need help w/ swmbo

OK so my first batch was a pale ale. It turned out great and I like it so much I've just about drank it all.
My wifes tried it and didn't like it. well she lied at first and said she did, but after her buying an 18 pack of coors light and me having over a case of my ale. I had to probe... She said it was ok, but doesn't like the bitterness and it's really not too bitter, just enough i'd like it a little more but anyway..to the point of my rambling.

I have 2 months left in this house and want to get a brew going and ready for transport by mid to late June(before the 20th) that she'll like.. So it looks like no lagers.
So I'm wanting to make something she'll enjoy to get on board a bit more. i don't have anything against coors light (drank it for years) but would rather brew and share/enjoy with the misses ya know.
I've considered simply leaving the bittering hops out and going with a double amount of aromatic hops which will give me (to my understanding) very little bitterness but more smell.
So far I'm leaning towards a Honey comb weizen kit recipe. But honestly don't know the difference between a weizen and a ale.. I know I should but just don't

So are there any suggestions on something the wife will like took alot of typing to ask a simple question. sorry.

Many women enjoy the fruity, spicey character of wheats or wits.

Stay away from weizens if your not familiar.

Like GMB said, a nice wit beer is great in the spring and ready to drink within 4-6 weeks of brewing (if you're bottling).

I kinda thought a weizen was a wheat beer? I really need to finish reading my book. LOL

Is there any good recipes you can suggest to look up.

so whats the difference in a whit and a weizen? the recipe for the honey comb weizen was all grain stuff.
The kit contains: 6 lbs Wheat malt extract, 2 lbs of Minnesota clover honey, 1 oz. Saaz bittering hops, 1 oz. Saaz aroma hops, 1/2 Carapils, yeast and priming sugar.
I was going to just leave out the bittering hops or ask to sub the 1oz bittering w/ 2oz of aroma hops?

Buy 2 cases of Coors Light in the bottle. Clean the labels off and recap.

Then make a beer that you like.

coy said:

I kinda thought a weizen was a wheat beer? I really need to finish reading my book. LOL

Is there any good recipes you can suggest to look up.

so whats the difference in a whit and a weizen? the recipe for the honey comb weizen was all grain stuff.
The kit contains: 6 lbs Wheat malt extract, 2 lbs of Minnesota clover honey, 1 oz. Saaz bittering hops, 1 oz. Saaz aroma hops, 1/2 Carapils, yeast and priming sugar.
I was going to just leave out the bittering hops or ask to sub the 1oz bittering w/ 2oz of aroma hops?

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Make her Apfelwein.......or if she is a coors light person I have a light beer recipe in my recipe drop down called "WOW, now that's a light beer". My brother in law is a life time coors light drinker and he loves this stuff I made it for him. It's easy. Ready in 4 weeks after bottling easy.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/wow-now-thats-light-beer-167718/

The difference between the wit and the weizen is, in general, the yeast, although wits may often use adjuncts where weizens rarely do, etc etc. But the yeast is a biggy.

If you're brewing a wit/weizen kit, don't mess with the hops, just brew it as is. Hop bitterness is low in those styles. In some cases, the IBUs are right around the threshold of perception. If swmbo's objection was bitterness in the pale, one ounce of czech saaz won't be a problem at all.

coy said:

I kinda thought a weizen was a wheat beer? I really need to finish reading my book. LOL

Is there any good recipes you can suggest to look up.

so whats the difference in a whit and a weizen? the recipe for the honey comb weizen was all grain stuff.
The kit contains: 6 lbs Wheat malt extract, 2 lbs of Minnesota clover honey, 1 oz. Saaz bittering hops, 1 oz. Saaz aroma hops, 1/2 Carapils, yeast and priming sugar.
I was going to just leave out the bittering hops or ask to sub the 1oz bittering w/ 2oz of aroma hops?

Click to expand...

Weizen usually refers to Hefeweizen. They have a unique usually Banana clove character from the yeast. There are a few good German examples to try like Erdinger, Franziskaner and Weihenstephan. Hefeweizen tend to be the most well received by avg beer drinkers than any other styles I brew.

A Wit is a wheat beer that has citrus like flavor from coriander. A couple commercial examples are Blue Moon or Hoegarden.

A wheat beer is what I consider American wheat. They are slightly tart and refreshing but lack the yeast character found in German wheat

Without bittering hops the beer will be way too sweet. Saaz is usually low alpha acid and won't be too bitter. The wheat styles tend to be low IBU.

Hi Coy. Are you brewing extract?

my girlfriend doesn't like the real bitter beers, but that doesn't necessarily mean she'll like the not so bitter beers either.
I wouldn't worry about finding something to brew for her in the next two months, but spend that time buying different commercial beers that you think she might like and forcer her to try them.

my girlfriend has grown a fondness for Bell's Oberon - but up until then, she has told me she doesn't like wheat beers

Sounds to me she is just not used to the taste of good beer yet (I mean micro or homebrew). I would start with something light and not very better like a cream ale. These are very good but very mild. Light in color and a good lawnmower beer.

