Beer Forum

I'm making Jamil's Bavarian Hefe recipe this weekend and I'm a little confused on the boil time. I got the recipe from beerdujour.com (I know I need to buy the book soon) and it calls for 50% wheat malt and 50% pilsner malt. However, it says the boil time should be 60 mins. From everything else I've heard when one has pilsner malt in a recipe, then the boil time should always be 90 mins to drive off the DMS. Is this just a typo mistake? or is there something about the hefe style that doesn't require the pilsner malt to be boiled 90 mins? Here is the link I'm working with:

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/Jamil/JS_ ... eizen.html

Also while I'm at it, this is slightly off topic, but for the same beer I plan on brewing. What does everything think about making a starter for a Hefe beer? Is it necessary? or can I get away without doing it? I've never bothered to make a starter, part from laziness and part from not needing to (repitching yeast). However, I'd like to start and I've chosen this beer to do so with. The idea of not using a starter with a Hefe beer I have gleaned from here:

http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.htm

It's the third question down.

i believe anything over a 75 minute boil gets rid of SMS (i think thats the precursor to DMS, its 10 and i'm still at work, i'm tired). if the pope says to make a starter, make a starter. one bump should be all you need for a Hefe. make sure you ferment @ 62 and use a good yeast like WLP 380. now count to 10 and wait for the shitstorm of people screaming wyeast 3068....blow me, i've tried them both and i like WLP 380.

I don't know the answer for sure, but I always boil for 90 minutes whenever pils is used. Better safe than sorry. Regarding the starter question, unless you have a specific reason not to make a starter, why not make one to err on the side of caution? That being said, the last hef I made didn't get a starter but that was because I intended to brew another style, then changed my mind at the last minute.

Steelers&Beer wrote:make sure you ferment @ 62 and use a good yeast like WLP 380. now count to 10 and wait for the shitstorm of people screaming wyeast 3068....blow me, i've tried them both and i like WLP 380.

Oh man, you've done it now....take cover everyone!

I'm using WLP300. I think that is their standard Hefe yeast isn't it? I've seen some talk on this forum about the Wyeast vs. the Whitelabs Hefe yeasts. My LHBS only carries Whitelabs, so I went with that one. I will do a starter and ferment in the low 60s. I hate to cram so many topics in the same thread, but for a higher gravity beer (say 1.069), do I have to do a bigger starter? and if so, how do I go about "stepping it up"?

Are you making a regular hef? That seems pretty high if so. To step up, I just use Mr. Malty and follow that. You shouldn't need to "step up" your starter, rather just make a bigger starter.

huskerbrew wrote:Are you making a regular hef? That seems pretty high if so. To step up, I just use Mr. Malty and follow that. You shouldn't need to "step up" your starter, rather just make a bigger starter.

Yeah it's a regular Hefe. Sorry, I forgot to clarify that my 1.069 beer was a different one I was planning on brewing this weekend (a Christmas spiced type ale). I've played with the Mr. Malty calculator a bit and it seems very useful.