American Wheat Beer Citrus Weizen

bckyrdkid420 said:

Brewed CucuzzaBrew's recipe on saturday (except replaced, the sterling with saaz and Wyeast for WL 320 Hefe)!
This beer smells awesome! Can't wait to try it!!! If it's as good as it smells, I'm brewing again soon!

Click to expand...

Tried my first bottle yesterday... And all I can say is WOW! Even after only 2 weeks in the bottle, it was nice and carbed! This has to be the best beer I've brewed to date! Thanks to the OP and CucuzzaBrew for his version! I'll be brewing this again very soon I'm sure!

Excited about this one. This is going to be my first solo brew after a three-year hiatus. Sounds like it should be awesome.

I am going with:
4lbs Bavarian Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1/2lbs Cara-Pills
1lbs Honey (Cali)
1 oz (1/2 at 45 min. and 1/2 at 15 min) Cascade Hops
3 Oranges (zest)
1/2 oz of Sweet Orange Peel
3 Lemon (zest)
WLP001 Cali Ale yeast

Should I give a second thought to the idea of a second fermentation or should I just leave it in the primary for two weeks? Just can't justify moving it to a second when it is a weissen beer. But was wondering what your guys' thoughts for a n00b. :fro:

I made mistake in brewing my version of the beer, I made a boil of 2.5 gallons and did not compensate for the hop utilization in the small boil (i.e. not a 5 gallon boil). According to BeerSmith, it made my IBUs range at about 10.

So I ask all you guys, how much will this effect the end product? Just curious.

Jedimaster1 said:

I made mistake in brewing my version of the beer, I made a boil of 2.5 gallons and did not compensate for the hop utilization in the small boil (i.e. not a 5 gallon boil). According to BeerSmith, it made my IBUs range at about 10.

So I ask all you guys, how much will this effect the end product? Just curious.

Click to expand...

Just going to be a little sweeter. Not a lot though and is still in the "range" for that beer style. No worries.

FSR402 said:

Just going to be a little sweeter. Not a lot though and is still in the "range" for that beer style. No worries.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I guess I should relax and just have a homebrew Thanks for steering me back.

Trying to make an AG loosely based on this. Any feedback would be appreciated

I'd like the cascades to play with the orange and keep the ibu's low yet still maintain the wheat profile

Recipe: Citrus Weizen2
Brewer: CC
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 4.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 44.33 %
4.50 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 44.33 %
0.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.15 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 1.48 %
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (50 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (40 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (30 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (10 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
4.00 items Orange Zest (Boil 12.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale

MeanGreen said:

Trying to make an AG loosely based on this. Any feedback would be appreciated

I'd like the cascades to play with the orange and keep the ibu's low yet still maintain the wheat profile

Recipe: Citrus Weizen2
Brewer: CC
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 4.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 44.33 %
4.50 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 44.33 %
0.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.15 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 1.48 %
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (50 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (40 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (30 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [5.40 %] (10 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
4.00 items Orange Zest (Boil 12.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale

Click to expand...

My thoughts are that you're way over doing it.
I would go with
70% German Wheat
30% German Pils
mash for 90-120 minutes at 153
play with the hops to get it down to around 13ibus and go with one at 60 minutes and one at 10 minutes.
Why the complexity of all the different grains and hop addition for a simple light easy drinking beer?

FSR402 said:

My thoughts are that you're way over doing it.
I would go with
70% German Wheat
30% German Pils
mash for 90-120 minutes at 153
play with the hops to get it down to around 13ibus and go with one at 60 minutes and one at 10 minutes.
Why the complexity of all the different grains and hop addition for a simple light easy drinking beer?

Click to expand...

Well that was kind of the point, to add a bit of complexity and with the grains and hops. Yet still maintain that light wheat aspect to the beer.

Sure I can just bang out a generic wheat beer a nice 60/40 split and some noble hops and call it a day.

Your recipe intrigued me with the orange/lemon. Thought like some others posted that adding the cascades would play well with those notes.

No one put and AG up yet and I researched the thread to add some items like flaked oats etc to get some body behind it. I could scale the hops up in 0z and eliminate the 40 and 50min addition for ease of brewing, but that is neither really here nor there.

I'm not really looking for a critique of the ease of my brewday and or grain bill more if you think the mash temps along with the ingredients will produce a good beer

Sorry was not trying to be snobbish or anything. I just think that we as homebrewers tend to over do things. It's like we always have to make it bigger and better. I went thru that my first year or two of brewing. I have since out grown it..

I actually do have this beer as an all grain right now. I brewed 37 gallons of it.
70% wheat, 30% Pils, 5 pounds of rice hulls. Mashed at 153 for 2 hours.
Used NZ hallertau for the hops. some at 60 and some at 10. Added 1 oz of sweet orange, bitter orange and lemon. Used WLP300 yeast.

It's in bottles (yes all 360 of them) right now. Tried the 2nd one last night and it's turning out great.


Brew it up and tell us how it is.

FSR402 said:

Sorry was not trying to be snobbish or anything. I just think that we as homebrewers tend to over do things. It's like we always have to make it bigger and better. I went thru that my first year or two of brewing. I have since out grown it..

I actually do have this beer as an all grain right now. I brewed 37 gallons of it.
70% wheat, 30% Pils, 5 pounds of rice hulls. Mashed at 153 for 2 hours.
Used NZ hallertau for the hops. some at 60 and some at 10. Added 1 oz of sweet orange, bitter orange and lemon. Used WLP300 yeast.

It's in bottles (yes all 360 of them) right now. Tried the 2nd one last night and it's turning out great.


Brew it up and tell us how it is.

Click to expand...

Holy sh#t 37 gallons!

