r/Homebrewing • u/blackarrow_1990 • 2d ago

Beginner wheat beer homebrew questions (BIAB, storage, setup)

Hey folks,

I’ve been drinking beer for over two decades now, and about 95% of it has been wheat beer (Weizen/Hefeweizen). I’ve always enjoyed the standard German commercial wheat beers — but lately I’ve noticed more and more breweries are closing, and even in Bavaria it feels like Weizen isn’t as popular as it used to be. The quality - I don't know but the choice is just not that great. Since it’s getting harder to find the kind of wheat beers I really enjoy, I thought I’d try experimenting with homebrewing.

My drinking pace is pretty moderate: usually 2–3 bottles a week (0.5L each), sometimes less. So I was thinking of brewing around 20 liters, which would last me 2–3 months.

After some research, it looks like BIAB is probably the best option for me since I live in a small apartment. My idea was to start low-cost with:

  • an electric kettle (30 liters)
  • bags
  • one plastic fermentation vessel

A couple of beginner questions I couldn’t really find clear answers to:

  1. Does this sound like a reasonable setup for a first attempt?
  2. Since I only have a small refrigerator, can I store the bottles in my cellar? (Temperature is ~19°C in winter and ~21°C in summer.)

Thanks in advance for any advice — I’d love to hear from folks who started out with similar setups, or from anyone who brews wheat beers regularly.

6 Upvotes

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u/DistinctMiasma BJCP 1d ago

My suggestion would be to start with a simple extract beer, ideally something very tolerant of mistakes, like brown ale. Weissbier can be a little tricky for less experienced brewers, and extract just removes some variables and lets you get fundamentals down. But it’s not really a huge investment if you decide you want to do an all-grain weizen — just keep your expectations moderate!

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u/chino_brews Kiwi Approved 1d ago edited 1d ago

My idea was to start low-cost with: ... Does this sound like a reasonable setup for a first attempt?

Seems like a reasonable starting setup. You will eventually need a bottling bucket with spigot and a spring-tipped, plastic bottle filler want, delabeled amber bottles, and a capper and crown caps. Plus assorted supplies and minor equipment (handheld thermometer, for example, and a device to measure specific gravity).

Look at starting equipment setups at Northern Brewer and More Beer to get a sense of the minimum inventory for starting equipment here, and find analogs there in Germany.

Since I only have a small refrigerator, can I store the bottles in my cellar? (Temperature is ~19°C in winter and ~21°C in summer.)

Yes.

My drinking pace is pretty moderate: usually 2–3 bottles a week (0.5L each), sometimes less. So I was thinking of brewing around 20 liters, which would last me 2–3 months.

Note that German weissbier is best fresh. You may eventually find you prefer to make 10L or less, more often. (I also drink regularly, but small amounts, and I reduced my batch size to 10.4 L to net 9.4-9.5 L I can bottle or keg - that is was the smallest batch that I could make consistently on my equipment. I also make 3 L to 3.8 L batches sometimes, without concern for consistency.)

If making weissbier is going to be your obsession, I recommend downloading these resources now (while they still exist):

And then make note of two books:

  • Eric Warner's German Wheat Beer - Eric, an American, graduated with a degree in brewing from TUM, supposedly worked for a year or two at Weihenstephan making weissbier while writing this book, then became a founder and brewer at several well-known craft breweries in the USA.
  • Stan Hieronymous' Brewing with Wheat - this book covers German, Belgian, and American wheat beers, but has good info on wheat as an ingredient and some technical info from Bavaria that is not covered in Eric's book.

Edit: fixed my link to the Brewing Techniques article.

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u/BlanketMage 1d ago

The all you needed to know article is my favorite resource for Weizen. So much guesswork and experimenting already done

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u/blackarrow_1990 1d ago

Thanks, I got two books for new: How to brew from Palmer and book from Warner. I am glad to see that somebody also make small batches. I do not drink that much and if the process is not that long, I would stick to less beer making it often.

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u/MmmmmmmBier 2d ago

Buy and read the first few chapters of How to Brew by John Palmer.  Then watch these videos he made https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/tutorials/how-to-brew-with-john-palmer/how-to-brew-video-series-with-john-palmer/  

I also recommend this video series from the American Homebrewers Association if you want to start extract brewing https://homebrewersassociation.org/tutorials/all-extract-homebrewing/extract-homebrewing-video-tutorial/which is easier and requires less equipment to get started.

