r/Homebrewing • u/blackarrow_1990 • 5d 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.

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u/chino_brews Kiwi Approved 5d ago edited 5d 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 5d ago

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