Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Agave Wheat

Recipe

4 lbs. Flaked Wheat
4 lbs. 2-Row
1 lbs. Agave Extract
8 oz. Flaked Oats

1 Whirlfloc @ 15 min

1 oz. Tettnang @ 60 min
0.5 oz. Tettnang @ 5 min

1 oz. Sweet Orange Peel @ 5 min
0.5 oz. Coriander @ 5 min

Wyeast Belgian Witbier 3944

Protein Rest @ 122 F for 20 minutes
Mash @ 148 F for 60 minutes

ABV: 5.9%

Notes

Pitch the yeast into both the starter and wort warm, around 80 F to develop spicy phenolics.

3944 isn't strictly required, but I like the spiciness you get. 1056/1010, or
S-05 would work fine, but you'd lose some of the flavor.

Use the darkest Agave you can find - it's more flavorful.

Alternatives

Add the agave right before bottling for a bigger taste, but be aware how it'll affect bottle conditioning, if that's what you're doing. Also, to compensate for the OG hit, add an extra 0.7 lbs of 2-row and Flaked Wheat. Your FG and ABV will be a little different (higher FG, lower ABV).

Make the orange peel and coriander into a spice tea, and add into the bottling bucket. I personally prefer this method, as it keeps the flavors around longer. Alternately, do both the boil and spice tea.

I brewed this this afternoon. Decided to use the coriander and orange peel in the boil for the last 5 minutes and left it in the kettle while I chilled the wort. Smelled good, hoping it turns out kind of close to Breckenridge's agave wheat. Thanks for sharing!.

Glad you decided to use it! It's not a complicated recipe by any means, but quite tasty. More of a summer beer for me, but good beer is good anytime.

Don't get thrown off by the green tint, though. Maybe the Tett I used was really fresh or something, but the wort looked like it belonged on St. Patty's day for a few weeks.

Stephonovich said:

Glad you decided to use it! It's not a complicated recipe by any means, but quite tasty. More of a summer beer for me, but good beer is good anytime.

Don't get thrown off by the green tint, though. Maybe the Tett I used was really fresh or something, but the wort looked like it belonged on St. Patty's day for a few weeks.

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Good to know! Hahaha, I used the Belgian Wit WLP400, hoping to get some of the fruitiness from the orange peel. Smelled like oranges when I put it into primary.

To be honest, I think there is something missing in this recipe... Although, I am not a big wheat beer drinker so I couldn't tell you what it is. Something to darken it maybe, and add some sweetness. I wanted to try to replicate the Breckenridge Agave Wheat, which is much darker than this beer. But this with an orange slice in it is just fine

Yes, it's definitely a dry beer. I was going to go simple with it. I could see maybe adding a small (< 10%) amount of C20, or maybe some Victory. You could also, of course, raise the mash temp. Going up to 156F gives you an FG of 1.011.

Stephonovich said:

Yes, it's definitely a dry beer. I was going to go simple with it. I could see maybe adding a small (< 10%) amount of C20, or maybe some Victory. You could also, of course, raise the mash temp. Going up to 156F gives you an FG of 1.011.

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I think I might try to clone the Breck beer with some crystal, Munich and carapils. But this beer has actually gotten quite tasty after sitting in the keg for a few days.

BoxBrewer said:

I think I might try to clone the Breck beer with some crystal, Munich and carapils. But this beer has actually gotten quite tasty after sitting in the keg for a few days.

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I didn't keg mine, so I can't comment. I do a 3 week primary, bottle, 3 weeks aging for most of my easy drinking beers. Moving into kegging soon.

great looking recipe! question about the primary, do you think a 14 day primary would be ok? what would the differences be, if any to keep it for 21 days, even if it's done fermenting?

It'd probably be fine. I'm a proponent of three week primaries with no secondary, but with a good yeast starter and appropriate fermentation temperature, it would probably be fine.

Is there any specific reason you're wanting to shorten the primary?