hefe-weizen

[nsintros]

so im a brewing noob. i'm a big fan of hefe-weizens like widmer or franziskaner. i want that light color and thick creamy head. so far after 2 batches i have been unsucessful. my first batch was an all extract kit. i think it was a truebrew american wheat. it came out tasting good, but not what i wanted. it was darker in color like amber and not much going on for head. the second batch was bavarian wheat from midwest. for the second batch i used DME for bottling. so far the second batch is actually very similar to the first. it is a little flat still i think i tasted a little early and it still has some carbonating to do.

Batch 1
just shy of 7lb wheat malt extract (45% barley/55% wheat)
1oz German perle hops

Batch 2
6lb wheat malt extract
8 oz. carapils grain
2 oz tettnanger
wyeast bavarian wheat yeast.

so my question i guess is how do i get that lighter color and think creamy head?

different grains? higher % wheat? do i just need to add more priming sugar for bottling to get more carbonation? would boil time have an impact on color or is it more determined by grains/malt?

oh when used DME i think it was around a cup for 5 gallons.

any help would be appreciated.

[BrewDog]

Welcome-

Do a search for 'extract late' on here and on BYO.com. It has been discussed several times -- not specifically for wheat beers, but in the context of creating lighter colored beers.

HTH-

[Grog]

It will be difficult to obtain a light color (at least as light as the commercial beers you mention) using extract. The process of making malt extract darkens the wort. You can lighten the beer some what by using the extract late method (add about 50 to 75% of the malt extract in the last 15 minutes), but it still will only be Pale Ale-ish and not straw yellow.

As for the head, try adding 1/2 pound of flaked wheat along with the cara-pils. It will add a starch haze, but, Hey, it is a hefe and it is gonna be cloudy anyway. The wheat will add some head aiding protiens to the beer that will help it become thicker and stick around longer.

And welcome to the board with the best and nicest bunch of beer geeks around.

[HogieWan]

Doesn't a partial boil darken the wort more that a full volume boil? If you're doing extract (like me) I assume you're not doing full boils.

[nsintros]

i have been boiling the full length the recipes recommend which i think was 30 mins on batch 1 and 30-60 on batch 2. i think if i remember right i split the diff on batch 2 and did around 45mins.

[I'mRocketMan]

Hogie means are you boiling the whole 5.5+ gallons or only 2.5 - 3.5 gallons? (Partial boil)

I do partial boils (3.5 Gallons). I find that going from 2 gallon to 3.5 gallon boils let me brew lighter beers! I'll be going to all-grain this summer tho, so that means full wort boils!

Cheers! Rocket

[nsintros]

OHHH! i see. yeah im doing partial boil. i guess i need to get a bigger pot, and a wort chiller, and a beer belt and, and....

this stuff starts getting pricey.

[fretlessman71]

Bigger pot and wort chiller, yep. Beer Belt, I don't know if you need that just yet...

Remember that these are one-time purchase items, and if you look around you can find them for not too much money. Best of luck!