Wheat Beer Experiment - Whaddyareckon?

[LaundryLager]

Guys,

I'm gonna try the following as an experiment. Just wanted to know what you might think...

* 1 can of Morgan's Sheaf Wheat Beer
* 1 kg dark dry malt powder
* Standard yeast (the one that comes with the kit)

Brew to 20 L. After five-seven days, I'll do the following:

* 500 g of Stringy Bark honey (fairly darkish) dissolved in 3 L of water. Boil it for 10 mins or so, then cooled.

This will be added to the fermenter and left to sit for a further 10-12 days.

I've had two goes so far at the Morgan's wheat beer: the first time was smack-bang in the middle of winter here in Orange (NSW), left to ferment for two weeks then bottled. DISASTER! Hadn't finished fermenting - if I didn't use PET bottles I woulda' lost the whole batch due to the bottle bomb phenomena! Crack a bottle and it'd just fizz over for donkeys. Tasted "yeastie" and a tad soury (I _did_ use WB-06).

Next, I tried doing it in January. Temps got warm - couldn't do much about that. No bottle bombs however, but the brew still tasted yeastie + a tad sour. Again, I used WB-06. (That was before I learned that it's supposed to make the beer sour.)

I want to make a "filling" yet relatively low-strength beer. I'm hoping the honey will impart some sweet and unique honey flavour and not ferment-out completely. I'm avoiding WB-06 this time, to see if the beer will be less "yeastie" and sour.

I'm only gonna use the dark malt coz it's the only stuff I got laying around without buying more light stuff. Besides, I wouldn't mind a dark, wheatish-honeyish thing to drink during the cold wintry months in Orange

Q: Do I really need to boil the honey? I'm gonna have to, make sure it's dissolved, but do I need to pastuerise the honey? (The container doesn't say that it's already pastuerised - can I make the assumption??).

...If this turns out to be another failure, I'll stick with brewing coffee stouts for winter...

 

[manticle]

I'm not an expert on using honey so I'll let someone else answer that. There is loads of info around on using honey in beers though and I'm pretty sure it is close to 100% fermentable.

The main thing I'm curious about is why you are fermenting by numbers of days? Particularly after having had near bottle bombs, you should be more cautious and use a hydrometer. Get a good one from an HB shop for 15 dollars or less and use that to work out when to bottle.

 

[Samuel Adams]

* 1 can of Morgan's Sheaf Wheat Beer
* 1 kg dark dry malt powder
* Standard yeast (the one that comes with the kit)

I'm only gonna use the dark malt coz it's the only stuff I got laying around without buying more light stuff. Besides, I wouldn't mind a dark, wheatish-honeyish thing to drink during the cold wintry months in Orange

Sounds like it might turn out like a Dunkel (dark wheat) like Weinstephaner, Fransikaner or Erdinger sell.
I'm trying to work out a good recipie for one like this.

Let us know how it turns out

 

[seemax]

WB06 makes a decent what beer.... when you say sour - do you mean like lemon? green apples? salt?

Wheat beers tend to be cloudy due to the suspended yeast (unless it's a crystal) ... also flavours of banana, clove, phelonics, etc

Try some commercial examples to get a feel for the type of flavours you might expect.

Hows your sanitation?

 

[Nick JD]

Get a pack of Wyeast 3068. Do not pass GO, do not collect 200.

Get a pack of Wyeast 3068.

 

[Pennywise]

Deffinatly get some 3068

 

[mwd]

Manticle is correct honey is nearly 100% fermentable. Do not boil it or you will drive off all the aroma and most of the flavour.

Most shop bought honey should be fairly much sterile and like hops honey is naturally an antiseptic so you should be safe to add it direct to the mixture.

 

[rcfancystep]

Guys,

I'm gonna try the following as an experiment. Just wanted to know what you might think...

* 1 can of Morgan's Sheaf Wheat Beer
* 1 kg dark dry malt powder
* Standard yeast (the one that comes with the kit)

Brew to 20 L. After five-seven days, I'll do the following:

* 500 g of Stringy Bark honey (fairly darkish) dissolved in 3 L of water. Boil it for 10 mins or so, then cooled.

This will be added to the fermenter and left to sit for a further 10-12 days.

I've had two goes so far at the Morgan's wheat beer: the first time was smack-bang in the middle of winter here in Orange (NSW), left to ferment for two weeks then bottled. DISASTER! Hadn't finished fermenting - if I didn't use PET bottles I woulda' lost the whole batch due to the bottle bomb phenomena! Crack a bottle and it'd just fizz over for donkeys. Tasted "yeastie" and a tad soury (I _did_ use WB-06).

Next, I tried doing it in January. Temps got warm - couldn't do much about that. No bottle bombs however, but the brew still tasted yeastie + a tad sour. Again, I used WB-06. (That was before I learned that it's supposed to make the beer sour.)

I want to make a "filling" yet relatively low-strength beer. I'm hoping the honey will impart some sweet and unique honey flavour and not ferment-out completely. I'm avoiding WB-06 this time, to see if the beer will be less "yeastie" and sour.

I'm only gonna use the dark malt coz it's the only stuff I got laying around without buying more light stuff. Besides, I wouldn't mind a dark, wheatish-honeyish thing to drink during the cold wintry months in Orange

Q: Do I really need to boil the honey? I'm gonna have to, make sure it's dissolved, but do I need to pastuerise the honey? (The container doesn't say that it's already pastuerised - can I make the assumption??).

...If this turns out to be another failure, I'll stick with brewing coffee stouts for winter...

Mate why do you boil the honey then add after 5-7 days I would boil the dme and honey together then add to your kit fill with water add your yeast wyeast wb06 seal it up and leave for 2 weeks. Adding things to the wort after 5-7 days is inviting touble... nasties

 

[ploto]

Manticle is correct honey is nearly 100% fermentable. Do not boil it or you will drive off all the aroma and most of the flavour.

