Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

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floydmeddler
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Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:36 pm

Howdy folks,

I'm going camping around France and had planned to take a load of ales with me. On second thoughts, I'd like to take a wheat beer so that I can have it super chilled.

I hear these can be turned around quickly? Here's what I've come up with. Can this be brewed and be ready to drink in a month?

Camping Wheat Beer
15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 25 L
Efficiency: 80%
Attenuation: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.047 (1.044 - 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.014)
Color: 3.0 (2.0 - 8.0)
Alcohol: 4.66% (4.3% - 5.6%)
Bitterness: 14.9 (8.0 - 15.0)

Ingredients:
3 kg Belgian Wheat Malt
2 kg Lager Malt
33.0 g Hallertau Hersbruck (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min

Any suggestions for a yeast? Want the nice clove flavours. Have experienced this from WLP500 before by fermenting it at 21c. Would this be the best bet?

Cheers

dogchillibilly
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by dogchillibilly » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:57 pm

WLP 380 @ 18c
i prefer it to the WLP300.
very clovey not so much banana..... 10 day ferment, 10 days to carb the bottles... and ready to go.

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:06 pm

Cheers dog! Order placed placed with Thrifty Shopper. Went for the WLP300 as I do like a bit of banana. If it is delivered on Thursday which it stated when ordering, I can make a quick starter 24hrs before brewing on Friday. Hopefully that will do it. 20 days till drinky poos? Damn, why didn't I do wheat beers earlier!

Excited now.

coatesg

Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by coatesg » Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:57 pm

WLP300 everytime here - don't let it get above 18C, pitch a good starter (though you may need more than a day - I'd go for two days if you can). Be prepared for a yeast explosion during the ferment! Once done, crash it for a bit to drop some (but by no means all) of the yeast and then serve as soon as it is carbonated.

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:19 pm

coatesg wrote:WLP300 everytime here - don't let it get above 18C...
Won't have a choice I'm afraid as I have no cooling unit. Will prob hit 25c during the first 24hrs or so then stay at 22c for the rest of the ferment. What effect will this have? Bubblegum?

Cheers

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Barley Water
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by Barley Water » Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:55 pm

It's all about temperature control when doing heffes. As the temperature rises, you will generate a ton of bananna aroma and flavor however, you will also start to get fusels (my testing and screwups lead me to believe that anything over about 68F will start to cause problems). I also favor WLP300 for German wheat beers because I like the bananna but at least in contests, a balanced approach will work better which probably dictates an even lower fermentation temperature. By the way, four weeks is plenty of time to get the beer ready to drink, I have done it many times.

For all you wheat beer fans out there, I am just starting to go through the new wheat beer book that just came out. There are some very good tips for making better heffes and I have only really just skimmed it so far. Additionally, there is a lot of material included for both Wits and what I will call American Wheat beers (which are pretty similar to the British wheat ales you guys are doing). I am trying to get ready for a contest with an entry deadline late in July and I think I may try to do a last minute wheat beer of some type. Since I currently am doing lagers, I may well just make an American wheat using Wyeast 2006 lager yeast. Maybe do a single decoction (German twist on an American beer) and fairly low hops rates to try and get a really wheaty flavor, the yeast should not get in the way and I would expect a beer like this to have a fairly subtle flavor profile. The other idea I had involves using unmalted wheat for a portion of the grist and doing a ceral mash, what do you guys think of that idea?
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Wed Jun 23, 2010 7:10 pm

Barley Water wrote:...my testing and screwups lead me to believe that anything over about 68F will start to cause problems...
Well that's me screwed then as I will be fermenting at 22C/72F on average. I've fermented WLP500 at this temp before and absolutely loved the beer. Is WLP300 different?

As for your own wheat beer idea, have no idea! As you can probably tell, this is my first! :shock:

Cheers

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:18 pm

Damn. More like 24c now. Will this beer turn out cr*ap if fermented at these temps?

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:12 pm

floydmeddler wrote:Damn. More like 24c now. Will this beer turn out cr*ap if fermented at these temps?

No comment... I'm guessing that's a yes then. Ah well. Brewing it now. Couldn't make a starter either as it just arrived today. Could make one then pitch tomorrow I suppose.

coatesg

Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by coatesg » Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:00 pm

Sorry - only just seen this. Never tried it myself at that temp, but the quoted upper range is up to 24 or so. I'd guess it might sway the balance in one direction or the other (clove/banana) but you may get some funny stuff going on (sulphur, bubblegum, unknown?).

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Barley Water
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by Barley Water » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:19 pm

Humm, I don't know that I would say the beer will be crap but expect alot of bananna and some bubblegum. In my experience, if you go that hot, you are also risking sort of a bandaid/medicinal flavor which frankly will detract from the beer. By the way, I never make a starter when using WLP300 and I never oxigenate because I am trying to get the yeast to throw off as much of the goodies as possible and I want the little buggers to work really hard. The other thing to think about is that if you can get the beer cooler at least during the intitial stages of fermentation, then if the temperature rises later, it will not effect the taste. Most off flavors are generated during the yeast growth phase, that's why you can get away with a diacetyl rest with lagers without messing them up. Anyhow, good luck, wheat beer is alot of fun.
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:32 pm

Cheers lads. Getting slight banana and perhaps a little clove at the end. No where near the massive amounts of banana I was fearing... thank god. No sulphur either. Fermentation temp stayed at around 23c. Still a bit to go yet as gravity is 1015.

Hopefully I may have gotten away with the higher temps!

coatesg

Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by coatesg » Wed Jun 30, 2010 5:08 pm

The other way to bring the temps down is to stand the FV in a bath full of cold water - the large thermal mass of the water means it takes a long time to heat up.

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floydmeddler
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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:51 pm

OK, so in the bottle 1 week... It is a banana bomb after all... :shock: Will this banana flavour mellow out over say the next 2 weeks?

Cheers

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Re: Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

Post by floydmeddler » Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:02 pm

Having a pint of this now and I love it. Banana has mellowed slightly and there is a wonderful sweetness even though it finished at 1006. Was thinking that it could be down to the high amount of priming sugar. However, I bottled 10 days ago and the beer was very yeasty so I reckon the priming sugar has fermented out. Very strange... and welcoming!

Very happy with it and look forward to drinking the drink the rest on holiday. Even bought myself an electric coolbox. :D :D At the same time, I'm looking forward to fermenting at 18c in the future (winter) to bring out those clove flavours. Will happily brew this again and ferment at 23c though as the banana is good.

All's well that ends well...

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