Fruit Beer Lemon-Lime Hefe Weizen

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Culln5 said:
Well I sat the keg at room temp for a week now and it tastes more astringent now than before. I'll let it go another week and see what happens, but it may be bound for the drain. I've looked at my brew notes and I don't see anything that should have affected it other than only fermenting for 16 days...... I've moved from extract brewing to BIAB since then, so maybe I'll give that a shot..... I was really looking forward to this!

George
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There could be other issues like your water quality... But if you he don't think anything was out of the norm, let it ride. Let it go for a month even before you dump it. Once I royally screwed up a nut brown due to several mistakes. I almost dumped it. After a week I almost dumped it... Checked it two weeks later, almost dumped it. I never did though then a month or so later I check it... It's good. I am glad I didn't dump it.
 
insanim8er said:
There could be other issues like your water quality... But if you he don't think anything was out of the norm, let it ride. Let it go for a month even before you dump it. Once I royally screwed up a nut brown due to several mistakes. I almost dumped it. After a week I almost dumped it... Checked it two weeks later, almost dumped it. I never did though then a month or so later I check it... It's good. I am glad I didn't dump it.
Click to expand...

I used distilled water so I'm sure it's not that. I was under the impression that hefs didn't need to be aged and the younger they are, the better?

George
 
I know some folks have issues getting these hops....

I'm going to most likely be buying 4oz of each here this week and would be willing to vacuum pack and sell out 2oz each of these if someone was in need, just PM me.
 
One question: Are you guys just pouring in the simply limeade after fermentation settles down? Any reason I need to be concerned about the splashing? And, I know that I am reading it correctly but the whole 1.75 liter bottle goes in, right? Brewed up 10 gallons of this on Sunday. Expect initial fermentation to start to wind down in a day or two.
Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Cbaddad said:
One question: Are you guys just pouring in the simply limeade after fermentation settles down? Any reason I need to be concerned about the splashing? And, I know that I am reading it correctly but the whole 1.75 liter bottle goes in, right? Brewed up 10 gallons of this on Sunday. Expect initial fermentation to start to wind down in a day or two.
Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I poured the limeade in as soon as fermentation died down. Approx 3 days after pitching yeast. I scaled down to smaller batch so not sure about the quantity but i would follow the recipe and youll be fine. The limeade will start fermentation again as the yeast will go after the new sugar. Hope that helps somewhat.
 
Bring limeade up to room temp before pouring in to your fermenter...in some cases it will start to get very active within 3 to 4 hours, in some cases it will explode in less than 12 hours and finally in some cases very little activity will show...but it will still make great beer. My only words of wisdom at this point, is do not add the limeade until at least 3 days after pitching the yeast and to be safe I would wait for the 4th day....definitely a blow off tube!


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Culln5 said:
I used distilled water so I'm sure it's not that. I was under the impression that hefs didn't need to be aged and the younger they are, the better?

George
Click to expand...

Hefs don't generally age, but aging vs conditioning are a little different... There may be something else going on. You didn't do all grain, so that takes a lot out of the equation. Did you temo control your fermentation? Did you do a partial batch, but added a full thing of limeaid?
 
Cbaddad said:
One question: Are you guys just pouring in the simply limeade after fermentation settles down? Any reason I need to be concerned about the splashing? And, I know that I am reading it correctly but the whole 1.75 liter bottle goes in, right? Brewed up 10 gallons of this on Sunday. Expect initial fermentation to start to wind down in a day or two.
Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I just dumped mine in... I let it warm up over the day on the counter then dumped it. Fermentation took off quick. I didn't have blow off, but I did wait about a week before I did he juice and I have almost about 2 gal of head space.

There is oxygen in the juice and any oxygen created during pouring it in is minimal. The yeast will use up that oxygen really fast also. Plus I have heard residual co2 can push o2 out of the solution, so I see no issue in worrying about oxidization. But this is my first batch, so guess we'll see.

I split a ten gal batch between grapefruit and lime. The grapefruit fermenter smells like juice. The lime one... Idk it's interesting. It's not really lime smelling.
 
Thanks guys.

