Oscar Wilde Wit 30-3-08

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:57 pm

What kind of taste delboy?

delboy · Post by **delboy** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:52 am

Its hard to describe mysterio, it smells good and the initial taste is ok but then after comes this rather unpleasant twang. I'll have another taste before i chuck it to see if i can pin it down better.
I don't seem to have much luck with wheat beers, ferment them low and i got a roasty flavoured phenolic soup, fermented this one at normal room temps and i got yuck

Hows your own one coming along?

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:49 am

Tastes pretty good, moving in the right direction anyway. Still a bit yeasty.

johnh · Post by **johnh** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:07 pm

I had a very similar experience with mine. When I first tasted it with swmbo we had exactly the same reaction. It is difficult to describe the sensation other than being a bit 'erghhh'. I was cursing Jamil's name there for a while.

Anyway, a month later, here we both are right now supping it and it's really tasty. She even just complemented me on it which is a real rarity

.

I'm not sure what it is but I think the oats need several weeks to round off - just like they do in a stout. Bear in mind also that high carbonation and serving cold will sharpen up the citrus flavour as well and cut through the thickness of the oats.

Having said all that I'm not sure what the effect of the cumin would be though, I used chamomile.

I had read that wits are better young but that's not how it worked out for me. Give it time, delboy and maybe a little of this

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:10 pm

I had read that wits are better young but that's not how it worked out for me. Give it time, delboy and maybe a little of this

I agree, I've never found wheat beers to be at their best when they're young.

delboy · Post by **delboy** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:29 am

Thanks for the feedback JH and Mysterio, i had another taster tonight with a side by side comparison with a hoegaarden. After this tasting i reckon the twang is the same flavour that i complained about when i brewed the hefe, i called it a phenolic flavour but in hindsight its more of an unpleasant roastyness. The hefe did eventually become drinkable but by then it was a crystal weizen with no yeast flavour.

I think what both of you have said makes sense that it is the wheat/oats that needs to mature that and maybe im more sensitive to which ever compound is responsible for that twang.

awalker · Post by **awalker** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:33 am

Delboy is it just the yeast you are using?

White Labs #WLP400

I have tried this a few times and what ever recipe I use I get the same flavour. If I use a slightly different yeast it always taste fine.
I have a keg awaiting departure down the drain, I bought the wrong yeast last time, so now I have another keg full of undrinkable beer.

delboy · Post by **delboy** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:46 pm

I did use the wl400 in this brew, but i also got a similar taste when i brewed with the white labs hefeweizen yeast so i was blaming it more on the wheat.
I will be experimenting with a vial of the hefeweizen yeast in an all barley recipe to see if it goes away (as i quite like the other flavours this yeast throws off).

awalker · Post by **awalker** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:40 pm

Are all the recipes from the same batch of wheat ?
i.e. Have you you got an iffy bag of wheat malt?

Just a thought

flytact · Post by **flytact** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:25 pm

A bunch of us are brewing 6 batches of Wit this weekend and using WL400, WL Saison and Wyeast Wit.
I'll fill you all in on the differences due to yeast.

delboy · Post by **delboy** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:42 pm

awalker wrote:Are all the recipes from the same batch of wheat ?
i.e. Have you you got an iffy bag of wheat malt?

Just a thought

Nope, this was a new batch of wheat from the hopshop were as the previous hefe weizen was from a batch of wheat from H&G.

delboy · Post by **delboy** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:43 pm

flytact wrote:A bunch of us are brewing 6 batches of Wit this weekend and using WL400, WL Saison and Wyeast Wit.
I'll fill you all in on the differences due to yeast.

I'll be interested to hear what you think.

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:33 pm

flytact wrote:A bunch of us are brewing 6 batches of Wit this weekend and using WL400, WL Saison and Wyeast Wit.
I'll fill you all in on the differences due to yeast.

What recipe are you using flytact ?

flytact · Post by **flytact** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:13 pm

mysterio wrote:What recipe are you using flytact ?

You know I really have no idea. As this is a collaborative effort and my job was to buy all the ingredients. 11kg of this, 10 kg of that.....
The guy who got all the recipes is printing them out for us when we get there tomorrow morning.
I do know that I will be brewing 10 gallons and fermenting with different yeast.
I'll get my act together after tomorrow and do a nice Brewday post, then follow it up in June'ish with a tasting report.

arturobandini · Post by **arturobandini** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:49 pm

Hey Flytact,

How did you get on with your experiments?

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Oscar Wilde Wit 30-3-08

Re: Oscar Wilde Wit 30-3-08