Hefe Question

[rbraunberger]

I have seen an article before about some breweries pulling the yeast out of their hefs and running the beer threw a coarse filter and readding the yeast to the beer after for a polished hef. I was planning on trying this on a pilot system and seeing the effects on the finished product and was wondering the best way to pull the yeast out of suspension and re-add the yeast after filtering. All while not killing our hard working friends and keeping that great mit hefe quality we all love. Any tips or ideas?

[Diamond Knot]

My Humble Understanding............

...........has been that it's for a couple of reasons. However, it's not would you would think.

Traditional Hefs are fermented on a Weihenstephan type yeast that creates the various flavor components such as Four-Vinyl Quiacol and Iso-Amyl Acetate. Though they are yeast esters, they can be controlled by you in the primary ferment by regulating oxygen and fermentation temperature.

HOWEVER..........in traditional bottle German Hefe, this yeast is filtered out and gyled with a lager yeast to create carbonation. The original yeast is not added back in.
Why? Because the Lager yeast has better storability and adds nothing to the flavor already abundant in the beer.

A very good book on the matter is Eric Warner's "German Wheat Beer" in the Classic Beer Style Series. I had the great oppoirtunity to meet Eric once and thank him personally for that book, and he's a nice guy. I met him at a CBC here in Seattle.

We draft our Hefe and use a Weihenstphen type yeast and leave it turbid in the keg. We also store them upside-down to ensure they are turbid at dispense. Store them cold! The yeast will go off on you if you don't.

It depends on how you do it. The Widmer Bro.s make a populat Hefe here in the Northwest and they used a low attenuating Alt yeast. It was an "American" Hefe, but sold a huge amount.

Good luck!

[brewbonghm]

Mit Hefe is perhaps the most important component of a traditional Bavarian.
Anything you can do to keep yeast in suspension is important to flavor and stability. Carry over of too much yeast that flocs will however yield "burnt weenie sandwich". The single most important thing is the yeast you select for re-pitching. Open fermentation and top cropping is best, otherwise your beer will take a couple of generations to be at its best and a couple of generations later it will begin to deteriorate. If you have open fermenters you can beat the living snot out of your yeast and it will come back smiling, closed conical fermentation and the yeast throws in the towel at 6 or 7 generations. Either way if you can facilitate blending the first 2 generations you wont be sorry.

[kramling]

bottle conditioning

So if I were to bottle up a Hefe and naturally carbonate it in the bottle the proper procedure would be?

Propagate a lager strain and pitch it to a conditioning tank at the same rate I would for primary fermentation with some speise (original wort) I saved off from the original boil and mix it up well?

Then fill and store bottles at what temp to condition and for how long before sending it out?

Anyone have some solid experience here to share?

Cheers,
Steve

[beertje46]

So if I were to bottle up a Hefe and naturally carbonate it in the bottle the proper procedure would be?

Propagate a lager strain and pitch it to a conditioning tank at the same rate I would for primary fermentation with some speise (original wort) I saved off from the original boil and mix it up well?

Then fill and store bottles at what temp to condition and for how long before sending it out?

Anyone have some solid experience here to share?

Cheers,
Steve

Try this kraeusening spreadsheet originally developed by John Mallet. I have never used this spreadsheet but have e-mailed to dozens of ProBrewer forumittes. I finally extracted and zipped the worksheet so it could be posted here.