(almost) Wheat Beer

[pk.sax]

The beer pic I posted is actually 50/50 German wheat malt/German pils malt. Don't know if the 'German' is important enough. And a 100 grams of crystal, some pretty dark crystal.
Yeast was 3638 and danstar Munich mix. I thought my 3638 starter wasn't firing and I'd done it all in the ferment fridge anyway so chucked it in and used an additional sachet of dry yeast. The slurry I got out of the bottom of the fermenter was thicker than custard. Very nice clearish wort came off top, I forced a little yeast to get sucked into the keg.
The last dreg of yeast in my vial that I used to make the starter, I'd added some dregs of wort to and it fired off after a couple of days! So I know it's a genuine mix now.
I remember straight 3638 being a lot fruitier, this mix though is very nice. Still tart and refreshing. None of the shofferhoffer like in you face bland banana. Subtler clove, what might be described as plum and maybe bubblegum (I don't know bubblegum well enough to taste it definitively).
As my barman buddy described it, it's quite clean but has this nice taste. You could put down a few and not get sick of the taste.
45 minute motueka hopping for a very very light bitterness, prolly ~20 IBU. Definitely likes high carb. Keeps a 5-10mm ish head all the way with light lacing.

Btw, from your pics, great colour, a little out of style but that's the melanoidin I suppose. Give real weizen yeast a try. I love 3638 because I love schneider Weiss. And franziskaner Weiss hell. Get a couple of different wheat beers from the shops and try, they all have a slightly different yeast profile. I think I picked up on the 3638 from Les the Weissguy's recipe on the recipe DB.

 

[alien13]

my 2c. if you really like the beer as is then why change a thing? yes its an american wheat not a german hefe but if you like it who cares, homebrew is about making beer you enjoy not matching style guidelines. brew a big batch of this recipe as is in the knowlwdge you will enjoy it, and if you want to stuff around with bannana and clove flavours or anything else use youre small batch setup to see if you like the recipe before scaling up.

Yeah, I know what you mean. As is, this is a great, easy drinking beer, that so far, everyone who has tried it has had nothing but good things to say about it. They aren't huge beer drinkers, or they drink more mainstream beers (hahn, carlton, etc), but it's good to know they enjoy something different every now and then.

Like you said, I'll keep this recipe as is, and try my hand at a completely separate German one, not so much to say I brewed one to the proper style guidelines, but just because the banana/clove flavours are something that really interest me. I think the mini-mash for me is really handy because it gives me at-least a six pack (more if I want to up the vol. a bit more), and is enough to get a feel for the taste or what I might change for future brews, without having to be stuck with 11-23ltrs of something that I can't really stomach. Not to mention, it's only a couple bucks per brew (assuming I use left over hops/yeast from previous brews), so it's not really costing me a whole lot to do these experimental brews.

I think sometimes I get caught up in the whole style guidelines instead of trying to make something I would enjoy or maybe just something that is weird, and I want to try it just because I can. The whole reason I really got into this was after watching Brew Masters, and how they would experiment using all different/weird ingredients. I actually thought to myself after a couple of episodes that if I ever got into AG brewing that I would try to make a beer that used olives in it hahah.
The BJCP/AABC are good to get an idea of what to expect or what to aim for, but the fun part is just to experiment with the different malts, wheats, hops, etc I guess, because you never know what you might stumble upon next.

The beer pic I posted is actually 50/50 German wheat malt/German pils malt. Don't know if the 'German' is important enough. And a 100 grams of crystal, some pretty dark crystal.
Yeast was 3638 and danstar Munich mix. I thought my 3638 starter wasn't firing and I'd done it all in the ferment fridge anyway so chucked it in and used an additional sachet of dry yeast. The slurry I got out of the bottom of the fermenter was thicker than custard. Very nice clearish wort came off top, I forced a little yeast to get sucked into the keg.
The last dreg of yeast in my vial that I used to make the starter, I'd added some dregs of wort to and it fired off after a couple of days! So I know it's a genuine mix now.
I remember straight 3638 being a lot fruitier, this mix though is very nice. Still tart and refreshing. None of the shofferhoffer like in you face bland banana. Subtler clove, what might be described as plum and maybe bubblegum (I don't know bubblegum well enough to taste it definitively).
As my barman buddy described it, it's quite clean but has this nice taste. You could put down a few and not get sick of the taste.
45 minute motueka hopping for a very very light bitterness, prolly ~20 IBU. Definitely likes high carb. Keeps a 5-10mm ish head all the way with light lacing.

Btw, from your pics, great colour, a little out of style but that's the melanoidin I suppose. Give real weizen yeast a try. I love 3638 because I love schneider Weiss. And franziskaner Weiss hell. Get a couple of different wheat beers from the shops and try, they all have a slightly different yeast profile. I think I picked up on the 3638 from Les the Weissguy's recipe on the recipe DB.

That sounds like a good beer to try. I need to get my hands on some wyeast next time because I think that will really be the deciding factor for me. I wouldn't have minded upping the IBU for my batch, but I'm not sure how much that would have taken away from the flavour itself. The aftertaste it leaves in your mouth is just amazing.

Yeah, I really liked the colour it came out at, and as you said, it was the melanoidin that gave it that darker colour (a little more towards the higher side for the Weizen/Weissbier). The head stays all the way til the last mouthful as well, but that could also be due to the headmaster glass since I haven't tried it in any others yet.

Are there any beers in particular that you would suggest? I'm not sure how lucky I will be getting my hands on them where I live, but I may be able to get some from Adelaide sometime soon. I would love something to taste test so I can get an idea of what I might like to try next.

Cheers