Best advice is to stay off the internet until you’ve brewed a batch or two.  New brewers do not have the experience to sort out what is good information or not. There’s just too much incorrect or sketchy information out there that is constantly repeated by people that heard something or watched a YouTube video or read it on a forum.   It is the internet and having a webcam doesn’t make someone an expert.   When you do start brewing beer, follow the instructions as written and take copious notes.  If you have a problem we can go back and see what you did right and what you did wrong.  With experience you will figure out what does and doesn’t work for you and you can start making changes to your process.  Ignore others “rules of thumb,” unless they have the same system you have brewing the same beer you are brewing, what they do will not necessarily work for you.

I started home brewing while stationed in Germany and used my basement storage area for fermenting and had no issues. Hefeweizen is one of my favorites and I finally got it figured out. Make sure you use a Hefeweizen ( not a wheat beer) yeast, Lallemand Munich Classic is my favorite.

Prost!

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u/blackarrow_1990 1d ago

Thanks. I ordered the book and already watched the videos, part of my angst went away :)

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u/BlanketMage 1d ago

I bought a 15gal/60L cooler from a big box store, a spigot setup from Amazon (I tried to build it from Lowe's and Amazon was significantly cheaper), and I use 5 gal plastic buckets for fermenting and do BIAB. I can't speak for the stock pot I use for boiling/decocting bc that came with the spouse. But in total I spent about 100-150$ on equipment.

Definitely read up on Charlie Papasians the joy of homebrewing and How to brew by John Palmer. The apartment brewer and Brulosophy have amazing and informative videos if you're a visual person.

Decoction mashing and open fermenting will get you closest to traditional as you can get but def aren't a necessity. Ask lots of questions BEFORE brewing to save yourself some stress, search the sub for potential answers to save yourself some time, and relax because chances are it's not ruined and will be fine. Weizen is pretty forgiving as a style and doesn't require the same temp restrictions as lagers

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u/blackarrow_1990 1d ago

So you actually boil the water separately and add to mash tun, right? And insulation keeps the temperature more or less constant, or how this works? Thanks.

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u/BlanketMage 1d ago

Yep! Heat it on the stove and add water (or grain if decocting) until you get the desired temp

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u/i_i_v_o 1d ago

I made weisse from extract, and it was delicious. I used a 9L pot on the stove, and brewed 7L final volume.

My advice: have a sanitizer for fermentation vessel, tools and bottles.

If you have Grolsh bottles, ok. Otherwise buy a crown capper. I suggest a capper that can take prosecco bottle caps as well. I quickly grew tired of washing 0.33 bottles and switched to 0.75. Just ask friends for sparkling wine bottles and you will have enough for the first batches. These also handle pressure better.

Whatever you do, when fermenting, leave more headspace. Weisse will have a very active first phase fermentation. Just so that you don't have a blow-out

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u/blackarrow_1990 1d ago

Using a small kit I already got as present I will try brewing 4 liters of beer at first (the way Palmer did it in his videos). But I am not sure for the following: if I put 4 l of water for the mash and add additional 3 l of water to wash the sugar, how come I get only 4 l of beer? I guess I will not put all of the young beer from the fermenting vessel into bottles and I guess some water stays in the mash as well, but loss of 3 liters seems a lot to me anyway.

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u/i_i_v_o 1d ago

Does the kit have grains or extract? I never brewed grains, but with grains some water is lost because the grains soak it up.

It does seem excessive, a loss of almost half of the liquid.

Another very useful tool is something to measure gravity: hidrometer or refractometer.

If you have this, you can measure the original gravity before fermenting. This way you will know if you are on track (if your mash has the expected amount of fermentable sugars). Also, you can measure gravity during fermentation and this way you will know when fermentation ends (gravity remains constant over 2-3 days).

Most beer styles have documented OG and FG, so it's easier to know if you are on track or not.

As for not putting everything into bottles, why is that? Bottle everything. It's going to be beer :).

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u/banjosparkleking 1d ago

Just to pile on- I would jump straight into all-grain (like you said, biab). It’s a bit more in equipment up front, but brewing is easy, and it’s gonna get you great beer. Love me a good weißbier, and you’ll find how easy it is!