Making A Std Wheat into Watermelon Wheat

Looking for a little direction/advice here. I have a wheat extract kit from NB and I want to change it up a little. My end goal is a watermelon style wheat. Is it enough to just add in watermelon into the secondary and how much should I add/how long? I'm very new to going off script for extract kits.

 

There is a recipe on the extract forum that I believe is a standard wheat. However, you juice the wm using cheese cloth until you have 2.5 cups, then add it to your secondary fermenter before adding your brew. I made it last year and it was very tasty. Recieved alot of complements for it and plan and brewing again. Wm was not over powering, so I would stay around the 2.5 cups. My mom has a wm patch, so I plan on using those instead of a store bought.

 

So your advice is just put 2.5 cups of watermelon juice into the secondary then rack from primary into secondary? That sounds easy enough. How's the flavor? Noticeable but not overwhelming? Can you still taste the wheat?

 

I thought the flavor was great. Not over powering at all, in fact the wm came through at the end. The wheat was the dominant flavor. I made a 5 gallon batch and bottled it in April for a picinic I was having in July. There was nothing left by the end of the picinic. The recipe is in the extract forum under fruit beers I believe. Not at my pc right now otherwise I would post it for you.

 

Finally said F'it & read this thread. Even my wife thinks it'd be a good idea. I'm thinking a hefeweisen with a hefe yeast for that florally nectar thing & half pound of honey malt. Then 3C of sugar baby watermelon juice @ flame out with the extract in a PM hefe. I thought adding the juice @ flame out would kill any nasty's in the juice.

 

That sounds pretty good. It's the wife driving the decision here as well. Also, the fact that I have a wheat kit and want to do SOMETHING to change it up. So now I'm torn between adding the watermelon juice at flame out when the wort is still hot or when racking to secondary. I am liking the flame out idea to kill anything in the juice that could cause bacteria issues. Thoughts?

 

I like the flame out addition better. Just to be sure everything will go as planned.

 

Watermelon is a pretty delicate flavor, I would vote secondary for that reason. I brew a watermelon wheat every summer and add the juice directly to the keg. I go with 4-5 cups per 5 gal and it seems to ferment out pretty quick - within a couple days. I juice a fresh watermelon with a sanitized spoon, potato masher, and strainer ala DubbelDach's illustrations in this thread. I don't think too many nasties grow inside a watermelon. I also like a cleaner America style for this so as not to compete with the watermelon, but then I'm not a big german hefe fan anyway. If you've got the American wheat kit from NB that should be fine for this.

 

If you want to punch up the watermelon a bit add some extract to taste right before bottling. That will give you that fresh watermelon flavor on top of the juice.

 

I'm brewing the wheat right now. Going to add 2.5-3 cups of watermelon juice at the time I rack to secondary once fermentation settles down. Looking forward to it!

 

Well, I finally took the first FG on the watermelon hefe I brewed on 8/3. Light amber orange color, nicely misty. OG was 1.054. FG is 1.012 today, some 19 days later. With the 3C of juice I added at flame out,it has a very little organic watermelon flavor on the back. I'll have to see what 2.8 volumes of co2 does to bring the flavor out. I'm thinking adding the juice to secondary might've been better?....