Just curious if anyone has tried it? I got a Hefe kit from Northern Brewer a while ago with a few other kits.... Got the Hefe because my brother was brewing with me. I like Hefes as much as the next guy but thought I would experiment with it since it was a cheap kit. I was thinking a oz of Citra and a oz of Simcoe, half of each at 30 mins and the other half of each between 5 mins and cooldown. I looked at the kit and it is a lower ABV Hefeweizen by my calculations between 4.5-5.3. Thoughts? Edit. The reason I am doing this is because I just can not drink that much Hefe and my brother has kind of given up interest in brewing. But a hoppy wheat beer I can drink the shit out of.
Hefe yeast doesn't go well with a bunch of american hops. I'd do one of the following: 1) Throw away Hefe Yeast and use US-05 or some other fairly neutral strain in place of the hefe yeast and hop as you'd like to make a gumball head esque American Wheat Beer 2) Use kit as is but add in additional noble or noble esque hops (Saphir, Hallertau, Saaz, Spalt, etc) late in the boil to get some additional spicy, earthy character that will accentuate clove notes from the hefe yeast. A commercial example of a beer like this would be Schneider and Sons Hopfenweisse.
I've done a hoppy hefe before. It was dope. Here's the recipe: http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/sunny-d Citra might work in this context, but I can't see Simcoe doing as well.
If you're going to use those hops, I'd take the last ounce and dry hop...instead of the late addition.
That Hefe IV yeast throws off some crazy apricot flavors and would definitely work with tropical hops... didn't even think of that.
Of course, this is a matter of opinion and personal taste, but I'll disagree with this. New Glarus made Crack'd Wheat a few years back that was a weizen with late additions of cascade and amarillo (I think - C hops in any event) and I thought it was awesome. They brew their weizens to accentuate clovey flavors over banana an it is worth noting that this was not a HUGE hop bomb but hopped sufficiently that one could identify the citrusy hop flavors. I made a homebrew attempt along these lines that I enjoyed: Hopped Up Hefe: 6 gallons Ingredients: Amt Name Type %/IBU 6 lbs Red Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 52.20% 5 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 47.80% 2.00 oz Hersbrucker [3.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 18.9 IBUs 1.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9.2 IBUs 1.00 oz Amarillo [7.20 %] - Boil 3.0 min Hop 2.7 IBUs 1 pkg Hefeweizen IV Ale (White Labs #WLP380) [ Yeast - 1.00 oz Amarillo [7.20 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 0.0 IBUs My guess is I overdid the Amarillo relative to the NG brew, but still liked it. I think I actually used white wheat malt, but NG may use red wheat malt in theirs. Not sure I would know the difference.
Yep, its my favorite weizen yeast for hefeweizens and helps keep weizenbocks somewhat bright. I like 3638 for dunkelweizens, though, the pome-fruit and vanilla goes well with the richer malt.
I brewed a hoppy hefeweizen a while back. Details below. http://fermentologist.blogspot.com/2012/12/home-sweet-home-hoppy-hefeweizen.html I went traditional with the hopping until the end when I added Citra aroma hops and dryhopped it with more Citra. Turned out awesome, smelled like peaches.
On purely personal taste terms, I'd have to go with this answer. Hoppy wheats and hefs haven't impressed me much. I'd rather have wheat or hef, or hops, but not both. There just seems to be a clash. But gumball head is pretty damn good stuff, so if you wish to go that route, by all means go for it. The idea of a bit of spicy, floral, earthy hops in a hef also works for me, as long as we're not talking IPA hopping levels. I'm thinking willamette, but something noble sounds equivalently tasty. Of course go by what you wish for the beer, not what mine or anyone else's opinion is on the matter. I just had to get my opinion in on the matter, just in case nobody had heard any of my opinions lately.
I agree with this statement. I prefer a hefe that has been dry hopped rather then moved into an IPA category.
