Aspects of Brewing a Wheat Beer

With half of my family originating from Bavaria, I’ve been exposed to wheat beers from a young age, and would often proudly pour them for members of my family. I remember the unusual glasses, the lively bubbles, and the golden color of the cloudy liquid underneath a thick creamy head. It was a skill to pour a Hefeweizen correctly. Too quick and you end up with 80% foam, too slow and you end up with sad, headless drink. Wheat beers are a staple in many parts of Germany, with a variety of styles to choose from depending on region. Wheat beers also have some unique brewing aspects, which make them a great beer for homebrewers to experiment with, as they respond noticeably to a number of variables.

Wheat Beer Profile

Wheat beers, or Weizen (German for wheat) as they are known in Germany, are a very unique style of beer. There are hardly any hop aromas, no discernible hop bitterness, just a rich maltiness and the flavors the special yeast imparts on the beer. It is a very carbonated and fairly sweet drink, with dominant aromas of banana, clove, and some citrus scents like orange or lemon in some versions. Traditionally cloudy due to the low flocculating yeast and thus also called Hefeweizen (yeast wheat), but you can get a filtered version, or Kristallweizen, if you want to cut back on your yeast consumption. The high wheat content makes for a fluffy and lasting head atop of the beer that is a pleasure to sink your nose into during a hot day, or after a long day at work.

For another variation, replace some of the original malts with darker malts, and you got yourself a Dunkelweizen. A darker, richer beer, with hints of biscuit, bread, but still having that banana and clove character.

The process of making a decent Weizen will vary from brewer to brewer, so it’s best to experiment with different techniques. So let’s find out what these variables are and how they might affect your beer. I’ll be focusing on the German Hefeweizen, but be aware there are other wheat beers out there, like the Belgian Wit and the American Wheat, each with their own techniques, ingredients, and flavor profiles, but their specific production techniques are outside the scope of this article.

Ingredients

Wheat beers traditionally have a short and simple list of ingredients with most of the flavors and characters coming from the malt and yeast used.

Grain

The grain bill is usually pretty straight forward 40%-60% malted wheat, 50%-30% pilsner or other light malt, and around 10% Munich or other darker malt for color. How much wheat people use seems to vary, but 40% is pretty common in homebrew. In Germany it is usually expected that wheat beers contain at least 50% wheat malt, and some breweries even use up to 70%.

Hops

Hops are only used for bittering, and then still in small amounts. Wheat beers will have a range of 10-20 IBUs, usually somewhere in the middle. The traditional hops used are German noble hops with floral and citrus notes and low bitterness. Examples are Hallertau Hersbrucker, Tettnanger, Perle, or similar. These days there are people creating hoppy wheat beers, with some more aroma additions, so it’s worth experimenting. New breeds of German hops, like Huell Melon or Mandarina Bavaria offer new opportunities to experiment with new aroma profiles however.

Wheat Beer Water Profile

The water profile will want to be on the malty to very malty side. This means a high chloride to sulphate ratio, so keep some calcium chloride to hand. I would aim for something like this.

This should accentuate the maltiness and provide a nice rich mouthfeel. A mash pH of 5.2-5.6 is recommended to keep those enzymes happy and ensure full conversion.

Process

While it is possible to create decent beers with a single infusion mash, a multiple step mash, or decoction mash, is recommended. Due to the high wheat content, there are a number of benefits of the different mash stages. Some people only do a single decoction, whereas others do two.

Mash

A low mash-in temperature of 40°C (104°F)facilitates the initial breakdown of the wheat proteins. The mash temperature is then raised to 63°C (145°F) for a maltose rest. The yeast requires lots of maltose to generate phenols. The mash is kept at this temperature for around 30 minutes. A decoction is then pulled and heated to 70°C (158°F). After 15 minutes the decoction is heated to boiling and held there for 15 minutes before being added back to the main mash, raising its temperature to 63°C (145°F). Another rest is held for 20 minutes before another decoction is pulled and boiled for 20 minutes and returned to the main mash bringing it up to 75°C (167°F) for 10 to 15 minutes before lautering.

To work out the amounts, you can either use an online calculator, or estimate the volume with this formula:

Dvol = Mv * (Tt – St) / (Bt – St)

Dvol: decoction volume
Mv : total mash volume
Tt : target temp (either °C or °F)
St : start temp (either °C or °F)
Bt : boil temp (either °C or °F)

Add about 15% -20% to this figure. Add the decoction slowly whilst monitoring the temperature of the mash. When the target temp is reached, leave the decoction to cool to the target temperature and then add it back in. Note that the total mash volume is the volume of the water with the grains.

A typical non-decoction profile for the homebrewer might look like this:

It is however also possible to do a stepped mash in a kettle without decoctions. Some will say that decoction mashing will add melanoidin flavors to the wort due to the boil of the partial mash, and others say they get the same results. This is something I am still experimenting with to see if there are any noticeable differences between the two methods. I also plan to compare the results of a single infusion mash with those from the aforementioned staged mashes.

