Fruit Beer watermelon wheat

Which yeast did you use? I am going to be brewing this around Wednesday when my sanitizer gets here. Any tips?

You could pitch some Bret in the secondary and make a Watermelon funk clone lke the 21st Amendment.

i used this yeast 1 Pkgs German Wheat Yeast (Safebrew wb-06) Yeast-Wheat and it came out great just slightly tart but lots of wheat beers have a tart flavor

OK, I finally have this going in my primary. I used the Wyeast American Wheat 1010, I'll let you know how it turns out.

im glad this recipe is getting good reviews. two of my friends made it and they thought it was great. i just thought about it but im not sure if watermelons are in season right now i dont know if you looked first or know. keep me posted on how it goes.

Well 3 weeks in bottles has passed (That makes 1.5 weeks Primary, 3 weeks secondary, and 3 weeks bottles total..)

That beer is pretty dang tart.. but very, very good.. I haven't given any away yet but I definitely will be, and ill let you know what people think. I will definitely warn them about the tart factor. Other than that its very tasty.. not something you chug but you definitely enjoy every last sip..

Good work. Ill let you know what my friends think.

this might be a good choice for yeast to wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier. it might do away with the tartness.

I racked the beer onto the watermelon juice last night. I will bottle next week and let you know how it turns out.

jhollender said:

I racked the beer onto the watermelon juice last night. I will bottle next week and let you know how it turns out.

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Let me know how it turns out. This recipe looks interesting and I might try it some day. Watermelons are refreshing and not tarty.

the only thing that i think is making them tarty is the yeast being used. like i mentioned above im gonna try a belgian wit yeast next.

watermellon juice? i plan on making this recipe for a christmas present for my family how can i get watermellon juice?

it wont be ready for this christmas but if you can find a watermelon you need to squeeze the meat of the melon to get the juice out of it.

This sounds interesting, I may try it sometime!

I'm currently waiting on a brew to finish primary (a freak wheat where i put in way too much malt, 9lbs not including the 1lb honey actually with no Irish moss). Once that is finished this will be a strong candidate for what comes next!

Only thing is I am only as far as extract and have not steeped grains before, I'm curious to do so though!

I found a watermelon extract from a candy company and added it to the keg. Aroma is awesome but the flavor is lacking. Try giving 21st Amendment a call and ask what they use.

SkylerChaBro said:

This sounds interesting, I may try it sometime!

I'm currently waiting on a brew to finish primary (a freak wheat where i put in way too much malt, 9lbs not including the 1lb honey actually with no Irish moss). Once that is finished this will be a strong candidate for what comes next!

Only thing is I am only as far as extract and have not steeped grains before, I'm curious to do so though!

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steeping grains is very easy. get all of the grains crushed and put them into a muslin bag. put them into 2 or 3 gallons of water (depending on how big of pot you have) get the heat up to 155 deg and hold for 30 min to 1 hour. remove the grains and rinse them with 1 gallon of 170 deg water and your back to regular extract brewing after that.

My current brew is still going (it's over 2 weeks now!) but I should be coming up to racking into secondary over strawberries in one more week.

I may tweak it a bit and I'll let you know what I do. I'm also thinking about using WLP 320 and seeing how that turns out. Wyeast 3944 seems like it may still be tart unless I'm missing something.

I'm using WB-06 currently and I'm surprised it's still surviving, last I checked gravity was around 1.03, down from 1.07-1.08).

im not sure if wyeast 3944 would be tart or not. i havnt had a belgin wit that was tart ever. wlp320 would also be a good choice. let me know

Does anyone have any feedback on the other yeast alternatives? I am going to try this out and wanted to see what yeast I should go with...

jhollender used the american wheat yeast and said it wasnt to tart.

I am interested in making a Watermelon beer. Has anyone tried making a Watermelon Pale ale? I see that everyone is talking about a Watermelon Wheat. I had a Watermelon Ale in the past and it was good. I am wondering which would be better

pale ale might be interesting. i like the wheat my self but might try the pale ale with it.

Ben - I ended up brewing your version of the Watermelon Wheat. Although I used 6lbs of LME and I used American Hefen yeast

Until they come up with a hop that smells like watermelon, I think a pale ale would make the watermelon useless. Also, too much bitter would kill the nice faint, sweet, watermelon aspect, IMHO.

absolutbmc said:

Ben - I ended up brewing your version of the Watermelon Wheat. Although I used 6lbs of LME and I used American Hefen yeast

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awesome man let me know how the american hefe yeast works out for you. what brand of yeast was it.

I used WLP320. I checked the fermenatation process this morning. The airlock is still bubbling every 15-20 seconds (about a 1.5 weeks into it). Hopefully I will be able to rack to secondary this weekend. I do have a quick question, I took a sample of the beer and it tasted good but I noticed it was more white than a golden color. Did you expirence the same?

when i brew them they are more of a nice orange color. im not sure about the white color your talking about. wait until is done and see what it looks like in a glass completly full.

Just wanted to give an update on this brew. It is coming along nicely. It is a nice orange color. I racked it to secondary on Sunday. Any suggestions on how long I should leave it in the secondary?

add the watermelon juice and let the fermentation come to a end and you should be ready to bottle.

How much aromatic malt etc should I add for an AG option.

Just brewed this Ag today but my crush was horrid, alout half of my grain was completely uncrushed so I only got like 60% efficiency. I knew I shoulda asked my LHBS to recrush.

