Jazzing up a simple wheat beer?

So my wife picked me up a brewers best extract weizenbier kit at the LHBS. Its just a plain Jane LMH and hops kit with no specialty grains or anything cool. I have been doing PM's for a long while now so it's a modest step backwards from where I have progressed as a home brewer. I have never done a fruit beer and was thinking this might be a good opportunity to give this a go round, but I don't know where to start. Also I just considered doing a lemon zest and corriander addition and forgetting the fruit idea all together.... I need some input from you guys? Help a home brewer out!

I would go one of two routes:

1. Get some raspberry extract or use frozen raspberries in secondary (I actually had a great experience with extract)

2. Use some cascade in the boil (1 oz at 60, .5 oz at 30 and .5 oz at flameout maybe), and dry hop it a bit (1 oz). I did this last summer and it was my favorite beer of the year.

That's what I would do.

How much of the raspberry extract did you use? I am kegging this batch hoping everyone will drink up fast. When did you add the raspberry extract?

moorerm04 said:

How much of the raspberry extract did you use? I am kegging this batch hoping everyone will drink up fast. When did you add the raspberry extract?

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Sorry I just saw secondary.

I'm curious to see some of the responses to this topic also, I like the occasional wheat beer too. I have a wheat beer bottle conditioning right now that I added coriander seed and orange peel to. I'm looking for a Bluish Moon type beer. As I can't comment on the taste quite yet, I did take a taste when I took my FG and it tasted wonderful....

Brewski1975 said:

I'm curious to see some of the responses to this topic also, I like the occasional wheat beer too. I have a wheat beer bottle conditioning right now that I added coriander seed and orange peel to. I'm looking for a Bluish Moon type beer. As I can't comment on the taste quite yet, I did take a taste when I took my FG and it tasted wonderful....

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How much orange peel and coriander did you add? I usually use lemon zest about 2 teaspoons, and about a half teaspoon of crushed coriander the last 10 min of the boil. I have done this with MWS Bavarian wheat two times and it turned our fabulous.

GrumpySquirrel said:

I would go one of two routes:

1. Get some raspberry extract or use frozen raspberries in secondary (I actually had a great experience with extract)

2. Use some cascade in the boil (1 oz at 60, .5 oz at 30 and .5 oz at flameout maybe), and dry hop it a bit (1 oz). I did this last summer and it was my favorite beer of the year.

That's what I would do.

Click to expand...

+1

I 've done a couple batches of hoppy wheat beer and they're great. Mine was inspired by Goose Island's Greenline which was created by their brewmaster as a half/half wheat/IPA.

I made a 20 gallon batch of hef over the summer....
I kegged all of it..
One keg I left alone...
The other 3 I added fruit extract to the kegs....
The first keg I added only half the bottle...slight taste..wanted more...
Second keg I emptied a full bottle of the extract...a little too much....
Third keg, I emptied 3/4 bottle into the keg...just right for my taste
My favorite flavor is apricot, it goes so good with wheat beers...
Igotsand

Camomile and honey. See my recipe pulldown <--.

amingo said:

+1

I 've done a couple batches of hoppy wheat beer and they're great. Mine was inspired by Goose Island's Greenline which was created by their brewmaster as a half/half wheat/IPA.

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What did you use?

moorerm04 said:

How much orange peel and coriander did you add? I usually use lemon zest about 2 teaspoons, and about a half teaspoon of crushed coriander the last 10 min of the boil. I have done this with MWS Bavarian wheat two times and it turned our fabulous.

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On mine I used 2 tablespoons of coriander the last 15 minutes of the boil, and I "dry hopped" 1/2 oz of orange peel after primary. I'm hoping that it will have a strong orange taste to it as its for SWMBO... I'm thinking it will taste great, we will see in about a week...

Brewski1975 said:

On mine I used 2 tablespoons of coriander the last 15 minutes of the boil, and I "dry hopped" 1/2 oz of orange peel after primary. I'm hoping that it will have a strong orange taste to it as its for SWMBO... I'm thinking it will taste great, we will see in about a week...

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Yeah I am not big on coriander, but I love citrusy wheat beers and I feel like it really comes out with the lemon zest.

Keep the ideas rolling in guys!