Blood Orange Hefeweizen

[raveskdr]

blood oranges are in season. this is the season. well, may's about the end of the season.

That is what I had read on the internet. However, every single store I went to was out of them, and I was told they were now out of season. This includes: Wegmans, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Giant, Shoppers, and Safeway. It was not for lack of trying.

BTW, my lid has blown THREE TIMES now. GRUHHHHH. I over oxygenated my wort, I believe. My airlock kept getting clogged. I should be good now though. As a nice byproduct, my buddies basement smelled wonderfully like banana and tangerine.

 

[calvinroots]

I just stumbled upon this tread. I have brewed this twice and have been real pleased with it. I'm not usually a hefe fan but I like blood oranges so I thought it sounded interesting. The second time I brewed it, I used quite a bit more oranges then I did the first time. When I brewed it I thought I went too far and used too much but now I am happy with it. A lot of other people that taste it really like it too...just figured I'd share that.
BREW IT!

 

[MrLucky13]

Thank you guys this recipe was great. I brewed it a few weeks ago and now my keg is almost gone. Everyone that has tried it has liked it.

Thanks again.

MrLucky13

 

[Law_Brew]

I just stumbled upon this tread. I have brewed this twice and have been real pleased with it. I'm not usually a hefe fan but I like blood oranges so I thought it sounded interesting. The second time I brewed it, I used quite a bit more oranges then I did the first time. When I brewed it I thought I went too far and used too much but now I am happy with it. A lot of other people that taste it really like it too...just figured I'd share that.
BREW IT!

How many did you use?


Where is the best place to get the malt for this beer?

 

[ronllave]

Where is the best place to get the malt for this beer?

I posted this same question a few posts back and raveskdr suggested this place:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/munton-and-fison-uk-wheat-3-3-lb.html

I have not yet ordered it though.

 

[bovineblitz]

Brewmasters' Warehouse all grain recipe:

Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt
5 lbs, 1.44 oz

Weyermann Pale Wheat
3 lbs, 3.04 oz

Saaz, US Pellets
0.5 oz @ 20 mins

Hallertau Pellets, German
0.5 oz @ 10 mins

Hallertau Pellets, German
0.55 oz @ 10 mins

Wyeast Labs Weihenstephan Weizen
1 ea

6 ingredients. $23.29

 

[brewsalot]

I just cooked this last night. I could not find the blood oranges, so I used 4 cara cara oranges. Zest of 2 and cut up the fruit of all 4 and just added the cut fruit and zest straight to my 6.5 glass carboy. I also decided to add the zest of 1 lemon as well. I used the White labs 380 yeast and it is off to a fast start as of this morning. I had started a hefeweizen kit from Midwest about a week ago and then ran across this recipe. So now i got 2 batches of hefeweizen fermenting. Cant wait!!

 

[Idlehanz]

So, I just started making this brew. I thought I had bought two 3lb bags of weizen malt, only to realize one of them is a light malt. I'm going ahead with it anyway. Being as this is only the third attempt I've made at brewing I really don't know how much this will affect my orange hef. Any idea's of what I can expect as far as changes in flavor, gravity, etc...?


Thanks!

 

[TheGeek]

Here's my attempt at this recipe in glass:

It's only 11 days brewed to bottle (well, tap-a-draft) I force carbed it because I couldn't wait to try it. I have to say, its pretty damned tasty. I couldn't find Blood Oranges so I used Sweet Oranges. I did this according to OPs post with all extract, 4 whole oranges steeped with 2 orange peels zested and added to fermenter just before pitching.

OG 1.052
FG 1.012

This is a tasty summer beverage!

 

[jim_reaper1066]

That is the exact same color as how mine turned out minus the nice foamy head, I still need to wait for it to bottle carb. However mine tastes like nothing but cloves. Next time I will need to maintain my temperature better.

 

[jangelj]

Hey Geek, how "orangey" is it? Is the orange subtle, or does it taste like you squeezed an orange slice into your glass of beer?

 

[brewsalot]

any thoughts on how to keep the fruit particles out when draining the primary to the bottling bucket? Filter over the siphon maybe?
What have you done?

 

[Scut_Monkey]

any thoughts on how to keep the fruit particles out when draining the primary to the bottling bucket? Filter over the siphon maybe?
What have you done?

I've put a hop bag over the end of the autosiphon before and it works relatively well. In the end the best method is just allowing time and racking off of it or allowing it to settle in the bottle/keg.

 

[TheGeek]

Hey Geek, how "orangey" is it? Is the orange subtle, or does it taste like you squeezed an orange slice into your glass of beer?

Its more of a citrus aroma and just a touch of citrus bite at the end, its mostly clove in the taste. But certainly not like an orange slice squeezed in my beer.

 

[ronllave]

I'm getting ready to brew this beer...It sounds great for Summer. I will be force-carbing in my keg and was hoping for some feedback from anybody else who has force-carbed this beer. Which techniques and at what pressure have been successful for this beer? Thanks.

 

[fishkid]

I've had mine bottled for a few weeks now and it is no doubt an excellent beer. While fermenting, the orange aroma was very strong but now that it's bottled that taste has nearly disappeared...you can still tell it was fermented with fruit but it's nothing like that airlock exhaust smelled. The clove taste is definitely up in your face but not overwhelming. Add an orange slice in your glass and it's heaven..even some of my BMC friends liked it calling it "Oberon-like".

