American Wheat Beer Citrus Weizen

I just bottled an AHS American Wheat kit, partial mash, adding the citrus as indicated in this recipe. The hydrometer sample tasted fantastic, nice refreshing citrus kick that was still in balance with the rest of the beer. I can't wait until this one is nicely conditioned, chilled, and in my glass on a sticky summer evening. Thanks for an excellent brewing idea!

When you say zest, do you mean the whole peel? If not how do I get the outside of the peel off?

Mustangfreak said:

When you say zest, do you mean the whole peel? If not how do I get the outside of the peel off?

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I used a potato peeler.

Good idea!

I can't wait to try this :rockin:

Update on my batch: This beer is fantastic! My friends keep going back to the fridge for more of it. My wife and I poured a couple on a 95+ degree day last week, and this may be the perfect summer beer. I highly recommend it to anyone interested- tasty, refreshing, and easy to brew. Great beer.

elkdog said:

Update on my batch: This beer is fantastic! My friends keep going back to the fridge for more of it. My wife and I poured a couple on a 95+ degree day last week, and this may be the perfect summer beer. I highly recommend it to anyone interested- tasty, refreshing, and easy to brew. Great beer.

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Really happy that you like it. I don't post many recipes unless they are really good, I don't want people making them and hating me for a bad beer.

Made this 2 weeks ago. I didn't bottle/rack it for 2 weeks for a variety of reasons: extended power outage (on a well), car trouble, and plain laziness. I bottled it today and I'm really excited, it's going to taste GREAT. The uncarbonated "beer" from my bottling bucket even tasted good (good enough to drink the 1/2 cup I had left over)! This is largely taken from Roaring Bull Brewery's version on page 2, but I couldn't get Northern Brewer and I added the carapils as suggested.

Name: American Citrus Wheat
Classification: American Wheat or Rye Beer
Brewer: Gearhead Brewery
Type: Extract
Date: 6/3/2008

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.72 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients
---------------------------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 76.92 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
0.33 oz Nugget [11.50 %] (60 min) Hops 14.5 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.30 %] (15 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
3.00 oz Lemon Zest (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
3.00 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 15.38 %
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
----------------------------------
Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.73 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.60 %
Bitterness: 20.4 IBU
Calories: 229 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.4 SRM

Notes
-------------------------------
1. Steep Cara-Pils for 15 minutes at 155 F and 10 minutes at 170 F
2. Add DME and Honey
3. Boil and add Nugget hops for 45 minutes
4. Add Cascade hops, orange zest and lemon zest and boil for 15 more minutes.
5. Chill rapidly
6. Rack to Primary and aerate
7. Pitch yeast

FSR402 said:

6# Wheat DME (60/40 of wheat and pils)
1 oz. Hallertauer hops at 3.2% for 60 minuts of boil
at 15 minutes left of the boil add the zest (the outer part of the peals) of 4 large orange and lemons

1 packet of Nottingham dry yeast.

This has turned out great and the wife even loves it. A very soft, sweet summer beer with the hint of citrus.

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This sounds wonderful. But why use Nottingham? Why not use a yeast which puts out fruity flavors?

lkondolian said:

This sounds wonderful. But why use Nottingham? Why not use a yeast which puts out fruity flavors?

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Because I did not want the fruity/spicy of a Heffe yeast. Wanted it to be clean, crisp and light.
Feel free to do what you want, it's beer, enjoy it.

Ok, pardon my n00bness here. This will be my first attempt at a non-kit brew and I have a few questions. First, If I am doing only a 3-3.5 gallon boil instead of a full boil are there any adjustments that I need to make (ie hops). Second, how do you recommend that the DME be added? Should it be added at the beginning and boiled for the full 60 minutes or should it be split up and some added at flameout? Lastly, I'm a bit confused about the DME. You have it listed as "6# Wheat DME (60/40 of wheat and pils)" Is this a certain type of wheat DME or is this two seperate types (ie 60% wheat dme and 40% pils dme)? Thanks.

