Watermelon Hefeweizen -- Feedback Please

Im going to brew a watermelon Hefe here soon as both a summer beer and a wedding gift. I have a short amount of time for this to condition (bottle) so I need to get it done like yesterday. Here is the recipe I am going to use:
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US
0.49 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.49 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
0.49 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min
1.0 pkg Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300)
4 lbs Fruit - Watermelon (0.0 SRM) (Added in after straining of trub before pitch)
2 lbs Fruit - Watermelon (0.0 SRM) (Added in at racking to secondary)

As I state in the recipe I am going to add in 4lbs of Watermelon Puree after I have strained the trub and right before I pitch the yeast, then in secondary add a bit more to make sure I get a watermelon flavor.

So Id like feedback on the recipe itself, and thoughts on the watermelon usage, is it too much? Too little? Since watermelon is mostly water I was thinking it would have to be more of it used to make sure to get the flavor of it in the beer.

Thanks for any/all feedback / questions provided!

The juice is where the flavor is, not the puree. I have a juicer which separates juice from puree so it would make this easy. Watermelon juice can be a little vegetal, so I like to doctor it up with raspberry or cherry or peach, plus lemon and maybe some sugar. I would probably put the juice in the bottling bucket, not in the primary or secondary. I would taste to see where I want it to be at that point, adding more if needed. Be careful with the amount of sugar you're using to properly carb the bottles.

Adding the fruit in the primary sounds like a dangerous idea - no alcohol to suppress growth of unwanteds added with the fruit - aroma will be carried away with the CO2. Why not add it all in secondary? or some in boil in others in secondary?

i feel like the breweries who make watermelon beers use fake flavoring that tastes like watermelon jolly ranchers. it's probably pretty difficult to get a real watermelon flavor into the beer since it's so mild. interested how it turns out however

I had thought about adding it into the boil and then to secondary as well. I dont want it to be a really strong watermelon flavor, but a subtle one, clean and crisp, not too sweet either which is why i dont have any other fermentables in the recipe other than the grains, could add in some raspberry puree too but that might make it too fruity though.

bwomp313 said:

i feel like the breweries who make watermelon beers use fake flavoring that tastes like watermelon jolly ranchers. it's probably pretty difficult to get a real watermelon flavor into the beer since it's so mild. interested how it turns out however

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I was talking to some one who had . hell or high water watermelon wheat .
And that was the first thing I asked was if it tasted like a holy rancher. And he said no... it was a real subtle taste....

Ill have to buy it and give it a try but im guessing they use real juice

bwomp313 said:

i feel like the breweries who make watermelon beers use fake flavoring that tastes like watermelon jolly ranchers. it's probably pretty difficult to get a real watermelon flavor into the beer since it's so mild. interested how it turns out however

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They do...and its what i want to stay away from as i think that more often than not it tends to lead to a chemically taste.

This may get you off track, but I've had beers that had a watermelon flavor without using any watermelon extract, flavor, or juice. You can get watermelon flavors from some hops. I remember having a esb that had some rye and willamette hops that gave a watermelon flavor that was very good. Anyway, just a thought.

slarkin712 said:

This may get you off track, but I've had beers that had a watermelon flavor without using any watermelon extract, flavor, or juice. You can get watermelon flavors from some hops. I remember having a esb that had some rye and willamette hops that gave a watermelon flavor that was very good. Anyway, just a thought.

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I do have some willamette i could use instead of one of the haller additions, maybe the last one?

So, is there no wheat in your wheat beer?

Try splitting base grains to 50/50 base and wheat or even 60/40

I just saw that you are using WL 300 yeast. This is a good yeast for an authentic german hefe, but may not be good in your case. The clove, banana, and other fruit flavors from this yeast can be quite strong and may overpower the watermelon flavor. Consider using an american wheat yeast or american ale yeast. These will give cleaner flavors, and are typical choices for wheat beers that include fruit additions.

turvis said:

Try splitting base grains to 50/50 base and wheat or even 60/40

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Think i am going to do 60/40, originally i had it as 6.6 lbs wheat extract, converted it to all grain...and forgot the wheat part lol...oops. Thanks for pointing that out.

