Wheat-tastic

In my most recent posting in Life Told in Recipes, I gave a GREAT recipe for wheat beer.  It's simple, straight forward, and is completely customizable to your needs!

Want neutral flavor with robust wheat?  No Problem

Want some hoppy goodness?  No Problem

Want some fruit?  No Problem

But how do you customize your beer to suit your needs (or at least your needs of the moment)?  And with all that being said, how do you make a quality beer that is not only to your tastes but still balanced?

Well... here we go:

First, let me review our base recipe....

OG 1.043, FG 1.009, ABV 4.5%, IBUs 17
4 ½ pounds Base Malt
4 ½ pounds Malted Wheat
1 oz Tettnanger hops at 4% AA (or something else?), 60 minutes
Yeast of your choosing

(don't forget to mash your grains... 150* should be fine)

(oh... and you might need some rice hulls to help with your sparge! Start with a half pound and go from there)

Ok, now what? I've clearly left options open... what type of hops to use, what yeast strain, and then the ever important use of fruit. But all of the factors influence one another, so you must keep that in mind... Let's break it down:

Hops

You're going to need to add some bitterness to your beer. All beers have it, and, while I feel you want to balance a wheat beer towards the malty (and wheat) side of the spectrum, you still need SOMETHING in there. If you're looking for a neutral bittering, why not try something European, like Tettnanger or Hallertauer (hmm... noble hops? hint hint... BTW if you don't know what the Noble Hops are, look it up... there are only 4 of them!). But then again, you could use East Kent Goldings (my favorite English hop) or Styrian Goldings for some floral and spicy flavors. To be even more interesting, maybe try one of the American "C" hops... I'm a fan of Cascade for wheat beers, but maybe even Amarillo (ok, it doesn't start with a "C") if you can find them. Bottom line, any hop will do. If you want hoppy flavor to come through, consider a later hop addition. AND, if this is something you're going for, make sure to pick a neutral ale yeast and a complementing fruit combination if that's your thing (or no fruit at all, since you might want the hops to shine).

Yeast

Traditional Bavarian Wheat Beers have a LOT of banana and clove esters in their flavor and aroma profiles. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just not my thing. The most famous yeast comes from the Weinhenstephan Brewery, and is available commercially as WLP300 or WY3068 (I guess technically, the yeast companies say that these yeasts exhibit profiles very similar to the famous W Brewery... but it's just a technicality, right?). Please ferment with restrain... the higher the temp, the more esters, and the more I don't like it!! I'm not opposed to banana or clove, but too much is simply too much. If you are going to Americanize the hops (as we discussed above) or might add fruit, you should consider a neutral American ale yeast. I have used US-05 (WLP001 or WY1056) in the past with great results, especially if I'm going to add fruit. By using the American yeast, the subtle esters will not get in the way of any other flavor from other sources you might want to have in your beer.

Fruit

So basically, there are 3 ways to add fruit to your beer. (Before I go any further, much of this information is from podcasts from The Brewing Network, and specifically from Jamil Zainasheff... please check these sites and resources out!!) I've used only two of them since the third scares me. The first way is to use a fruit extract; I've used it for parties when I've wanted a fruity wheat beer just to satisfy the thirst of my friends. It's not ideal, tastes like something out of a jar, but does the trick in a pinch. The next way, which is the way that scares me, is to use fresh fruit. My big concern with using fresh fruit is how to sanitize it. I guess you could boil it or pasteurize it, but that takes too much work and I'm lazy. I guess you could go through the effort if you had fresh fruit in abundance at your disposal (it takes a LOT of fresh fruit!!)... but the decision is yours! The way I use is to use a canned or frozen fruit puree. Because these are minimally processed (basically the pasteurization is down for you), they are of GREAT flavor and quality and really easy to use. Just pop the puree into a clean and sanitized bucket, and rack your beer on top (secondary fermentation). If you are going to put fruit in your beer, you'll have to experiment with the amount; something like strawberries or peaches might need more fruit per gallon than a stronger fruit like raspberries, blueberries, or some sort of combination.


Happy Brewing!!!!!