Help me make this wheat beer better

They had a cheapo wheat beer kit at my LHBS for $15, so I bought three...

Here is the recipe as is...
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6# Wheat LME
8 oz Flaked Wheat
8 oz Flaked Oats
3 HBU Hallertau Tradition (1/2 oz)
Safbrew WB-06 dry yeast

Seep grains at aprox. 160 degrees for aprox. 10 mins. Add extract. Bring to a boil and add hops. Boil for 60 mins, chill add yeast (re-hydrated).

My OG (for 5 gallons) was 1044 (July 27) and my FG was 1020 (Sept 29).

It tasted like piss when bottling. I tried it tonight (Nov 2) and it was better, but bland and clovey. Maybe that's from the yeast...
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Kit one I made, I threw in an extra 1/2 oz of Chinook for the whole 60 minutes. It came out better than the one above and great with an orange.

Number two is so damn bland I need to do something...hops, flavor, anything!

My girlfriend suggested apricot puree, kind of like Magic Hat #9 and I'm going that route. How can I complement it with more hops?

Thanks.

So, is it in the fermentor now...??

Are you asking should you dry hop it?

Patrick

Naaa. Sorry mate, I've got three different batches. The first one was extra hopped. The second one was as is and I'm curious what to do with the third. I'm thinking some apricot puree, like Magic Hat #9 but my guess is it needs more hops.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

You could try a liquid yeast to see if you get some different flavors from that or yeah just throw in some fruit or spices. But remember sometimes adding fruit is like putting lipstick on a pig, it still is gonna smell like ****! Can't hide everything by just adding something. But it seems like a decent base recipe so you should be ok.

The first 'american' wheat beer I made with no additional ingredients was bland as hell too. Some people like that crisp, dry, cracker like flavor. From now on I always add any combination of citrus zest (orange/lemon), corriander, black pepper, grains of paradise etc. something to give it some character. Not only do I like it but when I serve it to others they can relate to some of the commercial beers out on the market.

I would say going the route of adding citrus zest, corriander, and balck pepper and fermenting on a A belgian yeast (or keep the yeast and do it a la blue moon).

I agree with using a liquid yeast.

That is a very easy way to get some nice fruit flavors...that and fermenting at a higher temperature.

WL300 (more banana) or WL380 (more clove)

Patrick

A dry hop with Citra Hops would probably compliment the apricot well.

Citra might be nice, but I was thinking along the lines of Amarillo, kind of a Three Floyds Gumballhead sort of thing.

First of all your not getting anything out of those flaked grains because there isn't any base grain to convert them. The only wheat beer that traditionally has oats in it is a Wit beer, which it doesn't sound like you are going for, so I would delete that. In fact I would just replace all those flaked grains with a pound of wheat malt.

If you are going to keep the recipe as is I would stick with that yeast. If you are planning on adding fruit or American hops I would us the US-05.

I suspect the flaked grains aren't to be converted into fermentables but used to add body. In which case I think you can get away with just steeping the flaked grains.

ldgenius2000 said:

I suspect the flaked grains aren't to be converted into fermentables but used to add body. In which case I think you can get away with just steeping the flaked grains.

Click to expand...

Not really, it will just leave loose startches floating around in your beer.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to stick with what I've got, add apricot puree and some kind of hops...somewhere.

More Hallertau up front? Cascade at the end? Dry hop the sonbitch?

Thanks.