

I only make the Hefeweizen in a K & K, I use the MJ20 yeast, turns out quite nice.

I brew strictly under 20, around 18 I ferment at, because I don’t want banana style flavours.

But having said that I had a mate from Perth visit me last weekend and he was drinking my Hefe off tap from my keezer, and noted he could clearly taste banana flavours, buggered if I could though.
And he knows a bit about brewing as he used to own a Micro Brewery, but I still can’t taste banana type flavours in it.

[Cassius]

@Red devil 44 see I love the banana flavour so usually brew arround 24. The first time it was great but the second time, with the exact same recipe, it's average. I'm drinking one now and there's no head whatsoever, which is odd for a wheat beer.

I did some reading and I'm going to try to get the Lallemand Munich Classic, which some German breweries apparently use in place of the go-to liquid yeasts.