Wheat Beer

[Mill Rat]

The amount of fruit you put in a beer depends greatly on the fruit you use. Put 1 lb/gallon of raspberries and blueberries in a brew and the raspberries will overpower everything is sight, and the blueberry flavor will be lost, even if the color is not. it also depends on how strongly flavored the base beer is. Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing has a good section on how much to use of each fruit. Every fall I brew a Raspberry Oatmeal Chocolate Stout that is about ready to be given as a present for my wife by Valentine's day. I use one 48 oz. can of pureed raspberries, and my wife and her friends love the beer ("It's like drinking cake," one said), while the contest evaluations have said that the raspberries need to be cut back. OTOH, I make a couple of batches of strawberry hefe for summer at 1 lb berries per gallon, and the riper farmer's market berries are need to get the fruit to really show up. The grocery store berries don't quite make it.

[Tronathon]

Originally Posted by BrewDog

Yesterday I brewed the AG Version of the Orange Blossom Honey Hefeweizen. CampAJohn stopped by. I was running late, and he had to leave for a while, but he stayed and helped with some of the pre-brew setup and then came back later on just after I had added my bittering addition. It was a long brew day.
(Thanks for the help, John!)

Malt:
4.50 lbs. Wheat Malt
3.00 lbs. Pale 2 Row
3.00 lbs. Orange Blossom Honey (added at flameout)
1.00 lbs. CaraPils
0.50 lbs. Crystal 10L


Hops:
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Pellet 4.20 60 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Pellet 4.20 30 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.60 15 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz Pellet 3.60 0 min.

Yeast
White Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale

Mash:
Dough in 8 qts at 132F to hit 122F protein rest for 15
min. Then infused to 152 for 45 mins.

Other/Misc:
I added a whirlfloc tab at 15 mins. I know weizens aren't supposed to be clear, but I wanted this one to be a bit clearer than the prior version.

I was considering making this brew for my friend's 25th Birthday this Oct (I know it's outta season for wheat beers but she requested one) and she loves oranges. I was wondering though, did this orange blossom honey actually add a orange flavor?

I was thinking of throwing 1.5 oz of fresh orange zest in the last 5 minutes of to boil to get a citrus flavor in the beer (kinda like a Belgian wit) and/or racking it to a secondary with some orange zest like the lemon one above.

this is the recipe I was kicking around...

4.50 lbs. White Wheat Malt
3.00 lbs. American 2-row
3.00 lbs. Orange Blossom Honey
1.00 lbs. Carapils
0.50 lbs. Crystal Malt 10°L

0.20 oz. Amarillo (Pellets, 8.5 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo (Pellets, 8.5 %AA) boiled 15 min.
1.50 oz. Fresh Orange Zest (maybe dried?) 5 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo (Pellets, 8.5 %AA) boiled 1 min.

Yeast : WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen

Mash:
Dough in 8 qts at 132F to hit 122F protein rest for 15 min.
Then infused to 152 for 60 mins. (changed it to 60)

I was wondering though, how long did yours ferment?/when would you rack it to a secondary if you were going to?

The recipe looks great, I like the high ABV wheat idea.

Cheers,

Tron

[Tronathon]

So, my wheat beer is done I think, following the Beertools estimated FG (1.018) I'm at 1.019. I think that'll be about 7% which is booyah. I'm concerned though, the beer is really sweet still. It's got banana, bubblegum and vanilla flavors and it's really tasty but not very dry at all. Is that because there is so much honey in it?

Recipe is posted above.

EDIT:

So, the beer has aged for a few more days, it's less sweet, I think I bottled it a little early cause it looks like the yeast is cropping on top still? It doesn't make much sense though cause I fermented it for 13 days...but yeah, it's pretty much a banana smoothie in a bottle - with a kick. I just drank a 22oz of it and it's strong...but not cidery which is cool

[Baacktoberfest]

I want to brew a reasonably affordable wheat beer for our housewarming party with a reasonable ABV and plenty of flavor. Here's what I came up with:

House Warmer Wheat


6 lb Wheat LME
1lb Wheat DME
1 lb Aromatic
.5 Carawheat
.25 Biscuit

.5 Cascade 60
1 Amarillo 20
1 Amarillo 1
.5 Cascade 1
.5 tsp Black Pepper 1
Zest 3 Oranges 1
Zest 2 Limes 1

2 Vanilla Beans

Safale WB-06

ABV 6%
IBU 26

[maltyapples]

I like the idea of vanilla beans and oranges, but how's the lime going to go? it's kind of an odd-ball citrus. I'm guessing it has to be a low IBU to fully appreciate the gentle flavors? Have you considered using meyer lemon zest instead? Or perhaps Blood Orange zest? They're hard to find in season, but when I add them to sorbet they add some nice citrus and heartier fruit notes. Thoughts?

[Rumplemintz]

I have been experimenting with several wheat beer recipies. Each one using a different type of Wyeast meant for the wheat/hefe style. I have finally hit my goal in a good recipe and yeast combo. This recipe mimics a lighter wheat style with a subtle hint of spice and sweet orange peel. The absence of banana/clove was key to hitting my goal. I added it to the beertools library.
http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=11132

[Baacktoberfest]

Originally Posted by maltyapples

I like the idea of vanilla beans and oranges, but how's the lime going to go? it's kind of an odd-ball citrus. I'm guessing it has to be a low IBU to fully appreciate the gentle flavors? Have you considered using meyer lemon zest instead? Or perhaps Blood Orange zest? They're hard to find in season, but when I add them to sorbet they add some nice citrus and heartier fruit notes. Thoughts?

I've seen recipes on the forum calling for the zest of two lemons and two limes so I just kind of picked one.