First Attempt At A Wheat/wit/weizen

[waggastew]

Decided to have a crack at a wheat beer. After a bit of research on AHB I decided to do a bit of a mongrel recipe, a mixture of wit and weizen characteristics. Recipe was as below

1 x Can Thomas Coopers Wheat Beer
1 x Can Coopers Wheat Malt
300g Dried wheat malt (left over from another recipe)
10g of crushed coriander seed
Zest of one valencia orange (could not source the bitter orange peel)
30mL homemade lemoncello liqueur (basically in place of some lemon zest)
6-8 Saaz hops pellets
2 packets of Craftbrewer dried weizen yeast (aka WB06)

Boiled coriander, orange zest and hops in a cup of boiling water for ten minutes. Added kit and malts with hot water to the fermentor and stirred. Strained in spice mix and limencello. Made upto 23L, stirred and pitched yeast at 24degC. SG 1038@24degC. Fermented closer to 20degC for most of primary. After 1 week I split the batch into 13L plain, 1L with hibicus tea (~100mL tea made with handful of flowers and 30g dex), 9L with 2 mangoes pulped and frozen and 2/3 cup of frozen passionfruit pulp + 150g dex/malto. Bottled all on 30/10 (FG 1012) with 1 heaped tsp of sugar, no straining. Ended up with 1 bottle of hibisucs, 12 mangopash, 18 plain.

Cracked this young (2 weeks old) as I have heard that this style can take it.

Pours with a nice fluffy head that lasts and laces. Colour is to dark for a wit but not bad for a wiezen. Beer is very clear in bottle but is easily disturbed towards the end of the pour. Carb was perfect, nice CO2 bite.

Aroma was very characteristic with a hint of both cloves and banana but not at all over the top. In the fermentor it threw alot of banana early on but it eased off through the ferment.

Flavour is great, nice tart finish making it a very crisp summer beer. As a cloudy beer i.e. with a bit of yeast stirred up it is nearly better becoming a bit more crisp.

Overall I am very happy with this beer and will make it again next summer. A few different friends have tasted it and loved it. Given it only takes a short period of time from fermentor to consumption anyone could do this for christmas drinking!

Cheers

Stew

PS. Will post review of mango/passionfruit beer in different thread

 

[J Grimmer]

Nice i have been contemplating the TC Wheat kit for a while now, might give it a go for xmas now having seen yours.

 

[Brewlord]

Hey waggastew, I was planning a wiezen as a summer drinker too. I kinda cobbled together a few things I had left over and might give this a run before xmas.

1 x 1.7 kg TCB Wals Wheat Kit
1 x 1.3 kg LDME
28g Cascade @ 20mins
14g Cascade @ 10mins
7g Cascade @ Flameout
Wheat yeast (WB-06)

I chucked this into ianH's spreadsheet and it seemed OK. I like the orange peel and lemon additions of yours though so I might have a crack at that too. Guess I am after the estery banana of the WB-06 more than anything. I figured I might also get some citrusy notes out of the cascade. The IBU comes out about 3x what is normally in a Wiezen (37 as opposed to 15) plus I will bung it up to 24 litres and its gunna be darker with all the LDME but I dont mind it malty. Also as these kits are already hopped I am only gunna do a small boil just to get a bit out of the cascade.

 

[waggastew]

Apparently the Wal's Wheat Kit has a pretty good reputation. The Cascade will be an interesting addition, not to style but rules are made to be broken. The extra hoppiness should be balanced out by the malt. Temp is critical, keep it up around 22degC to get some banana.

Make sure you post a review when its brewed/conditioned/drunk.

 

[mkstalen]

I'm planning on doing my first full extract Wheat Beer shortly.
3kg Liquid Wheat Malt Extract
500g LDME (used for boiling up hops in)
200g Carapills (steeped 30min @ 68deg)
30g Hersbucker (40min)
5g Galaxy (10min)
10g Hallertau (5min)
Wyeast 3068

Est OG 1.050, Est FG 1.012
IBU 11.6

Sound reasonable?

 

[WSC]

I'm planning on doing my first full extract Wheat Beer shortly.
3kg Liquid Wheat Malt Extract
500g LDME (used for boiling up hops in)
200g Carapills (steeped 30min @ 68deg)
30g Hersbucker (40min)
5g Galaxy (10min)
10g Hallertau (5min)
Wyeast 3068

Est OG 1.050, Est FG 1.012
IBU 11.6

Sound reasonable?

Looks good to me, not sure about the galaxy though but that's just me. I bitter mine to about 15 IBU.

If you ferment the 3068 at about 18 degrees it will be a cracker, carb it , wait 1-2 weeks and drink straight way.

I did a similar beer for my oktoberfest party and it was a smash hit, all these people say ' i'm not really into my beer but this is fantastic', be careful though as mine is all gone now and I wish I had some more!!!

 

[Tanga]

Damn Waggastew - that looks awesome! Please do let us know how the other brews taste as well. This looks right up my alley - low IBU, tart finish, etc. Where do you source your hops? My local Brewcraft is ridiculously expensive.

 

[AussieJosh]

Looks really good Waggastew

I will be putting one down today kinda like yours.

Tanga - BrewMaker at Holden Hill are cheaper then the VERY EXPENSIVE Brewcraft, Also BeerBelly at Pooraka is cheaper....they also may still be running there 10% off hops deal???

 

[moogusty]

hi all, can anyone tell me if wheat beer needs longer to stabilise in fermenter cause gravity has come down to 1.008 but test samples have always been really bubbly so was worried it might be too carbonated to bottle

 

[Tanga]

:huh: I have never heard of that.

 

[warra48]

????

Never heard of that either.

The FG of your beer will depend on the ingredients used, the mash schedule, and the yeast used.
Once your beer reaches stable gravity over 2 to 3 days within the predicted range for your recipe and the apparent attenuation of the yeast, you are OK to bottle.

The bubbling in the hydrometer samples is not unusual for any beers, not just wheats. Just either wait for the CO2 to escape from the test tube, and then take your reading, or pour it back and forth in a couple of containers and then take your reading. Spin your hydrometer to dislodge any bubbles clinging to the hydrometer before taking your reading.