Tried two different hefe yeasts. The suggested WLP IV and then the WLP American Hefe, both with starters. It's going well. I'll keep you posted how it turns out.

The guys I brew with are skeptical, but I am looking for a change of pace brew.
 
insanim8er said:
Hefs don't generally age, but aging vs conditioning are a little different... There may be something else going on. You didn't do all grain, so that takes a lot out of the equation. Did you temo control your fermentation? Did you do a partial batch, but added a full thing of limeaid?
Click to expand...

I followed the extract recipe (scaled down to 5 gallons) and it fermented at a pretty steady 66°-68°.

George
 
SD-SLIM said:
I would wait for the 4th day....definitely a blow off tube.
Click to expand...
A thousand times this.
I pitched the limeade on day four, but forgot about a blowoff tube.
Checked the carboy three days later, and the airlock had blown off leaving a big mess in the ferm freezer.
Fermented four weeks, kegged and carbed for three weeks.
This beer is great!
My neighbors love it. ( I can't get them to leave.)
I will definitely be brewing this again this summer.
Thanks for this recipe.

1397076910329.jpg
 
On the radio this morning they were talking about the lime shortage and the sky rocketing price of limes [say 1$ p/] :mad:

I haven't really been paying attention at the store.... but I hope this doesn't continue... i've got 10 gallons of this to make in a few weeks
 
Brewed my first batch of this yesterday evening, which was also my 2nd all grain biab. Everything went smooth, but I undershot my SG by about 7 points!!! Is this anything I should be to concerned about or just let it go. I didn't have any dme on hand or I would have played around with adding a bit. Wort smelled great going into the fermenter!!! Thanks for the recipe OP. Hopefully it will come out ok
 
Mx750ktm said:
Brewed my first batch of this yesterday evening, which was also my 2nd all grain biab. Everything went smooth, but I undershot my SG by about 7 points!!! Is this anything I should be to concerned about or just let it go. I didn't have any dme on hand or I would have played around with adding a bit. Wort smelled great going into the fermenter!!! Thanks for the recipe OP. Hopefully it will come out ok
Click to expand...

If you followed the recipe, your efficiency was really low. I calculated the original at a 65% conversion. So you'll want to figure out why you're off so bad. You're just under 57%

You can expect 4.46% vs 5.38% ABV (add about .5% to those numbers for the juice)

jfoley said:
How does the added sugar from the limeade affect the abv?
Click to expand...

About .5% added
 
atimmerman88 said:
I know some folks have issues getting these hops....

I'm going to most likely be buying 4oz of each here this week and would be willing to vacuum pack and sell out 2oz each of these if someone was in need, just PM me.
Click to expand...




I picked up 4oz from farmhouse brewing of each hop, willing to sell some of them At cost if anyone is in need to brew this.


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insanim8er said:
If you followed the recipe, your efficiency was really low. I calculated the original at a 65% conversion. So you'll want to figure out why you're off so bad. You're just under 57%

You can expect 4.46% vs 5.38% ABV (add about .5% to those numbers for the juice)



I had my lhbs mill my grains, this is my first brew with using wheat. Sounds like after doing some further reading maybe my wheat wasn't milled well enough which could be the cause. Not sure though.
Click to expand...
 
Ok WOW, #1 thread in the wheat section, I am sold! Wasn't so keen on the limeade addition when I first read this a few months back but since it is being added during fermentation I'm sure it's aOK. Haven't brewed this yet but thanks for the recipe!!
 
Made this recipe for my first biab, ended up with a gravity of 1.046 instead of the 1.051. Its in the ferm chamber now at 63*. Might bump up later closer to 67ish. Looking forward to it.
 
We'll I transferred my two batches to kegs. The grapefruit shines through, but the lime one doesn't seem lime at all. Sunday will be officially 3 wks. I'll let it sit in the closet until then. Then I will chill and carb. I'm happy with the yeast profile. It does seem spicy almost like pepper, clove. It's crisp and dry.

I hope the lime shines through once it's chilled and carbonated. But I'll probably serve with a lime wedge anyway.
 
I bottled mine last night and this was the first time I had seen it since I put it in to ferment.
Man, it was nasty looking. Dark and muddy looking. Nothing like what I thought I would see when brewing a hefe.

