Watermelon Wheat Recipe

[Abbas]

I'm looking to make a watermelon wheat beer (all-grain) and could use some assistance.

1) I found a recipe, but would love to alter it/find additional recipes that someone has had success with.

2) How much watermelon should I use in a 5-6 gallon batch so the flavor will make it to the finished product.

3) Should I sanitize the watermelon I puree and if so by what means?

4) Should I filter the pulp after pureeing the watermelon?

5) Anything else to add?

Thanks

 

[Rob2010SS]

I'm looking to make a watermelon wheat beer (all-grain) and could use some assistance.

1) I found a recipe, but would love to alter it/find additional recipes that someone has had success with.

2) How much watermelon should I use in a 5-6 gallon batch so the flavor will make it to the finished product. Watermelon could be a very faint flavor but to play it on the safe side, I'd say 1 lb / gallon, so 5-6 lbs total. If you want to go heavy on the watermelon, you could maybe do 1.25 lb / gallon which for a 6 gallon batch would be 7.5 lbs.

3) Should I sanitize the watermelon I puree and if so by what means? You could do either. You could sanitize it by soaking it in starsan solution or vodka. You could also just freeze them. The way I've been doing it is puree the fruit in a food processor and freeze it. Then add this to secondary and rack on top of it.

4) Should I filter the pulp after pureeing the watermelon? I wouldn't. Just add it all to the fermenter.

5) Anything else to add?

Thanks

Here's my two cents. I've been doing a few fruit beers lately. Never done a wheat or used watermelon but these are just my guesses of where to start.

 

[enkamania]

I use 6.6 lbs in a five gallon batch. This year I will puree it and add to the fermenter after about 4 days.

 

[jtratcliff]

I've tried this recipe and it came out quite good...


edit to add... skip to here for version 5 of the recipe...

 

[chickypad]

I do a watermelon wheat every summer and it's always a big hit, here's a summary of basic recipe:
OG 1.052
FG 1.010
Grainbill:
50% american 2 row
50% white wheat (sometimes sub in 10% flaked wheat)

Hops: Perle (or can sub in Hallertau or other noble-like hop)
60 min additon to get about 20 IBU
.75 oz per 5 gal at 5 min
Wyeast 1010 (have made it with other neutral yeast but I prefer the 1010 - clean with just a hint of tartness)

After primary is finished I juice a watermelon - using a similar technique to the one shown by DubbelDach in the thread linked above by jtratcliff - and add directly to the keg, letting it ferment out (you can carb the keg that way if you seal it). It's easier than messing with whole fruit chunks and IME comes out with better flavor. I do about 1 cup fresh juice per gallon of beer.

I've tried small alterations to the grainbill like adding a little vienna or a little light crystal but I always come back to the 50/50 wheat and 2 row.

 

[Abbas]

I've tried this recipe and it came out quite good...


edit to add... skip to here for version 5 of the recipe...

Why didn’t I see this thread before?! Thanks

I do a watermelon wheat every summer and it's always a big hit, here's a summary of basic recipe:
OG 1.052
FG 1.010
Grainbill:
50% american 2 row
50% white wheat (sometimes sub in 10% flaked wheat)

Hops: Perle (or can sub in Hallertau or other noble-like hop)
60 min additon to get about 20 IBU
.75 oz per 5 gal at 5 min
Wyeast 1010 (have made it with other neutral yeast but I prefer the 1010 - clean with just a hint of tartness)

After primary is finished I juice a watermelon - using a similar technique to the one shown by DubbelDach in the thread linked above by jtratcliff - and add directly to the keg, letting it ferment out (you can carb the keg that way if you seal it). It's easier than messing with whole fruit chunks and IME comes out with better flavor. I do about 1 cup fresh juice per gallon of beer.

I've tried small alterations to the grainbill like adding a little vienna or a little light crystal but I always come back to the 50/50 wheat and 2 row.

I’m looking to make this subtly sweet, not crazy, but definitely a little. Do you think this recipe is more on the dry side?

I was also looking at using SafBrew T-58. Do you have any experience using this yeast? I heard it leaves a little spicy flavor which I think could be nice.

I want it to be a watermelon bomb (if possible), but don’t want to ruin the beer. If I wanted to go heavy on the watermelon do you think it would tast bad? And what’s the most watermelon you have used? I’m making this mainly for my fiancée.
Unfortunately I don’t have a keg setup yet. Just bought myself a ss brew bucket bme, but a keg system is on my list of next items.

I was looking into crystal malt. What did you not like about that addition?

 

[chickypad]

I'm actually not a big fruit beer person unless it's in a sour but I like this recipe, possibly because it does drink fairly dry. Fresh watermelon is pretty subtle but it comes through with just the base malt, as I recall the crystal seemed to detract from that. I tasted a beer one time with the watermelon flavoring and hated it, though it will get you bigger flavor.

 

[Abbas]

I'm actually not a big fruit beer person unless it's in a sour but I like this recipe, possibly because it does drink fairly dry. Fresh watermelon is pretty subtle but it comes through with just the base malt, as I recall the crystal seemed to detract from that. I tasted a beer one time with the watermelon flavoring and hated it, though it will get you bigger flavor.

I don’t want to detract from the watermelon flavor and definitely don’t want to use watermelon flavoring. I guess watermelon doesn’t have a very strong flavor to begin with. If I amped up the watermelon to 7-8 cups for a 5-6 gallon batch do you think the sugars from the fruit would dry out the beer further?

 

[chickypad]

Well the brix of the watermelon juice isn't that high, 10 or under when I've measured it (so under 1.040). 8 cups is a half gallon so you'd be adding like 0.4 cups of sugar to the whole batch at most. The other option is to not let it ferment out either by keeping it cold or adding sorbate/campden, but then you wouldn't be able to bottle carb.

 

[SEndorf]

@chickypad
I've got 10 gallons blasting away in the fermenter with Safale 05. I wanted to try the first batch with a neutral yeast.
My plan is to add the watermelon juice to the fermenter just before cold crash, then pressurize the fermenter to keg. Would this produce acceptable results?
I think I read that you do differently, adding directly to the keg?

 

[chickypad]

@chickypad
I've got 10 gallons blasting away in the fermenter with Safale 05. I wanted to try the first batch with a neutral yeast.
My plan is to add the watermelon juice to the fermenter just before cold crash, then pressurize the fermenter to keg. Would this produce acceptable results?
I think I read that you do differently, adding directly to the keg?

I add it at room temp and let it ferment out before chilling (when I bottled I would add it to the fermenter, now I just add directly to the keg). If you chill right away you might keep it from fermenting, so might be a little sweeter if that's what you want.

 

[homebrewer_99]

One recommendation I would like to add is when you puree the watermelon make sure you subtract this volume from the overall volume. If you don't you're just watering the melon flavor down.

 

[SEndorf]

I add it at room temp and let it ferment out before chilling (when I bottled I would add it to the fermenter, now I just add directly to the keg). If you chill right away you might keep it from fermenting, so might be a little sweeter if that's what you want.

OK.. Thanks.
First fruit beer. They never really grabbed my attention... until now.
I think I'll add juice to the fermenter and hold 4 days before the crash. I typically tap one keg and store one keg at room temp.
Being new to this style, I'm presuming the juice will have adequately fermented out for room temp storage?

 

[homebrewer_99]

If you're kegging it's not an issue if the beer isn't done fermenting. The CO2 produced will provide carbonation.