Fruit Beer Lemon-Lime Hefe Weizen

Sounds good will try it

I'm pasteurizing my limes to juice and zest right now. Do they normally change color like this?

jamursch said:

I'm pasteurizing my limes to juice and zest right now. Do they normally change color like this?

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Your sucking the life out of them Id say yes. Maybe sucking chloroform out? Idk

no need to pasteurize the limes as the zest will go into the boil. IF you're adding it after the boil/fermentation, then a soak in a little vodka will kill any bugs.

I see hefes, I see American yeasts, and some others. Saw a version by OCBrewin that looked interesting trying the Wit route. Anyone do that type of recipe with a WLP400 or comparable?

jamursch said:

I'm pasteurizing my limes to juice and zest right now. Do they normally change color like this?

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You can't use these for zest...by boiling them you have extracted most of the usable flavor. When I zest a lime, I scrub them in the sink to remove excess dirt...as Mystic stated...the boiling process of your wort will kill any bacteria...so scrub in the sink and use a whatever method you choose to remove the green portion of the lime skin, leaving behind the white portion of the skin (undesirable flavor).
Now if you were going to make your own limeade, you would wash the limes, juice them add a cup of water and bring to a quick boil, mix in your sugar and then add the rest of your water(cold) to get to the proper portion (add more sugar if necessary).

Crap. I must have had a brain fart in thinking I was supposed to boil limes. Ugh. I guess you live and you learn and sometimes lose your common sense.

At least it didn't go in the beer, only a sanitized jar so I only wasted my time and a dozen limes.

After adding my lemonade I was at 1.025. An hour later I had to change my airlock to a blowoff tube because it was so violent. It went strong for 2.5 days and now i have zero visible airlock movement. I'll check gravity on Saturday but my guess is it's pretty dry.

speedster00 said:

After adding my lemonade I was at 1.025. An hour later I had to change my airlock to a blowoff tube because it was so violent. It went strong for 2.5 days and now i have zero visible airlock movement. I'll check gravity on Saturday but my guess is it's pretty dry.

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Yeast are funny/unique things that kind of do what they want....in creating this recipe and my blood orange hefeweizen, I got several explosions, but to my amazement they all turned out great! So I'm sure you are still in the process of making great beer and just relax, they should start slowly working again!

I have all my ingridents ready to go to brew this up tomorrow.....My yeast starter is about ready....looking forward to this one

How's this sound for schedule:

-Bring 5.5 Gal to Boil
-Remove from heat: Add 124.6 oz Wheat Liquid Extract & 8.56 oz DME Pale
-Return to Boil
-Add 1/4oz Motueka [start 60min timer]
-Add 1/4oz Sorachi & 1/4oz Motueka @ 20min remaning
-Add chiller @ 10min remaining
-Add 1/4oz Sorachi @ 7min remaining
-Add lime zest @ 5min remaining
-Chill to <75degrees
-Transfer to carboy
-Pitch yeast
-Add 1.75L Simply 3 days after ferm. start.

Sounds resonable

atimmerman88 said:

How's this sound for schedule:

-Bring 5.5 Gal to Boil
-Remove from heat: Add 124.6 oz Wheat Liquid Extract & 8.56 oz DME Pale
-Return to Boil
-Add 1/4oz Motueka [start 60min timer]
-Add 1/4oz Sorachi & 1/4oz Motueka @ 20min remaning
-Add chiller @ 10min remaining
-Add 1/4oz Sorachi @ 7min remaining
-Add lime zest @ 5min remaining
-Chill to <75degrees
-Transfer to carboy
-Pitch yeast
-Add 1.75L Simply 3 days after ferm. start.

Sounds resonable

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don't forget to compensate for the amount you'll boil off during an hour.

My 1st brew a few weeks back started @ 5gal and ended right at 4.5gal, I'm thinking I'll be similar this time as well.

Looking back at the recipe, I should be shooting for a final volume of 5.5 gal w/ the approx addition of .5gal of limeade bringing it up to 6?

Boil size should then be 6 gal.

atimmerman88 said:

My 1st brew a few weeks back started @ 5gal and ended right at 4.5gal, I'm thinking I'll be similar this time as well.

Looking back at the recipe, I should be shooting for a final volume of 5.5 gal w/ the approx addition of .5gal of limeade bringing it up to 6?

Boil size should then be 6 gal.

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one thing that you'll learn as you progress in brewing... weather can cause you to boil off more or less. how strong your boil is can cause you to boil off more or less. I know for me that I boil off about 1.25-1.5 gallons per hours. your equipment and rate of boil can and will differ. For me, I start with a little over 6.75 gallons to hit a 5.5 gallon target size. there are some that boil off even more than me..

