Hey guys,
I'm brand spanking new at this and really excited. To get my feet wet I just bottled my first batch - West Coast Pale Ale - and started brewing my second batch - Whispering Wheat Weizenbier.
My question: I'm hoping to eventually duplicate Widmer's Hefeweizen (love it!), and wondering if anyone has a clone recipe or something that comes close.
Super excited and can't wait to post a picture of my first bottle. Thanks in advance.

SirCaesar

First, let me say welcome and congrats! You made beer!

I've never had Widmer's Hefe, but a quick search shows me that it's an American Wheat and not a German Hefeweizen.

Having never had it, the best I can do is offer some suggestions that *may* get you close.

Maybe try one can WWW plus 1 lb wheat DME (or a can of Golden Wheat UME), finished with 1/2 oz cascade hops and ferment with Fermentis Safbrew WB-06 (or possibly Danstar Windsor--depending what the yeast profile is).

Let us know what the beer tastes like to you, and I might be able to do a little better, or maybe someone else who has had it can chime in.

Oh, and don't forget to head over to the welcoming center and introduce yourself!

Welcome!

i love widmer bros hefeweizen. and yes, it is an American hefeweizen, not a true german hefeweizen. it's darn tasty... even though it's partially owned by ABinBev (even though, as far as i know, ABinBev doesn't run the Widmer Bros Brewery).

i agree with jon... the easiest recipe that'll get you pretty close is:
one can of Whispering Wheat Weizenbier
one pound of wheat DME (or one can of mr. beer golden wheat UME).
.5 oz Cascade hops at flameout

treat the DME/UME as you would the booster... dissolve it in the water as you bring it to a boil, add the WWW HME at flameout, along with .5 oz of cascade hops. follow the mr. beer direction from there on out.

to get that rue american wheat taste, i would suggest going to the local homebrew shop (LHBS) and picking up a packet of Wyeast American Wheat (Wyeast #1010) liquid yeast... or a vial of White Labs American Hefeweizen (WLP #320) liquid yeast. you can order online, too... from online homebrew stores like northernbrewer.com, midwestsupplies.com, rebelbrewer.com, annapolishomebrew.com, morebeer.com, austinhomebrew.com etc. if you're ordering online, i would suggest finding the online store that is geographically closest to you, so the yeast spends as little time in shipping as possible.

follow the direction on the yeast to get it ready for brew day, then just pour the liquid contents of the Wyeast pack or vial into the fermenter.

Wow, quick responses! Thanks a lot guys, as soon as this WWW is done brewing (only have one fermeter...for now) I'll give that recipe a try and be sure to share my results.
Thanks!

I'm gonna start my Widmer's Hefe clone here in the next week, a couple more quick questions:

Any opinions on adding some orange or lemon zest to the mix? And if yes, how much and when? I love my wheats with a slice of orange and curious how it would turn out to brew it in.

Also, a random question: Widmer's has a video on how to "properly" pour and serve a bottle of Hefe, where you pour most of the bottle then swish the last couple ounces and then pour the rest, to actually get any sediment in the bottle out. I know with homebrews, we don't usually want that sediment in our glass. Is this just for flavor and appearance, or are there any other reasons we discard the bottle sediment?
Thanks

the sediment from commercial beers is generally just a bit of yeast. sediment from homebrew is yeast and trub and other stuff. yeah, you could swirl it but we generally dont due to taste issues. if you use the right yeast, it shouldn't floc out as much so you should get cloudy beer without having to swirl.

Trub may bother some people's digestion, as well.

bother as in speed it up like crazy lol

hefeweizens are cloudy by style... "hefe" mean yeast in german, so it's traditional to get the yeast back in suspension when you serve.

other beers... not so much.