Watermelon Ale

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Bluehaze

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Location
Big Bend, WI
Recipe Type
Extract
Yeast
Wyeast 1272
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.050
Final Gravity
1.008
Boiling Time (Minutes)
45
Color
Pale amber
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
5-7 days @ 64 F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
5-7 days @ 64 F
Tasting Notes
Crisp, with a light watermelon nose & taste early and a light hoppy finish
Add 6# of Light LME to 3 gallons of boiled water and bring back to a boil

1oz Amarillo hops at boil

after 45 minute boil...

12 oz Honey (find a local beekeeper for the best natural honey, and the best prices)

1oz Amarillo hops and steep for 5 minutes

Add remaining water to fill to 5 gallons, and finish cooling to 70 F add one dram of watermelon flavor (available here - https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8695-watermelon-flavor.aspx )

pitch yeast, aerate, and watch it work.

While I have never taken gravity readings on this particular beer (I have on the base ale recipe though, and they typically are around 1.050 OG and 1.008 FG or there about if I recall correctly). I will update the gravity readings when I brew this again in late April/early May. This is a fantastic summer brew, that is not only simple to make, but easy to drink too.

*edit*
After finding the Brew Target software, I recalled correctly. It came up with an OG of 1.048 and a FG of 1.013 with and IBU of 24.8 and color of 7.6. Sounds about right to me. :)
 
Yes, I have used several of their flavorings in different brews. Specifically their pumpkin extract (as it is waaaaaay easier than trying to clean a 3" slug of pumpkin gunk from your carboys), and their lemonade flavoring (in a Summer Shandy knockoff). I tried one of their cherry flavorings, but it was too "candy like" for my taste, so it's back to fruit juices for that beer.

It is more of an ultra-concentrated liquid than a syrup though. A little goes a long way, and I always start on the conservative side, as I know the beer will be good - it's just a matter of how much flavoring you like. You can always make it again and add more, but killing a beer with overpowering flavors can be heartbreaking.

I have also used Liquor Quick ( http://www.winemakeri.com/LIQUOR_QUIK_Essences_s/117.htm ) in a beer or two, for their hazelnut extract. I goes magically well in a Nut Brown Ale.
 
Have you used their strawberry or apricot flavoring? I'm thinking about making a strawberry or apricot cream ale. A little will go a long way in a subtle beer like that.
 
That seems a lot simpler than squeezing a watermelon as I did last summer. Thanks for the link to the flavoring. I saw that they have a handy 6 pack of fruit flavors including watemelon. I think I"ll have to pursue that this Spring.
 
Any reason why you put the flavoring in during fermentation instead of at bottling like when using conventional flavorings?
 
Any reason why you put the flavoring in during fermentation instead of at bottling like when using conventional flavorings?

Trial and error. It gives just the right amount of flavor I was looking for by adding it at that time. If I add that type of flavoring at bottling (or kegging) it seems to always overpower the taste of the beer. With this particular brew, you get a nice watermelon nose, and a modest taste of it, before it fades and the Amarillo hops gently take you to the finish, leaving you wanting another sip.
 
Sounds good I'll have to try it. Definitely cheaper then buying the conventional extracts too. Also cheaper then 5# of fruit and a bottle of oxyclean for cleanup when the secondary blows over. Thanks for this.
 
My pleasure.

Three things I am always looking for when brewing...

A way to save $$ without sacrificing quality
A way to cut down on my work (cleaning and prepping for fresh fruit can me a chore)
Someone to share a successful story of the first two with (preferably over a pint):mug:
 
So I'm brewing this version with the candy extract next week. Grain bill is:

Wheat malt - 4 lb
2-row malt - 3 lb
cara hell - 8 oz
rice hulls - 8 oz
honey 1 lb at 10 mins
Hersbrucker for bittering (1 oz) and flavor (0.5 oz)
WY 1010 - American Wheat yeast


I bought the watermelon flavor off e-bay and am going to add it one week into a planned 2-week fermentation.

I'll let you know how it all works out. - N_G
 
I brewed this on May 6th and pitched it on the 7th (I use a no-chill process). The Wyeast 1010 (Amer. Wheat) built a strong krausen up until the 16th when it began to slowly fall. I've been waiting for the krausen to clear before putting it in secondary. I was expecting this to happen either tonight or by Friday. I'll add the candy extract at that time and then bottle within a week or 2. So its coming along and I'm still excited about it. I saw watermelons at the local Trader Joe's yesterday and they made me think about this beer again.
 
