Brewing with Wheat: Tips from the Pros

Brewer: Kris Kalav, Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, WI

I make two wheat beers under the Berghoff label, Berghoff Hefe-Weizen and Berghoff Solstice Wit. The hefe-weizen is a classically Bavarian hefe, with notes of banana and clove, and carrying vitamin rich weissbier yeast. The Solstice is a Belgian style wit beer, with notes of orange curaçao and coriander. Both are light, refreshing summer brews that pair well with summer foods — fresh fruits, vegetables, grilled meats, etc. On average, the wheat beers contain 40–48% malted wheat, with the rest of the grain bill composed of barley malts. With this ratio of wheat-to-barley, lautering is not difficult at all for us. The most important aspect to remember is that the husk integrity (of the barley) must be maintained to keep the grain bed from compacting during mashing. I use a Weihenstephan weissbier strain of yeast and ferment in the 68 °F (20 ºC) range. This yeast provides all the flavors just in its very nature . . . it ferments wheat sugars and produces the classic banana flavors on its own. We brewers don’t produce the magic . . . the yeast does — but it is up to us to choose the right yeast when deciding on a flavor profile. I prefer my wheat beers unfiltered, but it is a matter of personal choice. There are some excellent crystal weizens (filtered) out there, but I like mine with the yeast still in it. Not too much yeast — 1 to 3 million cells per mL is just fine. I don’t want a weisse that is so cloudy that it looks like pale white mud, because at that point, the yeast can interfere with the flavor of the beer. The main advantage to not filtering is time and money savings — that, and obviously the flavors the yeast provides. Using a portion of wheat in any beer will increase the quality of the head. Even as much as 5% in lagers will help. However, a well balanced recipe shouldn’t necessarily need a boost from wheat. Foam science (yes, it exists!) has progressed rapidly in the past few years. There are many factors in brewing that lead to foam quality, and wheat is but one tool.

Brewer: Matt Brophy, Flying Fish Brewing Co. in NJ

We consider our In-Heat Wheat to be a German-style hefeweizen. Our hefe has a unique aroma profile featuring a clove-like and a highly banana-accented aroma that is commonly found in classic examples of the style. Our hefeweizen has a grist comprised of about 45% wheat malt and 55% barley malt. We are fortunate enough to work with equipment that performs well with this much malted wheat. We take extra care with our lauter to ensure that we are getting the extract and clarity that we are seeking. We run our lauter and sparge slower to maintain the integrity of the mash bed and pay close attention to wort clarity. We pay careful attention to our proprietary yeast strain to produce a fermentation that leaves us with our desired flavor profile. We take into consideration factors such as pitching rate, dissolved oxygen levels, and fermentation temperature, just to name a few. We ferment our hefeweizen at 64 ºF (18 °C). For a pitching rate we go with 2.25 million cells per mL which is slightly less than our other worts. We also keep the dissolved oxygen level lower than the other worts to help enhance our aroma profile (banana esters). To be true to the hefeweizen style you must leave the beer unfiltered. Keeping the yeast also contributes to a more rounded creamy flavor as well as contributing to the maturation of the beer once in the bottle. Yeast also has health benefits, so I would argue an unfiltered beer is better for you than a filtered beer any day of the week. Due to its increased protein content, wheat malt can improve a beer’s head and head retention. Our In-Heat Wheat pours with a white creamy head that exudes the spicy and banana aromas.