Thank you all.
brewagentjay I'll have to try that one. sounds like it's right up her alley.

rundown house/clonefarmer - thank you for explaining the differences. greatly appreciated.

pappers - I don't think so but i've considered adding some sort of fruit extract/flavoring to weizen recipe. not sure if it's the same thing but was going to add a couple pounds of strawberries to one soon, but since I'll be moving soon I've decided against it.

ranger-I've been getting samples at a local beer store that sells nothing but micro brew or specialty beers. I'm only about half way through the first cooler. My plan is to taste each one starting from my left and working my way to my right.

When I first started drinking, I thought Bud was decent stuff. I tried a few better beers, most of which I thought were horrible. I didn't have the palate, or the understanding of what beer could be, to appreciate it. Over time, I delved into better beer and developed a larger appreciation for beer. I remember the beers easiest to move into were lighter colored beers (pilsners, blonde ales, ambers, belgian bolndes, etc.) so you may want to try brewing something you like in those types and see if she gains a greater appreciation.

Yeah everytime I open one up I make her take a drink.

I told her to just drink 6 or 8 of the coors light and finish off with some of my home brew.. you'll start to like it or not notice cause your drunk. LMAO..

To be honest, over time, my wife has really started to appreciate the flavor of microbrew.

At first, I got the same thing. "That's too bitter. It doesn't taste anything like beer I would drink."

One of the best things I did was have her take a sip every time I cracked one of my beers open. She also helps me bottle and rack, so she has started to feel a little ownership of the brew, too. I think that has started to make her appreciate brewing and home brew more. She even made me pour her a small glass of the uncarbed Honey Blonde Ale we were bottling last time.

It's actually pretty fun to see her slowly coming around.

I vote for either any of the light hybrids (not kolsch, hard to get right and you have to be a geek to appreciate it anyway) or maybe an english brown.

BTW, depending on how clean you can brew a beer, a lager by mid June is not out of the question. I got 1st and 2nd in category 1 in the NHC first round with a* 6 week old (when judged) lager. I'll rebrew it for the second round which is judged mid June.

* yes a beer, I brew 1C and then cut it with carbonated water to make 1B and 1A, yell at me in the blending thread but while I like to brew these sometimes I never need 15 gallons of it.

my wife hates BMC beers.

my wife hates (most) hoppy beers. my wife hates lighter, low-hopped beers (my 29 IBU ESB, scotch ales, etc)

my wife hates guinness.

she loved my robust porter. loved it. and southern tier's barleywine. bigfoot was "pretty good". moose drool was drinkable.

I second...or third...or whatever, the motion of brewing either an American or German Hefe, or a Belgian style Wit. It's a very smooth beer and it's easy to control the off flavors to your liking. Brew at a lower temperature with a decent starter and yeast energizer & nutrients if you want to reduce the "hefe flavor", or run it at a higher temp (70's) without nutrients and energizer and a smaller starter. Others could have their own opinions...this is just mine. A wit is similar, and control the spice by reducing or increasing the coriander as well as how fine it is crushed.

Most people I've met who haven't tried many beers, take well to wheat variety.

my wife loves Edwort's Bee Cave Hefeweizen. Also, as she is a coors light drinker, the recipe from Complete Joy of Homebrewing "St Louis Golden Lager" was a big hit.
The more she drinks the homebrew, the more she likes it....its a good thing when shes asking "when is your kegerator going to be finished??"!!

There is a recipe on this site called SWMBO Slayer. Belgian-style blonde. Very clean and drinkable. Might want to try that one as it's also a perfect summer brew.

coy said:

Thank you all.
brewagentjay I'll have to try that one. sounds like it's right up her alley.

rundown house/clonefarmer - thank you for explaining the differences. greatly appreciated.

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I had one the other day and it's dang close to the b/c light beers not m cause no after taste like m. Nice cold lawn mowering beer. Nice part is since it was hopped dry extract brew time was 15 to 20 minutes.

d struct, i do the same thing. when i crack a beer, the gf has to take atleast a drink.
most the time she makes a face like a skunk just sprayed her straight in the mouth, but sometimes the lights go off and she enjoys it.
kolsch is one that she does like. old speckled hen she'll have one or two of, but then again, one or two of anything is about her limit.
it seems that little by little she's coming around to appreciate them all for what they are, and little by little she's getting a taste for hops and big beers...but very slowly

D_Struct said:

To be honest, over time, my wife has really started to appreciate the flavor of microbrew.

At first, I got the same thing. "That's too bitter. It doesn't taste anything like beer I would drink."