After one week in the bottle, I poured my first glass of the LL Hefe on Friday. It still needs another week or two to fully carbonate, but this beer can absolutely be enjoyed right now. I get a ton of lemon-lime flavor in this hefe. I can't wait until a really hot day so I can chill this down and guzzle it down.

Cheers, Slim! Thanks for the great recipe.

(PS: I'll probably be having glass No. 2 here shortly. I'll post a pic.)

RCBIV said:

After one week in the bottle, I poured my first glass of the LL Hefe on Friday. It still needs another week or two to fully carbonate, but this beer can absolutely be enjoyed right now. I get a ton of lemon-lime flavor in this hefe. I can't wait until a really hot day so I can chill this down and guzzle it down.

Cheers, Slim! Thanks for the great recipe.

(PS: I'll probably be having glass No. 2 here shortly. I'll post a pic.)

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Glad you liked it...drink one for me!

Brewed this on 4/14 without zest in the boil. Sample tonight showed no signs of lemon lime at all? I'll do some fresh lime juice in the priming solution when I bottle and hope for the best.

jamursch said:

Brewed this on 4/14 without zest in the boil. Sample tonight showed no signs of lemon lime at all? I'll do some fresh lime juice in the priming solution when I bottle and hope for the best.

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Jamursch, that sounds like a bad break....it must have been a result of your hops, because good Sorachi and Moteka will pack a lemon lime punch...so my only guess is that your hops were bad, you somehow missed the hops schedule or your fermentation wasn't controlled and it over shadowed the flavors of the hops. The good news is that you made beer, not the flavor profile you wanted but still beer!

SD-SLIM said:

The good news is that you made beer, not the flavor profile you wanted but still beer!

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This. Use a lime garnish and enjoy

Terrible pic. For some reason the top of the glass was cropped off, but you get the idea. A nice light color and it is LOADED with lemon-lime flavor. I don't know why people aren't getting that kick, but I sure am.

I drank a glass Friday and another Sunday. That was just one week in the bottle and it was COMPLETELY drinkable. Curious what it will be like in another week.

RCBIV said:

Terrible pic. For some reason the top of the glass was cropped off, but you get the idea. A nice light color and it is LOADED with lemon-lime flavor. I don't know why people aren't getting that kick, but I sure am.

I drank a glass Friday and another Sunday. That was just one week in the bottle and it was COMPLETELY drinkable. Curious what it will be like in another week.

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That's a good looking glass of beer! Most hefeweizen's are generally carbed pretty low, so some people bottle and drink around 10 days....I personally keg them and carb them up just like any other beer.

Beer looks great. I'll be brewing a double batch for a wedding and I think I'll do the second with grapefruit. Wedding isn't for many months but I'll come back with comments.
Cheers!

@comments on air/co2: co2 is heavier than air so removing the lid doesn't necessarily remove the blanket of co2 over the beer. Just be mindful of your practices and it'll work.

chenwood said:

Beer looks great. I'll be brewing a double batch for a wedding and I think I'll do the second with grapefruit. Wedding isn't for many months but I'll come back with comments.
Cheers!

@comments on air/co2: co2 is heavier than air so removing the lid doesn't necessarily remove the blanket of co2 over the beer. Just be mindful of your practices and it'll work.

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The grapefruit is my favorite. It still has a good lime punch and finishes with a little bitterness from the grapefruit.

Skagdog said:

The grapefruit is my favorite. It still has a good lime punch and finishes with a little bitterness from the grapefruit.

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Yeah grapefruit is great, but lately I have been enjoying the raspberry lemonade in mine....while I think the limeade is still the best, I go back and forth between grapefruit and raspberry lemonade as my second favorite.

I drank another bottle of this last night, about two weeks in the bottle. It was almost a completely different beer. The flavors melded together so well and the lemon-lime flavor was perfect. It also seemed that the "yeastiness" of the beer settled out a tad.

I drank it so quickly. I just wanted another and another and another...

Great brew, Slim!

Bottled mine today so start the impatient clock.
I actually have a carbonator cap so I'll pump it up and give it a try tonight after its cold. Can't wait!

jamursch said:

Bottled mine today so start the impatient clock.
I actually have a carbonator cap so I'll pump it up and give it a try tonight after its cold. Can't wait!

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Jamursch....six months ago I ran in to my former high school sweetheart, we talked about how are lives progressed in the 20 years that we have been apart...we talked about our kids and she talked about how great her husband is...but then threw out a comment, "I still think about how great you were in bed"....for which I quickly replied, if you thought I was good then you would be amazed at how great I am now...but unfortunately she used up those opportunities and will never get a shot at a more refined, talented and gifted product like my older self......the same applies to your beer....wait...don't settle for the beginning of greatness, settle for the peak of greatness!
Sorry, I just had to tell someone that story and this felt like the perfect opportunity!

