WB-06 is a pretty good Hefeweizen yeast

[enormous13]

Like I said, nothing fancy

5.5 Gallon Batch
OG=1.054
60 minute boil

7lbs White Wheat
4lbs 2-row
mashed at 148 for 60 minutes

.75 oz Hallertauer 60 minutes
.25 oz Hallertauer 15 minutes

Fermented at 68F with one pack of WB-06 pitched straight into the wort.

Now this was not a Live Oak Hefe clone. I just felt it was on par with it, since I hold that as my standard for a great tasting hefeweizen/wheat beer. I haven't made a wheat beer in a while, but I went back to using Wyeast-3068 with very large starters so that I overpitch and I ferment on the cooler side. I find that to give me a flavor profile I prefer.

Thanks a lot. I really love live oak hefe. And would like to make a beer on par and similar, sounds like your recipe might be next on the agenda.

My first beer was an extract clone kit from Austin homebrew. It was decent at best, but I could have messed it up at many points of the process. It had wheat lme and dme and .5 lb white wheat and .5 lb carapils as steeping grains. Do you think the addition of the carapils would help or hurt your recipe? (im doing all grain now)

Thanks a lot for all your help, any other tips are much appreciated. I might have to go get a growler full of live oak today. Haha

I use carapils to add body and head retention to my beer. With 7 lbs of wheat, it will produce a nice foamy head on it's own. The carapils will add a some body leaving you with a higher FG. I like my wheat beers to have a FG of 1.010 or below.

Good luck on trying to make a Live Oak Clone. I can't seem to get the yeast flavor they produce. Wyeast-3068, when overpitched and fermented cool will have much less banana flavor, allowing more of the clove spiceness to come through. I prefer that flavor profile over the WB-06 now, but I also get a bit of tartness that doesn't match the Live Oak flavor.

The two of you seemed to be honing in on a "Live Oak-esque" Hefe...any updates/improvements/advice 5 years later? Here's to hoping you're still active here lol.

 

[Yirg]

Like I said, nothing fancy

5.5 Gallon Batch
OG=1.054
60 minute boil

7lbs White Wheat
4lbs 2-row
mashed at 148 for 60 minutes

.75 oz Hallertauer 60 minutes
.25 oz Hallertauer 15 minutes

Fermented at 68F with one pack of WB-06 pitched straight into the wort.

May I ask what kind of Hallertauer hops did you use? There seem to be quite a few different variants.

 

[Soulshine2]

I brewed a hefeweizen on april 7th, 1 packet of rehydrated WB-06 for 5 gallons. It fermented out in less then 7 days at 68F, but I didn't rack to a secondary(bright tank) until day 7. Left it in secondary for 7 days at 40F to allow more yeast to settle out. I bottled at day 15 and the beer carbonated up in about 3 days. It has a citrusy, clovey, flavor with some banana. Tastes like good hefeweizen to me.

For a comparison, I picked up a six pack of Sierra Nevada Kellerweis and a bomber of Dry Dock's Hefeweizen( GABF gold medal 2011, GABF sliver medal 2010 and 2009 for hefeweizen). The Kellerweis is much drier, more bitter, and has less clove and banana then mine. Mine is more like the Dry Dock hefe, but with a little less banana and slightly less sweet.

It is interesting that there are a lot of anti WB-06 post out there. I wonder if the people who hate WB-06 let it sit in primary for too long allowing the yeast to clean up all the banana flavor. I guess I will see how the hefeweizen ages. I'm also planning on brewing up another hefeweizen with the Munich dry yeast since that one also seems to be "disliked."

Ive used it twice for a hef, I get great results. your ratio of clove to banana flavors comes from fermentation temps.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

May I ask what kind of Hallertauer hops did you use? There seem to be quite a few different variants.

Hallertauer is just a geographical adjective like “Oregon” when applied to hops, but when used without qualifier either refers to Mittelfru(e)h, the most famous variety grown in the Hallertau, or a random mixture of hops grown in the Hallertau region.

Also it’s worth noting on this thread that recent DNA sequencing has shown that WB-06 is only distantly related to the hefe yeast, it’s actually a saison type yeast most closely related to the Duvel yeast.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Ive used it twice for a hef, I get great results. your ratio of clove to banana flavors comes from fermentation temps.

According to this article, banana esters are influenced by fermentation temps, but clove phenols are not. You need a specific mash rest to increase those. Give it a read... it's my favorite hefeweizen resource.

 

[Soulshine2]

According to this article, banana esters are influenced by fermentation temps, but clove phenols are not. You need a specific mash rest to increase those. Give it a read... it's my favorite hefeweizen resource.

so, I learned something from it- one is mash temps , other is fermentation temp. but you were very correct that it is a good read. I saved it . since Im growing both tettnanger and Hallertauer (Mittelfrueh)hops and my wife favors hefeweizen( I'll probably continue to use WB-06 but I may try the danstar munich just to compare.), Im sure I'll be making more.

 

[ebbelwoi]

FTA: Formation of 4VG (clove) is largely independent of temperature.

EDIT: meaning fermentation temperature.

As far as dry yeast goes, the article does not recommend the Danstar Munich (or WB-06, for that matter). Try their Munich Classic instead. I got better results from it than from WB-06 or Munich as well.

 

[Yirg]

.75 oz Hallertauer 60 minutes
.25 oz Hallertauer 15 minutes

I'm planning to brew this recipe soon and was wondering if there's any benefit to this split. Isn't the recommended practice for Hefe to add all hops at 60 minutes?

 

[ebbelwoi]

I'm planning to brew this recipe soon and was wondering if there's any benefit to this split. Isn't the recommended practice for Hefe to add all hops at 60 minutes?

That's the standard practice. Some people like to try for a smidgen of hop flavor. Haven't tried it myself, though.