For what it's worth, I though this was such a great beer that I entered it into a competition this past week into category 20a Fruit Beer. I should have my judging sheet this coming Saturday, May 22. Once I get the feedback, good or bad, I'll post the results.

Curt

 

[maztec]

The clove taste is definitely up in your face but not overwhelming.

Yours taste like cloves? Interesting. Did you add some? Or how did that flavor come to be?

 

[Scut_Monkey]

Yours taste like cloves? Interesting. Did you add some? Or how did that flavor come to be?

Clove taste is imparted by the hefeweizen yeast.

 

[maztec]

Clove taste is imparted by the hefeweizen yeast.

I knew that. Gah. My brain is definitely on vacation today!

 

[TheGeek]

2 gallons gone. (*gulp*) 2.1 gallons gone... Hehe. I'll brew this again before summer is out.

 

[brewsalot]

well, it's been 10 days in the primary.
I was going to bottle tonight but got caught up with other things.
Looked at it though, Fruit looks all nasty floating on the top.
Hope its still good. I will try to get to bottling tomorrow.
Has your fruit looked nasty too?

 

[bovineblitz]

Wow I wound up with a FG of 1.008.

Edit: bottled it today... there seems to be quite a bit of protein floating around, it looks like snow. I imagine it will fall out of suspension, but I didn't really expect to see that.

 

[thetang]

So I had a weird experience when I was brewing this. On Saturday night after my wort had cooled down to around 70 degrees I pitched my yeast (WLP320). By Thursday morning there was still very little activity. There was a little bit of activity in the airlock but nothing really in terms of a krausen. The first few days I thought it was just slow to form because maybe the CO2 was getting stuck in the fruit layer on top, but by Thursday I figured I had to do something. I ended up getting another tube of yeast (WLP300) and pitched it that night. Since pitching it I've had really constant activity, but the krausen is still only about 2 inches high, I think because of the fruit layer. Anyone else have a similar problem?

 

[Reno_eNVy]

So I had a weird experience when I was brewing this. On Saturday night after my wort had cooled down to around 70 degrees I pitched my yeast (WLP320). By Thursday morning there was still very little activity. There was a little bit of activity in the airlock but nothing really in terms of a krausen. The first few days I thought it was just slow to form because maybe the CO2 was getting stuck in the fruit layer on top, but by Thursday I figured I had to do something. I ended up getting another tube of yeast (WLP300) and pitched it that night. Since pitching it I've had really constant activity, but the krausen is still only about 2 inches high, I think because of the fruit layer. Anyone else have a similar problem?

The krausen is definitely not an indicator of strength of fermentation. As always said here on HBT: the only way to ensure you have fermentation or that fermentation has stopped is a hydrometer.

You were probably fine, actually. It sounds like you didn't make a starter, which will cause lag. Also, "little activity" from your airlock is not an indicator of fermentation. Hydrometer, hydrometer, hydrometer.

Your beer will come out great, albeit ~$8 more expensive (2nd tube of yeast.)

 

[Scut_Monkey]

Wow I wound up with a FG of 1.008.

Edit: bottled it today... there seems to be quite a bit of protein floating around, it looks like snow. I imagine it will fall out of suspension, but I didn't really expect to see that.

It's a hefeweizen so cloudy=good. If it's big chunks it's most likely trub and will settle out in the bottle/fridge.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

So I had a weird experience when I was brewing this. On Saturday night after my wort had cooled down to around 70 degrees I pitched my yeast (WLP320). By Thursday morning there was still very little activity. There was a little bit of activity in the airlock but nothing really in terms of a krausen. The first few days I thought it was just slow to form because maybe the CO2 was getting stuck in the fruit layer on top, but by Thursday I figured I had to do something. I ended up getting another tube of yeast (WLP300) and pitched it that night. Since pitching it I've had really constant activity, but the krausen is still only about 2 inches high, I think because of the fruit layer. Anyone else have a similar problem?

What was the yeast grown according to the bottle (The "best used by date" - 4 months)? Once you have that go to http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html and notice how steadily and quickly yeast viability drops. I find this alone to be a great reason to use a starter or dry yeast. Not saying that is what the problem is but that is the first thing that comes to mind.

 

[HeavyBrew]

Prob gonna brew this tomorrow but make a few changes..gonna use cascades and prob add a #1/2 of honey malt.

 

[jangelj]

I am going to brew this soon, but all I have on hand is cascade and fuggles hops. I have a lot of both, so I really don't want to buy anything else. Any suggestions of which or what combo of these to use. I am not necessarily trying to CLONE the recipe, just make a decent, slightly orangey, hefe.

 

[HeavyBrew]

I thought the cascades would aid in the citrus flavor, I used the same guideline for the additions as the recipe - 60 20 10min and also figured out how much to add to keep the biterness the same at each addtion. I only have to use an oz of the cascades and thats with adding almost a .25 oz at flameout too. Couldn't find blood oranges at 4 diff places. Got some good looking tangerines instead..

 

[HeavyBrew]

ALso went 4 lbs 2 row 4 lbs german wheat...felt it should have closer to 50% wheat anyway. Added a 1/2# of honey malt too for good measure..