You'll be stocked for winter

Yeah we are definitely guilty of tricking it up for tricks sake, I wasn't trying to on this one. I made a simple wheat similar to yours with iamjohnsharps recipe from the forum but added meyer lemons

I'll brew this with some slight modifications and report bacl

I'll be trying my version of this on mon. here is my recipe by using beersmith. I don't really know how I came up with it as I ordered the grain a month ago. But, what do you think?:

PS This will be only my 2nd all grain!



Brew Type: All Grain Date: 6/28/2010
Style: Weizen/Weissbier Brewer: Aaron
Batch Size: 5.00 gal Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 5.72 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Equipment: My Equipment
Actual Efficiency: 11.71 %
Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.50 lb Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 4.35 %
8.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 69.57 %
3.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 26.09 %
0.75 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 11.7 IBU
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (10 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
2.00 items Lemon zest (fresh) (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
2.00 items Orange zest (fresh) (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) Yeast-Wheat

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.064 SG (1.044-1.052 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.010-1.014 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Color: 6.9 SRM (2.0-8.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 13.2 IBU (8.0-15.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 3.6 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 6.37 % (4.30-5.60 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 0.65 %
Actual Calories: 43 cal/pint


Mash Profile Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Mash Tun Weight: 0.00 lb
Mash Grain Weight: 11.50 lb Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 3.51 gal Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 14.38 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F 60 min


Mash Notes
Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2) Carbonation Volumes: 2.4 (2.5-2.9 vols)
Estimated Pressure: 21.6 PSI Kegging Temperature: 60.0 F
Pressure Used: - Age for: 1.0 Weeks
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

At what point does a "citrus weizen" become a Belgin Whit?

I've made about 20 gal using a hefeweizen extract kit, and added the zest of two lemons & two oranges, and 1-2 tsp of coriander and sage (each). It comes out about half-way between a Shock Top (draft) and a Blue Moon.

Any problem using US-05 yeast instead of Nottingham? I have some that I might as well use.

I brewed a version of this 2 days ago. I made a couple of mods. Used 2oz of liberty instead (2oz instead of one because it was only a partial boil) and added 1 lb of wheat DME in the last 15min. Used 5 lemons instead of 4 and SafAle US-05.

Bubbling right away and smells awesome.

CucuzzaBrew said:

I think that I am going to try a version of this recipe this weekend. Tell me what you think about the variation that I am going for.


.5# Flaked oats (steeped in grain bag for 45 min @ 150 degrees)
.5# Flaked wheat (steeped in grain bag for 45 min @ 150 degrees)
6# DME (Bavarian Wheat)
1# clover honey
1 oz Hallertau pellet hops (added at beginning of boil)
.5 oz Sterling pellet hops (added for last 10 minutes of boil)
Zest of 4 oranges and 4 lemons (added for last 20 minutes of boil)

Using German Wheat Wyeast W3333

Click to expand...

I'm trying CucuzzaBrew's variation, except I was thinking of using Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan yeast. Any thoughts on how that might turn out? I'd like to get the banana and clove flavors in there but I hear it's a very aggressive and potentially messy yeast.

Hello, I followed your recipe as my first brew in over 6 years. so far the blow off smells great. I will let you know how it turns out, it will be ready in two weeks. Thanks for posting the recipe.

I know this thread is a couple years old but I had a question... I have a very similar recipe:

6# wheat LME
1# crystal 10
1 oz hallertau
wb-06 yeast

I've never done a wheat beer but from what I understand the wb-06 will create a banana-ish flavor... Have you tried to do fruit with this type of recipe? My wife wants a cherry wheat but I am skeptical of how it will turn out...

kinda of a newbie so be patient. do you add all DME at the beginning of the boil, and do you leave the peals in through out primary. Also, do you switch to a secondary. If bottling, how much priming sugar

CucuzzaBrew said:

Primary for 2 weeks
Secondary for a little less than 2 weeks (bulk conditioning/laziness)

OG - 1.062
FG - 1.012
About 6.5% ABV before priming.

This beer smells amazing. I just bottled it yesterday, so I can't give you a report on the taste. I think it is going to be very tasty, but I'll let you know the results middle of March.

Click to expand...

Wonder how this turned out. I'll be brewing 2 different 5 gal batches in April, and this just might be 1 of them.:rockin:

Brewed a small batch (original recipe) recently - 1.5 weeks in bottles now, nicely carbed. Not bad at all, definitely just a hint of citrus, soft and sweet as per the OP. For my tastes just a little too sweet, but downed a glass no problem. My gravities were on target. Did a late addition (last 15 min) for half the dme.

Working up an AG version (5 gallons). Haven't put it in BeerSmith yet, but will before I brew.

I looked at the composition of the Wheat DME (Briess) to figure out a good conversion. They state it's 65/35 Wheat/Barley. Using that with a 1.26 multiplier to go from DME to grain, I came up with the numbers below. I also added some Carapils for addtional body / head. Finally, I'm thinking of going with White Wheat as that will likely result in even more of a wife pleaser beer.

(Note: I have some sort of internal defect that forces me to round numbers. Long ago I gave up fighting it. So the #'s that I calc'd were slightly different than those below)

• White Wheat - 5#
• Pale 2 Row - 2.5#
• Carapils - .5#
• Hallertauer 1 oz (60 min)
• 2 each Lemon & Orange Zest
• Wyeast 3068

Going with the Wyeast 3068 as I've got a Schneier Weiss on tap and want to use at least a 2nd generation yeast.

One question -- I've seen some folks in the thread go with a longer mash time (90-120 minutes). What's the rationale? The wheat malt? Would you get better results with a longer mash with wheat (similar to what you would get with a decoction mash)?