My wife is due to give birth to our second child (another boy!) any day now and I'm going to brew a Hefeweizen for her once time, and she, permits. One of her go to beers altogether is Weihenstephaner's Hefe but she found a new one she really enjoyed on a recent trip to Wisconsin - New Glarus' Hopster, a hoppy version of the style dry hopped with Amarillo. My question for you is, how would you go about making it "hoppy" while staying somewhat true to style with noble hops in the boil? I was thinking give it the standard bitterness but pound it in the last few minutes and at whirlpool and then dry hop. Have any of y'all had any luck with any particular hop or have any recommendations? Decoction mash? Fermentation temps? It's been two years since I've brewed one so I'm looking for some ideas here. Cheers! Kyle
What you inquire about is typically known as a hopfenweizen or hopfenweisse. They are hard to find but really great beers when done right. Basically you are just targeting a standard hefeweizen at the usual IBUs < 15 but a good chunk of dry hop and/or whirlpool additions like a pale ale. You could opt to skip a 60 min addition in favor of a larger 10-20 min addition for bitterness and flavor. There's room to play. Many beers in this style are a bigger beers than a standard hefe and clock around 7%. If that is what you would like to brew then I'd suggest targeting a weizenbock recipe instead of a hefeweizen recipe.
I made Gordon Strongs El Hefe recipe with a couple oz of Amarillo at 15 minutes (5 gallon batch) and it was great! I did use the WLP 380 which was a nice combo of spice and citrus.
The few I've tasted have a pretty sharp hop bite to them (for a wheat beer). I think a bittering charge would be necessary.
Brewing with Wheat gives some recipe specs for NG's Crack'd Wheat, which was the predecessor to Hopster. Here's what I brewed:. Not saying it's a clone. Just one beer inspired by another. Measured batch size into the fermenter - 5 gallons OG 1.052 6 lbs Red Wheat Malt 5 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner 2.00 oz Hersbrucker [3.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min 1.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min 1.00 oz Amarillo [7.20 %] - Boil 3.0 min 1 pkg Hefeweizen IV Ale (White Labs #WLP380) - 1.00 oz Amarillo [7.20 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Looks like I may have fermented at 68, although I'm not 100% sure about that.