Krausen finally fell over the weekend. This is like the 5'th time I've re-used this wheat yeast and based on what I'm seeing for floculation, I won't harvest this one again. I'll go to secondary and add flavor tonight or tomorrow.
 
I went to secondary on the 26th. Halfway through the racking process I added the contents of the lorann flavoring. That stuff is potent and will make your homebrewery smell pleasantly of watermelons for a few hours upon opening.

My SG for nearly 5 gallons was 1.059 and last night it was 4.75 gallons sitting at 1.003.

I tasted it an hour after racking and was pleasantly surprised at the nice aroma and mild quality of the flavoring. Its good stuff and once I get the yeast to drop it will be a nice beer.There is a boozy quality from the 7.3% :drunk: in there and maybe I over attenuated. But bottle carbonation may help mask that and there is always the possibility that the watermelon flavor will hide the booze.

So far I am jazzed about it and am thinking of a use for the cherry and orange flavors I got in the 5-pack from e-bay. Cherry porter maybe?
 
I bottled 50 12-ouncers last night. This stuff is GOOD. Excellent aroma, a pleasing amount of watermelon flavor. The rather large alcohol content (see earlier post) has left it still tasting boozy but maybe some carbonation a will take care of that.

One other thought. I know its not yet mature, but I used hersbrucker hops in this one. I think I favor the sweetness of French sttrisselspalt hop in this recipe. The hersbrucker did a nice job bittering (something I have trouble getting the Fr. Strisselspalt to do) but my memory of the Fr. Strisselspalt is suggests that it had a sweeter more floral note which works well with watermelon. I guess I have to make another batch!
 
I cracked a bottle last night. The yeast had dropped and it was very clear. I imbibded it at 78 degrees, so that will factor into my perceptions. The watermelon aroma is potent but not overwhelming. The aroma is somewhat bright and candy like; it doesn't have the earthy smell that the natural watermelon had. If you have had the 21A Hell or High Watermelon then it is very similar in aroma quality.

There is a distinct watermelon flavor but it isn't overwhelming... you just know its watermelon. It tastes more like a beer than a watermelon! Hersbrucker hops balanced the sweetness (whatever was left) and it is a lil boozy at 78degrees, I don't think the alcohol will come through when chilled.

This beer has some serious carbonation and head unlike a very similar watermelon wheat I did with real watermelon last year.

Kudos to the OP who lead the way!
 
This seems like something I should try. My wife loves fruit flavored ciders....sooo here I go.
 
In any case, the flavor of this beer is a departure from the norm. I added the flavoring into secondary. When I bottled I noticed that the yeast/trub had a distinct pink hue. The beer has no red color, so I thought that was kinda interesting, but I dont know what it means.
 
Thanks for the updates n_g. :)

I just brewed my second batch of this beer this summer. I usually make one for late spring consumption, and one for the end of summer. It is always a HUGE hit when I start tapping it, and it sadly never lasts very long.

I have always used the Amarillo hops for this batch, to give it a slightly hoppier taste, while maintaining the fruity/floral notes. By adding the watermelon extract to the primary fermentation, it significantly reduces the flavor that the extract imparts, so once the beer is finished you have no Jolly Rancher-esque (candy-like) smell and flavor.

I would bet your yeast/trub picked up the pink hue from the coloring in the extract, as I get the same result, with no redness added to the beer.
 
I have amarillo hops in the fridge now... and a second dram of watermelon flavor. Maybe I'll fire up your original recipe and see how that goes. Feels weird to order extract though. :)
 
I have been watching this thread for a while and I finally made a run at this one tonight. Here are the details:

48% 2-row
48% Wheat
4% C-15

Mash at 154
Target OG 1.053
Target FG 1.013
Target ABV 5.2%
Yeast S-05

60 min boil
1 oz Amarillo at 45 min
1 oz Amarillo at 0 min

Ferment at 65 degrees

Add 1 dram of Lorann Watermelon flavoring to secondary

-------

I am a big fan of 3 Floyd's Gumballhead and 21A Hell or Highwatermelon wheat. This appears to draw nicely from both. I think with the flavoring in the secondary I will end up with something similar to 21A, but with a little more hop, so we will see. I love Amarillo hops, so thanks to the BlueHaze with this one and thanks to NG for being my guinea pig with the flavoring.
 
