Wheat Beer - Secret Ingredient?

[eddy401]

G'day

im thinking of doing a 'thomas coopers wheat beer' and adding something to it to try make it a bit more unique, any ideas? im still fairly new to brewing so simple ideas would be appreciated :icon_cheers: is the yeast in this kit good enough? does anyone know what effects adding vanilla extract would have - i added a squeezy bottle of lemon extract on impulse to my last brew (coopers mex cerveza) and that actually turned out perfectly, just the right amount of lemon taste for me. Honey to make a kind of beez knees perhaps? and i dont know anything about hopps, how to add them or their effects, i dont do a boil i dont have the equipment or time at the moment, but i am planning on racking it for a week or two after fermentation, so what would be a good and easy one to use?

cheers in advance! :drinks:

 

[seemax]

If you're looking for that unique wheat beer flavour it's all about the yeast.

Saf WB-06 does a decent rendition but Wyeast 3068 or Bavarian Wit (can't recall the number) provide the real deal.

 

[unrealeous]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...t=6&start=0

I'm making a wheat beer now with this yeast - apparently its all about the pitching temp

I pitched WB-06 at 9C and let it rise and ferment at 18C.

This beer was a hit at a recent IBUs meet and with everyone else that has tried it. Good balance of clove, bubblegum and bananna. Not tart.

It's amazing how simple and good this recipe is - no acid rest, no protein rest, no decoction...

 

[mahonya1]

Spend a bit extra on some decent yeast. I have used both wyeast 3068 and 3638 with good results. The 3068 seems to be everyone's favorite, but if you like more of a bubblegum flavour go the 3638. You won't be dissapointed with either way.

 

[waggastew]

My next planned brew is a Thomas Coopers Wheat which will be ready for summer. The traditional additions are dried bitter orange peel (or you can use the peel of normal oranges with some success) and coriander seeds. I got my hands on some German wheat beer yeast as the yeast is a big contributor to this style of beer. I do also however plan to bottle half the batch after the primary ferment and then add in some passionfruit pulp from my garden and let it ferment out again. This should hopefully work out OK, I have read alot of info on adding other fruit to wheat beers including rasberries etc. Either way I will end up with half a batch of traditional and half a batch of 'Well lets see how this tastes......'

 

[warra48]

All good advice in these responses.

One question: Why do you want to rack it for a week or two after fermentation? What do you hope to achieve with this?

 

[Silo Ted]

Consider coriander seed if you want a different twist to your wheat beers. To be used sparingly.

 

[MeLoveBeer]

Spend a bit extra on some decent yeast. I have used both wyeast 3068 and 3638 with good results. The 3068 seems to be everyone's favorite, but if you like more of a bubblegum flavour go the 3638. You won't be dissapointed with either way.

+1

3638 adds great flavours to your beer (just be prepared to clean up because this yeast likes to make a mess); a word of warning though, I've found that this yeast greatly reduces the volume going into kegs/bottles (it tastes great and you'll find yourself testing/tasting out of the fermenter often)

 

[StewTurner]

Another vote for getting a really good yeast. I have a wheat beer with 3068 in the fermenter right now. It's ready to bottle (just wiating for a mate to return my bench capper), and it tastes great out of the fermenter. It has a nice banana aroma, and a tart finish.

My last wheat beer I made with WB-06. It's a dried yeast, and easy to use, but doesn't have the same character as the 3068. I bottled half, and to the remaining half added 700 grams of frozen raspberries. It has made a really nice raspberry beer, which my wife loves. So those would be my two suggestions, either use 3068, or add some raspberries after the primary fermentation is complete.

 

[glaab]

another vote for 3638 :icon_drool2: . A mate brought over some wheaties a couple of weeks back, nice but more of a summer beer I reckon, in the cold weather something a touch heavier is the go IMO. But you might be in New York for all I know..

 

[zoidbergmerc]

Personally I think the Thomas Coopers Wheat beer was revolting, The brewcraft Bavarian wheat is a lot better.

 

[earle]

My next planned brew is a Thomas Coopers Wheat which will be ready for summer. The traditional additions are dried bitter orange peel (or you can use the peel of normal oranges with some success) and coriander seeds. I got my hands on some German wheat beer yeast as the yeast is a big contributor to this style of beer. I do also however plan to bottle half the batch after the primary ferment and then add in some passionfruit pulp from my garden and let it ferment out again. This should hopefully work out OK, I have read alot of info on adding other fruit to wheat beers including rasberries etc. Either way I will end up with half a batch of traditional and half a batch of 'Well lets see how this tastes......'

When you say traditional I think you mean Witbier which is the more recently popularised (in comparison to the German style) Belgian take on wheat beer. German weizen/weissbier does not usually have additions of citrus peel or spice. If you haven't already, check out the BJCP guidelines for some more info Witbier Weizen I think a weizen would be more suited to fruit additions, not sure how they would go the coriander/citrus.

