hoppy wheat..

[jabbathehut]

anyone tasted schneider weiss hopfen weiss .. a hoppy wheat beer ( 8% or so) ... i got a few wheat bber kits ( brew your own x2 and coopers x1) and some wheat dme. I have large quantities of hops.... ...so anyone ever hop up a wheat... and i know the style nazis will say it shouldnt be done. my plan is to do some straight and hop up at least one ( hop tea and dry hop)..

[duffymoon]

Funny, been thinking the same thing! I was considering getting some apollo hops cos they supposedly taste a bit orangey (haven't tried them for myself yet) & orange is added to some wheat beers. If you get there before me with whatever you try please report back, I'll do the same.

I take it that the weiss beer you mentioned is actually nice??

Cheers
DM

[Monkeybrew]

I have read of AG brewers using New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops in wheat beers.

I have used them dry in the Coopers Extra Strong Vintage ale brew, and have to say that they are pretty awesome.

I had a bottle of my ESVA at the weekend, and bearing in mind that it was bottled last November and weighs in at 7.4%, the hops still shone through

[jabbathehut]

hopfen wiess its called or now known as tap 7 or somthing...joint venture with brooklyn brewery in NY....old school recipe / new world hopping...savage stuff a bit pricey though.

[duffymoon]

Well I decided to give it a go & in the end I used amarillo hops just cos I had some in the freezer. After changing my mind several times I chose to boil them up for 15 mins to add a little extra bitterness rather than steep them. I'm not going to dry-hop cos I don't want to drown the aroma from the coriander.

Anyway below is what I did & I'll report back when it finishes fermenting if anyone is interested in how it turned out!


Boiled up pan of water with 200g candi-sugar, 20g toasted & crushed Indian coriander, 25g dried curacao orange, 25g dried sweet orange peel & 20g amarillo hops for 15 mins (rolling boil).

Strained into FV with Coopers Wheat kit & 1.5kg Brewferm liquid wheat extract.
Topped up to 22l (water treated with half a campden tablet).
Pitched yeast WB-06.

OG about 1.050. Fermenting at 24 degrees.

Smells lovely so far

[WalesAles]

Well I decided to give it a go & in the end I used amarillo hops just cos I had some in the freezer. After changing my mind several times I chose to boil them up for 15 mins to add a little extra bitterness rather than steep them. I'm not going to dry-hop cos I don't want to drown the aroma from the coriander.

Anyway below is what I did & I'll report back when it finishes fermenting if anyone is interested in how it turned out!


Boiled up pan of water with 200g candi-sugar, 20g toasted & crushed Indian coriander, 25g dried curacao orange, 25g dried sweet orange peel & 20g amarillo hops for 15 mins (rolling boil).

Strained into FV with Coopers Wheat kit & 1.5kg Brewferm liquid wheat extract.
Topped up to 22l (water treated with half a campden tablet).
Pitched yeast WB-06.

OG about 1.050. Fermenting at 24 degrees.

Smells lovely so far

Hello DM,
How did this brew turn out?
WA

[duffymoon]

Hi Wales,

To be honest the hops were a bit drowned out & this is such a flavourful brew I really don't think it needs anything else so haven't bothered with the hops in the couple of wheat beers I've made since. If I were to try again I'd steep them rather than boil & go fairly large, maybe 50g to see how that works.

Cheers
DM

[WalesAles]

Thanks DM,
Was it a nice Brew though? What is your best recipe so far if you have progressed from this one?
WA

[Rookie]

Last year at a local beer fest one of the breweries poured a higher gravity hoppy wheat beer that was very good. It was hopped with Falconer's flight hops. If I ever get in the mood for a hoppy wheat beer that's the way I'll go. I have no idea if F F hops blend is available outside of the USA.

[Monkeybrew]

Last year at a local beer fest one of the breweries poured a higher gravity hoppy wheat beer that was very good. It was hopped with Falconer's flight hops. If I ever get in the mood for a hoppy wheat beer that's the way I'll go. I have no idea if F F hops blend is available outside of the USA.