I kegged my first batch of this beer and it is great. I would like to brew my first 10 gallon batch and go with the limeade for 5g and the grapefruit for the other 5g. I am brewing all grain. Should I just double up on the ingredients in order to brew the 10 gallons? I am brewing for only 1 year now so I would appreciate the guidance. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It is going to be a regular at my house this summer!

SD-SLIM said:

Jamursch....six months ago I ran in to my former high school sweetheart, we talked about how are lives progressed in the 20 years that we have been apart...we talked about our kids and she talked about how great her husband is...but then threw out a comment, "I still think about how great you were in bed"....for which I quickly replied, if you thought I was good then you would be amazed at how great I am now...but unfortunately she used up those opportunities and will never get a shot at a more refined, talented and gifted product like my older self......the same applies to your beer....wait...don't settle for the beginning of greatness, settle for the peak of greatness!
Sorry, I just had to tell someone that story and this felt like the perfect opportunity!

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Ha. Great story and I certainly will wait for peak greatness. I used my carbonator cap to make a little sample and if it gets better then I better brew this again soon as it will be gone as soon as I give my buddies the green light to have at it. Thanks again.

wvdad said:

I kegged my first batch of this beer and it is great. I would like to brew my first 10 gallon batch and go with the limeade for 5g and the grapefruit for the other 5g. I am brewing all grain. Should I just double up on the ingredients in order to brew the 10 gallons? I am brewing for only 1 year now so I would appreciate the guidance. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It is going to be a regular at my house this summer!

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Yes, you will defiantly want to double up...this will give you 10 gallons of wort, then with the addition of the simply production you will be close to 12 gallons....however I wouldn't scale back, because you will loose some to the trub (simply product contains a lot of pulp, which is protein and will not ferment), so it ends up being like 5.5 gallons....the extra .5 will give you beer to take readings and sample before bottling/legging.
Happy brewing!

Adding this to my list. Have an extra packet of US-05, so will use that.

Thanks for the recipe, it looks great!

2 weeks in the bottle after 3 in primary. It's crazy delicious and for sure will be brewed again. Thanks, Slim!

MMachi said:

2 weeks in the bottle after 3 in primary. It's crazy delicious and for sure will be brewed again. Thanks, Slim!

<img src="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=60257"/>

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Glad you liked it brother....that's a good looking glass of beer, drink one for me!

Will the lemon-lime fade over time or diminish during conditioning? Just curious as it turned out great in my sample when I bottled but was wonder what to expect as it ages.

jamursch said:

Will the lemon-lime fade over time or diminish during conditioning? Just curious as it turned out great in my sample when I bottled but was wonder what to expect as it ages.

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Yes...since something went wrong with your hops and lime zest...adding lime juice at the time of bottling will add some flavor, but the beer will continue to condition and it will become less noticeable and probably almost gone within 6 months.

just checked gravity first thing this a.m..... 1.002

and i didnt love the sample.... ill let it go another week and bottle and chill im sure it will be better

davis119 said:

just checked gravity first thing this a.m..... 1.002

and i didnt love the sample.... ill let it go another week and bottle and chill im sure it will be better

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Wow that's really low. My FG was 1.009. Is it still fermenting?

davis119 said:

just checked gravity first thing this a.m..... 1.002

and i didnt love the sample.... ill let it go another week and bottle and chill im sure it will be better

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I'm guessing your fermentation temperatures have been all over the place....while under pitching can cause strained yeast, that will give you an off taste and slowly chug a long...it's warm temperatures in the day and cooler temperatures at night that usually keep the yeast working at a snails paise...let if finish out, bottle and sample a beer once a month to see if it's improved....sometimes bottle conditioning (room temp, then cold crash 24 hours) will help make a great beer!

SD-SLIM said:

I'm guessing your fermentation temperatures have been all over the place....while under pitching can cause strained yeast, that will give you an off taste and slowly chug a long...it's warm temperatures in the day and cooler temperatures at night that usually keep the yeast working at a snails paise...let if finish out, bottle and sample a beer once a month to see if it's improved....sometimes bottle conditioning (room temp, then cold crash 24 hours) will help make a great beer!

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Thanks. But I is in my storage unit of my condos basement 5 feet from the thermostat that never leaves 65* so idk if that was the problem. the sample wasn't bad just not every thing I had hoped for..... ill bottle this weekend.
Also I used us-05. And didn't get much of a reaction when I added the limeade

^