Most shop bought honey should be fairly much sterile and like hops honey is naturally an antiseptic so you should be safe to add it direct to the mixture.

I was told by a seller of raw honey that pretty much all commercial blends are pasteurised so in theory it should be sterile out of the bottle, but see if you can find conformation before taking it as gospel.

That said, I used un-pasteurised honey for priming a wheat beer and had no problems, even though I didn't boil it. I only warmed the honey up enough to make it more fluid so as to dispense via a syringe. The honey taste was barely there in the end, more of an after taste on the first sip.

If you are adding the honey late in the ferment I would fill the fermenter short by a litre then dissolve your honey with boiled water in a sterile jug to make up the missing liter, this will be much easier than adding the honey alone.

 

[aaronpetersen]

I added honey to an American wheat-ish brew I just did for SWMBO. I just warmed it in hot water to make it runny then poured it straight into the primary at day 3. Mine was supermarket honey so very likely pasteurised.

 

[LaundryLager]

Thank you for the feedback.

Manticle: I hear you, buddy: I brew by hydrometer, bottle by the hydrometer.

Samuel Adams: I shall certainly report back to let you know how it went

seemax: I can't really describe the "soury" taste: I suppose it was almost like a faint lemon taste. Not unpleasant, just not what I expected. Never got banana or cloves flavours. And sanititation's never been a problem. (Not super-religious about it, but not lax about it either.)

Nick JD + Pennywise: Darn, I'm not in a position to get any Wyeast 3068 for a little while. Will stick with the kit yeast. If this goes well, next time I do a wheat beer I'll make sure to get 3068.

rcfancystep: I would normally agree with you (about adding stuff several days after putting the wort in the fermenter initally is inviting nasties), however my aim was to try to keep the honey flavour. I haven't done this yet - so I may yet decide to do it all at once at the start.

-LL.

 

[pcmfisher]

I know exactly what you mean about a soury taste with wheat beers. That soury spicy taste is the reason I don't particularly like them.

As an experiment I have just made a batch using a 3kg wheat base can and an ale yeast, namely SO4 instead of WB06

Definitely not as sour, but still spicy - not to my taste.

 

[LaundryLager]

OK, I finally brewed that honey + wheat beer experiment. Got around to it back in July. Being a cold month, I used the brew-belt. And to make sure it was as completely fermented as possible, I left it in the fermenter for about 4 weeks.

I used:

* Morgan's Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer can o' goo
* 500g dry dark malt
* 250 g corn syrup
* S-04 yeast
* 500g stringy bark honey (added to wort at the start)
* (+ I even boiled out-of-date wb-06 + cider yeast for nutrient - just to see if it helped)

Starting OG was 1042, FG was 1014 (still fairly high, but I didn't want to wait any longer).

After one month in the bottle... well... it's actually not bad. Still, I've brewed better, but the taste is most certainly NOT "soury" (probably due to the yeast + honey used). There's no head or lacing to speak of, but it's nicely carbonated, and would be a refreshing a beer for the summer. If they last that long

(BTW - carbonated with only one sugar cube for each 740 ml PET bottle.)

Still, I don't think I'd brew a wheat beer again, unless the Better Half wanted me to. A 7/10 rating.


-LL.

 

[Pennywise]

I wouldn't consider 1014 too high, the corn syrup isn't fermentable & the male extract has some un-fermentables in it so I'd be happy with that FG. I'd really suggest you try it again with a decent wheat yeast, wheat beers are all about the yeast character so if you omit that, your omitting most of the character. 3068 ftw

Glad it turned out either way :icon_cheers:

 

[toadskin]

OK, I finally brewed that honey + wheat beer experiment. Got around to it back in July. Being a cold month, I used the brew-belt. And to make sure it was as completely fermented as possible, I left it in the fermenter for about 4 weeks.

I used:

* Morgan's Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer can o' goo
* 500g dry dark malt
* 250 g corn syrup
* S-04 yeast
* 500g stringy bark honey (added to wort at the start)
* (+ I even boiled out-of-date wb-06 + cider yeast for nutrient - just to see if it helped)

Starting OG was 1042, FG was 1014 (still fairly high, but I didn't want to wait any longer).

After one month in the bottle... well... it's actually not bad. Still, I've brewed better, but the taste is most certainly NOT "soury" (probably due to the yeast + honey used). There's no head or lacing to speak of, but it's nicely carbonated, and would be a refreshing a beer for the summer. If they last that long

(BTW - carbonated with only one sugar cube for each 740 ml PET bottle.)

Still, I don't think I'd brew a wheat beer again, unless the Better Half wanted me to. A 7/10 rating.


-LL.

I have played around with Wheat Beers a fair bit as I fell in love with Erdinger when I was last in Singapore. My personal experience is don't bother brewing a Wheat Beer unless you use a specialised Wheat Beer yeast. It also appears to me, that Wheat malt brews take considerably longer to ferment right out that barley malt brews.
Don't give up on them though as I have had some absolute cracker Wheat Beer brews.

 

[warra48]

To make a real wheat beer, do as others have advised, and that is to use a real wheat beer yeast.
WY3068 or WY3686, or the White Labs equivalent will give you the proper wheat beer characteristics.
I've tried brewing wheat beers with dry yeast, and while they are OK, in my experience they just do not deliver the true flavours and esters you expect from the style to the same degree as liquid yeasts.
By the way, wheat beers are not "sour", they have a natural "tart"character which comes from the wheat malt.

Keep experimenting, it's worth it. Wheat beers are a style I really enjoy, and I've had a cracker or two myself. One of them is in the recipe data base.