Hefeweizen Grain Bill

[Bonnerhaus]

Hey ya'll,

I'm fixing to do my first Hefe, I have a question and wanted to see if ya'll might could help me. I'm doing an extract with specialty grains and I have 8 oz. Cara Pils Malt, 8 oz. German Pilsner Malt, and 6 lb. of Wheat DME. My question is I also have 16 oz. of milled Vienna Malt and I'm thinking about also steeping it when I steep the Cara Pils and the German Pilsner Malts. Would this be a good or bad idea? I've read that Vienna Malt is often used in Hefeweizens in Germany so I'm not concerned with using it but I'm just wondering if I should with having the other stuff or if I should just leave out the Cara Pils and German Pilsner and just use the pound of Vienna? Thanks for any and all info....

 

[Kuhndog]

Using Vienna as steeping only will give you a darker color but if they are only steeping, you won't get the same impact as it would be if it were mashed. You'll get some color and flavor but depending on the steeping time - even that will vary some. It's used more as a base malt to give body, flavor and some color. Breweries use it vs the decoction method to get a little more caramel character and save some time/money in the process.

You might want to look into getting munich extract instead - it's a little darker...but you won't need as much compared to the Vienna. I don't know if you'll be able to find Vienna DME or LME.