Wheat Beer Questions

[davedoran]

Hi all,

Just have a couple of questions regarding wheat beers and hoping someone can help.
Got the ingredients from a well known supplier online and contains
1 x Can of Wheat Beer (Blackrock Whispering Wheat Can)
1 x 1.5kg can of LME (Bavarian Wheat Unhopped)
1 packet of Coriander Seeds (65g)
1 Packet of Safbrew Wheat Yeast (Safbrew WB - 06 10g)

Ok so my questions are

1. I have a stock pot but its only 11L Capacity. Would it cause any considerable off tastes if I achieved hotbreak with a smaller volume of water (8L ?) and contents mixed above. My initial thoughts would be that this would just be a more concentrated wort which could then be diluted in the fermenter but I could be wrong there.
2. Recipe contains no hops. Should I add some more during the boil.
3. Is this yeast good. I do have the option of using a liquid Wyeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat. Anyone with any experience in which of this works out better.

 

[pcmfisher]

Hotbreak? Its already all gone. No need to boil at all.

Whispering Wheat has bitterness. If you want more, or some hop flavor do a small boil with some of your LME and add some hops.

 

[verysupple]

The first thing you need to decide is what type of wheat beer you're trying to make. German wheat beers don't use coriander, Belgian witbiers sometimes do. The other ingredients you have are more suited to German wheat beer, so I'd lose the coriander.

I'll answer your 3 questions in a slightly different order...

2) As pcmfisher said, the Whispering wheat is hopped and you shouldn't need any extra hops for this style.

1) Because you don't need to boil hops I wouldn't do a boil at all. The extract should be sanitary and if you have an 11 L pot you're going to top up with tap water anyway...so I wouldn't bother boiling the extract.

3) WB-06 is an OK yeast. It won't give you the big wheat beer flavour you get from commercial examples though. The 3056 will be a fair bit closer to the real deal but still can be a bit subdued. I'd go with the 3056 and save the dry yeast for a witbier or something.

FWIW, I made pretty much the exact same beer about a year ago (same malt extracts and without the coriander) but used Wyeast 3068 and it was pretty good.

EDIT: semantics

 

[davedoran]

Great thanks.

Just got a few changes to recipe.

Adding zest of an orange and changed yeast tow yeast 3944 so should turn out like a Belgian witbier hopefully.

 

[menoetes]

Coriander seeds and orange zest? It sounds like you're making a Hoegaarden kit clone!

 

[verysupple]

Great thanks.

Just got a few changes to recipe.

Adding zest of an orange and changed yeast tow yeast 3944 so should turn out like a Belgian witbier hopefully.

That should turn out alright.

I know in my previous post I said not to bother doing a boil, but that's when I assumed you wouldn't be adding coriander. Now that you are adding that and zest I'd recommend boiling those up in a saucepan for 5 min or so just to sanitise it. Then just add that (chunks and all) into your fermentor with the malt extracts and mix as a normal kit.

 

[davedoran]

Great. Thanks for the help

 

[davedoran]

Just a quick update on this one.

Brew went as follows

• Dissolved 1 x Can of Wheat Beer (Blackrock Whispering Wheat Can) in 2L of Boiling Water
• Dissolved 1 x 1.5kg can of LME (Briess Wheat Unhopped) In 2 L of Boiling Water. Brought up to boil for 15 mins
• Add: 1 packet of Coriander Seeds (65g) and Zest of an Orange to above boil
• Turn off heat and leave covered for 15mins
• Add to fermenter through sterilized strainer and top up with 10 L of refrigerated tap water.
• Add tap cold water to the 21 mark and put fermentor in brew fridge at 20 deg.
• Activated wyeast 3944 (forgot to activate earlier in the day)
• Came back 3hrs later and added yeast to fermentor.
• Left on 20 deg for one day then dropped to 18 deg.

Been in there for 4 days and I wasn't seeing any action in the airlock. I recently changed the lids o-ring so I think this is where the co2 is going. Checked tit yesterday and there is krausen and the gravity has dropped from 1.040 to 1.030 so happy with that.
Tastes good at this stage so hoping it continues along the same path.

Couple of Calcs from Ianh's Spreadsheet as follows

OG: 1.047
FG: 1.012
IBU 15.2
% Alc: 4.9%

Dextrose to Bulkprime = 124g. Does this sound right? If so would you recommend dissolving this in boiling water or add to 2nd fermentor and rack onto it with dissolving, stir gently, leave for an hr and bottle?

Thanks

 

[verysupple]

Sounds like a winner.

I'd bump the dex for priming up to ~150 g to give you ~2.7 vols (check on Ian's spreadsheet that I got that about right), you want witbier to be reasonably spritzy.

 

[davedoran]

Just tasted this one tonight. Bit early maybe. In bottle nearly 3 weeks.
Love it.

Appreciate the help guys.