wheat/lager beer sort of... suggestions welcome

[drmick]

I made a wheat beer about 7 weeks ago and am currently drinking it - its been in the garage for about four weeks and with this lovely cold weather its become crystal clear. It doesn't taste much like a wheat beer (although I haven't swirled the bottle and added the yeast to the glass) but it does have a strong, perhaps too much, taste of the orange peel and there is a vague hint of corriander there - however it looks like a lager (perfect colour). My plan is to do a repeat recipe this coming weekend (unless the snow returns) but leave out the orange peel and corriander and up the hops a bit to make something more lager like with the aim of bottling and leaving in the garage through out January and drink in February. The recipe currently is :

2500g Wheat Malt
2500g Lager malt
600g Flaked wheat

90 minute hops 20g Northern brewer

Yeast WB-06

Now my questions - the head on the current beer is almost non-existent so would adding some torrified wheat be OK and if so would 500g be OK or is that going to start adding flavour? And if I do add this should I reduce one of the other grains?

Also what about the hops? I am tempted to add some for the last 10 minutes to give some aroma/flavour as the Northern brewer are only there for a light bit of bittering - if so what hop should I add and how much - I have a freezer draw full of various hops off top of my head I have - saaz, fuggles, golding, northern brewer, northdown, target, challenger, amarillo, progress, bramling cross and probably some others as well.

Hopefully weather will be OK this weekend and I can get this and a guiness clone on this weekend - sadly snow has now nearly gone so going to have to go to work tomorrow

[coatesg]

If you're gonna go for a Belgian style wit, I think you need to use more unmalted wheat (flaked wheat - about 45%!) and the right yeast - WB-06 is fine but I think liquid yeasts are better.

If you're looking for something more lager like, then saaz is the obvious choice (you could go 100% saaz). You need to ferment very very clean really though - Nottingham yeast fermented cool will give you a pseudo-lager like taste. (I would also drop the wheat and use all lager malt too

Regarding head - is it carbonated well enough? You've already got a pile of wheat in there so there should be no issue with head at all, unless something has gone wrong which is destroying the head retention... (Flaked wheat, Wheat malt and Torry Wheat all contribute to head retention).

[Barley Water]

I think what you are talking about doing is making what we call an American Wheat Beer. You can make the beer with either an ale or lager yeast (Pyramid is a big one over here and they use lager yeast). You can also hop it pretty much how you want to although you want to keep the wheat character so I wouldn't get too heavy handed. I made one this last summer which was 30/70 malted barley/wheat and used a lager yeast. I was very surprised when it came out completely clear although I knew that the yeast was quite a bit more floculent than say heffe weizen yeast. I did not hop mine very heavily and frankly I thought the beer was a little boring for my taste but the beer ended up coming out just fine. I think this type of beer would make a good base for a spiced or fruited wheat beer because it's pretty neutral. In a couple of weeks, I am teaming up with a couple of ladies in our club to make a really wierd wheat beer. I am again going to make a 30/70 wheat beer wort and then let the ladies have their way with it in terms of hopping, spices and yeast strain. They are talking about using an Old Ale yeast which has Brett included which should add a cherry pie type flavor note. I think they are also going to put the beer on a few pounds of fresh cherries so the whole thing should be very interesting to say the least.

[northerntable]

Recipe looks alright if you are shooting for a basic weizen (Minus the unmalted wheat). I find the WB-06 produces some decent clove/banana flavours if handled right. You will notice a significant flavour difference if you to an open fermentation vs. a closed one. This is a recipe I make every year (though not with yeast listed in my post, didn't care for it) http://www.northerntable.com/?p=227, if you are looking for a weizen its not a bad direction to go at all.

If you are having head retention problems with that much wheat there may be other factors at play, have you checked there isn't a film in your glassware? How many volumes of c02 have you carbonated to?


Jake
www.northerntable.com