Summer Beer

I am new to all of this and was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for kit to brew for summer. I know most in this section don't use kits, but I have only brewed a couple kits and am still trying to find my legs before I venture out on my own. I am a hophead and can't quite understand why anyone would drink anything else Well anyway, I have a few friends that prefer something . . . well . . . that doesn't make you puck up quite so much. I was still hoping for a little hoppiness but not quite IPA hoppiness. I was also hoping for something that was either lemon-y or citrus-y and a bit on the light side (think summer beer). Brewers Best has the Belgian Wit, Weizen, and a Summer Ale. Midwest has a Hefe Weizen and a Lemon Coriander Weiss that sounds pretty entriguing. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Riles

The Wit, Hefe and Weiss are not hoppy at all, they have almost no hop presents. If you want some hoppyness but not too much I would brew an American Pale Ale like a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. Are you firmiliar with IBU? the higher the IBU the more hoppy or bitter. This is a good gadge of hoppyness. You could also check out a beer style guide (google search) to find a style of beer that matches what you have in mind.

I'm with you though, give me an IIPA any day! cheers

A kit? Get a Wit, Kolsch, Cream Ale, Blonde, Wheat...

But really, after 1 or 2 batches, you are certainly more than qualified to purchase the ingredients for a beer without buying a kit. Just find a good recipe, go to LHBS, and buy what you need. The instructions are pretty much standard for each kind of brewing.

If you want some more help, just pick a style of beer and we will argue about exactly what ingredients to use and how to brew it. It's pretty easy.

Oh alright, I'm game to try a recipe from scratch. You talked me into it. Anyone have a good recommendation for a quality Wheat Beer recipe? Maybe with a bit of a citrus'y thing going on. I'm thinking maybe a witbier. Something my non-hophead friends will enjoy.

Any tips for brewing this style? I have done a couple of IPA's so I feel pretty comfortable with those. Anything different about wheat beers?

Riles

Biermucher has an awesome Wit recipe that I brewed and loved.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/just-another-brew-day-pics-99893/

Check it out and see what you think! Not hoppy at all obviously but still quite delicious.

Riles_J said:

Oh alright, I'm game to try a recipe from scratch. You talked me into it. Anyone have a good recommendation for a quality Wheat Beer recipe? Maybe with a bit of a citrus'y thing going on. I'm thinking maybe a witbier. Something my non-hophead friends will enjoy.

Any tips for brewing this style? I have done a couple of IPA's so I feel pretty comfortable with those. Anything different about wheat beers?

Riles

Click to expand...

I have a Summer Wheat that is always a hit. It's a wheat beer, half Pale Malt and half White Wheat malt. What that translates into Extract I'm not sure. Maybe 6lbs of Dry Wheat Extract, since it's almost half barley and half wheat? I'm not familiar with Extract, hopefully someone can chime in. Anyway, it's hopped up, but with low bitterness. It may be a nice middle of the road beer for you all. Everyone loves it. It was the first of 6 different kegs drained at my St. Patrick's Day party. My Americanized Witbier turned out very nice as well. Drinking a glass now. I used American 2-row and White Wheat, and a couple late hop additions of citrusy American Hops. Let me know if you're interested in either. I can post them both if you want. Someone will need to help with the Extract conversion. I don't trust the BeerSmith conversion. I have tried a couple ways and get waaay different results each time.

You want a pale ale.

I just brewed a very simple summer ale with minimal ingredients and it tastes great. For a 3 gallon boil/5 gallon final extract recipe: 6-6.6 lbs light or pilsen LME/DME with 3-4 oz Amarillo hops at 15 minutes left into the boil. Yeast of your choice. This gave me a smooth, pleasantly bitter/dry, aromatic and lemony pint.

For extract Wit a recipe I've used:

3 lbs extra light DME
3 lbs. Light Wheat DME
1 oz East Kent Goldings
.75 oz fresh orange zest (or dry bitter orange peel)
.75 oz crushed coriander
1 packet Nottingham or other yeast

Boil extract and hops for 1 hour. At flameout add the zest and coriander. Chill and pitch favorite yeast. I have used Notingham with great results. Less funkiness than a belgian wit yeast, and a more compact sediment. Flavor is more similar to blue moon than hoegaarden.

It's based on the Blue Balls Wit recipe on the board here somewhere. This is off the top of my head, so I hope it's accurate.

If you are looking for a nice summer brew, go to a brewing site that sells colnes and seasonal kits. When I first started I loved austinhomebrew.com. They have a great selection of clone kits as well as a list of seasonal beers. I am in the process of making a honey hybiscus wit. A few summers back I brewed a Sam Adams Summer Ale clone and it came out great. Not identical to the real thing, but it is a great summer beer.

for a nice summer beer with some hop presence I would do a clone of Southern Tier's Hop Sun.

From what I have gathered from here for a recipe for that its:

Type: All Grain
Date: 7/15/2009
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Brewer: Chris
Boil Size: 7.00 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.8 SRM) Grain 55.26 %
3.25 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 34.21 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 10.53 %
0.50 oz Centennial [9.10 %] (60 min) Hops 15.7 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [9.10 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Centennial [9.10 %] (30 min) Hops 12.1 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [9.10 %] (5 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
1 Pkgs Pac-Man (Wyeast Labs #1764) [Starter 1000 ml] Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.007 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.05 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 34.1 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.0 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body Total Grain Weight: 9.50 lb
Sparge Water: 3.52 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Light Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 11.88 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 7.60 qt of water at 200.2 F 168.0 F



Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

I have yet to brew this but I want to as I have everything to brew it.