Brewing Airhead Hefe: A Traditional German Hefeweizen

There’s something about spring that makes you want to brew a hefeweizen. The days are getting longer, the garage doesn’t feel like a freezer anymore, and you start thinking about something light, cloudy, and cold in your hand. That’s exactly where I was when I put together Airhead Hefe.

The Name – Airhead Hefe

If you’ve been around Twisted Hops for a while, you know this site lives at the intersection of motorcycles and craft beer. The Airhead in the name is a nod to my vintage BMW — the old air-cooled Airhead boxer engines that BMW built for decades. Simple, reliable, classic. The Hefe is, well, the beer. A hefeweizen. Put them together and you’ve got a name that means something to me every time I look at the fermenter.

The Recipe

This is a 5-gallon all-grain batch built around a clean, traditional German-style hefeweizen. No shortcuts, no adjuncts — just a simple grain bill, noble hops, and one of the best wheat beer yeasts on the planet.

Grain Bill

• 5 lb Belgian Pilsner Malt — Dungeon’s Malting
• 5 lb German Pale Wheat Malt — Weyermann

Hops

• 1 oz Hallertau Mittlefrüh (3.8% AA) — Aroma/Flavor addition

Yeast

• Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Water Chemistry

• ½ tsp Calcium Chloride in 6.5 gallons

The Setup

This batch was brewed on my RoboBrew Generation 3 — an all-in-one electric brewing system that handles mashing, heating, and circulation in a single vessel. If you haven’t brewed on one of these, it’s a game changer for a garage brewer. No juggling multiple kettles, no propane — just dial in your temps and let it work. The built-in pump handled the mash circulation, keeping the wort moving through the grain bed for a consistent and efficient mash.

Brew Day Notes

Strike Temp	158°F
Mash Temp	152°F
Mash Volume	6.5 gallons, circulated with pump
Pre-Boil Yield	4.85 gallons
Pitch Temp	69.8°F
Original Gravity (OG)	1.0358

The mash came together well — circulating with the pump kept temps consistent throughout. Pre-boil yield was right where I wanted it. Chilled down to 69.8°F before pitching the Wyeast 3068, which is the Weihenstephan strain and pretty much the gold standard for this style. It throws that classic banana and clove character that makes a hefeweizen smell like a hefeweizen.

Why These Ingredients?

The 50/50 split between Belgian Pilsner and German Pale Wheat is about as classic as it gets. The pilsner malt keeps the base light and crisp, while the wheat adds that signature hazy body and soft mouthfeel. Hallertau Mittlefrüh is a traditional German noble hop — low bitterness, noble and herbal aroma — it stays out of the way and lets the yeast do the talking. And Wyeast 3068? If you’re brewing a hefeweizen and not using this strain, I’d ask you why.

Fermentation Tracking

One of the tools I’m using on this batch is a Tilt Hydrometer — a Bluetooth floating sensor that sits right inside the fermenter and logs gravity and temperature readings every 15 minutes to a Google Sheet. No more pulling samples and risking contamination every time you want to check progress. You just watch the numbers drop in real time.

Here’s what the data looks like so far:

Peak Gravity (OG)	1.0394
Current Gravity	1.018
Fermentation Duration	~2 days
Apparent Attenuation	~54% (still going)
Fermentation Temp	67–69°F (stable)

The Wyeast 3068 took off fast — gravity dropped from 1.039 down to 1.018 in under 48 hours. Fermentation temp has stayed rock solid in the 67–69°F range, which is exactly where you want a hefeweizen. That temperature window favors the banana ester character from the yeast. Push it warmer and you lose the fruit, cooler and you get more clove. Right now it’s dialed in perfectly.

Expected final gravity is somewhere around 1.010–1.012, so there’s still a few more days of work ahead before it’s ready to condition and crash.

What’s Next

Once Airhead Hefe is conditioned and in the glass I’ll post a follow-up with full tasting notes. If it turns out the way I think it will, it’s going to be a perfect spring porch beer.

Stay tuned — and as always, ride safe and drink well.