Adding flavor to a wheat extract kit

[Partsjay]

Hi, I'm new to the site and new to home brewing. I have brewed one batch of Pale Ale, but haven't tried it yet as it is still fermenting. I have a Wheat extract kit that I was thinking of adding some favors to it. Maybe a honey or a strawberry. Any of you done this before and have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[Furore]

Hey Partsjay,

Welcome to HBT! Adding honey in smaller amounts (1-2lbs) is just going to knock up your ABV a bit and add a nice crisp finish to your beer. Its also going to thin your beer a bit and dry it out. You really aren't going to get much in the way of honey flavor. Its a really clean fermentable sugar, and I honestly do this quite a bit. Your best bet for making the honey flavor come through is to add it at flameout (maybe 3 lb or so). Different sugars do different things. Heres a decent resource: http://www.culturesforhealth.com/guide-to-sugars-homebrewing-beer

As far as fruit, i'd say a good rule of thumb is maybe a lb of fruit per gallon, or maybe a little less depending on how potent the fruit is and how pronounced you want the flavor to be. You can use either whole, chopped, or pureed fruit, and frozen works fine too. I would probably soak the fruit in some vodka for a little bit to sanitize it, and then chop/puree and add it to secondary.

If you aren't already, i would recommend keeping a brew log and keep track of what you do and what kits / recipes you modify. It helps when you have a few dozen batches under your belt and you're trying to remember what you did. Also, regarding extract brewing, look into late LME/DME additions. That will really help the flavor of your brews.

Happy Brewing!

Cheers,
Furore

 

[filthyastronaut]

Honey Wheats are a good idea, I would do a lb. of high quality honey at flameout, preferably raw from a local source if available. That will be difficult to detect on its own, so I would also steep .25-.5 lbs. of Honey Malt, which does very well when used in conjunction with actual honey. I wouldn't go more than that though, because it will get into cloyingly sweet and overpowering territory. Go with a neutral bittering hop and you should get a nice, delicate honey flavor and aroma.

Alternatively, you could go with 2-3 lbs. of stone fruit like peaches or nectarines. I've had good results from sanitizing the outside of the fruit and the blender with starsan, freezing the puree, and adding it at flameout. This will both ensure the fruit is sanitary and lower the temperature of the wort. Add pectic enzyme if you care about clarity. This works especially well if you use small amounts of something like Citra and/or Amarillo late in the boil, and a tiny .5 ounce dry hop. Helps bring out the fruit character.

 

[Newsman]

Honey Wheats are a good idea, I would do a lb. of high quality honey at flameout, preferably raw from a local source if available. That will be difficult to detect on its own, so I would also steep .25-.5 lbs. of Honey Malt, which does very well when used in conjunction with actual honey. I wouldn't go more than that though, because it will get into cloyingly sweet and overpowering territory. Go with a neutral bittering hop and you should get a nice, delicate honey flavor and aroma.

Alternatively, you could go with 2-3 lbs. of stone fruit like peaches or nectarines. I've had good results from sanitizing the outside of the fruit and the blender with starsan, freezing the puree, and adding it at flameout. This will both ensure the fruit is sanitary and lower the temperature of the wort. Add pectic enzyme if you care about clarity. This works especially well if you use small amounts of something like Citra and/or Amarillo late in the boil, and a tiny .5 ounce dry hop. Helps bring out the fruit character.

Isn't that somewhat of an oxymoron -- clarity and wheat?

 

[filthyastronaut]

Isn't that somewhat of an oxymoron -- clarity and wheat?

Actually my 100 percent wheats tend to achieve Blonde Ale clarity if you decant off the yeast in the bottle! I tend to like them clear if it's an American wheat. Also in my experience wheat extract clears fairly easy, but it probably depends on the extract.

 

[kristiismean]

To the OP, you could also use that wheat beer to make Radler's with. It's basically adding lemonade (very light lemonade) to the beer in approx 50/50 mix with the beer and is very common overseas..

 

[Newsman]

Actually my 100 percent wheats tend to achieve Blonde Ale clarity if you decant off the yeast in the bottle! I tend to like them clear if it's an American wheat. Also in my experience wheat extract clears fairly easy, but it probably depends on the extract.

I was half-way joking, but it was my understanding that part of the BJCP guidelines for a wheat beer was that it wasn't necessarily supposed to be clear. Maybe I misunderstood?

 

[filthyastronaut]

I was half-way joking, but it was my understanding that part of the BJCP guidelines for a wheat beer was that it wasn't necessarily supposed to be clear. Maybe I misunderstood?

Just checked, at least for American wheats, it can be anywhere from brilliant clarity to complete haziness.

 

[Newsman]

Just checked, at least for American wheats, it can be anywhere from brilliant clarity to complete haziness.

Good to know. The way I've understood it presented was that it was almost expected to be hazy, but that may just be my misunderstanding.

 

[WisePrey]

While I didn't make it from an actual kit, I did make a lemon wheat beer a few weeks ago off a recipe I found in the recipe database. I haven't actually tasted it yet (just bottled it last week, so soon). Basically added 6 ounces of lemon juice with some lemon zest at about 15 minutes left in the boil. I also used Hefewiezen IV Ale yeast however, when bottling, the aroma ended up being strongly of banana instead of lemon.

 

[JunkCatsOnThePorch]

Anyone ever try steeping honey malt in an extract brew? I added 1 pound to a 5 gallon all grain wheat and got way more honey flavor than i hoped for.

 

[kristiismean]

We added honey to a kolsh kit, but a 1/2 pound. and it's still in the primary so cannot update results.