Back in the 1500s a refreshing cloudy wheat beer was born in Bavaria. Brewed with half wheat malt and half Pilsner malt, this light-coloured hazy beer was way different from anything else around at the time, hence its popularity and growth. The yeast strain, along with the high amount of wheat, made this beer quite unique, and very popular.
Keeping up appearances
Derived from the German words Hefe (yeast) and weizen (wheat), a Hefeweizen’s cloudy nature made it famous eons before this current haze phase was even a thing. The hefe is also quite a unique tasting beer with all those wonderful phenolics of banana, clove and bubble gum which all aide in making it such a different and awesome beer. But let’s just concentrate on the haze element here.
As John Palmer has already told us about haze and where it comes from, it’s all those precious proteins that provide the substrate for the haze. There’s certainly no shortage of that in a hefe, with 50 per cent being wheat in the malt bill. The yeast strain is also very important to the appearance as the hefe yeast is not a good flocculator, making the haze more apparent in the finished beer.
Another element to the hefe is the large white rocky head. Once again, the proteins in the malt promote head retention and just as you would expect the hefe to be cloudy, you should also expect a large white head. Drinkers in Germany would send the beer back if it didn’t have this huge white head.
Brewing details
When you’re brewing this classic style, there are a few areas you need to pay attention to. First of all, and most obviously, use fresh high-quality ingredients. The grain bill should be 50 per cent wheat malt and 50 per cent Pilsner malt or thereabouts. The good news here is that brewing a hefe is pretty easy for extract brewers as extracts will be high quality, and there are no specialty malts.
Make sure you have the freshest yeast you can get, and if you are doing a yeast starter, make sure it’s ready to pitch. And more importantly, make sure you get a good Hefeweizen yeast strain as don’t expect to get banana and clove esters, nor the haze, from London III yeast!
Brew day
Let’s smash out a classic Dunkelweizen. Dripping with history and craftsmanship, the Dunkelweizen is a dark, more malty Hefeweizen and right up my alley! Make sure your grains are fresh and freshly milled and make sure you have some rice hulls in the grist to avoid the dreaded stuck mash. Get your water ready if you are an RO brewer and aim for soft to medium water. Get the freshest Hefeweizen yeast you can. A single infusion mash should do it, but the diehard traditionalists will say you have to do a step mash. Go for it if you want to, and if you know about them you will know what steps you need.
Be patient with the cooler ferment, as this can take a little longer than usual but the results will be well worth the wait. You can easily omit the dark malts if you don’t want to brew a Dunkelweizen, and just go a plain Hefeweizen. But come on, phenolics, dark caramel and bigger flavour… really?? Brew music has to be some old school classic German metal like Rammstein or Accept. If you like it a bit thrashier like me, try some Kreator or Ektomorf! Now, go brew!
Don’t Hassle The Hef Recipe:
All grain (expected figures)
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.7%
IBU: 12
Volume: 20 litres
Ingredients
2.5kg Vienna malt
2.25kg Wheat malt
150g Caramel Wheat malt
150g Eclipse Wheat malt
28g Hallertauer
Hersbrucker hop pellets
White Labs Bavarian
Weizen Yeast WLP351 or Mangrove Jack M20
Bavarian Wheat
Method
1. Mash in at 66°C for 60 minutes.
2. Sparge and transfer to kettle.
3. Once boiling add Hallertauer hops for a 60 minute boil
4. Cool wort to 17°C and run into fermenter.
5. Oxygenate or aerate and pitch yeast and maintain 17°C during fermentation.
6. When FG stabilises, keg or bottle as usual.
Extract (expected figures)
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.7%
IBU: 12
Volume: 20 litres
Ingredients
1.9kg Vienna malt extract
1.7kg Wheat Malt extract
150g Caramel Wheat malt
150g Eclipse Wheat malt
28g Hallertauer Hersbrucker hop pellets
White Labs Bavarian Weizen Yeast
WLP351 or Mangrove Jack M20
Bavarian Wheat
Method
1. Heat 6 litres of water in your brew pot to 70°C.
2. Add specialty malts in hop or grain bag and mash at 66°C for 30 minutes.
3. Remove bag from wort and allow to drain, increase the heat.
4. As the water heats up, add the Vienna extract and stir to dissolve.
5. Once boiling, add all hops for a 60 minute boil.
6. Remove from heat and set the pot in a cold/ice water bath to cool for 15 minutes then strain into a fermenter.
7. Add the remaining extract then stir to dissolve.
8. Top up with cool water to the 17 litre mark and stir vigorously.
9. Check the temperature and top up to the 20 litre mark with warm or cold water (refrigerated if necessary) to hit 17°C.
10. Pitch the yeast and ferment at 17°C.
11. Keg or bottle as usual.
This article originally appeared in Beer & Brewer’s Summer 2022/23 Issue 63.
For all the other recipes in our continuing weekly series, head here. If you have a recipe you’d like to share with us, email Deb on djackson@intermedia.com.au.