Help With A Wheat Beer Recipe

1 year ago | Gazz (Member)

I need some help for my fist AG Wheat beer recipe, I have purcashed the following ready for a 15l brew:

2kg Munich Malt
2kg Wheat Malt
100g Hallertauer Hersbrucker Hops
WYeast Activator 3333 - German Wheat

Should I plump for 50/50 on the malts?
How much hops should I use on the 90 & 10 min boil?

I also have some spare malts such as black,crystal,chocolate & torefied wheat.

Any advice would be great

Gareth

Read responses...

Responses

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Not that its a wheat beer, but when I did my bigger with about 40% Munich I found it way too over powering. So much so I ditched it for another brew.

Conditionin'/Drinkin' - OPA Pale
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Can't offer much advice regarding the malt as I've only ever brewed extract wheat beers but the extract is 55% wheat 45% barley. Torrefied wheat helps with head retention apparently but you knew that.

Traditionally Bavarian Weizen has quite low bittering & the yeast dominates the flavour, so I aim for 15 EBU & no late hops.

The stuff I've brewed compares well with Schneider Weisse but I've yet to replicate my favourites, Kloster Andechs, Kaltenberg & Weihenstephaner Vitus.

Planning: Vienna lager, Wheat beer fermented with Gutmann yeast, ESB
Fermenting: Wheat beer
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Pseudo-Lager, Oatmeal stout & Shop bought stuff

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

Hi Gareth, your recipe looks okay to me. I agree with Hamish, You want to lightly hop and I would probably only add hops to the boil and to about 15/20 IBU.

Keep it simple and let the yeast do the flavouring to forget the crystal, black etc.

Planning:Maybe a lager.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning

Tony:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

I've never made a wheat beer but I have recipes here that suggest keeping the wheat to about 45% and never going above the 50. They also suggest that the remainder of the bill is made up of more than one type, and as Nath says, 50% (or 55%) Munich could be overpowering. Could you make it up with say 45% wheat, 25% Munich, 30% pale?

Beer will get you through the times of no money better than money will get you through the times of no beer
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

I've only made one wheat beer, here's the recipe I used. http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/weize-guy-wheat

It turned out really nice, lots of flavour but I did struggle to get through 40 pints as you can only drink 1 or two of them at a time as it gets quite sickly. I also avoided making it again as I can't cope with bottling beers but I have been thinking about making another recently as I have not converted to Cornie kegs and they would be ideal.

Planning:Maybe a lager.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Thanks Guys

Probably gonna go for this.
Is the torrefied wheat addition ok in a wheat beer??

Munich Malt 20 EBC 3 lbs. 4.9 oz 1500 grams 42.5%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 4 lbs. 4.4 oz 1940 grams 55%
Torrefied Wheat 4 EBC 0 lbs. 3.0 oz 87 grams 2.5%

Hallertauer Hersbrucker Whole 3 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.2 oz 35 grams 87.5%
Hallertauer Hersbrucker Whole 3 % 5 mins 0 lbs. 0.2 oz 5 grams 12.5%

Final Volume: 15 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 23 Litres
Mash Liquor: 8.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 17.3143660472133 EBU
Colour: 19 EBC

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

If you're worried about torrefied wheat you could add some Carapils instead, maybe about 5%. I always steep some, it definitely improves the head.

Planning: Vienna lager, Wheat beer fermented with Gutmann yeast, ESB
Fermenting: Wheat beer
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Pseudo-Lager, Oatmeal stout & Shop bought stuff

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Well I sampled my first bottle last night after only 10days in the bottle....was very disapointed. Think I need to leave it for at least another 2 weeks!

I have 30 bottles of the stuff so I hope it gets better!!!

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Really?, I think wheat beers want drinking young, maybe its the Munich. Did you go with the WYeast 3333, I used the Weihenstephaner or Eyjafjallajökull as I'm now going to call it. I thought the sneaky taste I had when bottling it was great.

Planning: Vienna lager, Wheat beer fermented with Gutmann yeast, ESB
Fermenting: Wheat beer
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Pseudo-Lager, Oatmeal stout & Shop bought stuff

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

What's the matter with it Gazz?

