• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Hefe flavoring

grplotts

Apprentice
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Y'all,
Can anyone help me out on my hefe game? Made a batch of hefe and ended up with pretty much all clove and no banana flavor. I've been reading many things on changing it up but I seem to be going in a complete circle with responses. Can anyone on here provide insight?

Thank You,
George
 
Hey George,

Since no one has replied, I shall shed some of my experience with you.
My last batch was a 11.5 gallon Hefeweizen. The flavor came out nice, with a good ratio of banana to clove. I used WLP300 at 66 degrees. This came out to a very nice taste. The higher the temperature the more banana you should taste, don't be afraid to increase the temperature a bit during primary.

My recipe was simple yet tasty:
50/50  German Pilsner 2 Row and German Wheat Malt
for my 11.5 gallon batch, I used 1 lb and 1.7 oz Rice Hulls in conjunction to prevent stuck sparging (due to larger amount of wheat malt)
and Hallertauer, enough at 60 min for 10.8 IBU

Mash at 150 for 60 min, fermented at 66 and raised to 72 for conditioning. Cold crashed for 24 hours.

I was going to ask about how you have been brewing this, it would help to know the temps, and your process? Also, it is know that for this kind of brew that if you were to under pitch your yeast a bit, that can help increase the banana flavor.

Cheers,
Joshua
 
I like Josh's advice.  To keep it simple, raising the temp of fermentation will bring more banana.  I'm seeing some people advising going up to the 80's, I'd say that's too high.  I also see people suggesting trying to stress out the yeast by underpitching, under oxygenating, etc... I'm not super in to that idea either.  I bet what you're looking for lies in the yeast.  Once you get that temp control dialed in play with different yeasts.  That ought to do 'er!
 
Which yeast strain was used, how old was it and did you perform a starter? Mid 60's is fine for balanced banana/clove. Good advice above too. I also perform a ferulic acid rest and that really seems to balance the ester/phenolic. The rest is at about 115 for 15 minutes assuming that a step mach can be done with your rig.

Mark
 
Back
Top