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... ductId=491

[WalesAles]

Monkey triumphs again!
Cheers Mate!
WA

[duffymoon]

Thanks DM,
Was it a nice Brew though? What is your best recipe so far if you have progressed from this one?
WA

Yes it was good, everyone seems to like it. Having experimented quite a lot with this brew I have settled on the below.

Boil 3 or 4 litres of water with 25g toasted & lightly crushed coriander seeds & 50g dried curacao orange peel for 15 minutes or so.
Strain into FV with Cooper's Wheat kit plus 1.5kg liquid wheat extract, mix vigorously.
Top to 22 litres (water treated with half a campden tablet).
Sprinkle on WB-06 yeast, ferment at 22 degrees for 10 days. Final gravity 1.006, I think from memory OG was about 1.045 but can't see it in my notes.


For info, as well as the hops I have tested with the original kit yeast, with different temperatures of ferment, with added candi sugar, with added golden syrup & different quantities of coriander & peel. I have also tried someone's suggestion of adding a single toasted coriander seed to each bottle, but I didn't think it added anything other than confusion & fear amongst those tasting it that I had forgotten to tell about the addition! The one thing I remain to test is whether liquid yeast such as Wyeast 3944 is even better, will be trying this in the spring.

[WalesAles]

Thanks DM,
Was it a nice Brew though? What is your best recipe so far if you have progressed from this one?
WA

Yes it was good, everyone seems to like it. Having experimented quite a lot with this brew I have settled on the below.

Boil 3 or 4 litres of water with 25g toasted & lightly crushed coriander seeds & 50g dried curacao orange peel for 15 minutes or so.
Strain into FV with Cooper's Wheat kit plus 1.5kg liquid wheat extract, mix vigorously.
Top to 22 litres (water treated with half a campden tablet).
Sprinkle on WB-06 yeast, ferment at 22 degrees for 10 days. Final gravity 1.006, I think from memory OG was about 1.045 but can't see it in my notes.


For info, as well as the hops I have tested with the original kit yeast, with different temperatures of ferment, with added candi sugar, with added golden syrup & different quantities of coriander & peel. I have also tried someone's suggestion of adding a single toasted coriander seed to each bottle, but I didn't think it added anything other than confusion & fear amongst those tasting it that I had forgotten to tell about the addition! The one thing I remain to test is whether liquid yeast such as Wyeast 3944 is even better, will be trying this in the spring.

Thanks DM,
Just what I was looking for!
Is the yeast choice critical for this Brew? I have read different posts that say to use bottom fermenting yeasts and different posts that say to use top fermenting yeasts.
WA

[duffymoon]

You're welcome.

If you want proper yeast beer then you need proper wheat beer yeast, but there are more than one type of wheat beer. The WB-06 makes a Belgian style wheat beer, it's a yeast that is tolerant of higher temperatures so you can create the tangy esters which are consistent with this style (I cut back from 24 to 22 degrees though to make this subtler!). It is also relatively un-flocculant so some yeast remains visible in suspension as per Hoegaarden-style brews. I tend to swirl round the bottle during pouring to make sure the yeast from the bottom of the bottle comes out too.

[tazzymutt]

...I tend to swirl round the bottle during pouring to make sure the yeast from the bottom of the bottle comes out too.

I do this too, even with a straight Coopers wheat Beer a gentle swirl to get all that lovely flavour off the bottom of the bottle works wonders for the taste of the brew. Without the swirl, I found Coopers wheat beer to be a rather bland light coloured beer. Actually this is not a bad thing; my Mrs likes clear, light flavourless beers and will happily drink a clear wheat beer, whereas a quick swirl makes the brew into something I enjoy.

A word to the wise; a swirl is OK with wheat beer, but doing that to a Coopers IPA (it was by way of experiment - nothing to do with the beers I had already enjoyed ) resulted in very bad wind the following morning

Happy brewing,


Ian.