Pick apart this recipe

Hey everyone. I'm up to my shenanigans and trying to create a recipe. The goal this ti around is a honey Ginger pear wheat ale. The goal is to have something that is still heavy enough to keep you warm on colder spring days, but still refreshing on warm days.

7# Wheat DME
2# 20L crystal malt
2# honey
12# pears
1 clampden tablet
1 oz Ginger (fresh ground) (10)
1.5oz northern brewers yeast (60)
.5 oz fuggles (5)

1) peel pears and mash into a puree. Add clampden tablet and put in fridge overnight.
2) boil crystal malt at 155 degrees for 30 minutes, discard grains.
3) bring to boil, remove from heat and add DME.
4) return to heat, and when boiling add the NB hops.
5) at 10 minutes add 2lbs honey and 1oz Ginger.
6) at 5 minutes add fuggles.
7) cool wort, pour into primary along with pear puree.
8) add yeast

This is still something I'm playing with so suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking to get the aroma from the Ginger and the honey, along with a touch of the flavor from the pears. From what I've read pears tend to have a pretty inert flavor in beer, hence the volume.

I still don't know what type of yeast to use.

Also only adding the honey at 10 minutes to hopefully keep some of the aroma while still having it be pasteurized.

I'm hoping the hops are mild enough to not really interfere with the other aromas, but the buttering hops still let there be a nice clean finish.

Like I said, please pick the recipe apart, I'm still learning so at this point I'm sort of throwing together stuff from other recipes.

I'd consider straining the puree or just juicing the pears, also I'd save them for inclusion in a secondary.

The issue with juicing is I don't have access to a juicer. So I'll be using a food processor to begin.

Out of curiosity if I put the pears in secondary, does the nectar need to be pasteurized first? How do I add the beer without too much oxygenation? Do I need to stir everything together?

I'm perfectly fine doing it (in fact I think it may help keep some more of the pear flavor/aroma), I'm just not sure about the process... never transferred to a secondary before.

There's a risk in not pasteurizing the fruit first if you put it in secondary. You don't want to aggressively boil them either, though, because you'd alter the taste. But people add fruit to secondary all the time.

You'd add the fruit to the bottom of the carboy first, then carefully rack your beer on top. No need to stir.

McGarnigle said:

There's a risk in not pasteurizing the fruit first if you put it in secondary. You don't want to aggressively boil them either, though, because you'd alter the taste. But people add fruit to secondary all the time.

You'd add the fruit to the bottom of the carboy first, then carefully rack your beer on top. No need to stir.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Any suggestions on yeast? Should I add more yeast at secondary?

And is there a difference between American wheat DME and Belgian wheat DME?

No need to add more yeast in secondary. You'll have more yeast than you know what to do with then. Even if you leave the cake at the bottom of your primary, there's still loads of yeast in the beer itself.

I'd guess there's little difference between American and Belgian wheat extract. You have other flavors in this so the subtle DME differences won't matter much.

I add fruit to the secondary but do exactly what you are talking about - adding campden to the puree a day before. As in wine making that should 'sanitize' the pear must so you shouldn't have to worry about contamination.

Also - maybe just skip the Fuggles if you don't want that aroma to interfere with the rest. You are already adding a pretty strong aromatic with the ginger.

Well, I brewed this yesterday... started at least. I made some modifications to increase drinkability, while enhancing the spice character.

2# Breiss Golden light DME
3# Breiss Bavarian wheat DME
.5# 10 degree crystal malt
.5# toasted malt
1# orange blossom honey (10)
1 oz fresh chopped ginger (10)
.5 oz cracked coriander (10)
.5 oz bitter orange peel (5)
.25 oz chamomile (5)
1 oz tettnanger 3.7% AA (60)
.5 oz saaz hops 5.8% AA (5)
Wyeast 3056

Steeped the grains at 155 for a half hour, removed grains, brought to boil. Added the DME, then returned to boil. Added tettnanger hops and boiled for 60 minutes. Added honey, spices, and saaz hops at times specified above.

Chilled, transferred to fermenter, and pitched yeast. Estimated OG was 1.055, I didn't check because I accidentally pitched the yeast first. I noticed it started out a bit darker than I had originally planned. This is either because it wasn't settled, or because I did the boil with 2 gallons of water, so some of the malt caramelized.

I have at least two weeks to wait until I transfer to secondary since I refuse to rush this beer.

I also picked up potassium metabisulfate, and pectic enzyme. Now I'm trying to figure out how much pear puree to use for the recipe in secondary. The 12# number came from a similar recipe using apples, and is one of many recipes that this is based on. Both are fruits that tend to not be as juicy as their citrus/berry peers. What I'm hoping to get out of it is the dryness of the pear (not boozy dryness, but crisp, clean, refreshing dryness), and a slight bit of pear flavor without being overbearing.

Anyone have any advice? I can't seem to find much info on working with pears.

Well, its been fermenting nicely according to SWMBO. Can't wait to check it out this weekend