Another "anyone tried this" thread with a story

[cuinrearview]

I finally found a way to get the wife into brewing, and I may have kicked myself square in the junk by opening my mouth.

Days after announcing that I was to get back into brewing, we were sitting around watching the tele. Mind you, I had already found the site and the thoughts were swirling pretty much all day about the brewing process, so I was feeling pretty confident. She was drinking one of those stupid "Mojito malt beverages" that the girls seem to like. She started to talk about mint in beer. I told her "ya, we can do that, let me research a bit and we'll find something you'll like". Now, I know what she likes, and I've tasted the $hit she was drinking and I know what she expects.

She has been really cool about the whole brewing thing, even helping me with the "comeback batch". I've since brewed an amber that went onto the cake from the first batch (an APA) and is in the primary, and I'm thinking about a wheat. She lacks the patience that is needed for brewing, and is hounding me for her "mojito" beer. I've looked and the only mint recipes that I can find are pretty much chocolate stouts. Obviously, that won't work. At the same time, I've been thinking about a wheat recipe. So, here's what I'm thinking for 5 gallons:

6lbs wheat (dry or liquid extract)
1oz tett. for 60 mins.
mint, lemon and orange zest at 15? min. (need to research amounts a bit, but will probably follow what the citrus wheat recipe on here calls for)
A clean yeast, either WLP001 or the american wheat

Two weeks in primary, probably two more in bottles with a larger than normal primer to give lots of bubbles.

So, how does this sound? It sounds like a great laying on an air matress in the lake beer to me, but she can't wait that long.

Please feel free to chime in.

 

[Homercidal]

Hmmm interesting. you know, i have mint groeing around my house. i could try this. At least I could try this during the summer.

Let me know how this turns out!

I think a wheat might be good, but you know anything you make at home is automatically going to make it legit. Don't worry about making something uncool. Just make it and see what happens. Then post it heare so we don't make your mistakes!

 

[Aclay]

I think the mint, lemon, and orange zest should go in at flameout, not 15 minutes. Bruse the mint too. That's my two cents. I'm thinking about a Chocolet Mint Stout, sounds good. Kinda like a "York" maybe or a liquid alchoholic Junior mint?

 

[Germey]

You need to tell her, "I can do this, I just need some more equipment". Then go buy yourself a kegging set up and use one to force carbonate some water, mint, sugar, lime juice, and light rum. You'll have a deadly concoction on tap that you can serve her whenever she starts asking too many questions. You could even spend a couple hours mixing and boiling other stuff to make it look like there was a process involved.

 

[tentacles]

Alternatively you could use menthol or peppermint oil to add the mint flavor. The menthol may also have a slight side effect of reducing chance of infection.

 

[Blender]

A clean wheat beer would be a good starting point but I would add a concentrated mint tea at bottling time and taste test until happy with the outcome.

 

[bajabuc]

Brew her up a mead...My wife loves the Raspberry Ginger I made just for her.
I'm collecting the stuff to do a blueberry ginger next. Honey is expensive.
It takes a lot of education to get a woman to drink real beer.
Good beer grows on ya.

 

[cuinrearview]

Thanks to those that have responded. I think that I am going to go ahead with this. The problem with fooling/lying to the wife is that she is smart! Smarter than me. She's a medical lab. scientist. All of the stuff that comes out of you that gets tested when you go to the hospital, that's her testing it. I'd like to have her understand the process, whether she likes the results or not. We've been having discussions (actually she's been teaching me) about culturing/slanting yeast. She really has no problem drinking commercial micros, but prefers the simpler stuff. If I bridge the gap with something that WE make in the kitchen, I'll be golden. I was just hoping someone had tried a light mint beer, maybe with a ballpark on amounts and times to add it. Thanks again for the feedback.

 

[cuinrearview]

Oh, and on the mead, this is definately on the to do, along with the apfelwein. Just need some stock first.

 

[DeathBrewer]

that sounds like it could work, but in the meantime...have you tried apfelwein yet? the women love it!

EDIT: ooh! beat me to it, lol

 

[CBBaron]

Honey is expensive.

Are you sure?
3.3# can LME $14.69 = $4.45/lb
5# Local Clover Honey $19.19 = $3.84/lb
The sugar amounts in both are very similar. I'd say mead it is comparable to extract brewing in cost.
That is the prices from a major HBS, I can get decent honey from Costco for $1.62/lb which is much lower than I can buy bulk extract and with the honey it comes in 5# containers. I think honey is under valued, it is cheaper to make mead than wine from kits and similar price per point OG to extract beers.
That said I like my beer and will probably make much more beer than mead but I will experiment with mead.

On topic I think a mint could work very well with a sweet mead. Maybe a little orange zest to help the mint flavor along.
Craig

 

[tentacles]

There *are* wine cooler type malt extract kits out there, that use a clear malt extract and my LHBS has a few flavors. I know, extract, etc, but at least it would get her a beverage going.

 

[RadicalEd]

CBBaron, I see some truth in your arguements. But very often, 6.6 lbs of LME is sufficient for a batch, but I've seen meads with 25lbs of honey in them...Which is ~$100 at $19/5 lbs. Admittedly, you can often buy honey in 5 gallon increments for $100 if you find a local beekeeper, so the cost can be significantly lower if you and a buddy or two split it up, but a batch of mead is still a very expensive proposition to us $10 a batch all-grainers .

 

[g_rath]

Just a random thought about the mint. Bruising is good to get more flavor out, but what about freezing. that should puncture all the cell walls and turn it to mush. you don’t want it to look good, just give out maximum flavor.

 

[BigKahuna]

What if you start with an ULTRA Clean wheat ale, then at bottling, dump a bottle of Mojito mix in there?

 

[swatchie]

how did this turn out? Did the beer taste pretty good?

 

[ChefMichael01]

I'd also be interested in how this turned out? My younger sister wanted me to brew her a beer "with mint in it."

 

[Beerthoven]

You need to tell her, "I can do this, I just need some more equipment". Then go buy yourself a kegging set up and use one to force carbonate some water, mint, sugar, lime juice, and light rum. You'll have a deadly concoction on tap that you can serve her whenever she starts asking too many questions. You could even spend a couple hours mixing and boiling other stuff to make it look like there was a process involved.

Germey, you are my hero.

 

[p4ck37p1mp]

Germey, you are my hero.

That post reminds me of the old Cosby show episode where he was cooking something and had pots filled with twigs etc to make it look more involved than it actually was.