Question on wheat beers

[Thirsty Mallard]

I am going to be brewing up a nice big Weizenbock for an upcoming beer competition, so I was going to make a batch of 1.038-40 Hefeweizen the week before and then rack the Weizenbock wort right on top of the yeast cake.

I have a few questions for those of you wheat beer nuts out there (you know who you are):

1) This question is mostly for Bub... is 3068 the best idea for a weizenbock, or is the flavor profile more suited just for the hefe? I would love to use 3068 on the hefe starter (since, apparently, it is the second coming of Jesus to BUB) but I just want to make sure it would fit the Weizenbock style.

2) I was thinking of adding fruit to the secondary. I know that American Wheat ales are more suited for a fruit beer... how does fruit mesh with a more traditional hefe?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[BadRock]

Those are all great questions that I am curious to hear the answer to. I am thinking of doing a 10 gallon batch and splitting it into 5 gallon batches and pitching the 3068 in one and the WLP320 in the other and possibly adding some fruit.

But I am still rolling on the floor over this "(since, apparently, it is the second coming of Jesus to BUB)"

[DannyW]

1) This question is mostly for Bub... is 3068 the best idea for a weizenbock, or is the flavor profile more suited just for the hefe?

I'm not bub (checking chest for lipstick.....nope, I'm definitely not bub) but I'll offer that last year I did exactly what you propose -- made a hefeweizen and used the yeast cake for a weizenbock -- and both beers won medals. 3068 works great in the big Weizenbock IMHO.

[bub]

keep it cool on the bock and you'll be fine.
BUB

[Thirsty Mallard]

Anyone have any experience with adding fruit to a non-American Hefe?

[J.Brew]

One of the first beer I brewed was a blueberry heffeweizen and I thought there was too much going on. To many flavors competing. I gave up on it but have seen some interesting examples on the web. I bet it would be killer if done right.

[Todd]

Just to bump this topic a bit...

I have a German Hefeweizen with WLP300 as the yeast fermenting right now, and want to throw a weizenbock on top of that yeast to maximize my investment and opportunites.

Question 1 - how did yours turn out, since you did the same thing?

Question 2 - I'm still making extract recipes, all the good weizenbocks I've seen online look to be all-grain (even Jamil's), anyone know how to convert from all grain to extract, or have an extract recipe they would recommend?

I am going to step up the dubbel I have in the other fermenter to a trippel. I might be onto a trend here and am looking forward to 'stacking' a few to see how that works. There is a ton of great info on BN - thanks everyone!

[Thirsty Mallard]

Well, I think it was great. There were some amazing bannana esters in my weizenbock that I think really were fantastic. I did ferment at 65F to try and keep it a bit low and I think it was fine.

The only problem with the weizenbock is that the alcohol was a little hot. According to The Pope, by using this method I probably overpitched. I forget what my OG and FG were, but I know I ended up with 8% alcohol.

Again, I thought it turned out great... and after that first pint, you don't even notice the hot alcohol!