Wheat Wine the Overlooked style

I've been reading "Brewing with Wheat" by Stan Hieronymus and I came across a really small section that mentions a new style of beer called the "wheat Wine". It's brewed to a barleywine strength, but the book quotes it's vital statistics as follows:

Gold to amber in color
Crafted from 50% or more wheat malt
Full body & Hugh residual sweetness
IBU's are moderate to low with low to moderate hop aroma and flavor
Fruity ester characters are counterbalanced by complexity of alcohols and high alcohol content. >10% ABV

I plan on crafting a wheat Wine within the next several weeks. Otherwise i would get started this weekend on it. I'm heading to Munich for Oktoberfest this this weekend. So I don't have time at the moment...what do you guys think?

Sounds awesome and I'm definitely looking forward to trying a good example of the style.

Let us know if you end up brewing a batch of this and how it turned out.

I've brewed Todd Ashman's recipe from that same book with great success.
I brewed it to the high end of what his recipe is listed at; mine came in at 1.108 - was shooting for 1.110. It finished at 1.024

In fact, several friends and I have brewed this same recipe to fill a twenty six gallon oak barrel that was just drained of apple brandy; I expect this will be awesome :rockin:

Haputanlas said:

Sounds awesome and I'm definitely looking forward to trying a good example of the style.

Let us know if you end up brewing a batch of this and how it turned out.

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It really intrigues me, and I will definitely let you guys know if I craft a batch.

DeadHead_Brewering said:

I've brewed Todd Ashman's recipe from that same book with great success.
I brewed it to the high end of what his recipe is listed at; mine came in at 1.108 - was shooting for 1.110. It finished at 1.024

In fact, several friends and I have brewed this same recipe to fill a twenty six gallon oak barrel that was just drained of apple brandy; I expect this will be awesome :rockin:

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That's awesome to hear that someone attempted and succeded. The apple brandy soaked barrel is brilliant! I'm actually wondering how stable Wheat Wine really is. Typically wheat beers don't age well, and people I came across that crafted barleywin's tend to age to have the flavors mend. How would you describe Todd's recipe?

I brewed poobahs wheat wine last falls and maybe the hops have droped out a bit but it is still a great sipper.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f74/poobahs-wheat-wine-117610/index3.html

runs4beer said:

I brewed poobahs wheat wine last falls and maybe the hops have droped out a bit but it is still a great sipper.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f74/poobahs-wheat-wine-117610/index3.html

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Thanks for the info, I'm glad to hear that it CAN be aged like a barleywine!

I'd say the recipe is very similar to any barley wine. It had all the BW character we know and love, with perhaps a touch less caramel flavor - just as Ashman describes.
So far I think it has aged very well; even though it's just under five months old. I believe, I read somewhere wheat wines will age as well as any other beer in this gravity range.
I'll brew this again, as is...even without an oak apple brandy barrel to put it in!

Well, to be fair to Todd Ashman, my recipe wasn't exactly like his, but I leaned heavily on his recipe for inspiration.
Here's what I came up with based on what I had on hand...and is the same recipe that's going into the apple brandy barrel:

Recipe: Wheat Wine
Brewer: DeadHead_Brewering
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Barley wine
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.50 gal
Boil Size: 9.00 gal
OG: 1.120
FG: 1.024
Estimated Color: 9.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 75.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
14 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 49.81 %
6 lbs 12.6 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 24.14 %
4 lbs 12.9 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 17.10 %
1 lbs 4.1 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4.47 %
10.1 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.24 %
10.1 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 2.24 %
72.00 gm Centennial [8.70 %] (90 min) Hops 62.5 IBU
22.00 gm Amarillo [7.50 %] (30 min) Hops 8.4 IBU
38.00 gm Cascade [5.40 %] (10 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
38.00 gm Cascade [5.40 %] (0 min) Hops -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 28.11 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Mash In Add 35.13 qt of water at 171.3 F 156.0 F
10 min Step Add 12.00 qt of 180 degree water


Notes:
------
1 pack dry US-05 Yeast
1 pack dry Munich Yeast

Don’t let these two measly packs of yeast fool you, ferment cool 60 – 65 and they will rock this down to 1.022-24 with no hot alcohol!

I do not know if you have access to any Duclaw Brewing Co. beers out of Baltimore, Md but heres a commerical example. Quite tasty!

http://www.duclaw.com/micro/misery/

Boulevard makes a great Wheat Wine that comes in 750ml corked/caged bottles called
Harvest Dance. Its really great!

During my trip to Oktoberfest in münchen. I found a Paulaner hefeweizen beer garden. I acquired some samples in my mobilized yeast culturing kit. As of now they're being propagated and I will analyze them this weekend. If all goes well I'm hoping to use this strain to make a wheat wine!

FYI - wheat wines are normally not made with weizen strains. However, I am not judging because I made one earlier this year with 3068.

Woodbury419 said:

During my trip to Oktoberfest in münchen. I found a Paulaner hefeweizen beer garden. I acquired some samples in my mobilized yeast culturing kit. As of now they're being propagated and I will analyze them this weekend. If all goes well I'm hoping to use this strain to make a wheat wine!

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Go for it but you may want to do a traditional hefe first and see how it performs (maybe this is what you mean by analyze). If it's to your liking then you'll have a good cake to harvest from. Also, expect big clove and as the yeast stress from the high OG.

Had my first wheat wine today. Wasn't very impressive. However, I'm pretty sure it was bad representation.

Woodbury419 said:

During my trip to Oktoberfest in münchen. I found a Paulaner hefeweizen beer garden. I acquired some samples in my mobilized yeast culturing kit. As of now they're being propagated and I will analyze them this weekend. If all goes well I'm hoping to use this strain to make a wheat wine!

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If you use a weizen yeast make a BIG starter. It will die out way before you get to your final gravity but you will get the flavor profile. You will have to pitch S-05 or WLP007 or even WLP099 to finish the beer out or it will be way too sweet.