The Brew Style Challenge for April 2018 will be a Weissbier aka Hefeweizen. It can be found in the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines: 10 German Wheat Beer, Sub 10A Weissbier
I have always referred to the Weissbier as a Hefeweizen, so for the remainder of the post I’ll continue to do that. The Hefeweizen is a German Wheat beer that when made correctly has a soft creamy texture along with a nice mix of banana and clove phenols. The key to making a great Hefeweizen is using good quality malt along with a lot of healthy yeast, oxygen and the fermentation temp. If you had to choose one part to skimp on I would suggest the quality of the malt. They yeast and the temp you ferment this beer at is the most important part of making a good example. I have also experienced bubble gum flavors caused by the yeast. Oh and this yeast will get a little wild on you, meaning it will really create a big Krausen, so leave plenty of room in your fermentor.
(From Jamil Zainasheff and John J. Palmer’s book Brewing Classic Styles) The following is assuming a 70% efficiency with 6 gallons left at the end of the boil and 5.5 gallons going into the fermenter.
OG 1.050, FG 1.012, IBU 13, SRM 5, ABV 5%
GRAIN: 5.6# continental Pilsner Malt and 5.6# Wheat Malt. Mash at 152F. Increase the pre-boil volume as needed to allow for a 90 minute boil, which will help reduce DMS in the beer.
EXTRACTt: 8.6# Wheat LME (No Mash required)
HOPS: 0.8oz Hallertau 4%AA for 60 mins giving you around 13 IBUs (Feel free to play around and try different hops)
YEAST: White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale, Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen,I think there is a dry yeast out there, but I can’t recall the name or number.
Fermenting colder at around 62F will give you more of a mix of Banana and Clove, 68F should give you more Banana and less clove, 72F+ will give you more Banana and Bubble Gum. Don’t trust my work on the temps, I would suggest checking out what other people say, but this has been my experience when using Wyeast 3068.