Cherry Wheat, Berry garcia recipe

[beer_pro]

I wanted to brew a cherry wheat for my girlfriend and stumbled across this "Berry Garcia" recipe from this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/cherry-wheat-316/index2.html

Hey, I found this recipe in a book entitled "The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide" by Higgins, Kilgore and Hertlein. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds good. I just tried a cranberry ale recipe from the same book, but it won't be ready for another few weeks.

Berry Garcia Ingredients
6 lbs Ireks Weizenbeier Extract
3 lbs Light Malt Extract
1 oz Tettnanger Hops (bittering)
1 package Weihenstephan wheat yeast (#3068)
8lbs assorted berries (the book recommends sweet cherries, sour cherries, blueberries, raspberries, etc)
3/4 cup corn sugar (priming)

Boil extract and hops as normal, ferment in primary for 7 days. Steep fruit in enough water to cover at 150-degrees for 20, add water and fruit to secondary and rack beer to secondary. Ferment for 10 to 14 days; rack to tertiary for additional 2-3 days for clearing (you could also think about using some polyclar). Bottle and age for 10 days.

Hope this helps

I wasnt sure if it was referring to DME or LME I assumed it was LME because of it being 9 lbs of extract. Even so the gravity was still 1.068. Doesnt this seem quite high for a wheat beer? This is my third brew so I am not all that experienced yet. Also when I rack this beer on top of these cherries should I go ahead and rack into another bucket instead of a carboy? It seems like it would be easier then trying to feed those cherries into that small hole. I am also concerned about adding so much extra water to the beer. Although, that could explain the amount of malt that is used in the beginning. Any tips on this recipe I would greatly appreciate. I just put it in the primary a few hours ago.

 

[MMJfan]

Hey BP, are you planning on doing mixed berries or just going with cherries?

This sounds like a tasty brew and as a Deadhead, I love the name of the brew! I may have to try it out.

As for your question, I'm a fellow noob so I really wouldn't know about what adding the extra water and all that fruit would do? I'd be interested to know as well.

 

[beer_pro]

I just wanted to do straight cherries. Fermentation. Is very active so far. Yeast was getting in the bubbler, so I removed it and changed to a blow off hose. Its been about 36 hours and its still bubbiling very quickly.

 

[beer_pro]

Racked the beer onto the cherries yesterday. The specific gravity of the beer was 1.018. It had a pretty good malty taste to it. I pasteurized the cherries at 150F for about 20 minutes. If I do this again I think I may use frozen cherries, it cost me about $50 for 8lbs of fresh ones, but I have really high hopes for this beer. I think it is going to turn out great. I racked into a 6 gallon carboy. I opted for a blow of hose instead of an airlock. I checked this morning and it is bubbling steadily and the cherries have floated to the top of the fermenter. Im concerned that the cherry juice that got on the inside of the fermenter but on the top outside of the juice may mold. I swirled the beer a little with the airlock on trying to coat the juice in the little amount of alcohol that was in there hoping that would prevent anything gross from growing. I followed all the typical sanitation procedures as well. But it still kind of worries me. Is there any advice from anyone more experienced?

 

[Strange_Brew]

Curious how this turns out. Keep us updated as this one sounds yummy!

 

[beer_pro]

Moved the beer to a tertiary carboy today. I am going to let it clear up for about 4 days before I bottle. Specific gravity today was 1.012 . Starting with 1.068 that gives me 7.4% ABV. However when I put the pasteurized cherries in, about half a gallon of water went with it so I am not sure how to calculate this in. I took a reading the day I moved it on the cherries, unfortunately I did it before hand. Now I wish I would have taken a reading after the cherries and water were added. I took a few sips out of the cylinder I use with the hydrometer and it had a very nice flavor. The cherry was quite pronounced. This is going to be a great beer I think.

 

[Strange_Brew]

Pretty high gravity for a wheat. Sounds like you are going to have a great beer in time for the summer!

 

[beer_pro]

I bottled last night. I got 44 bottles out of it. I had quite a bit of waste when separating the beer from the cherries. Gravity the same as last time. Ill crack one open next weekend and see how they are coming along.

 

[sagacity]

That sounds great. I'll have to try this now that it's cherry season! As for what the recipe was calling for, I have found in (almost?) all cases, when it's just "extract" it's referring to LME, and that if it's dry, they always say dry. Let us know how it turned out!

 

[riss_rizzo]

Sounds like a good brew! Did you have any of the issues with the fruit that you were worried about? I have yet to use fruit in a beer, but have been curious.

 

[beer_pro]

No issues really. I used a funnel to put the cherries and water into the carboy after they were pasteurized. No mold or anything grew on the inside top of the carboy where the cherry juice splashed. I thought it was going to be hard to get the cherries out of the carboy for cleaning but they came right out pretty easy. Putting them in the tertiary container definitely helped get rid of a lot of the junk.

 

[normzone]

I made a batch similar to this once, and it turned out great. I plan on doing an IPA version of it soon.

Picked a bunch of blackberries and made an IPA with it once also...it was wild.

 

[beer_pro]

I opened a bottle after 10 days. Taste is nice but the beer is still very hazy. Ill try another one this Friday And see if there is a change. I may have to accept the unfiltered look.

 

[sagacity]

I opened a bottle after 10 days. Taste is nice but the beer is still very hazy. Ill try another one this Friday And see if there is a change. I may have to accept the unfiltered look.

Haze never bothered me, as long as its not indicative of something that's affecting taste.

 

[jsv1204]

I opened a bottle after 10 days. Taste is nice but the beer is still very hazy. Ill try another one this Friday And see if there is a change. I may have to accept the unfiltered look.

Authentic Hefeweizen has a permanent haze. If you used a hefe yeast, it should be hazy. I am not sure if the clear wheat beers are filtered or if it is a different yeast strain.

Btw... The wheat beers I have made don't age well. I saved some bottles thinking I would spread the hazy goodness over a few months and now find myself with Hefeweizen that is past it's prime.

Cheers!

 

[beer_pro]

Opened a bottle this morning, yea i know its early. Beer tastes great. The high amount of malt gives it a sweetness that pairs great with the cherry. The haze diminished quite a bit. There is still some in there, but a lot less then what you would find in something like a white ale. Hardly any head retention or lacing though, i'm not sure exactly what in the recipe or process contributes to that... There are small occasional sesame seed sized bits of cherry in the beer, this particular bottle had around 3 of those.