One of my favorite beers to enjoy is Paulaner’s hefeweizen. It’s a light, refreshing beer that seems good any time of the year. I have long tried to replicate the same flavors in my past hefeweizens. I believe this hefeweizen recipe is the closest to that delicious beer.
Herr Paul is aptly named, with Herr being the German for “sir or mister” and Paul as an ode to Paulaner.
Herr Paul
| Method: | All Grain | Style: | Weizen/Weissbier |
| Boil Time: | 90 min | Batch Size: | 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume) |
| Boil Size: | 9 gallons | Efficiency: | 60% (brew house) |
| Boil Gravity: | 1.035 (recipe based estimate) |
Original Gravity:1.057
Final Gravity:1.013
ABV (standard):5.75%
IBU (tinseth):17.84
SRM (morey):4.16
Fermentables
| Amount | Fermentable | PPG | °L | Bill % |
| 8 lb | German – Pale Wheat | 39 | 1.5 | 59.3% |
| 5 lb | German – Bohemian Pilsner | 38 | 1.9 | 37% |
| 8 oz | German – Munich Light | 37 | 6 | 3.7% |
Hops
| Amount | Variety | Type | AA | Use | Time | IBU |
| 1 oz | Tettnanger | Pellet | 4.5 | Boil | 60 min | 17.84 |
Mash Guidelines
| Amount | Description | Type | Temp | Time |
| 10 gal | Ferulic Acid Rest | Temperature | 110 F | 10 min |
| 10 gal | Protein Rest | Temperature | 122 F | 30 min |
| 10 gal | Mash Rest | Temperature | 150 F | 60 min |
Yeast
| Wyeast – Weihenstephan Weizen 3068 |
| Attenuation (avg):75%Flocculation:LowOptimum Temp:64 – 75 °FStarter:NoFermentation Temp:66 °FPitch Rate:– |
Raw Notes
| 11:15a- 10.5 gallon water added, 1/2 camden tablet 11:36a- 107F Ferulic Acid Rest 11:47a- raise temp to 122F 12:00p- 30 min rest at 122F 12:30p- raise temp to 150F for mash 12:45p- pulled off 1.5 gal and sparged at 1:45pm 9 gallons pre boil Pre boil gravity 1.030 at 150F (temp adjusted is 1.046?) 2:28p- vigorous boil 3p- hops added 4pm- whirlfloc added, chiller added 4:15p-heat cut, chiller started 7.5 gallons post boil 5pm- 80F lowest it would go with it being 90F + outside total volume: 7 gallons 1/2 gallon lost to cooling 5.5 gal into fermenter OG 1.051 Pitched at 76F, ferm set to 66F, pitched with no airlock (tin foil) |
Brewer’s Thoughts
Tried a lot of new things with recipe. Finally moved to a 2 vessel system with propane, which sped up my brew day considerably. I also tried a decoction mash- pulling off some of the mash, boiling it, and then returning it to raise the overall mash temperature.
Another component is the open fermentation. I left a piece of sanitized tin foil over the top of the fermenter for the first week instead of an airlock. I had read about how this can impact the flavor of wheat beers and it helped get that desired flavor mix of clove and banana.
Tastings
Spot on. This was a tasty one and very close to my desired flavor of Paulaner. There were still some minor flaws to it. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The real test will be if this can be replicated consistently.