higher ABV Hefe

I might be totaly wrong and if so thats fine....

but it seems to me that a hefe with it's bannana and clove-iness to it would hide a larger ABV pretty well. Is this a good assumption or am I crazy? I'm not thinking anything TOO big but maybe 6-7%

I've got a hefe in primary right now and it smells amazing! and I won a $20 gift certificate to austin homebrew the other day and ordered the ingredents for another but it's got me thinking and I kinda want to do something a little different.

So would adding about a pound of wheat extract at the end of the boil...bringing it up to 6.8% (so says recipator) be too much or should I just be happy with it as it is? Which is fine bc I LOVE hefe's.

Thanks!

Flavorwise, I think it could be great, but usually when I want a hefe, it's too damned hot to get drunk off my duff and the lighter ABV suits me. Who knows though... you may be on to something... there are those days when you just know the temperature is going to be dropping fast... you are overheated, but wouldn't mind a little alcoholic temperature adjustment... it might be great for those occasions... like sitting out on the porch in the summer, watching a nasty storm blow in....

Yeah I really like hefes....they're really refreshing and I think the flavor would hide a bump in ABV pretty well.

Plus I'm totally unsure of my efficientcy (don't have a hydrometer) and this might make it a "normal" ABV for a hefe....

I did my recipator figurings with 50% efficientcy bc I've heard around 65% is about normal for such high %-ages of wheat plus I think my process is pretty crappy right now....

we'll see, it's either I bump it up or I add some fruit

Take it easy

Investigate Weizenbocks...there are some recipes floating around here that a search will turn up. It's basically an dark amber Hefeweizen in the 7-8% range.

I've been drinking HWs since Feb '75. I've been brewing them since 1994.

My latest experiments have even taken them down to 4%...for something light and refreshing.

I was at the Pyramid Brewery in Seattle and they had an Imperial Hefe on the brewers tap, and man was it good. I think that you are right about the yeast helping to hide some of the alcohol notes. I think that the one they had was around 10 or 11%. It was a bit malty but not overly. I say make big beer and be happy, you just need to find that balance point. I might try to up some of the hops also to help balance it out.

I've been drinking my Hefe for a few weeks now and I love it. I made a mistake when brewing and didn't adjust for temperature right when doing a gravity reading which made me think my efficiency was off. So I ended up adding about two pounds of DME which boosted it up to about 7.5%. My wife loves it and keeps pestering me to make some more.

jcarson83 said:

...I ended up adding about two pounds of DME which boosted it up to about 7.5%. My wife loves it and keeps pestering me to make some more.

Click to expand...

Did you get lucky afterward? (Rhetorical...) However, if you did...go brew some more, son!

Good idea's guys!

I think uping the hops to about 20 maybe will help hide a bit of the alchohol...

I think I'm going to shoot for about 7-8% more than that and I think it would be too much.

Weizenbocks sound good baron but it's a lager correct? I don't have any lagering capabilities right now...

THANKS!

greenhornet said:

Weizenbocks sound good baron but it's a lager correct? I don't have any lagering capabilities right now...

Click to expand...

Nope...there is some information "out there" that indicates that they are, but they are definitely ales. Basically just a darker, stronger Hefeweizen. No lagering required.

On a sidenote: many commercial Hefeweizen breweries will bottle condition with a lager yeast for the neutral flavor, but most homebrewers don't do this.

Baron von BeeGee said:

On a sidenote: many commercial Hefeweizen breweries will bottle condition with a lager yeast for the neutral flavor, but most homebrewers don't do this.

Click to expand...

I've heard of this for sure...but isn't there 1 or 2 out there that don't? That would be pretty cool for bottle harvesting.

Hmm I'll deffinatlly look into them...I just thought that bocks were a type of lager...

What kind of yeast would one use for a weizenbock?

Take it easy and thanks for all the ideas/help!

<off to do more research>

My hefe is about 6.4% and tastes excellent... goes down easy. My favorite brew at the moment (homebrew or commercial). I think my stout in secondary might take the #1 spot once its ready though.

greenhornet said:

Hmm I'll deffinatlly look into them...I just thought that bocks were a type of lager...

What kind of yeast would one use for a weizenbock?

Click to expand...

Bocks are lagers, but Weizenbocks aren't... Basically, they got the name "wheat bock" because they were wheat beers of "bock" strength in terms of abv. But in the case of a Weizenbock the "bock" designation only means it's a higher abv, not that a lager yeast is used for primary fermentation.

As far as yeast goes, you use any Hefeweizen yeast you like. I use Wyeast 3068 exclusively for my Hefeweizens/Weizenbocks, but that was the last couple years and I'm thinking a change may be in order this year.

Well I did it!

For a 3 gallon batch I mashed 3lb red wheat 1 lb of 2 row and added 1 can of wheat LME at the end of the boil.

Recipator said it came to 8..or 9 i think.

I pitched on a yeast cake from hefe I bottled last night as well and i had to rig a blow off tube this morning!