I was lucky enough to stumble into a 'grandma's pantry' type of place while on vacation with the family. I found the complete line up of LorAnn oils. I picked up a peach and a strawberry flavoring. I think I'm going to do a bunch of flavored beers this fall!
 
I racked my batch on Sunday and added the flavoring. It is certainly candy oil, very artificial smelling. I am sure it will mellow in the beer. One thing I did notice on the lorann website is that some of their oils are insoluable in water.
 
I racked my batch on Sunday and added the flavoring. It is certainly candy oil, very artificial smelling. I am sure it will mellow in the beer. One thing I did notice on the lorann website is that some of their oils are insoluable in water.


Sorry, I guess I did not mention that some of them are not water soluble. I have always added the flavoring to the primary to tone down that "candy" flavor, but to each their own.

Best of luck HarkinBanks, and please give us an update once you finish and taste this beer. :mug:
 
No biggie Bluehaze, I just found that some of the Lorann oils were insoluable in water. The watermellon and several others they have are soluable. I wanted to let others know to check on them before they went out and bought some funky flavors. Honestly, I have no idea what would happen if you added an insoluable one to beer?

I racked to the keg last night and took a FG of 1.008 for a 5.4% ABV, not bad, probably a little dry, but that always seems to happen when I use S-05. The taste was pretty darn good after 10 days in the secondary with the flavor added. It was eerily similar to 21A Hell or Highwatermellon wheat in flavor and aroma. I know they guard this recipe pretty tight, but something tells me they are using artificial flavoring. They may add some real watermellon juice, but this stuff is very similar. I am going to put on the gas tonight and should be ready this weekend to pull my first sample.
 
It was eerily similar to 21A Hell or Highwatermellon wheat in flavor and aroma. I know they guard this recipe pretty tight, but something tells me they are using artificial flavoring. They may add some real watermellon juice, but this stuff is very similar.

I made a similar note earlier in this thread and I still completely agree with this statement.
 
Oh Bluehaze, you are the reason HBT is the best. That watermelon oil is absolutely perfect for this beer! I tapped the keg this afternoon and this beer is exactly what I was looking for. A little bit of Gumballhead and a lot of 21A Hell or Highwatermelon wheat. This is a great summer beer. My wife really enjoyed it as well. For me, adding the oil to the secondary was the way to go, but everyone has their preferences. I get a great watermelon aroma and first taste, followed by a little amarillo and a clean finish, no aftertaste. The beer I made is almost a dead ringer for 21A. I will stop at the beer store this week and get a can so I can do a side by side comparison. Thanks for posting your original recipe. :mug:
 
I was going to add the ingredients to my Austin Homebrew order but they dont carry Light LME, only Light DME. Im thinking about just ordering 6lbs of Wheat LME.
What do you think?????
 
First I LOVE the watermelon beer I made with the lorann oil. See the recipe around page 1 or 2 of this thread.

Second, I have variety of these candy extracts sitting around. I also like to push boundaries of my 5 gallon cooler and 10 gallon boil kettle. So I decided to make a 9 gallon all grain batch that I would split as 2 4.5 gal batches with flavoring in each. This time I'm going for Strawberry and Peach.

I mashed at the max for my system, 13 pounds of two row in the cooler at 150 for an hour. I ran that into the kettle along with 2.5 ounces of hersbrucker hops as a first wort hop. No other hops were used.

During the sparge, I steeped 1 pound of Carared in 1.75 gals of water and then added 1 pound of cane sugar and 1 pound of Breiss Sparkling Amber DME. This extract mix was added after the boil started.

Boiled it for an hour and added some extra low OG run off from the mash tun to maintain 9 gals in the kettle. Added whirlfloc and irish moss at the 15 min mark and at flamout, popped the top on the kettle and let it cool via the no-chilll process.

I'll siphon the 9 gallons into the 2 carboys roughly 20 hours after flamout and pitch the US-05 yeast. Early next week I'll add the flavoring and then in 3 weeks I'll bottle it. Should be interesting. Thanks again for the idea, Bluehaze.