Although, once I started siphoning it to the bottling bucket it looked more like it should, while in the tubing.

Got it all bottled up and put away to carb up. What I tasted that was left over wasn't the flavor explosion I was expecting based on what I've read here. Hopefully it will condition into a good beer.

Everyone who has done this seems to have had great success with it. Watch me end up being the first schmuck to foul it up.
 
Gonna do my second extract batch soon. I am doubling the hops, adding 2 lbs of dextrose, then dry hopping in the secondary with a medium alpha hop. looking for a higher ABV mild wheat hop outcome. Odd, I know, but I DID do the original recipe first go-round and liked it. I just wanna toy with the outcome based on my preferences for beer. I'll let you know the outcome.


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Medic218 said:
I bottled mine last night and this was the first time I had seen it since I put it in to ferment.
Man, it was nasty looking. Dark and muddy looking. Nothing like what I thought I would see when brewing a hefe.

Although, once I started siphoning it to the bottling bucket it looked more like it should, while in the tubing.

Got it all bottled up and put away to carb up. What I tasted that was left over wasn't the flavor explosion I was expecting based on what I've read here. Hopefully it will condition into a good beer.

Everyone who has done this seems to have had great success with it. Watch me end up being the first schmuck to foul it up.
Click to expand...

You're not the only one who doesn't get that "in your face lime" that is described in the original post. Several people have claimed the same thing. Including me. I can't detect any lime. I get in your face clove. I'm happy the banana didn't shine through, but wow is it ever clove forward.

The grapefruit version taste like clove and grapefruit. The lime version is only clove.

My color is murky too, but it's like white—kinda weird. I expect it to improve once in the fridge. There's still a lot of yeast in suspension. My sample glass was left over night and when I dumped it, there was yeast on the bottom of the cup.

Tomorrow is the official 3 week mark. I'm going to chill and carbonate tonight. I'll hold judgment until they're finished. I've had really ****ty beers come back to life after aging for a few months. This one isn't ****ty by any means, but it's not at all what I expected-so far anyway. So it'll probably get better in a week when cold and carbonated.
 
With those kind of results, I would assume you had or have fermentation issues


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Mines in the fermenter right now and smells great. Used the wlp320 American wheat cause I'm not a fan of hefe yeast esters, should be good.


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I don't understand. There's hundreds of pages of people saying how good the recipe is, now lately there's a bunch of people saying it's no good. Seriously, if you follow the recipe exactly, control your ferm temps, then it will be amazing.
 
When I started cleaning up I noticed a small crack in my fermenter's lid coming off the airlock hole. Maybe that allowed a little more air than desired to go between. I saw the lid bowing up quite a bit during fermentation so I doubt it had that much of an affect on it.
I will say that temperature control is a challenge at the moment being that I don't have anything to ferment in besides my house.
Texas weather has been bounding up and down here lately and I know the beer did hit the low 60's a time or two.
I plan on doing this again once I get a fridge or something I can control the temp on.


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On day 3 of fermentation in the chamber set at 63* no crazy fermentation to report didn't even need a blowoff tube, just very rapid bubbling and busy yeast inside. Will add in the Limeaide tomorrow. Smells and looks good.
 
Giving this a try today. I couldn't find any Sorachi at either of my stores, so I'll be using Citra and adjusting for IBUs.


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After going to Germany earlier this month and having a bunch of fresh hefeweizen, I will be using a different strain of hefewiezen yeast than the wyeast weihenstephaner next time I brew this. I do l think my batch is fine for now, but I see how it could be improved. I do not have access to white labs yest at my brew store, so I may have to stick with wyeast, but will try a different variety. I have also been serving it at 60 degrees since my keezer is crapping out and would prefer it colder.

I still love this recipe, but have not been able to make it exactly as stated.
 
Ok ,a question I didn't see addressed:

I plugged the recipe into BeerSmith and my IBUs show at 17.9, not 11.9.
Motueka at 7.2% and Sorachi at 11.9%.

I know the original recipe didn't reference AAUs just weights but am I missing something obvious here?