Also thanks for the pointer about the yeast choice.

slarkin712 said:

I just saw that you are using WL 300 yeast. This is a good yeast for an authentic german hefe, but may not be good in your case. The clove, banana, and other fruit flavors from this yeast can be quite strong and may overpower the watermelon flavor. Consider using an american wheat yeast or american ale yeast. These will give cleaner flavors, and are typical choices for wheat beers that include fruit additions.

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So you were thinking something like the 320 instead of 300?

Here is the updated recipe, with my brain fart corrected (wheat malt included) Was thinking of possibly using white wheat, but have never used it before so dont know how that would alter the flavor?

7 lbs Wheat Malt
4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop
0.50 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min
1.0 pkg Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP320) [35.49 ml]
7 lbs 6.6 oz Fruit - Watermelon
Est ABV: 6.6%

Thoughts?

The WL320 may produce some banana and cloves, but less than 300. The thing about 320 is that your beer will stay cloudy with yeast, which many brewers like in a wheat beer. If you just want clean taste with no banana or clove, and don't care if the beer is very clear use american ale yeast.

As this is my first wheat beer, can someone tell me the difference between White Wheat and just What Malt?

Most of the wheat malt that you'll find is white wheat malt. There is also red wheat malt, but it doesn't give your beer a red color. I think it gives a little more color and a fuller flavor. And if something say "white wheat" or "red wheat", check out if it is malted or not. Raw wheat (i.e. not malted) can be very difficult to crush and doesn't have any diastatic power to convert its starches into sugar during the mashing process. Thus raw wheat must be accompanied by an adequate amount of base grain with enough diastatic power to convert itself and the raw wheat.

Brewed batch #1 of 2 today, used all the grains and hops in the last posted recipe. To get the watermelon in i cut up an entire watermelon, puree'd it, boiled it for 15 min and then chilled it. I had roughly 1 gal of puree so i brewed the beer and chilled it to 80, took the well chilled puree and dumped it in to cool it to below 70. OG came itln a bit low, i could have used more watermelon....it was at 1.048, assuming i can get it to 1.010 itll be a 5.1% beer, which will be perfectly fine as some if my wedding guests would be on their butts if i gave them anything higher!
Batch 2 tomorrow!

Well im not to sure how much flavor you will get.
I don't know if u should have boiled it. Did you taste the puree after? Did u loose all the flavor?
Also I think you should have waited until primary ferm. Was done to add the puree...

I am going to add in more puree when i rack to secondary (about 1/2 a watermelon). I didnt boil it long and only did so to use it as part of the chilling, given that it was 100 here yesterday it would have never got down to 70 without it. I tasted it before pitching and there was a hint of the flavor on the backend. Hoping that the puree in secondary will add to this. Im not looking for it to be a huge flavor, just subtle.

Damn.... Too late to help Draygon. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/watermelon-wheat-139086/

I would never add any fruit before secondary. And would definitely never boil the flavors away.

Well....good thing you are not me then huh?
1. The small boil i did boiled NOTHING away flavor wise.
2. Ill be adding watermelon to secondary as well for more flavor.

Draygon said:

Well....good thing you are not me then huh?
1. The small boil i did boiled NOTHING away flavor wise.
2. Ill be adding watermelon to secondary as well for more flavor.

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Just worried that by adding so much that you're just adding a lot of water, that's all.

I took that into consideration and boiled off enough so that with the addition of the puree I came up to the 5 gal level exactly.

Both batches are bubbling along nicely!

Let's us know how it is in a month or so...
We aren't bashing you just saying when you boils fruit it has to extract some flavor. So when you are saying you didn't add too much water did you strain it?

Racked this to secondary a day ago, looked lime a normal hefe, had a subtle watermelon flavor to it as an after taste. It was good. I racked it on top of another half of a watermelon pureed. ABV before the new addition was 5.6%, I am guessing that it will end roughly at 5.8% with a red tint to it.