last minute critiques before brewing, Lemongrass/Pomegranate Wheat

Hey everyone,

I have worked and tweaked this recipe here and there, and ready to brew (for SWMBO) and I just wanted one final spot check before I proceed.

0.50 lb Rice Hulls
4.50lb Pale 2-row
4.50lb White Wheat
0.25lb Crystal/Caramel 20L

(fyi, the grain bill can not be altered, with the exception of the rice hulls, because I bought this from brewmasters warehouse and they premilled and shipped all the grains in a single bag)

0.25 oz 45 min boil Warrior
0.50 oz 25 min boil Willamette
0.50 oz 05 min boil Amarillo

1 pkg Wyeast Bavarian Wheat 3638

1.50 oz 05min boil shaved whole lemongrass
0.50 oz 05min boil crushed coriander

1 whole stalk Lemongrass coarsely shaved- 7 days secondary
32oz POM pomegranate juice- 7 days secondary

at 70% efficiency, I am looking at
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.012
IBU: 20.2
ABV: 4.25%

60min boil total

60min mash at 150F

My big question marks reside around the lemongrass in secondary and POM in secondary...The lemongrass should act as a good aromatic, and the POM should ferment out atleast some, though I doubt anyone knows the ppg of POM juice...maybe i'll be the first to find out

Think I should move the POM to primary? or half-way through primary instead of waiting till secondary? I imagine it would have fermented out in 7 days right? I am running late on this brew and wanted it ready before the heat wave of summer hits.

Thanks to everyone in advance! happy brewing.

You can always add the pomegranate juice right after the krausen falls, and it'll reliably ferment out. Your hop schedule is really strange for a fruit beer, but that's another conversation.

I have a sort of flavor radar when it comes to food. It is telling me that this combination will turn out under your expectations. I hope you will prove me wrong, but...

I wasnt planning on this being a true "fruit beer", I wanted notes of the pomegranate, but I wanted it in the background, only slightly noticeable. Overall it may have just a tad too much hop for the beer to handle and that is something I am considering before I actually produce the beer. One reason I chose amarillo and willamette is because they are what I had. Also, Amarillo should provide a lovely aroma (atleast in my mind) to mix with the fruity esters of the yeast and grassy qualities of the lemongrass.

Northernlad, I have similar worries. my hopes are that the lemongrass and POM will only slightly be noticeable as I wasn't looking for anything overly pronounced. My biggest concern was a medium dry finish and good appealing nose.

Thanks for your comments so far!
Kyle

id be afraid that POM will ferment out and taste "hoochy" - not like actual pomegranate

Maybe I will knock down the POM to 16oz, that way just in case it doesn't work the way I hoped, the damage will be minimal.

I'd be careful with that yeast. It could really crowd the pallet with it's flavors plus the lemon grass and pomegranate?? I'd assume use a cleaner yeast with those two flavors.

With the lemon grass additions just keep tasting after you add it. With the juice add a little at a time. Unless you have good word that 32oz gives you a certain flavor I would start with maybe 16oz wait a few days and re-evauate. But I am conservative when I add things to my beers.

Furthermore, unless you are lucky, fruit/spice beers for me always take me a couple tries before I get it right. So many variables involved and subjective tastes. Be patient! And report back afterwards!

Those hops seem odd to me. With fruit beers I'd go with earthy and spicy over citrusy.

As I said, I was planning on having the pomegranate only vaguely there...so it will not take on much of that fruit beer characteristic (thats the plan anyway). All the same, would this hop schedule look a little better?

.25 oz Columbus 45min boil
.25 oz Willamette 15min boil
.25 oz Willamette 5min boil

Willamette is a mild but somewhat spicy/earthy hop. (these are also what I have available to me besides a little warrior and simcoe).

Adamjab, unfortunately, changing yeast isnt an option as I order this all as a pack. But I know this yeast is known for big flavors and that is something I will have to be careful about. I am hoping all the lemongrass I am using in secondary will cut through it. Also, my original plan did only call for 16oz of POM...but someone convinced me that was no where near enough...though I doubt he ever actually used POM in a beer...