Not that it should matter, but I cut everything in half to test a 3G batch of this for SWMBO. All hop additions are therefore 0.125oz/each.

It's been a long few days so I'm hoping that I'm just not seeing something obvious.

Thanks.
 
I've done two bottle tastings since my batch finished, one exactly a week after bottling, and now a second bottle about a week later.

The bottle I cracked at 1 week was decent, but definitely needs some time to mellow. It was notably sour this young, I suspect because of lime zest in the mash. The lime flavor is there, but it's somewhat masked behind the sourness of the brew.

Second tasting the sour has already mellowed a great deal, there's a subtle sweet flavor starting to emerge and the lime is definitely coming to the front. I'm about 5 and a half weeks out from brew day at this point.

Overall I'm liking this beer a lot and I think it will be going fast. It's good in spite of my mistakes; missing my gravity target, and using a cheaper dry yeast. I think I'll kick out another batch next weekend so it's ready for the hot weeks of summer.
 
Added the Simply Limeade today and got my first blowout. I did have a blow-off tube and a small jug that contained what little spilled over. How soon do I need to change all this out? I went ahead and cleaned the tubing and replaced the liquid in the jug, but I didn't know if the StarSan would keep it safe as long as it is still fermenting and having positive pressure.


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d-usa said:
Added the Simply Limeade today and got my first blowout. I did have a blow-off tube and a small jug that contained what little spilled over. How soon do I need to change all this out? I went ahead and cleaned the tubing and replaced the liquid in the jug, but I didn't know if the StarSan would keep it safe as long as it is still fermenting and having positive pressure.


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Click to expand...


I let me blowoff/Starsan ride for several days until the krausen drops without any issues.

I figure all the bad on the way out there's no negative pressure bringing it back in



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Same here. Once it's out, it's out.

I use gallons of store brand spring water in my boils and when I set up the blow off I just used one of the empty gallon jugs filled with about 1/3 gal of star san/water, tape in place and call it good.

Don't over think it. If it looks good, it probably is. If you have any doubts, check the interwebs.
 
Brewed this last Saturday. Added the limeaid on Wednesday. Smells so good!!! If it taste like it smells its gonna be one hell of a summer drink. Now it just needs to be summer. :)
 
In regards to AAU's....I just put the hops equation in weights versus AAU's....for the most part only using old hops will impact this beer, so if your using hops pellets less than 6 months old then just follow the weight....over 6 months increase by 25%, one year increase by 50%...if your hops have been frozen, they will only degrade by 25% in a year.

As for blowoff tubes, I always use boiled water, so that I am certain all bacteria and foreign invaders are I eradicated before it's exposed to my wort


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We'll I guess I'm the odd man out. I'm not impressed by this beer at the least.

The main thing is the recipe is so vague it leaves a lot open for interpretation. I should've calculated everything better before starting, so it is my fault. When the original recipe is at about 65% efficiency and I'm at 80 or so, I end up with a lot of extra wort to meet target SG.

This diluted the volume of Limeaid, so my results are... Well no lime flavor what-so-ever. I didn't buy extra limeaid, so again it's my fault for not crunching numbers before starting.

The grapefruit came out way better than the lime. My fermenter had a leak and blew out about a gallon or so of the wort (it ferments under some pressure). This brought down the volume before adding the juice and I can detect the grapefruit in that batch. If I were about a gallon and a half shy on the lime, I can see it being better.

I'm also starting to think this beer benefits from majorly under pitching the yeast too.

Since again the recipe was vague, I'm assuming a single vile was pitched. I made a 2l starter for a 10 gal batch. I still under pitched, technically. All I get from the LL version is clove. The grapefruit is clove with a little more bitter with some peppery notes but you do pick up on the grapefruit flavor.

It's all drinkable, but not at all what I expected with all the hype.

All in all I doubt I'll do this recipe again, but I'll use it as inspiration to come up with something else.
 
Sorry this beer did not work for you. I design my recipes with a certain expectation that people have a fair amount of brewing knowledge, but what they lack can be compensated with through a PM or a post in this thread.
In regards to yeast, the expectation is that you use a yeast calculator to determine how much yeast to pitch.


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