Fruit and Spice Beer Lemon Rosemary American Wheat Ale (2nd Best of Show)

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PattyC

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
121
Reaction score
32
Location
Greensboro
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
US-05
Yeast Starter
Rehydrated
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.043
Final Gravity
1.006
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
21
Color
3.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
67 for 21 days
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
None
Additional Fermentation
None
Tasting Notes
A refreshing summer beer.
This recipe was designed for a fun "wacky" ingredient contest for my homebrew club. I drew lemon and rosemary out of a hat, so my job was to design a beer using those ingredients. Since summer was just drawing near at the time, I thought a refreshing American Wheat would make a fine base recipe. It turned out so well that I decided to enter it into a contest in Ohio. It won second-place Best of Show, and it turns out that Gordon Strong was the lead BOS judge at that competition! The only negative feedback I received on it is that it did not have enough wheat character for me to qualify it using that base style. That said, I probably wouldn't change this recipe. But feel free to up the wheat by a pound or two if you like that character to be more distinguishable.

The Motueka hops have a lemony character already, so I used the zest of just one lemon at flameout. The rosemary sprigs were fresh from my garden. I threw in two whole sprigs, stems and all, at flameout. They were probably about 4 to 6 inches long. Rosemary is quite pungent, so go easy. You can always add some more before bottling, but I didn't need to. Carb to 2.5 or 2.7 vols. when packaging. Cheers!


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.25 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.75 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 3.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.5 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 5.3 %
4 lbs Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 42.1 %
4 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 42.1 %
1 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 4 10.5 %
0.60 oz Motueka [7.10 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 5 21.0 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.00 Items Lemon zest (Boil 0.0 mins) Flavor 7 -
2.00 Items Rosemary (Boil 0.0 mins) Herb 8 -
0.40 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: Patty's Batch Sparge 1
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash Step Add 13.23 qt of water at 170.5 F 152.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 5.18gal) of 170.0 F water
Notes:
------


Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com

Lemon-Rosemary.jpg
 
I am planning on doing an extract lemon wheat this weekend(Recipe Below). Does the zest of one lemon give it a strong lemon flavor? I was also thinking about adding halved lemons into it, would that work too? Ive never added fruit to a brew before

3.3 lbs Muntons Wheat LME
3 lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
1 oz Willamette Hop (60 min boil)
1 Packet of Yeast (Ale i think))
 
I did an extra pale ale that was lemon zest and rosemary. Everyone really likes it. I did a 10" sprig for a 10 gallon batch. It's light, but noticeable. Your wheat recipe looks quite tasty! As far as the lemon zest that HudMonser asked about, in my experience, one lemon zest will not be particularly noticeable. I'd think 2 per 5 gallons is my minimum. I always add it at 5 minutes and remove it before pitching though. Perhaps if you left it in longer it would be more noticeable.
 
HudMonser18 said:
I am planning on doing an extract lemon wheat this weekend(Recipe Below). Does the zest of one lemon give it a strong lemon flavor? I was also thinking about adding halved lemons into it, would that work too? Ive never added fruit to a brew before

3.3 lbs Muntons Wheat LME
3 lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
1 oz Willamette Hop (60 min boil)
1 Packet of Yeast (Ale i think))

Can't say for sure because the hops I used for my beer have a lemon-lime character already. I think it would be safe for you to use the zest of two lemons. I have never done a fruit beer either but imagine adding entire lemons might be a bit much. Plus by doing that you would also get additional unwanted bitterness, possibly harshness, since you would be including the pith of the lemons.
 
Rosemary works great in beer! I've always had good luck with it, but have yet to toss it into a wheat beer. Your recipe sounds awesome- ill definitely give it a go!
 
HudMonser18 said:
I am planning on doing an extract lemon wheat this weekend(Recipe Below). Does the zest of one lemon give it a strong lemon flavor? I was also thinking about adding halved lemons into it, would that work too? Ive never added fruit to a brew before

3.3 lbs Muntons Wheat LME
3 lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
1 oz Willamette Hop (60 min boil)
1 Packet of Yeast (Ale i think))

Adding the flesh of the lemon and especially the lemon juice will cut down on your head retention, this is caused by the acid in the fruit, 2 zested lemons should be good for 5 gallons.
 
Adding the flesh of the lemon and especially the lemon juice will cut down on your head retention, this is caused by the acid in the fruit, 2 zested lemons should be good for 5 gallons.

Definitely the first I've heard about a ph drop killing head retention (edit: POST mash). I think we have all had noticeably tart beers with fine head. If you'd said it was something enzymatic I might believe it, but even then, you could drop it in at the end of the boil.

Shouldn't be any reason you can't add lemon like any other fruit, in boil or in secondary--except taste, which is up to you. Don't think I'd add more than half a lemon per 5g to a wheat beer, myself, until I had an idea of what that would do to the flavor. Most of the aroma is in the zest, but the juice is def more than just sugar water and acid.

BTW, as a cook, I will say: don't eat pith on purpose, but it is generally just something bitter you don't want to grate into food because then it will be noticeable in small quantities. You can drop a zested lemon with the pith exposed into a boil or fermenter, it won't taint your beer. (Beer IS bitter!) Can also just cut the rest of the peel off at that point, though.
 
Bumping an old thread but I made an extract version of this last month to quickly fill the keg with a summer beer before some guests arrived. Actually first time doing extract since I was brave enough to jump into all grain from the start. Turned out great.

2 gallon batch
Yeast US-05

1.5# Wheat DME
0.5# Golden Light DME
0.25# Flaked Wheat
---------------------------------------------------
0.25 oz Motueka 60 min
0.15 oz Motueka 0 min
2 sprigs rosemary 0 min
Rind of 1 lemon 0 min

I steeped the flaked wheat as I heated up the water to a boil and pulled it out at about 165. I think I added a bit too much rosemary which contributed to the bitterness but didn't make it undrinkable. Overall well received and polished off very fast.
 

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