Green, My first AG was a Hefe and it was a disaster. I had a fly sparge that I was using for the first time, and I didn't realize until much later that the little plastic plugs came off of the sides. I ended up improvising by just hosing down the grains with the tube until the runoff basically got stuck.

I figured 'what the heck, it's my first try at an AG ', And I just went with what I had. I ended up with about 3.5 gallons in the fermenter (2.5 first runnings and maybe 1 gallon of second) and an OG that was out the roof. It took about a month for the bubbler to settle down, and another 2 months in the bottle, but the final product was fantastic!

I had thought this batch was a lost cause, so I gave up on gravity readings (therefore I have no idea what the ABV was, it had a kick though). But the mouthfeel, sweetness, carbonation and banana/clove taste was great.

I do the American Hefe from ABH also, but I liked the stronger batch so much that I'm gonna bump the grain bill up 20% next time I brew it.

Right on Imbranato...my first AG was a hefe too (not this one)

I think it'll be good.....thats nuts yours took a month in the fermenter! Mine has stopped now and I brewed it on Saturday

I know what you mean about lost causes that turn out awesome

I racked my strawberry IPA (didn't realize it was so hoppy till yesterday...didn't know an IBU of 40 is considered an IPA) to tetriary yesterday and I was positive it was going to suck....but it's awesome

It's got the perfect amount of strawberry-ness and it's not TOO hoppy but has that dry your mouth out kinda hop taste

Now I'm excited about it

oh and the color of it is awesome....

well I did it...and I'm drinking it right now

Yesterday was 3weeks in bottle and it's good, really good. It tastes just like a "normal" hefe but after about half the glass I can totaly tell the ABV is higher. Only "problem" is that there isn't really much of a head, but I'm sure that'll come with time.

So, next time you're thinking of a hefe....maybe think big!

Toot said:

Flavorwise, I think it could be great, but usually when I want a hefe, it's too damned hot to get drunk off my duff and the lighter ABV suits me. Who knows though... you may be on to something... there are those days when you just know the temperature is going to be dropping fast... you are overheated, but wouldn't mind a little alcoholic temperature adjustment... it might be great for those occasions... like sitting out on the porch in the summer, watching a nasty storm blow in....

Click to expand...

Those are the times when I chase my Wild Turkey 101 with a nice Hefe with a slice of lemon.. Does the trick!

Turn on some Rush or Pink Floyd or Creedance. Good to go!

Enjoy!

Cheers!

greenhornet said:

well I did it...and I'm drinking it right now

Yesterday was 3weeks in bottle and it's good, really good. It tastes just like a "normal" hefe but after about half the glass I can totaly tell the ABV is higher. Only "problem" is that there isn't really much of a head, but I'm sure that'll come with time.

So, next time you're thinking of a hefe....maybe think big!

Click to expand...

Did you add a slice of lemon to it? The acid in the lemon will kill the head.

Someone correct me if I am wrong but I've had this happen with me.

-- Trev

seefresh said:

My hefe is about 6.4% and tastes excellent... goes down easy. My favorite brew at the moment (homebrew or commercial). I think my stout in secondary might take the #1 spot once its ready though.

Click to expand...

Dude, you should make home bread! I think it would be a winner!

Email me!

-- Trev

I'll post the full recipe once I'm further along in tweaking it, but I have a hefe that is looking promising and I can't wait to brew it again... It's my Honey-Hefe. It came out around 6.5%. Fermentation is just about finished up and there's a very unusual, tasty, apricot taste to it. Very cool. Next time, I'm going reduce the amount of honey though, from 1 pound, down to maybe a quarter pound because it's too dry... but otherwise, the flavor is really outstanding.

FWIW, it was not decocted, but I did do an extended 90 minute boil to increase carmelization.

Nope no lemon...don't really like it. I think hefe's are good on there own. On this subject...I ordered a Blue Moon at Fridays the other day and they served it with a hunk of orange and I think it killed the head...or they just poured it badly. It was still tastey but I don't think the hunk of orange added anything.

I like hefes a lot and I think "big" hefe's definatly have potential. Imperial Hefe anyone?

My brew buddies and I love the White Labs 300 Hefeweizen yeast. We got excellent results with a stupid simple all-extract recipe for a hefeweizen, then made a fairly low-alcohol Weizenbock (~6-7%? Don't have my notes in front of me) on the leftover cake (tasted it last night- excellent as well), and just made a Dunkelweizen on the same cake (we'll see how that one goes). Very strong banana and clove esters, really reminds me of the first fresh Hefeweizen I ever tasted. I would highly recommend this yeast to anyone looking for a good weizen yeast! I think all three of us are interested in trying some of the other strains, but we're definitely going to use this strain again!

Toot said:

I'll post the full recipe once I'm further along in tweaking it, but I have a hefe that is looking promising and I can't wait to brew it again... It's my Honey-Hefe.

Click to expand...

Honey-Hefe sounds divine!

I'm also going to try a higher gravity Hefe. I'm shooting for 7-8%, and adding some lemongrass and blueberry extract which I'm hoping will mask the high abv even more. I probably won't get to this one for a couple of weeks, but I'm very interested to see how it come out.