 

[eddy401]

I have racked once before, but that beer isnt ready so not sure of how it changes the taste, but people seem to say its a good idea - my main reason for racking this one though is so i have more time to drink my way through some bottles, also i read earlier that some people rack half and bottle half - so i think ill do that so i can compare the basic wheat beer with whatever i add in the racking fermente
what do you think?

All good advice in these responses.

One question: Why do you want to rack it for a week or two after fermentation? What do you hope to achieve with this?

 

[Nick JD]

If you want a great german wheat then whacking two 1.5kg Coopers Wheat Malt cans into a fermenter dissolved with an hour long boil of 20g of Halertau hops in 3L ... and then throw in cold water to 23L and a pack of 3068 ... you'll be in beer heaven.

Gelatine it at FG and you've got a kristallweizen if you want it clear.

Replace the 3068 with T58 and throw in some spices and peel for a belgian wheat.

Too easy! :icon_cheers:

 

[eddy401]

Thank Nick that sounds like a good one to try when i get a chance, just to clarify (i havnt done a boil before :blink: ) you just boil water for 60 mins with the hops in there from the start?

If you want a great german wheat then whacking two 1.5kg Coopers Wheat Malt cans into a fermenter dissolved with an hour long boil of 20g of Halertau hops in 3L ... and then throw in cold water to 23L and a pack of 3068 ... you'll be in beer heaven.

Gelatine it at FG and you've got a kristallweizen if you want it clear.

Replace the 3068 with T58 and throw in some spices and peel for a belgian wheat.

Too easy! :icon_cheers:

 

[StewTurner]

If you want a great german wheat then whacking two 1.5kg Coopers Wheat Malt cans into a fermenter dissolved with an hour long boil of 20g of Halertau hops in 3L ... and then throw in cold water to 23L and a pack of 3068 ... you'll be in beer heaven.

This is exactly what I have in my fermenter at the moment. Smells great, and the hydrometer samples are very drinkable. I am looking forward to this one.

Regarding your question twardo, what you need to do is boil 3 liters of water, and add 300 grams of the wheat malt extract. When that is boiling, add the hops and boil for an hour. The amount of malt in the water is important because it influences the efficiency of the hop utilisation. Basically, you want about 100 grams per liter. Ths wil give a gravity of around 1040, which gives high efficiency in the hop extraction.

After an hour, turn off the heat, add the rest of the malt extract to dissolve, add to the fermenter, pitch the yeast and ferment at about 19 degrees. You might need to chill the wort before you add it to the fermenter (put the pot in a sink of ice water to do it quick).

 

[Nick JD]

... boil 3 liters of water, and add 300 grams of the wheat malt extract.

Oops, yeah - get some stuff in the boil!

I find a kg of dried malt extract is handy here because you don't have to try to get 300g of liquid malt out and leave the other 1200g dribbling all over the place and getting bugs and nasties on it in the hour of the boil.

That said, it's still quite possible to extract hop bitterness in a 1.000 SG boil. Doesn't smell as nice though.

 

[drsmurto]

Oops, yeah - get some stuff in the boil!

I find a kg of dried malt extract is handy here because you don't have to try to get 300g of liquid malt out and leave the other 1200g dribbling all over the place and getting bugs and nasties on it in the hour of the boil.

That said, it's still quite possible to extract hop bitterness in a 1.000 SG boil. Doesn't smell as nice though.

Play around with beersmith (and other brewing calculators) and see what the SG does to hop utilisation.

Using 1kg in 3L which greatly reduce the IBU in the resulting beer.

 

[kiwiev]

This is exactly what I have in my fermenter at the moment. Smells great, and the hydrometer samples are very drinkable. I am looking forward to this one.

Regarding your question twardo, what you need to do is boil 3 liters of water, and add 300 grams of the wheat malt extract. When that is boiling, add the hops and boil for an hour. The amount of malt in the water is important because it influences the efficiency of the hop utilisation. Basically, you want about 100 grams per liter. Ths wil give a gravity of around 1040, which gives high efficiency in the hop extraction.

After an hour, turn off the heat, add the rest of the malt extract to dissolve, add to the fermenter, pitch the yeast and ferment at about 19 degrees. You might need to chill the wort before you add it to the fermenter (put the pot in a sink of ice water to do it quick).

hey there very interesting post, sounds just what I'm looking for, so no dextrose or sugars of any kind required then, I am a huge favourite of Erdinger weisbeer

 

[np1962]

Play around with beersmith (and other brewing calculators) and see what the SG does to hop utilisation.

Using 1kg in 3L which greatly reduce the IBU in the resulting beer.

Not wanting to speak for Nick, but he probably meant if you have a kilo of dry malt extract you can add 300gm to 3 litres without making a hell of a mess as you would trying to use part of a can of liquid. Keep the other 700gm for later brews.
Cheers
Nige