Wyeast 3056 - how to request

[Thirsty Boy]

Hey all. I seek advice from the enlightened ones.

I am about to make my first Hefe Weizen and also use liquid yeast for the first time. I was going to use the 3068 variety, but alas, the LHBS didn't have any in stock. So I picked 3056 based on the descriptions stuck to the yeast fridge.

Now that I get it home and look it up on the web, I discover that it seems to be considered a slightly "problematic" yeast and its a bit sensitive to different variables.

I'm trying to make a nice german style hefe with good strong bananna and clove character and maybe a littel bit of a dry tart finish. How should I treat my yeast and run my fermentation if thats what I want to end up with??

BTW I am only doing a 3 gallon batch, so I wasn't really planning on doing a starter.

BTW, this is the first time my beloved one is going to brew with me, so help me get this one right or my marriage is down the toilet

Thanks.

Thirsty

[Kaiser]

I'm trying to make a nice german style hefe with good strong bananna and clove character and maybe a littel bit of a dry tart finish. How should I treat my yeast and run my fermentation if thats what I want to end up with??

If you want to have a strong clove caracter, hold a ferulic acid rest at 45*C for 15-20min. This will get you more ferulic acid into the mash and also lower you mash PH. The majority of the ferulic acid is actually coming from the barley malt (Jamil got that wrong in his show on German Weissbier). This ferulic acid will be converted to 4VG, the clove flavor, by the hefe yeast. Only true Hefe yeasts can do this conversion.

For the banana, make sure to aerate less than usual, don't make a stater and ferment on the warmer side (20-21C). This will stress the yeast and should cause them to produce more of the banana esters.

For the tarness, you can add a little (~30g) acid malt after the ferulic acid rest. This will give you same lactic acid which will carry over into the beer.

Kai

[Thirsty Boy]

Thanks Kai.

I did the 45 degree acid rest and I'm fermenting at 21 C for esters. Pitched at about 18 or 19 and I'm letting it rise up to 21 where I'll try to keep it. So hopefully I'll get the cloves and banannas out of it.

First wheat beer, and OMG it stuck like a bitch.... I ended up fly sparging because I had so much trouble even getting enough flow out of it to vourloff, that I didn't want to mess with it. It dribbled out of the mash tun at a snails pace, and I just topped it up with sparge water.... viola, flysparging by acident

In fact, getting the strike temp right was the only thing that worked with this beer. Hopefully it will taste good, and the wife will want to brew with me again.

Still I had fun anyway. Thanks for the advice.

Thirsty

[Kaiser]

First wheat beer, and OMG it stuck like a bitch.... I ended up fly sparging because I had so much trouble even getting enough flow out of it to vourloff, that I didn't want to mess with it. It dribbled out of the mash tun at a snails pace, and I just topped it up with sparge water.... viola, flysparging by acident

How much % of wheat?
I do a protein rest for about 30 min and are able to batch sparge up to 60% wheat w/o problems. I also don't use rice hulls anymore.

I hope it comes out great for you. Did you do a decoction?

I can't wait to get into the new house. Then I can finally start brewing again. One of the first beers will be another German Hefe. But single infusion this time since I want to see how much the elaborate mash schedule really buys me.

Kai

[Ozbrewer]

Hey all. I seek advice from the enlightened ones.

I am about to make my first Hefe Weizen and also use liquid yeast
Thanks.

Thirsty

MAte if you want to have a go at making a starter off a slant ill send you so great Hefe yeast, just drop me a email

[Thirsty Boy]

Kai wrote:

How much % of wheat? .... Did you do a decoction?

Was only 50% wheat. Never had sticking problems before, dunno!

I ended up doing a bastardised infusion/decoction step mash because the HERMS wouldn't go. The temp just wouldn't go up by adding hot water, even boiling water did bugger all... so I pulled about a third of it into a decoction(ish) and just heated it up till it was nearly boiling and poured it back in. That fixed it. Think it will be OK. My 1 and a bit hour mash turned into a 2 hour marathon, but it'll be decent enough beer I suppose.

Ozbrewer wrote:

MAte if you want to have a go at making a starter off a slant ill send you so great Hefe yeast, just drop me a email

Thanks Oz. I'll definately drop you a line about that. I suspect I'm going to want to brew a few Hefes over summer. Wifey loves em and so do I.


Thirsty

[mexican]

G'Day Thirsty,

I just finished a dunkelweizen in the past week or so and used the Safbrew dry wheat yeast. I fermented at around 18 degrees C and kept it at that for the whole 10 days.

Man talk about a banana aroma ! I reckon the only way to get any more banana aroma would be to stuff a banana up each nostril ! And at around $12 a kilo for bananas at the moment I think my dunkel is cheaper !

Haven't used a liquid whest yeast yet but I found that as long as you keep the temperature down to around 18 then the dry wheat yeast will generate the right aromas without getting too funky.

My missus loves the dunkelweizen as well because of the fantastic armoa I managed to get so I'm a happy boy.

mexican

[Thirsty Boy]

Mexican,

I thought about using the Saf wheat (liquid yeast fear...) but the guys in the brew shop didn't seem too positive about it as a Hefe yeast. I thought that maybe it was inteded to do an America wheat or some such thing. I think that over summer I will have to give it a try, as well as whatever interesting strain Oz has growing on his slant. I'll try em all, dont know enough to be fussy yet

Thirsty