Due to the high amounts of protein in Wheat, and the fact that its kernels lack a husk, stuck sparges are often a concern. To reduce the risk of a stuck sparge you can add about 500g (1lbs) of either rice or oat husks to a 10l (2 gal) mash. I generally soak these in some hot water for about 30 minutes to rinse off any dust, and also to reduce the amount of water they absorb during the mash. Then I drain them and mix them into the mash and proceed as normal. This is not always necessary, but advised if using more than 40%-50% wheat.

Fermentation/Yeast

Probably one of the most important parts, and one that will require some experimenting with pretty much every variable you can think of for fermenting: pitch rate, pitch temp, fermentation temp, open vs closed fermentation, removing Krausen, fermenter shape, etc

I’m only able to experiment with a number of variables, but read any thread or article about fermenting with Weizen yeast, and you will get a bunch of different information. Some will say that variable X affects the flavor, other say it doesn’t, and so on. I’m not going to dictate how to make it correctly, but go over some of the conceptions of the effects that different variables have on the outcome.

Yeast

You will want to use a wheat strain, as these are capable of producing that signature mix of phenols and phenols that wheat beer is famous for. I would advise using liquid yeast, as I’ve not had great flavor production from dried yeast, but your mileage may vary.

Pitching Rate

In the case of a wheat beer we want it to produce esters and we can make that happen by stressing the yeast. Under-pitching by varying amounts, allows you to control the amount of banana flavor your beer will have. I’ve seen people pitch from 0.75 to 0.25 million cells per ml per °P. The more stressed the yeast, the more banana you will get. Even though you are looking to under pitch, it is still recommended that you check yeast viability and cell count using a calculator to see if you require a starter or not. Above is a small starter I made from which I decanted half for the next beer. For my last 12 liter batch I aimed for around 83 billion cells.

Wheat Beer Oxygenation

Under oxygenating your wort will also stress the yeast, resulting in more banana flavors. You should still oxygenate your wort if you simply shake or splash your wort usually, as this will rarely get much oxygen into solution. I would suggest not using pure oxygen however if you want to get esters from your yeast.

Pitch temp

Wheat beer is pitched at around 2-3°C below fermentation temperature. This helps prevent the yeast from producing unwanted off flavors during the lag phase, and gives it a chance to acclimatize and multiply before starting main fermentation. Once main fermentation starts the wort temperature will rise.

Temperature

Temperature during fermentation has a great impact on beer flavor. To produce our nice flavors, we will need to keep our yeast around 20°C (68°F). Higher temps will promote banana flavors, whilst lower temps of around 15°C (59°F)will promote clove flavors. What temp you ferment at will depend on which of the two flavors you prefer. If you are using a temperature controlled with differential settings it’s advisable to keep them as close as possible. Generally setting the hot and cold differentials to 0.5 is a good idea, but make sure to not cycle the compressor too much.

I would however suggest being cautious with stressing the yeast on all fronts, as you might end up with either too much banana flavor, poor attenuation, or other issues. It’s worth experimenting with a few brews to see which variables produce your desired flavor profiles.

Fermentation profile

As stated above it’s good to pitch the yeast into a wort that’s around 2°C-3°C (35°F-37°F) below fermentation temp, and let it rise gradually until the target temp is reached. I usually plug in my Inkbird set to the fermentation temp and leave the heating element unplugged. Then the fridge will kick in once fermentation temp is reached.

Wheat yeast will form a lot of krausen, so make sure you have plenty of headspace, or use a blow off tube. After about a week, fermentation will have slowed and possibly hit final gravity. At this point it’s good to start ramping down the temp and keep it at around 4C (40°F) for another week to cold condition. As you are generally fermenting in the upper ranges (for the esters) a diacetyl rest is rarely needed, but it’s still a good idea to let the yeast clean up a bit at the end of the fermentation before dropping the temp.

Wheat Beer Carbonation

These are highly carbonated beers in general, and depending on who you ask you can get CO2 volumes of anywhere between 2.6 and 4.5. I would suggest somewhere in the range of 3.0-3.5 is a good place to start. A decent bottle will withstand around 4.0 volumes of CO2, so depending on your carbonation technique, this could be a limiting factor.

by Sven Steinbauer
I live in the English countryside with my wife, two kids, and dachshund, having moved here from Germany many years ago. I work as a software engineer and enjoy figuring out how things work and learning how to do new things. I savor learning about and exploring the processes, different techniques, and ingredients that go into creating beer. With so many variables, adjustments, and ingredients, there’s a virtually endless combination of things to try out and learn about, plus you get to drink beer at the end of it. Although I enjoy a large variety of different beer styles, I still favor German beers most of the time.

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