How To Brew A Bavarian Hefeweizen
Who would’ve thought the word banana and beer goes well together, but with Hefeweizens that is exactly what you are going for… the yeast used to brew this style of beer produces esters and phenolics which resemble that banana and some clove aromas and flavors…
Here is the recipe I used and instructions below…
Bavarian Hefeweizen Recipe
6 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat DME
.5 oz 5.5% AA Vanguard Hops (FWH)
.5 oz 5.5% AA Vanguard Hops (Flameout)
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast
How To Brew A Bavarian Hefeweizen
Start out by bringing 3 gallons of water to 160 °F. Then add 3 lbs of the wheat Dry Malt Extract and stir. After the DME has been added, drop in 1/2 oz of Vanguard pellet hops. This is all done while at 160 °F (before the boil), which is essentially the same as first wort hop (FWH.)
Once you mix in those ingredients, place the lid on the pot and bring to a boil. Remember to watch out for boilovers…
Boil for 50 minutes and then remove the pot from the heat to add the remaining 3 lbs of the wheat DME. When you add DME to boiling wort, there is the possibility of the DME foaming up and boiling over, so add the DME slowly and stir in right away… you may have to let the wort cool a minute or two and then add the DME…
Once you add the DME and stir everything in, bring back to a boil and boil for 10 minutes…
After the boil is complete, turn off the heat, add your remaining 1/2 oz of Vanguard pellet hops and cool down your wort.
Once your wort reaches a temperature of 70 ° pour your wort into your fermentor and top off to 5 gallons and mix. Specific gravity should read around 1.056…
To ferment this beer you should use a blow off tube to avoid clogging up the airlock since this is a top fermenting yeast and fermentation can be vigorous…
Ferment for 14 days at 64 °, and then prime with 5.5 oz of corn sugar and bottle…
This beer should be ready to drink in 2 weeks although 3 weeks is normally better…
***My Comments***
Now that the beer is ready I am extremely satisfied with the beer. We tried the beer after only 10 days of being bottled so carbonation hadn’t dissolved completely into the beer, yet it was really good… I would maybe consider dropping the priming to 5.2 oz or even 5 oz, but I have no issues with 5.5 oz other than it’s pushing the carbonation up really high (not bad for this style)…
Also, I probably would’ve bottled this beer after only 10 days of fermenting, but I just didn’t have time because of school…
I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you brew it, let me know how it turns out…
Cheers…
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I’ve been getting your email newsletter for just about a month now and I love it.
Thank you for the tips and tricks. This Bavarian Hefeweizen looks delicious.
Keep up the good work.
nate
@Nate – Thanks for stopping by… the beer came out pretty good…
Howdy,
I’m a new homebrewer, and just came across your site – I really like it so far!
Quick question: I just brewed my first batch on Sunday (a Bavarian Hefe). I pitched the yeast onto the wort at about ~80 degrees. The SG read at about 1.049, which is where the instructions said it should be.
I checked this morning (so it’s been just about 30ish hours) and my airlock is popping about once every 4ish seconds. Is this OK? Do I need to give it a good swirl? Or is this normal for this style (though I have seen videos where people’s bavarian hefes were bubbling like made after 30 hours)
Thanks for any advice!
You airlock can be a good indicator of how healthy your fermentation is, but you need to really understand brewing and have experience to use it as a tool… as a new brewer, just learn to be patient and focus on becoming consistent…
Just because your airlock doesn’t pop faster it doesn’t mean that it’s not fermenting… you don’t necessarily want your airlock to pop at a certain rate… take this as experience, you will learn with time, and don’t worry you’ll get beer…
No need to give it a good swirl… just focus on keeping the fermentation temperature constant and watch the airlock to make sure it doesn’t get clogged. These yeast can be aggressive to ferment, but there are many factors that will determine how hard the airlock bubbles… did you make a yeast starter? what temperature are you fermenting at? is it constant? Is this extract or all grain? if all grain, what temperature did u mash?…
Next time do pitch closer to fermentation temperature, but other than that, everything sounds normal to me… Cheers!
What model of fridge are you using for your fermentor? Already have the controller for a heater and doing ales in the winter, but also looking into a small lagering set-up, and yours looks pretty perfect.
Hi Jorge,
Planning to get started doing some of this myself in the coming months. I have a bit of a logistical question for you. The clearance between my stove and my microwave is not really that great. As such, I’m limited on the height of the brew pot I can use. The brew pot in your video looks to be somewhat short and squat which might work with my situation. Any chance you’d be willing to measure that bad boy (height-wise) and let me know what its dimensions are? You don’t seem to have any trouble boiling a 3 gallon wort in there.
Thanks in advance for your help. I know that I can move to an outside burner set up and have plenty of clearance but that will require additional funds for start-up.
@Mike – I use a Magic Chef 45 Bottle Wine Cooler (Model No. MCWC45A)…. Works amazing for fermentations!…. I’m just now testing it to see how it holds at lager temperatures… should know in the next few days…
@Chris – It’s 9″ Tall and 13 and 1/4″ diameter… I did 3-4 gallon boils just fine. Stainless steel seems to hold the boil better than my aluminum pot, but I still use my aluminum pot for decoction mashes, etc.