Summer lime ale

Working this one up. Would like some input.

This is a take-off of one that Revvy posted here.

Promash shows:
All grain 2.5 gal batch. 1.044 SG 23.4 IBU's

2# pale 2 row
1# wheat malt
.5# crystal 10L
.5# flaked corn
.25 oz cascade @60 mins 7.5%AA
.25 oz amarillo @ 15 mins 7.5%AA
Lime juice and zest in the boil, etc.
European ale yeast WLP011

Questions:
1. What grains should I change to make this as refreshing as possible? More wheat, less wheat, more corn?

2. Should I just use amarillo throughout? The aa's are the same, no flavor or aroma will come through @60 correct? Will the cascades add something in spite of that?

3. Late hop addition at 5 mins instead of 15? (IBU's change very little)

4. Use California ale or nottingham instead? Looking for clean, but not too dry finish. Lime I'll adjust to leave enough at the end to be refreshing (I hope).

I'm brewing this because Miller and Bud didn't know what they were doing

Thanks!

i like the sounds of this! im not near enough experienced to know what changes to make, but look forward to updates!

Consider just going with zest, and not juice, to get your lime flavor. There's a citrus weizen recipe on this forum that I've made a few times. It uses the zest of 4 lemons and 4 oranges, and has a really nice citrus flavor that melds well with the wheat beer without dominating it. So maybe 8 limes would give you a nice lime kick, added at 5 min or even flameout. I just worry that the juice will mess with the balance of the beer. You can always add juice to the glass when you drink it.
Also, the WLP011 will probably be fine, but Nottingham's great for this kind of beer. It'll leave it crisp, but without thinning it out. Wheat beers tend to have sufficient body anyway, by virtue of all that wheat, so I'd go with the Nottingham. You don't really want much obvious yeast character, and that yeast is dependable for that.

Lastly, I love this concept, and have been contemplating something like it. I'm moving this summer, so won't have any summer brews in my rotation this year, but will likely do something very much like this next year.

i might end up pushing this beer up in my schedule, looks like a fun one. What about the mashing details? Also which nottingham are you referring to? Beersmith is showing three labs that make one named nottingham:

danstar
white labs
lallemand

well.... I have a key lime tree, and there are only 2 limes on it at this point. But I also have a 1 cup frozen bag of juice, hence the recipe.

Mash will probably be - strike water at 166, mash at 154~ (for a cleaner beer), then sparge at 160 (or is it 170). This is my first AG.

Danstar Nottingham is what my LHBS has and I've used it. It should work well, I've never used the Euro ale yeast. But if Revvy recommends it, it should be worth a try.

Mainly I can use some help with the amount of wheat in this recipe. Not sure how much is too much for a refreshing ale. But I wanna use the wheat instead of cara-pils.

Bump still looking for some help, and wann brew this soon

Your sparge water is to raise grain bed temp to ~170 for better rinsing, so start hotter.
Add a bit of rice hulls for the wheat, so there is no stuck sparge.
Personally, I'd keep the wheat to one-half pound, for a 2.5 gal batch. But I don't know off hand how much is in Biermunchers 3creamcrop beer.

Wheat beers run about 50% wheat, so you don't have too much. The wheat has a nice sweetness to it that will be good here, but it doesn't make the beer too heavy. Consider mashing lower, at 152 or even 150 to make the wort more fermentable and your beer therefore crisper. I think that will help it be perceived as more refreshing.

+1 on rice hulls- wheat can be a pain to sparge, but rice hulls takes care of things.

Sparge at 170. I get better efficiency sparging higher.

elkdog said:

Wheat beers run about 50% wheat, so you don't have too much. The wheat has a nice sweetness to it that will be good here, but it doesn't make the beer too heavy. Consider mashing lower, at 152 or even 150 to make the wort more fermentable and your beer therefore crisper. I think that will help it be perceived as more refreshing.

+1 on rice hulls- wheat can be a pain to sparge, but rice hulls takes care of things.

Sparge at 170. I get better efficiency sparging higher.

Click to expand...

MIdfileder and Elkdog. Thanks guys. That actually answered a whole slew of questions I'd had

I just realized I should do an update to this.

I brewed this last year off the cuff and it wasn't too bad. I used a couple of young limes and it was a little too much sour lime taste for me, but some folks liked it anyways.

The young limes (sourness) are why i repeated with the same recipe when I brewed this again yesterday. I used 4 well ripened limes (for zest) and a cup of hand juiced lime juice this time. Going into the fermenter it seems promising. I may have to cut down the lime next time to dial it in. But we'll see what we get.

And lastly, I used European ale yeast 1338. Sounds kinda strange for this kind of beer, but it when I brewed it as a pale ale only, it turned out really well. I fermented at ~68 but do have some question as to where the best temp for that yeast is for a low grain bill.

Here's the recipe:

5 gallon AG
5# Pale 2row
2# wheat malt
1# crystal 10L
8oz flaked corn (I cut this in half, it dominated too much)
1 oz Cascade 5% @60 mins
1 oz Cascade 5% @5 mins
Zest of 4 key limes @ 5 mins
1 cup of key lime juice @ 5 mins
Wyeast 1338 European ale yeast (1/2 gal. starter)
Ferment ~68

Enjoy!