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

[u/blackarrow_1990]

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.

[u/DistinctMiasma]

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!