I just put a 3 gallon batch of this into my little fermenter. We'll see how it goes; I ended up adding an ounce of hops by mistake, and the zest from one orange and one lime. Looks like I'll be pushing 30 IBU. Not true to style, but should be interesting. Oh, and I used LME instead of DME after doing the conversion.

Will be brewing this this weekend with a few tweaks in the recipe. Will let you know how it turns out, it looks great

We did this this weekend, but now, looking back at the recipe I see it says dme. For some reason I didn't pay any attention to that meaning, duh, dry malt extract, so I used a wheat extract syrup. Will this cause a significant difference in the end result, and if so, what sort of difference?

Somewhere I saw a conversion of .8 lb DME to 1 lb LME (liquid malt extract). It takes more LME since you have some water in there. The difference in your end result should be a lighter OG; did you take a gravity reading?

craven_morhead said:

Somewhere I saw a conversion of .8 lb DME to 1 lb LME (liquid malt extract). It takes more LME since you have some water in there. The difference in your end result should be a lighter OG; did you take a gravity reading?

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yes that's all it will be. Just a lighter beer.

Ok thanks. No gravity reading. we attempted to, but this was or first time using a hydrometer and apparently we didn't put it deep enough because it hit the bottom of the bucket. since the fermentation is only a week i'll let you know what the gravity of the fermented wort is.

You're probably going to want to get a narrow cylinder, graduated or not, to float your hydrometer in. That way you don't need to drop your hydro into your brew bucket, and you'll be able to take samples from carboys and check the SG.

Makes sense, thanks for the tip

Just sampled this fairly young (1 week). I like it a lot; nice citrus notes. Great summer beer. I'll let you know how it develops.

We bottled this this past weekend. taste is great, but way too light. that would be my fault for using one can of the liquid. what i think i'm going to is do it again for my next brew, use the liquid again, then add a bit of dry as well. maybe three pounds? that would be 3.3 of liquid, three of dry. I'm thinking that will work, and i'd like to start experimenting a bit more so i can get an improved feel for what effects certain additions and subtractions will have on the final taste. by the way, we substituted one grapefruit for the oranges and used six lemons, and the citrus taste is really on time. i think using the proper amount of malt is going to give this next brew a really nice balance. will let you know how the last one is after fully primed, prediction is good, but way too light.

im going to brew this next week but somewhat different. i ordered a Bavarian HefeWeizen Extract Kit and it comes with

6 lbs. Wheat Malt Syrup
1 lbs. Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1 oz. Sterling (60 min)
Safbrew WB-06

i am thinking of adding one cup of honey
im going to add the 4 oranges and 4 lemons.

what is the best way to get the peel off the oranges and lemoms. also the white stuff on the inside of the peel has to come off as well? whats a good way to do that?

BeantownR6 said:

im going to brew this next week but somewhat different. i ordered a Bavarian HefeWeizen Extract Kit and it comes with

6 lbs. Wheat Malt Syrup
1 lbs. Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1 oz. Sterling (60 min)
Safbrew WB-06

i am thinking of adding one cup of honey
im going to add the 4 oranges and 4 lemons.

what is the best way to get the peel off the oranges and lemoms. also the white stuff on the inside of the peel has to come off as well? whats a good way to do that?

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no white stuff. just the otter yellow/orange part. I use a potato peeler to "scrape" the rind off.

just pulled my first pint from the keg....

Fantastic brew.... very refreshing!

Has anyone tried the lemon and orange zest in 4 oz of vodka and then added to the secondary, was curious on the taste and potency of it.

I think that I am going to try a version of this recipe this weekend. Tell me what you think about the variation that I am going for.


.5# Flaked oats (steeped in grain bag for 45 min @ 150 degrees)
.5# Flaked wheat (steeped in grain bag for 45 min @ 150 degrees)
6# DME (Bavarian Wheat)
1# clover honey
1 oz Hallertau pellet hops (added at beginning of boil)
.5 oz Sterling pellet hops (added for last 10 minutes of boil)
Zest of 4 oranges and 4 lemons (added for last 20 minutes of boil)

Using German Wheat Wyeast W3333

Looks good to me. The flaked grains will had some nice body to it.

