American Wheat Beer

I ordered the kit from Northern Brewer and I'm planning on having my very first (beer) brew day tomorrow. I was wondering if there were any easy things I could do to make the brew a little more summery. I recently tried Leinenkugel's Summer Wheat beer and soon fell in love. I'm not looking for a clone by any means, but how can I easily incorporate an orangey, citrusy flavor into this beer.

Thanks.

Ferment it a bit and pitch it on the low side of the yeast's range (I did mine at 64), and give it extra time on the yeast cake to finish out. Do a rest in the 70's for a couple days before racking it, and it'll be a very light bodied clean tasting beer. Serve it with an orange slice. You're golden.

i don't really like Hefe's (traditionally) but my wife does so I made one for her. Damned if it turn out AWESOME.

I used the American Wheat 2 yeast from Wyeast, and it actually flocculated decently enough that I can see the outlines of my fingers throught the slightly cloudy beer. I'm sure if you give it plenty of time on the yeast cake whatever american wheat yeast you use will be just as good.

Somebody will probably show up to tell you that you don't need to do the diacetyl rest (the room temp rest I referred too) but I just wanted to share what worked for me ;-)

Adding the zest from a couple lemons and/or oranges late in the boil will give you that citrus, and make for an awesome summery wheat beer.

Adding fresh zest from a couple of oranges and/or a lemon is a good way to increase citrus in wheat beers, but don't go overboard (I have before and it's not good). Be sure not to cut into the white part (pith) of the fruit when cutting away the zest, as it is very bitter. Add late in the boil with 5 min left.

smokinj said:

Adding the zest from a couple lemons and/or oranges late in the boil will give you that citrus, and make for an awesome summery wheat beer.

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Ditto this. I added the zest of 5 large lemons with 10 minutes to go in the boil and it turned out great. Next time I'll swap some lemon for orange. Also you could consider adding a pound of honey.

smokinj said:

Adding the zest from a couple lemons and/or oranges late in the boil will give you that citrus, and make for an awesome summery wheat beer.

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Awesome, how much would you say? And for how long?

henrybeggs said:

Awesome, how much would you say? And for how long?

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If you want a fairly strong citrus flavor, I'd try about 3oz for 5 gallons. I recently made a Belgian Wit with about half of that, and the citrus is there but fairly reserved.

I don't have my notes with me, but I believe I used zest from 2 lemons and 2 oranges, all of average size, in my last batch and it was excellent. Just put them in with 5 minutes or so left in the boil.

I went ahead and brewed my beer today. It went well (except I burned the hell out of my fingers on the pot.) I went ahead added the zest of one lemon with about ten minutes left in the boil and followed this procedure.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/hom...es-how-to-home-brew-mild-mannered-ale#slide-2
I am excited to see how it turns out, I imagine the blood oranges will add some good color.