American Wheat Beer Summer Citrus Wheat

SkippyWilliams said:

So I was out with the kids trick or treating and pulling the wagon and I had a few of my Summer Citrus Wheat left in the cooler. I thought it was a good time to share some of what summer brew I had left and I found it interesting that 2 different people at separate times said this beer tasted like a light 3Floyds Gumball Head. I had to have a Gumball Head last night to compare and I did notice the similarities in the 2.

Now the only things I did different in this batch were:

1. No Orange Peels. I used the zest of 1 grapefruit instead
2. For the yeast I used S-05

I made this beer 3 times this summer and tweaked it all 3 times. I love it.

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wow. I can't beleive I forgot another change I made. I used Citra hops instead fo Cascade also.

Just made this today myself and used citra and cascade instead. Hope it turns ok. Also used the sweet and bitter peel. Also used the white labs 4 wheat yeast

Brewed this a month ago subbing some centennial for half of the cascade. I also used a prior slurry of 05 yeast from the Centennial blonde I had just brewed. I added one ounce of grapefruit zest at flameout. I lost my notes from brewday so don't remember details. Three week fermentation then bottled last Monday. Tasted surprisingly good after only 5 days in the bottle.

I brewed this recipe back in February and bottled it on St Patrick's Day. It is awesome!!! My efficiency was low as it was my first all grain but the taste is outstanding. The ABV came in around 4.5% so it's a perfect yard work session beer for spring and summer. This one is definite going into the brewing rotation.

I brewed this last month and it's been in the bottle for a little over two weeks. Awesome awesome beer! I actually felt that this beer would be great to make a shandy with, so I poured a glass and mixed in some lemonade. DAMN! For me, I couldn't ask for a more perfect back-porch shandy. I used to be a big fan of Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, but as I've grown I feel the sugar content in it is really high and it gives me gut-rot. In my opinion, this brew with a little lemonade mixed in is a Summer Shandy killer for sure. Will definitely be brewing this again!

I am going to try this one next. Thanks

FG came out to 1010 into the cooler for 5 days of conditioning.

what other yeast strains can be used as i cant get wyeast 1010

I brewed a version of this yesterday. For some reason my efficiency was way off. I have a 15 gallon mash tun and I think I need a certain critical mass of grain in order to achieve my usual 90%+ efficiency (like 15 lbs+). For this I did a 7 gallon batch using about 10 lbs of grain and the output of the recirculation hose pushed a bunch of the grain aside leaving me to wonder if this worked like one big channel in the grain bed. Anyway, I ended up with 1.037 wort, and supplemented with wheat and barley LME to bring the OG up to 1.048.

I used the following water profile: Ca=50, Mg=10, Na=16, Cl=71, S04=69 (from Electric Brewery's weizen recipe)

I made some changes to the hop schedule:

Cascade 14g @ 15 min
Huell Melon 56g and 2 1/8 oz (by weight) orange zest whirlpool/stand at 180F for 30 min

I prepared the zest from about 8 navel oranges using a real zester to avoid going too deep.

The wort had nice orange citrusy taste with some bitter bite (maybe too much). I can't really tell if the bitterness is from the orange or hops. If I had it to do over I would skip the cascade entirely and just do the whirlpool. I wasn't sure if I could believe the IBU numbers Beersmith puts out for the whirlpool hop addition (16.4). With the Cascade, we're at 20.6 IBU. Maybe a little high, but hopefully the alcohol will smooth out the bite I tasted in the wort.

I had a jar of Conan (Yeastbay) left over from another brew a few weeks ago, so I made a 1/2 gallon starter from that, and pitched at 65F. The carboy had erupted by this morning. I'm running the fermentation at 64F to try to get some peach tones out of the yeast.

Just an update. After 10 days in primary, the FG is 1.013. Second generation Yeast Bay Northeast Ale, FWIW. Has a subtle citrusy flavor from the orange zest, but I'm not getting any of the melon/strawberry people talk about. There is a little alcohol burn making me wonder if pitching onto the yeast cake from a previous batch may have been too much. Fermentation was solidly 64-66F.

I racked off the yeast cake to a fresh carboy and put 2 oz Huell Melon in for a 7 day dry hop today.

One more update. I kegged this last week and it's pretty well carbed now. Still no melon/strawberry after the dry hop. It has a mild citrusy overtone, but nothing in particular stands out. One flavor I'm not liking is a slightly stale tone to the beer.. kind of like the smell of beer residue in your fridge. It lacks that "fresh" taste that well made beer has. My racking cane aspirated quite a bit of air during transfer to the keg, but I'm wondering if my boils have not been vigorous enough and the problem is DMS.

I did another batch of beer this weekend making sure I had a vigorous boil with no lid on the kettle, and for 90 minutes instead of my usual 60. I will buy a new racking cane. Hopefully that will cure the problem. For now I am liking this wheat for summer, but not loving it. If I attempt it again, I think I'll use a real hef yeast.

I brewed this about 6 months ago and it never fell into the rotation (I binge brewed 10 batches or so and this one was set aside once fall came). I just put it back in the keezer today. It's still pretty good but I was wondering if anyone has dryhopped this with orange peel. I think a little more orange would make it just right. I could also go the citrus-y hop route if that would accomplish the same thing. Just wondering what others have done.

Hey guys,
Did a batch of this last night

3 Gal Brew
5.3lb Wheat Malt
2.2lb American 2-row
50grams Quaker instant oats

WB06 wheat yeast

Cascade .3oz 75min
Cascade .3oz 25min
Cascade .6oz 5min
1 whole orange peel .6oz 5min

BIAB - 156 degrees F for 60mins
Boiled for 75mins - didn't really hit a rolling boil till 20mins in therefore extended the boil time to 75mins

FG after boil was 1.036

I had to head out to fetch my wife for a bit and left the wort for 1hr after mashing.
( hook the bags up to drip )

Then I pitched it 100 degree F cause brewday went on till 2am!
Temperature stabilised to 78 - 80 degree F region ( best current temp i can achieve, have not gotten a ferment fridge )

I split it to 2 Fermenters, 1 Gal and 2 Gal.
Gonna dry hop the 1 Gal one ! wish me luck !!
Hope it turns out okay hmmmm

This sure makes a pretty beer that tastes just like its namesake implies - refreshing summertime!

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