Hi there.
The subject of an all-wheat-malt beer has already been tackled here a few times, but seems to lack notes on taste and final results. As such, I thought I'd share my impressions of an all-wheat beer I brewed lately, in case anyone is interested.
My recipe was largely stolen from the Basic Brewing recipe from December 2010. Since I did not know what to expect, I made a small one gallon experimental batch.
I call this recipe "Chhhhwheat".
Recipe Details:
Mash type: BIAB
Chill type: No-chill cube
Boil length: 60 minutes
Pre-Boil volume: 2.1 gallons (8 liters)
Post-boil volume: 1.58 gallons (6 liters)
Final volume: 1 gallon (3.78 liters)
OG: 1.075
FG: Did not take, estimated 1.019
ABV: About 7.4%
IBU: 40
Fermentables:
4.4lbs (2000g) Wheat Malt (Best Malz)
Hops:
0.3oz (8g) Fuggles (4.8%) for 60 minutes*
0.21oz (6g) Fuggles (4.8%) for 30 minutes*
0.21oz (6g) Belma (11.3%) for 20 minutes*
* hop additions were adjusted for no-chill, see notes below
Yeast:
~5g Rehydrated Nottingham
Procedure:
You will notice I used a neutral yeast instead of a wheat yeast. As we don't have liquid yeasts in Israel, and due to my bad/mediocre experiences with Fermentis WB-06 and Danstar Munich in the past, I decided to go with something "safer".
Notes and Impressions:
Color: medium brown color. I did not expect the portion of the grist I roasted to make that much of a difference on color, but it did.
Clarity: fairly cloudy.
Head: large head, small bubbles, not at all creamy, surprisingly inadequate head retention (disappeared rather quickly), almost no lacing.
Aroma: "wheaty", malty, not very yeasty, somewhat estery, smells like a traditional Hefeweizen really.
Taste: this is a hefeweizen if I've ever tasted one. Medium bodied, a touch of roastiness from the roasted wheat, well balanced if a bit on the malty side, some acidity attributed to relatively higher carbonation.
Drinkability: definitely not a session beer as per relatively high ABV. A bottle of 25oz (740ml) gave me a bit of a buzz (I'm on a diet these past few months, my beer/alcohol drinking frequency went from once every day to once every week).
Overall I'm surprised at how good this beer tastes, and how much it reminds me of Franziskaner Weissbier and other Hefes, though ever since I started brewing I hardly ever drink commercial beers so it's been a while since I drank some Franziskaner (I used to drink a lot of it).
This definitely puts to rest any doubts I had about the diastatic power of wheat malt and whether an all-wheat beer is possible or any good. This beer is not sweet/watery/overly malty/just a mess of unfermentable wort. Rather, it's a well balanced Hefeweizen, leaning a bit towards the malty side.
Definitely worth a try.
The subject of an all-wheat-malt beer has already been tackled here a few times, but seems to lack notes on taste and final results. As such, I thought I'd share my impressions of an all-wheat beer I brewed lately, in case anyone is interested.
My recipe was largely stolen from the Basic Brewing recipe from December 2010. Since I did not know what to expect, I made a small one gallon experimental batch.
I call this recipe "Chhhhwheat".
Recipe Details:
Mash type: BIAB
Chill type: No-chill cube
Boil length: 60 minutes
Pre-Boil volume: 2.1 gallons (8 liters)
Post-boil volume: 1.58 gallons (6 liters)
Final volume: 1 gallon (3.78 liters)
OG: 1.075
FG: Did not take, estimated 1.019
ABV: About 7.4%
IBU: 40
Fermentables:
4.4lbs (2000g) Wheat Malt (Best Malz)
Hops:
0.3oz (8g) Fuggles (4.8%) for 60 minutes*
0.21oz (6g) Fuggles (4.8%) for 30 minutes*
0.21oz (6g) Belma (11.3%) for 20 minutes*
* hop additions were adjusted for no-chill, see notes below
Yeast:
~5g Rehydrated Nottingham
Procedure:
- I started by taking 7oz (200g) from the wheat malt and roasting it in the oven at 302F (150C) for 30 minutes (I wanted some color in this beer).
- Mash started at 133F (45C) for 25 minutes at a volume of about 2 gallons.
- A portion of the mash (about 30%) was then taken out, raised to 158F (70C) for 15 minutes, then boiled for 20 minutes.
- The portion taken was returned to the main mash, which arrived at 147F (64C), where it stayed for 20 minutes.
- The mash was raised to 158F (70C) for 30 minutes.
- BIAB bag was taken out, squeezed, and dunked into 0.5 gallons (2 liters) water at about 158F (70C) to sparge.
- Sparge water added back to main wort and brought to a boil.
- Boiled for 60 minutes. Since I no-chill, hop additions had to be adjusted to correct for increased hop utilization. I generally use The Pol's chart from the no-chill thread. So the additions turned from 60 mins, 30 mins and 20 mins to 40 mins, 10 mins and flameout (or more correctly, thrown into the cube just before transfer from kettle), respectively.
- Wort transferred to 5L no-chill cube.
- The day after that, half a package Nottingham was rehydrated, wort moved to 1G jug, and yeast were pitched.
- Fermented for 21 days at 70F (21C).
- Bottled and primed with 48g (1.7oz) corn sugar.
- Conditioned at 70F (21C) for 21 days.
- Chilled in fridge for a few days.
You will notice I used a neutral yeast instead of a wheat yeast. As we don't have liquid yeasts in Israel, and due to my bad/mediocre experiences with Fermentis WB-06 and Danstar Munich in the past, I decided to go with something "safer".
Notes and Impressions:
Color: medium brown color. I did not expect the portion of the grist I roasted to make that much of a difference on color, but it did.
Clarity: fairly cloudy.
Head: large head, small bubbles, not at all creamy, surprisingly inadequate head retention (disappeared rather quickly), almost no lacing.
Aroma: "wheaty", malty, not very yeasty, somewhat estery, smells like a traditional Hefeweizen really.
Taste: this is a hefeweizen if I've ever tasted one. Medium bodied, a touch of roastiness from the roasted wheat, well balanced if a bit on the malty side, some acidity attributed to relatively higher carbonation.
Drinkability: definitely not a session beer as per relatively high ABV. A bottle of 25oz (740ml) gave me a bit of a buzz (I'm on a diet these past few months, my beer/alcohol drinking frequency went from once every day to once every week).
Overall I'm surprised at how good this beer tastes, and how much it reminds me of Franziskaner Weissbier and other Hefes, though ever since I started brewing I hardly ever drink commercial beers so it's been a while since I drank some Franziskaner (I used to drink a lot of it).
This definitely puts to rest any doubts I had about the diastatic power of wheat malt and whether an all-wheat beer is possible or any good. This beer is not sweet/watery/overly malty/just a mess of unfermentable wort. Rather, it's a well balanced Hefeweizen, leaning a bit towards the malty side.
Definitely worth a try.
