Hefeweizen Color

[redbone]

I've been trying to brew a fairly standard hefeweizen using 70% wheat malt 2.0srm and 30% pale malt 2.0srm with a touch of ibu's from pearle and hefe iv wlp380 yeast. I do enough to target about 1.050 SG for an abv of around 5%. I've probably done this same recipe 7-8 times now and have had different results as far as color goes. Sometimes the color is decent, sometimes its a little gray and murky looking.

I do a single step mash and sparge. My mash water is about 172F when it goes in and I do about a 90 minute mash. I sparge at arount 180F. My efficiency is always around 72%-74% for this beer.

I love the taste... .but I'm wanting to try and get a BETTER LOOKING beer. I want it to pretty much look something like this:

http://www.gastrotap.com/index.php/tasting/60-tasting-yazoo-hefeweizen.html

That picture was taken by me and beer reviewed by me. I love how the color pops and is bright yellow


Thoughts?! Help! I would love to get a better more refreshing looking beer so the visual matches the taste. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

 

[malkore]

its probably your wheat malt. 'white wheat' malt is a lighter SRM than 'wheat' or 'red wheat'.

also, how hard is your boil? really hot boils or going over 60 minutes is going to darken the work due to (spelling..) mellanoidal reactions.

that's my 2 cents.

 

[redbone]

Directly from the email of a successful brewmaster:

"The most important parts are to get a longer boil, about 90 minutes, to get a good hot break. Then knock out cool, about 60 F, and let the fermentation warm the beer up."


So, I'm doing a 90 minute boil and its pretty strong. I then use my wort chiller to cool it as quickly as possible.

I'm targeting around 2.0srm. Do you think its the "white wheat" causing this? Do i want to go with something a little darker to add more of the yellow *pop* in the color?


Here are the actual grains I got last time for a 6 gallon batch:

Weyermann Light Wheat Malt (by the pound) 7.7
Briess 2-Row Malt (by the pound) 3.3


What about my mash temps... are they ok?

 

[redbone]

Finishing up this thread for completion sake... so many out there without conclusions. =\

Some things I've learned.


*Use a touch of acid malt of about .5# to 1# - seems to bring stability and longevity to the wheat and overall beer
*mash at 150F after a couple 10 minute rests at 113f and around 130F - seems to increase clove character
*a mixture of torrified and red wheat looks great - torrified wheat makes a beer POP with yellow color
*ferment low starting in the low 60's and coming up after a few days to room temp around 70 or so to finish out
*13-15 ibu's for a target with hops
*don't forget rice hulls



There ya have it.... done.