Nice Simple Wheat Beer

[Clobber]

Having got a few all grain brew under my belt and starting to understand how to get nice fairly standard ale I would like to venture into a different style...

So please would you share ideas/recipes for a nice simple, back to basics, wheat beer for a first time wheat brew?

[zgoda]

German, American or Belgian?

[Clobber]

Belgian or German or both would be great!

[seymour]

Whoa, Clobs, that's a really huge question. I guess we'll start with the Belgian wit style.

They're all pretty similar in make-up, to be honest. Around 50% pale barley malt, 50% wheat, with noble hops, sometimes coriander and orange peel in the late boil, and a low-flocculating (cloudy) Belgian Wit yeast. Use a long multi-step mash in order to make it as fermentable as possible. Believe it or not, the Mauri Weiss yeast is pretty good for this style, despite being dried, and despite being marketed as a German Weiss strain. I really liked it: crisp dry finish with lots of black pepper and clove notes.


Hoegaarden White/Witte
Brouwerij Hoegaarden - Hoegaarden, Belgium
OG: 1048
ABV: 4.9%
IBU: 16.5
Colour: hazy golden
Grainbill: 50% Pilsener, 45% Unmalted Wheat, 5% Oats
Hops: Nugget (75 min), Styrian Goldings and Saaz (15 min), Coriander, Curacao Orange Peel (5 min)
Yeast: the original Belgian Wit yeast, available as Wyeast 3944, White Labs WLP400


Belgian Wit
from 1992 book: Brewing the World's Great Beers by Dave Miller
OG: 1043
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 14
Colour: hazy golden
Grainbill: 69% Pale, 31% Wheat (malt or unmalted)
Hops: Hallertau, Fuggles or Goldings, 2/3 of total for 60 min, 1/3 of total for 15 min
Yeast: Belgian Wit strain


Witte Raaf/White Raven
Hertog Jan Brouwerij - Arcen, Netherlands
ABV: 5.0%
IBU: ≈15
Colour: hazy golden
Grainbill: Pilsener Malt, Wheat Malt (probably 50/50)
Hops: Perle (90 min), Hersbrucker (15 min)
Yeast: Belgian Wit strain


Blue Moon Belgian White
MolsonCoors/Blue Moon - Golden, Colorado, USA
OG: 1053
ABV: 5.4%
IBU: 18
Colour: hazy golden
Grainbill: Pale, White Wheat, Oats
Hops: High-alpha extact or Cascade (45 min & 15 min), Valencia orange peel, Coriander (at flame-out)
Yeast: Belgian Wit strain

[Clobber]

Seymour, great response! Many thanks for these and the pointers for the yeast... I will report back on results...

Any further tips on "long multi step mash"

Also what happens if you use malted or un-malted wheat?

[Morten]

Unmalted is the way to go for true Belgian style, malted if you go for the German style.

I usually make two batches of German wheat in the spring time to enjoy during summer, I do not bother with multi step mash, just your average 60 min rest.
50/50 pils/wheat, mashed at 67º, boil 60 minutes to ~15 IBU + ~1 gram per liter hallertau at 5 minutes.
I tend to go for the 3068 Weihenstephan or WLP300

[Ben711200]

It's got to be worth linking back to this topic for a question like this

viewtopic.php?t=38303

[jmc]

It's got to be worth linking back to this topic for a question like this

viewtopic.php?t=38303

+1
That's nice & simple and works well.

[Clobber]

Thats a 21 page thread!! but also a good starting point thank you!

[bovaboy]

It's a 21 page thread for a good reason, shows how popular dave-os recipe is! I can certainly vouch for it, beautifully simple recipe that gives good results (and quickly).