I also used Red Wheat this is going to have a nice red color. American Wheat yeast was used as well. My OG (with honey was 1.044) and I mashed at 153 so I have a feeling I might need some maltodextrin to help this beer out.

This was supposed to be a beer for a special occasion so I hope it turns out ok. It's will taste good, just might be a little watery.

153 isnt that low of a mash temp. i would take a taste of it when your racking it to secondary and see how full it tastes before adding anything to it. wheat beers can be thin to medium so it should be fine. as for the special grain it stays the same all grain or extract.

Thanks yeah, I know the 153 is not really low but coupled with the low gravity and the pound of honey I was a tad worried.

First sparge tasted god awful but it was better after boil, im sure it will come out nice. I just learned wheat beer are not supposed to age much at all (2 weeks or so) this was supposed to be a beer for the end of May but it gives me time to secondary and bottle this one to start drinking mid-may and I can make another one next week and have it ready as well.

GunnerMan said:

Thanks yeah, I know the 153 is not really low but coupled with the low gravity and the pound of honey I was a tad worried.

First sparge tasted god awful but it was better after boil, im sure it will come out nice. I just learned wheat beer are not supposed to age much at all (2 weeks or so) this was supposed to be a beer for the end of May but it gives me time to secondary and bottle this one to start drinking mid-may and I can make another one next week and have it ready as well.

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no worries it will be fine to drink in may. i know wheat beers are suposed to be drank early but it will age for a month with no problem.

I wanted to give an update on my Watermelon wheat. It has been in the bottles for a week and a half now. I could not resist and opened a bottle on Sunday (1 week after bottling). Man was it good. I got the slight hint of Watermelon, nice head, and a great color. The one thing I noticed, as did many people who made this beer, it was a bit too tart. I used American Hefe for the yeast. I am going to let it sit for another week before cracking another baby open. I wonder if the tartness will go away in that time span???

i made 10 gallons of this recently and i used 2 types of yeast first one wasy wyeast 3056 bavarin wheat blend and wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen. i will let you know which one turns out better and see if they have any tartness. i think its the yeasts that are adding the tartness to the beer because i have bottled some before i add the juice and they are just as tart. i took some info from wyeast page and this also makes me think its the yeast. here is the yeast discriptions.

1010 American Wheat

A dry fermenting, true top cropping yeast which produces a dry, slightly tart, crisp beer. Ideal for beers where a low ester profile is desirable.

3333 German Wheat

Subtle flavor profile for wheat yeast with unique sharp tart crispness, fruity, sherry-like palate.

i think that wyeast 1007, 3056, 3068, 3463, 3638 would be good choices to use for future brewers.

Just tasted mine as I racked it to secondary on the juice. Def tasted the tartness, it was a bit dry as well, fermenting out at 1.011, but it my be because my efficiency was so poor. It tasted good but it had a hint of DMS, which is weird, I used darker wheat and Rahr 2 row :/ It smells absolutely horrible, I stuck my nose in the fermenter and almost gaged. Hope that smell ages out in the next 3 -4 weeks. I think I am going to add a small bit of gelatin to this, I think it will look really nice if it is a bit clearer.

im not sure about the smell never had one like that. update on the yeast. the 3068 has a better taste than the bavarin blend and the watermelon flavor isnt overpowered either and their is not tartness what so ever. i also added a new twist to things by carbonating some of the 22oz bottles with watermelon jolly ranchers and the rest with priming sugar. holly hell the ones with the jolly ranchers are bad ass the flavor is great and it adds some more aroma. i will definatly be sending some of these out for contest in the near future.

I just cracked one of these open. I think the watermelon is a bit overpowering(I was stupid) and did not scale my watermelon to my effeciency. When I seocndaried my juice it fermented so vigourously it blew the top right off my airlock. So I got a way higher watermelon concentration than normal and it is a bit to tart. I thought I would prefer the tartness but not so. Maybe I would if my effienciency was better and there was more malt charachter to balance out the watermellon.

The hint of watermelon on the nose quickly overpowers the rest of the beer and leaves a very tart flavor in my mouth that is hard to describe. Think of a Budlight with some sugarless watermelon juice added? The wheat body that does come through does taste like a good wheat beer with some nice clean flavor. I might try this one again with a better efficiency and see what happens.

SO....I felt like giving this one a try, but twisted it a bit.

Tsunami-melon Ale

-9.6 lbs Gold LME
-2 lbs sugar
-1 lb carapils
-10 oz german pilsen
-6 oz Belgium aromatic
-.75 oz yakima magnum (14.4%) @ 60mins
-wyeast 3068 Activator Pack

-4 cups watermelon juice in secondary
-Dry Hop 1 oz Cascade
-Dry Hop 1 oz German Hallertauer

SG: 1.120

FG: We will see

Of course, I just brewed today, so Im gonna let it sit at about 68F for at least 1 week, though I think it will be more because it is sooooo big. And then I will let everyone know how it turns out. But I have high hopes...
cheers

ben the brewman said:

...i also added a new twist to things by carbonating some of the 22oz bottles with watermelon jolly ranchers and the rest with priming sugar. holly hell the ones with the jolly ranchers are bad ass the flavor is great and it adds some more aroma. i will definatly be sending some of these out for contest in the near future.

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What an awesome idea! I would imagine that this would produce one helluva watermelon aroma, and yet at the same time, it would have the potential to tart up the brew, too. Which yeast did you use for the bottles that you carbed with the Jolly Ranchers?