After reading everyone's comments and suggestions, I think I have to agree and say there might be too much going on with this beer when you factor in the yeast I am using.

I think I will cut out the Pomegranate all together and just have it be lemongrass and coriander. maybe change the hop back to amarillo...we'll see.

I've made both a lemongrass rye and lemongrass wheat using whole, fresh lemongrass. Love the lemongrass.

A suggestion: You might try mashing the lemongrass. For both I mash about 4 oz lemongrass and add 4 oz at 15 minutes.

The first time I made the wheat, I added the lemongrass to the secondary. It came out a little too acidic and the lemon "nose" really overshadowed the hops (I used Cascade and Mangum).

A boil only (60/15 min) addition the first time I made the rye failed to develop a notable lemon taste.

YMMV

zuesy said:

I've made both a lemongrass rye and lemongrass wheat using whole, fresh lemongrass. Love the lemongrass.

A suggestion: You might try mashing the lemongrass. For both I mash about 4 oz lemongrass and add 4 oz at 15 minutes.

The first time I made the wheat, I added the lemongrass to the secondary. It came out a little too acidic and the lemon "nose" really overshadowed the hops (I used Cascade and Mangum).

A boil only (60/15 min) addition the first time I made the rye failed to develop a notable lemon taste.

YMMV

Click to expand...

How much did you use in secondary? I was thinking a single stalk roughly shaved or 2oz.

I put about 4 oz in the secondary. I took two stalks that I husked with the green bits removed (so really, just the inner "heart") and cut into chunks. I put it in the secondary and racked on top of it for 5 days.

Basically, I used my dry-hopping technique on it.

The problem I had with it was like a dry-hop, the aroma was pronounced - too much so. The beer didn't have any aroma characteristic except the sharp lemon smell. Also, unlike other fruit additions I've tried I didn't think the lemongrass oils dissolved very well in the beer. It was like a black and tan with beer and lemon juice.

I'm sure I could have engineered a way around it, but I found a recipe here (At the bottom of the first page: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/lemongrass-rye-133081/) that called for the lemongrass in the mash and boil, so I tried that. It came out so well I abandoned the secondary idea.

I will remember the mash idea, if it worked out so well I will probably go that route from now on. I did want a nice lemongrass nose, but don't want to over power. I was only going to use 2oz max. I ended up with 1.5oz lemongrass and 0.5oz cracked coriander @ 5min boil/flameout. and then I was going to do 1-2 (haven't decided yet) oz in secondary.

Also, my color turned out a lot darker than I expected. With this grain bill, should it really have turned out this dark?

0.50 lb Rice Hulls
4.50lb Pale 2-row
4.50lb White Wheat
0.25lb Crystal/Caramel 20L

Beer Smith gave this an SRM of 4.2...and brewmasters warehouse (where I bought my supplies) gave it a 4.8

so holy crap. This is my lowest gravity beer to date (1.049 SG), with a smack pak of wyeast 3638 bavarian wheat. This is the most violent fermentation I have seen (done a few barleywines with SG above 1.1 and an imperial brown 1.75 SG), bubbling hard yesterday and now bubbling approx 6-8/sec.

I think somebody is going to have to read up on yeast bank preparations maybe if I am lucky I can make aliquots of this yeast in smaller vials and my boss (work in a bio-lab) would let me use our -80C lol jk.

So the last batch ended up infected. So I am re-brewing with a new recipe. let me know what you think.
(the reason for different malts is because its what I have on hand)

3lb 6oz Wheat Malt
2lb 4oz Marris Otter
2lb 2oz Pilsner Malt
0lb 2oz Caramel 120L. (probably going to leave it out, but we'll see)
0lb 8oz Rice Hulls...though I doubt I'll need them.

OG- 1.045 (estimated) (75% efficiency)
Mashing at 151-152

.25oz Columbus 40min boil
.25oz Simcoe 10min boil
.25oz Amarillo 10min boil

4oz lemongrass into the mash
4oz lemongrass 10min left in boil
0.5oz crushed coriander 10min left in boil

Still using Wyeast 3638