Hi all, I recently adquired a new fermenting bucket with tap and lock, which will allow for brewing bigger batches. Until now I just made small mead and beer batches (around 2.5 gal). Now I will be able to make 5 or 6 gal batches wohoo! The bad side is that I don't have enough bottles for such amount of beer... yet!
My plans are to make a nice refreshing wheat beer. I love German wheat beers like Paulaner, Franziskaner, etc especially the Dunkelweizen variety. I got my hands on a Brewferm Tarwebier kit, which is supposed to be used alongside sugar to brew a Belgian-style Wheat beer. The whole kit is designed to make 15 liters of beer (around 4 gals). The kit contains syrup made with barley and wheat, oat flakes, hops and spices, as well as the yeast packet.
I am still gathering information on how to modify this recipe to get a beer with a nice body and flavor. I will be not using any kind of sugar. I will sustitute sugar with Munton's Wheat DME (which I believe is 60% wheat/40% barley or something like that).
The kit is designed for 15 liters (4 gal) but I will be probably scaling that up to 5 gal, taking advantage of my new brewing bucket. The Brewferm Tarwebier kit will be used as the base and then I will add the Wheat DME to get a decent OG. This will leave a probably low-hopped brew, and because of me liking hops a lot, I will add more when brewing this up, but probably for bitterness only. I usually don't get much hop aroma when drinking wheats, so that's what I want to achieve.
Summarizing, I want to try brewing a wheat "international" beer (it'll be international because it will have Belgian LME, English Wheat DME and probably German hops ). I'm still undecided on which yeast to use out of the 2 options I have.
I am still tinkering around this recipe, but for now I decided on this:
(For a 5 Gallon batch)
Fermentables:
Hops:
Yeast:
With this recipe, the estimated OG would be around 1.050, on par with the original OG the kit advertises, and I will be getting a better body sustituting the sugar with DME (or so I think!). So, now with the questions
What do you think about the fermentables, are they compatible enough to make a decent wheat beer?
What about the hops, do you think it can be too much? These are low bittering hops, but the syrup comes already hopped. Maybe using 0.5 oz instead?
And the most intriguing question for me: which yeast strain would be the best option, the no-labeled yeast which came with the kit or the Safbrew S-33? These are my only two yeast options to make this beer, so I'm really trying to dig which one would fit better. I know that most wheat beers rely heavily on the yeast for the flavoring, maybe more than other beer styles. But unluckily I won't be able to get any other yeast for a while, so it has to be either the Brewferm or the Safbrew. I don't want to clone anything, but rather make a decent wheat beer. If this experiment is successful I will probably try brewing a Dunkel variety afterwards
OMG this post has already became BIG! Sorry for my verbosity, thanks in advance to anyone who wants to comment, criticize or suggest. I'm all ears!
Best regards and good weekend!
My plans are to make a nice refreshing wheat beer. I love German wheat beers like Paulaner, Franziskaner, etc especially the Dunkelweizen variety. I got my hands on a Brewferm Tarwebier kit, which is supposed to be used alongside sugar to brew a Belgian-style Wheat beer. The whole kit is designed to make 15 liters of beer (around 4 gals). The kit contains syrup made with barley and wheat, oat flakes, hops and spices, as well as the yeast packet.
I am still gathering information on how to modify this recipe to get a beer with a nice body and flavor. I will be not using any kind of sugar. I will sustitute sugar with Munton's Wheat DME (which I believe is 60% wheat/40% barley or something like that).
The kit is designed for 15 liters (4 gal) but I will be probably scaling that up to 5 gal, taking advantage of my new brewing bucket. The Brewferm Tarwebier kit will be used as the base and then I will add the Wheat DME to get a decent OG. This will leave a probably low-hopped brew, and because of me liking hops a lot, I will add more when brewing this up, but probably for bitterness only. I usually don't get much hop aroma when drinking wheats, so that's what I want to achieve.
Summarizing, I want to try brewing a wheat "international" beer (it'll be international because it will have Belgian LME, English Wheat DME and probably German hops ). I'm still undecided on which yeast to use out of the 2 options I have.
I am still tinkering around this recipe, but for now I decided on this:
(For a 5 Gallon batch)
Fermentables:
1 can of Brewferm Tarwebier extract (3.3 lbs), hopped and spiced
1 pkg Munton's Wheat DME (3 lbs) unhopped
1 pkg Munton's Wheat DME (3 lbs) unhopped
Hops:
1 oz of either Hallertau (3.5%AA) or Tettnang (4.9%AA)
Yeast:
The Brewferm yeast which comes with the kit? Comes unlabeled, so I don't really know if it's a wheat-dedicated yeast or not... no info on the strain...
OR
Fermentis Safbrew S-33. I have some packages, they will be soon be out of their best-before date, and the manufacturer claims it is valid for wheat beers.
OR
Fermentis Safbrew S-33. I have some packages, they will be soon be out of their best-before date, and the manufacturer claims it is valid for wheat beers.
With this recipe, the estimated OG would be around 1.050, on par with the original OG the kit advertises, and I will be getting a better body sustituting the sugar with DME (or so I think!). So, now with the questions
What do you think about the fermentables, are they compatible enough to make a decent wheat beer?
What about the hops, do you think it can be too much? These are low bittering hops, but the syrup comes already hopped. Maybe using 0.5 oz instead?
And the most intriguing question for me: which yeast strain would be the best option, the no-labeled yeast which came with the kit or the Safbrew S-33? These are my only two yeast options to make this beer, so I'm really trying to dig which one would fit better. I know that most wheat beers rely heavily on the yeast for the flavoring, maybe more than other beer styles. But unluckily I won't be able to get any other yeast for a while, so it has to be either the Brewferm or the Safbrew. I don't want to clone anything, but rather make a decent wheat beer. If this experiment is successful I will probably try brewing a Dunkel variety afterwards
OMG this post has already became BIG! Sorry for my verbosity, thanks in advance to anyone who wants to comment, criticize or suggest. I'm all ears!
Best regards and good weekend!