Help with Banana Rasberry Wheat

I had an idea for a beer and need some help formulating the recipe. My idea is to have a summertime wheat beer, but unlike most fruit weizens that use the american strain of hefe yeast, use a german strain. However, I do not want the overpowering banana/clove though. I want subtleness in both the banana and the raspberry. I want a light to medium body beer, in which the wheat body is the main component but upon some deeper reflection you can taste the banana/clove and finish with light raspberry.

Here is my idea so far, but I think it will need some more experienced look at it to get what I described above.

5 gallons, extract with adjuncts

Ingredients:

4 lbs. wheat malt extract
1 lb. light dry malt powder
1 lb. wheat dry malt powder
1 lb. flaked wheat (30 min @150)
1 oz. Tettnanger hops for 60 min.
Yeast with low to moderate banana/clove
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming
3 lbs crushed raspberries (steep 15 min after flameout, strain wort into fermenter )

Need some help here on the yeast strain and any other suggestions that will achieve my objectives.

Craig
Tucson, AZ

Maybe I use WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

Description says it "produces a very slight amount of the banana and clove notes. "

I do want to taste the banana, so maybe I ferment at 72?

Attenuation: 70-75%
Flocculation: Low
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-69°F

i used wlp300 fermented at 72 and it was all banana and lots of it. i havent used wlp 320 but 72 should be alot more banana than clove and white labs website says its a suble banana so that sounds good.

Well shoot..it does say the Banana is subtle on the 320..maybe I should just ferment is in the correct range...

Any other opinions on this..or on the grain/extract bill?

I bottled up my Blackberry Weizen today... and I used a 3 lb can of the Oregon Blackberry puree (no seeds!) and was unimpressed with the strength of the blackberry flavor. I had also added 1# of honey right before flameout and to my untrained senses the honey was undetectable - but the beer is still green and needs time to age. Also - I used WLP380 (not supposed to have an overpowering banana flavor) but the banana still came through.
All in all the Blackberry Weizen was good!
On a side note I just racked my Ginger Weizen on my WLP380 yeast cake this evening... i'm interested to see how this project comes out!

Go with all dry malt extract. I have lost all confidence in liquid.

Beerrific said:

Go with all dry malt extract. I have lost all confidence in liquid.

Click to expand...

If you don't mind me asking, Why???

As far as I can tell it has a very short shelf life. I think that even some of the stuff the high volume HBS sell is old. This again leads to a darker beer and possible off flavors. Additionally, an off flavor has even been attributed to new LME. Also, I would suggest adding most of the DME late in the boil to minimize caramelization. You will have to adjust your hops (less hops) if you do this, search for "late boil extract addition" if you are interested.

I just tasted my slightly uncarbonated hefe a few minutes ago. Since 2 days after I pictched I was worried about the banana flavor because the banana smell was/is almost overwhelming. I pitched Wyeast Whinestephen wheat and I fermented at a HIGH 76-78 so the banana flavor is definately there but after a sip or 3 the really nice citrus note start to overpower the banana. So for a half carbonated hefe it was really good I am pleasently suprised.

For a rasp/bana hefe I reccommend the Wyeast whinestephen. My plan is to do an american rasp hefe next or maybe reuse my flop and do a rasp/bana....

Interesting stuff.

I have done a search on many different raspberry wheat recipes that have used a variety of yeasts, including German weizen/weiss varieties. None of the tasting notes mentioned anything about the banana flavor. I wonder if the raspberry is just to present in the beers to allow the banana notes to come through? Maybe I need to shoot for the strongest banana flavor possible to come through the raspberry?