[size=-1]BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com[/size]
[size=+2]Recipe: #31 - Fruit beer of unusual size (FBOUS) #1[/size]
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Blonde Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications

Batch Size: 9.00 gal
Boil Size: 11.32 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
Code:
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
1 lbs         DME Sparklinf Amber (Briess) (10.5 SRM)   Dry Extract  6.25 %        
13 lbs        Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM)     Grain        81.25 %       
1 lbs         Carared (Weyermann) (24.0 SRM)            Grain        6.25 %        
2.50 oz       Hallertauer Hersbrucker - Hops on Hand [3.Hops         20.5 IBU      
1.00 items    Campden Tablet (Mash 0.0 min)             Misc                       
1.00 tsp      Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)                Misc                       
1.00 items    Lorrann Peach Flavoring (Secondary 0.0 minMisc                       
1.00 items    Lorrann Strawberry flavoring (Secondary 0.Misc                       
1.00 tbsp     PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min)         Misc                       
1.00 items    Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)          Misc                       
1 lbs         Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM)               Sugar        6.25 %        
2 Pkgs        SafAle US-05 (DCL Yeast #US-05)           Yeast-Ale
 
That is what makes these types of forums the best. nutty_gnome and others take an idea and run with it, improve it, and share it.

I have to try the peach next spring, but for now it is time for me to start brewing my smokehouse porter, hazelnut brown ale, and getting ready for the double stout and scotch ales.

Cheers. :)
 
So, in the end, when I put FBOUS #1 in the two carboys I totalled about 8.25 gals of usable wort. I expect to get about 8 gallons into bottles from that. 5 days into the fermentation I added the strawberry and peach flavoring (1 dram bottles). The ferment had reached its apex and activity appears to be on downslope. I wanted to add the oils when the beer was still being 'stirred' or 'moved' by the yeast but not when it was so vigorous that I'd lose some aromatics. Anyway, I'll let you know what happens. Bottling will be around Nov. 2 or 3. Probably crack a few at thanksgiving to see how they taste.
 
I wonder if you can add these flavorings to inexpensive vodka and get a decent flavored vodka for use in mixers.....
 
Also, a strawberry and a peach ale are going to get bottled this week. They look great![/QUOTE]

Nutty Gnome- how did Strawberry and Peach turn out?
 
Has anyone used combined flavors in a brew? If we just assume 1 dram per 5 gallons, and assume that provided the desire flavor, if I wanted to combine 2 flavors, would I want to use 2 drams, or 1/2 of each dram? My debate is 1 dram of each brings the appropriate flavor of each dispersed among 5 gallons, or the combination will bring to much of an artificial taste and no more than 1 dram total is what is needed.

Thanks.
 
Also, a strawberry and a peach ale are going to get bottled this week. They look great!

Nutty Gnome- how did Strawberry and Peach turn out?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, not so well. This brew is the only one I have ever brewed outside during daylight. I think it was 8 gallons of relatively low grav wort split into two fermenters. One got the strawberry, the other peach.

The beer had a skunked hops flavor that persisted for quite some time. That flavor is now, months and months later, gone.

Alas, the flavoring oil did not come through as I would have liked. There is some peach or strawberry in the nose. The peach is the better tasting beer only because the strawberry has a strawberry flavor which just apparently isn't something I like. The peach has more of a peach smell but not much of a peach taste.... So in the end it is a blonde ale with a peach nose.

Also the strawberry one is overcarbed all the heck and I don't know why. The peach is fine and both had the same bottling procedure.

My efforts with watermelon were all far better than the strawberry or peach. Since I did those last two, I haven't played with flavored beer again.
 
nutty_gnome - I did an extract version of your Watermelon recipe about 6 weeks back and tasted it this past weekend. Wow!

My wife wanted me to make this and I was hesitant, but I'm so glad I did. I used the LD Carlson Watermelon flavoring. I made a 3G batch and bottled 6 as a plain Hefe - added the extract to taste at bottling. Used about 1.5oz for 2.5G

This finished product was great. Had a very fragrant watermelon aroma. Initial taste is almost like an additional bittering with a slightly watermelon finish. This was the most popular beer I made at a party the other night. Thanks for the great recipe.
 
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