Found Out About Brewcraft After I Bought The Book!

[Henno]

I have now found out the book 'Brewing Crafts' is a blatant plug for all things brewcraft and muntons after buying it. A guy at one home brew shop told me it was ok and even got it out for me to have a squiz at. So the next time I was in I bought it. Big mistake.

Anyway as well as this I have bought some kits to make up some recipes in a brewcraft sponsored flyer I picked up there as well.

One was for a Hoegaarden that had 'Black rock Whispering Wheat' just try buying a can of that at ya HBS!
So I grabbed a can of Golden Sheaf Wheat instead. It also calls for Brewcraft Dry Wheat Malt. The closest product they had for that was Wheat Unhopped Spraymalt. Will that do? Then supposedly I boil in 15g of coriander seeds, which I actually found at Woollies and 2TBS of orange peel. Safwheat-Ale yeast I'll get from Ross.

Is this kit going to be any good or in fact anything like a Hoergaarden White?

 

[MHB]

Couple of points
The book is as you said a blatant Brewcraft plug; that said it has some great recipes in it as well as some that benefit from minor "adjustments".

The 2 versions of the Wheat Malt you referred to are in fact the same malt, as to the best of my knowledge Muntons is the only Wheat DME available (and its dam good to).

The Saf K-97 you have is the best choice available in a dried yeast; you will get more wheat like characters if you run it hotter up to say 27C.

As to your choice of kits
Morgan's "Golden Sheaf" is not a bad kit for the job, tho the Whispering Wheat is a similarly neutral kit that would have served equally well, both will let the yeast flavours as well as the coriander and orange show through.

My first choice would have been Brewcraft Bavarian Wheat, made by Muntons as is the Wheat DME, so you get a closer flavour match between the kit and the malt.

The beer should be pretty good; the "Hoergaarden" clone is a consistent seller that would be improved with a true to type liquid yeast.

Low stress beer, drink it young, odds on you will be making it again

Enjoy
MHB

 

[Henno]

Thanks for that MHB. Can I ask what you would recommend for a liquid yeast for this one? I have been wanting to go down the liquide yeast path for a while now anyway.

 

[MHB]

Heno

Both Wyeast and White Labs have Hoegarden yeasts, I'm more familiar with the Wyeast and would look at 3944, I am far from an expert on wheat beer and generally defer to "Les the Weizguy"; handy having an expert as a local (read fanatic); you could ping him a PM, or have a look at the websites of the 2 yeast makers.

Before you lash out and spend good money on yeast, I think it's important to have the basics like temperature control in hand.

From experience, I would say the liquid yeasts will give better results, but are far pickier, think of them as fussy eaters, they require more attention to give the best results - they arent a magic bullet.

MHB

 

[Henno]

Low stress beer, drink it young, odds on you will be making it again

Why drink it young?

 

[discoloop]

I actually made the above recipe back in Jan or Feb. I overdid the orange peel and the beer was virtually undrinkable up til a couple of weeks ago. Now it's mellowed out and drinkable but still very orangy.

 

[hughman666]

Why drink it young?

because wheat yeasts mellow out with age much more so than other yeasts. this is particularly so with k-97, after a month you won't get much wheat flavouring from the yeast.

a good liquid yeast like 3068 for hefeweizen or 3944 for witbier (like hoegaarden) will give you better maturation over time and the initial wheaty taste won't disappear but rather settle out nicely. liquid yeasts will be good in a wheat for up to 2 months in my experience. of course, i never have any left after 2 months :chug:

 

[simpletotoro]

One was for a Hoegaarden that had 'Black rock Whispering Wheat' just try buying a can of that at ya HBS!
So I grabbed a can of Golden Sheaf Wheat instead. It also calls for Brewcraft Dry Wheat Malt. The closest product they had for that was Wheat Unhopped Spraymalt. Will that do? Then supposedly I boil in 15g of coriander seeds, which I actually found at Woollies and 2TBS of orange peel. Safwheat-Ale yeast I'll get from Ross.

Is this kit going to be any good or in fact anything like a Hoergaarden White?

hi...this is what i did for a similar recipe..
INGREDIENTS: Tin: Morgans golden sheaf wheat beer x 1 (1.7kg)

Sugars: 350g dextrose,250g LDM,500g muttons dried wheat malt.

Hops: Saaz and Green Bullet
Hop schedule: 10g Saaz @15 mins
5g Saaz @5 mins
5g Saaz @flameout or 1 min
5g Green Bullet @ flameout or 1 min

Additional Ingredients: 2 teaspoons coriander, 40 g orange peel.
Additional Ingredients Schedule: 1 tsp coriander @15 mins
20 g orange peel @15 mins
1 tsp coriander @1 mins
20 g orange peel @1 mins

Yeast: Safale yeast 11.5g (18/c)

i should i now know have added a little less orange say 2x 15 g lots and boiled the last for at least 5 mins same with corriander to kill any of the bugs on it...still i got lucky and it wasn't infected after a month the orange mellowed a little hence why i'd lose a little next time...not hoegaarden but pretty tastey..
i just did this one below on a whim last wednesday
1 can Coopers Brewmaster Series Pilsner Beer Kit
800 to 900 g light dried malt
250 g dried wheat malt
100 g corn syrup (malto dextrin)

hops
10 g mt hood @ 15 mins
05 g mt hood @ 05 mins
10 g tettnagher @ 1 min

addintional ingredients
2 bugger all grated manderine @20 mins
2 squished manderine @20 mins
6 g crushed corriander seeds @ 20 mins

85 g crystal steeped 1/2 hour then boiled 20 mins [left over wanted to use it up]

yeast cooopers pilsner pitched @ 14/c

hopefully she'll pull up ok...
cheers simpletotoro

 

[brettprevans]

One was for a Hoegaarden that had 'Black rock Whispering Wheat' just try buying a can of that at ya HBS!

did you actually try getting Blackrock Whispering wheat at brewcraft? They sell it online under their kit section as Blockrock Wheat . So its not that hard to get. Neither is dry wheat malt link. Im checking the Victoria website, I dont know where you are but every brewcraft in every state should have the same stock.

yes the brewing crafts book it a 'plug for brewcraft, but thats because the author works for brewcraft (correct me if im wrong). And as MHB said, its not a bad book, especially for beginners. I use some of the recipes in the book with tweaks and source my ingredients from all differant LHSB. You can almost count on their big selling kits to be ok. just adjustments here and there. im a big fan of their holy smoke stout recipe, as a base on which to work from. But I now brew a version with a lot of differant tweaks that I have learnt from this forum.

Take it at face-vale and have fun. if its an average kit then give it to your megaswill drinking mates. I havent done a Belgium so I cant help you on that front.

 

[OSF]

I actually made the above recipe back in Jan or Feb. I overdid the orange peel and the beer was virtually undrinkable up til a couple of weeks ago. Now it's mellowed out and drinkable but still very orangy.

Yep ... I have made this kit three times. First time excellent and it stood up very well sip for sip against a Hoegaarden. 2nd attempt I also overdid the orange peel (only by a bit but it made a big difference) and though it was drinkable you really had to acquire a taste for it to just get through the batch. 3rd attempt was good again (I cut back on the orange peel and was pretty picky about picking oranges that actually smelled like oranges). A great easy all day in the sun drinking beer or also good with the likes of Indian food etc. Come summer I'll definitely be putting down this one again.