I know you add the zest of the oranges and lemons last 20 minutes of boil but can you add the oranges and lemons themselves in the fermentation bucket and have them sit in the primary for 3 weeks...?? what is a good way to do this..?? Also, when do you add the honey..? At flameout..??

anthonyb15fd said:

I know you add the zest of the oranges and lemons last 20 minutes of boil but can you add the oranges and lemons themselves in the fermentation bucket and have them sit in the primary for 3 weeks...?? what is a good way to do this..?? Also, when do you add the honey..? At flameout..??

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If you did add the whole fruit to the fermenter you will need to "sanitize" them first. Best way to do that would be to mash them a bit it break them all open good and add crushed campden tablets to them (mix real well) 24 hours before adding the wort. You're just looking for the flavor from the zest not really all the sugars too. Not a big deal either way you would just end up with a stronger beer. Maybe a little hazy too.

I would add the honey to the last few minutes or at flameout. Just make sure it's mixed in well.

I am glad that we revived this old thread. I love citrus wheat beers...mmmm. I ad the honey during about the last five minutes of the boil, not sure if this is correct, but seems to work.

Here's my rendition, bottle conditioning as we speak:

Recipe: Citrus Wheat
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: Extract

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.00 gal
OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 7.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.8 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item
5.51 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
2.60 oz Hallertauer [3.60 %] (60 min)
3.00 oz Lemon zest (Boil 15.0 min)
3.00 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 15.0 min)
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05)

Notes:
------
Add zest from 4 each lemon and orange at 15 minutes.

The hydro sample had a definite citrus twang. I hope it mellows a little because that was just too much. I'll post back in a few weeks.

CucuzzaBrew said:

I think that I am going to try a version of this recipe this weekend. Tell me what you think about the variation that I am going for.


.5# Flaked oats (steeped in grain bag for 45 min @ 150 degrees)
.5# Flaked wheat (steeped in grain bag for 45 min @ 150 degrees)
6# DME (Bavarian Wheat)
1# clover honey
1 oz Hallertau pellet hops (added at beginning of boil)
.5 oz Sterling pellet hops (added for last 10 minutes of boil)
Zest of 4 oranges and 4 lemons (added for last 20 minutes of boil)

Using German Wheat Wyeast W3333

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Love the idea of the flaked oats/wheat... Gonna try this recipe this saturday.... What was your OG with this recipe? Also... How long in primary and did you put her into a secondary?
Thanks in advance! Stoked to brew this!

Primary for 2 weeks
Secondary for a little less than 2 weeks (bulk conditioning/laziness)

OG - 1.062
FG - 1.012
About 6.5% ABV before priming.

This beer smells amazing. I just bottled it yesterday, so I can't give you a report on the taste. I think it is going to be very tasty, but I'll let you know the results middle of March.

Brewed CucuzzaBrew's recipe on saturday (except replaced, the sterling with saaz and Wyeast for WL 320 Hefe)!
This beer smells awesome! Can't wait to try it!!! If it's as good as it smells, I'm brewing again soon!

I'm glad that I stumbled upon this recipe a little bit ago. I plan on brewing this today to get it ready for the first mowing of the lawn in a month or so. The only modification that I am thinking of doing is putting 1/2 of the zest in at 15 minutes, and the other 1/2 in just before flameout. I don't want all of the aroma boiling off for 15 minutes.

Does this sound reasonable or will it drastically change the flavor of the beer to the point that I should increase or decrease the amount, or is sticking with 4 oz. still a good plan?

Nope I think it would be just fine.

Thanks, I made a batch today. I can't wait to see how it comes out.

I'm making my batch with Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP300). It smells a bit like Bananas Foster. Maybe I should add a cinnamon stick next time.

FSR402, how did your AG version come out?

Mirage said:

FSR402, how did your AG version come out?

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Never got around to doing it. The only wheat beer I have been working on is a strawberry heff. Took a 3rd place with it last month but I don't think it's right yet.

3rd place eh? Grats! This recipe sounds great! We are finishing up our AG setup but if it is as great as you and everyone says, maybe try this one first.