Planning:Maybe a lager.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

I used the German Wyeast....took a while to get started.

It tasted very medicinal, maybe thats because I used too much munich malt????????

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

Munich would have made it more malty. What water did you use?

Planning:Maybe a lager.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Not that im at all an expert - but looking on the net it seems to point a medicinal taste to a "phenol" problem. This can be from a bacterial infection, fermenting at a too high temperature, oversparging or not rinsing properly after sanitising.

Though you may find a good while in a cold place to work wonders. :wink:

Conditionin'/Drinkin' - OPA Pale
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!

Tony:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

A friend of mine said he got a massive medicinal taste from all wheat beers until he tried making one with S-04. He realised that using that yeast wasn't exactly cricket but couldn't figure the taste out and had a go at changing the yeast. He did reckon on a year in cold storage (as nath advises) massively improved it though

Beer will get you through the times of no money better than money will get you through the times of no beer
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

I used bottled water treated with a campden. I always use botled water for my brews and have not had a problem so far with that element.

I did another brew a week later using up my left over grains which included munich malt & this has a medicinal taste to, just like the wheat beer.

I have a Oatmeal stout fermenting as I type so I shall check this tonight just to see if this has a medicinal taste.

A year in storage!!!! :-) Mine is out in the garage so roll on the winter then!!!!

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Well I tried a bottle last night and the taste was much better, the only thing now is there is very little life/carbonation to them. I added a generous teaspoon of sugar to them and from past experience this should be plenty!
The only thing I can think of is I filled the bottles a bit more than usual with some of them.....would this make a difference??

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

What temp are they stored at? When I made my lager in bottles I had to leave em in the house (22c) for 2 weeks before moving them to cold condition. It took em ages before the were properly carbonated.

Conditionin'/Drinkin' - OPA Pale
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Bottled in the house and then stored in the garage...so on average i'd say 18c maybe, it hit 20c today in South Wales.

Been bottled 3 weeks ago to the day.
I brewd my last extract about 3 months ago, was a dark mild, bottled it with a teaspoon of sugar and after 2 weeks it was full of life, 3 weeks and there was too much gas.

Weird how different ales act differently with priming.

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Weird how different ales act differently with priming.

It would seem so, I added 3 grams per bottle to my wheat beer & the flip tops open with a nice 'POP'.

Planning: Vienna lager, Wheat beer fermented with Gutmann yeast, ESB
Fermenting: Wheat beer
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Pseudo-Lager, Oatmeal stout & Shop bought stuff

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Whatever you do, don't use wyeast 3333 (german wheat). Mine came out... dare I say savory? I can't put my finger on what it did to my dunkelweizen, but it's strange. It's also one of the clearest ales i've ever brewed despite the wheat, I have to swirl it or it looks like a munich dunkel in the glass. I was looking for a weizen yeast strain that wouldn't give me a lot of banana or bubblegum (Erdinger is the brewery I like if you've tried it, I've since found out they use a german ale yeast for a more malt-foward hefe), but it was the most bizzare tasting weizen yeast i've ever tasted. Anyone else try that one?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/wyeast-3068-weihenstephan-weizen-vs-3638-bavarian-wheat-31415/index2.html

Planning: Vienna lager, Wheat beer fermented with Gutmann yeast, ESB
Fermenting: Wheat beer
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Pseudo-Lager, Oatmeal stout & Shop bought stuff

Greg:

Posted 1 year ago by Admin

I've not tried the 3333 myself. The last (and only) wheat beer I did I used 3068 and turned out well. I haven't brewed one since because I only like wheat beer now and again so takes me ages to drink a 40 pint batch and I don't have enough brew days to spare.

Planning:Maybe a lager.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

I intend to try all the German Wheaties eventually, even the 3333.

Planning: Vienna lager, Wheat beer fermented with Gutmann yeast, ESB
Fermenting: Wheat beer
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Pseudo-Lager, Oatmeal stout & Shop bought stuff

Gazz:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Well what a difference 3 weeks can make!

Cracked open a bottle tonight to find it overflowed due to carbonation, tastes absolutley great! And to think I was close to pouring it down the drain!

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