One of the best things I did was have her take a sip every time I cracked one of my beers open. She also helps me bottle and rack, so she has started to feel a little ownership of the brew, too. I think that has started to make her appreciate brewing and home brew more. She even made me pour her a small glass of the uncarbed Honey Blonde Ale we were bottling last time.

It's actually pretty fun to see her slowly coming around.

Click to expand...

My SWMBO isn't much of a beer drinker, but is in all aspects my brew partner -- she helps rack, bottle, brew, and keeps the logs and works out the maths on the formulas (she's a math geek *grins*). She is a trained baker by trade, and by love... it's her passion. Homebrewing tweaks the same part of her brain as baking does -- the minutiae of the details, the precision of the recipes that allow you to faithfully and consistently reproduce an end product and allow you to tweak it to produce something new, and the ritual that a personally developed brew process evolves into. To be honest, that all tweaks my brain too, as I am a baker too, albeit not formally trained. *grins*

And while not being one to pop the top off a bottle of beer on a regular basis, she will, without fail, sample the beer at every stage of its creation. She's refining her palette, learning the flavor profiles, and figuring out what changes are taking place in the beer... from shopping to popping. She's is, in this process, gaining an appreciation for beer, and is actually learning to enjoy it -- slowly.

She'll also try any new beer that I try. Had a barleywine recently that I thought would blow the top of her head off, and she actually really enjoyed the complexity of it.

Go figure.

Mine loves beer and helps also. She usually goes for a red of honey brown but I see her pallet changing more and more and she is actually starting to like APA's and IPA's.

cream ale

7.5 pounds pilsen
1/2 pound flaked rice
1/2 pound flaked corn
1/2 pound caramel 10
.75 oz willamete at 60
.50 oz willamete at 1

ferement with nottingham ale yeast at 60 degrees for 3 weeks, bottle, let it carb for a week then lager the bottles for at least two weeks before drinking.
OG = 1.045-1.050 FG< 1.010

This is super drinkable stuff for the BMC croud



My SWMBO likes this one.

5 pounds red wheat
5 pounds pilsen
rind of 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 grapefruit and 1 orange added to boil at 5 minutes
1 tbsp course crushed corriander added after primary fermentation is completed for aroma
ferment with nottingham at 60 degrees for 3 weeks and follow same carbonation and aging protocol as cream ale

Mine SWMBO does not like most beers but is always happy to help come time to bottle.

There is a recipe in here somewhere named Citrus Weizen I think (Yup found it https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/citrus-weizen-34404/)

I made this and only got one bottle...the rest my Ex, Ex-InLaws, My mother and my grandmother all drank the summer I had them ready....and they will all say to this day they don't like beer (Well my Ex-MiL might say other things if my name came up...but that's besides the point)

I barely remember the taste though...

My wife doesn't like the hops either, but she does like an amber or a red. She'll chose Fat Tire in a bar sometimes over her usual white wine, and likes Killian's Irish Red. Something big on malt, slightly sweet, and barely balanced by the hops. Jamil's American Amber from brewing classic styles might hit the spot.

Wow thanks everyone. It's nice to know I'm not a lone
Looks like I have a nice list of future brews.
I'll start w/ brewagenjays recipe then move on the th SWMBO Slayer LMAO..
over time I'll add a little more bittering hops to get her palet use to it, at which time I'll start brewing stuff I want, since I'm not a selfish person. lol

Brew a blonde or cream ale.

AHS has a Sunset Wheat Kit that she would probably like. Has a citrus-ey aroma and flavor.

I'd not worry about brewing her something before moving. I'd recommend trying various styles from the store and see what she likes and THEN brew it. In the meantime there are countless styles that you can brew for YOU.

permo said:

cream ale

7.5 pounds pilsen
1/2 pound flaked rice
1/2 pound flaked corn
1/2 pound caramel 10
.75 oz willamete at 60
.50 oz willamete at 1

ferement with nottingham ale yeast at 60 degrees for 3 weeks, bottle, let it carb for a week then lager the bottles for at least two weeks before drinking.
OG = 1.045-1.050 FG< 1.010

This is super drinkable stuff for the BMC croud



My SWMBO likes this one.

5 pounds red wheat
5 pounds pilsen
rind of 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 grapefruit and 1 orange added to boil at 5 minutes
1 tbsp course crushed corriander added after primary fermentation is completed for aroma
ferment with nottingham at 60 degrees for 3 weeks and follow same carbonation and aging protocol as cream ale

Click to expand...

I wonder what would happen on the cream if I substituted 2 row for the pilsen.

You actually do have enough time for a lager, but if you gotta go ale, I say go for something really clean like a blonde ale or really malty like an english brown. Also, it seems counterintuitive, but a nice oatmeal or sweet stout goes a long way with the ladies (especially if they like chocolate).