1st Place Hefe

Style: Hefeweizen
Competition results: First place in the German wheat and rye beer/weizen category of Homebrew Alley 6 (2012)

All-grain recipe, 5-gallon batch size
Original gravity: 1.046
Final gravity: 1.010
Bitterness: 13 IBU
Alcohol by volume: 4.8 percent

5 pounds German pilsner
5 pounds wheat malt
.25 ounces Hallertuaer Mittelfrüh hops pellets (3 percent AA), 90 minutes
.75 ounces Hallertuaer Mittelfrüh hops pellet (3 percent AA), 60 minutes
WLP380 Hefeweizen IV ale yeast

Use distilled water with 1 g CaCl per gallon in the mash and add 1 g CaCl per gallon of sparge water directly to the boil. Mash for 10 minutes at 113 degrees F, 10 minutes at 122 F, 60 minutes at 149 F, and 10 minutes at 168 F. Boil for 90 minutes.

Fermentation: Make 1 liter of starter wort and aerate it on a stir plate. Add oxygen in-line as the wort was transferred from the chiller to the carboy. Pitch yeast at 58 F. Allow fermentation to rise to 62 F for the first three days. Raise temperature to 65 F for four more days. Then raise to 68 F to clean up any off flavors. Drop temperature to 34 F for three days to crash yeast, proteins, and tannins. Keg and carbonate to 4 volumes CO2.

Brewer's notes: This is a very simple recipe that relies on fermentation-derived flavors and proper mouth feel to achieve the best result. The step mash procedure I used was developed via trial and error over a number of batches. The ferulic acid rest increases the clove character of the beer, while the protein and the low saccharification-rest temp creates a highly fermentable wort with a creamy mouthfeel. Carbonating to 3.5 to 4 volumes is necessary for this beer to be true to style and enhances the mouthfeel and refreshing nature of the beer.