cali ale for american wheat?

[drengel]

i'm wanting to brew a summer ale that uses about 30-40% wheat. not quite a full on wheat beer, but with a lot of the characters of one. i was thinking about american hefe yeast for it, but there is none at the lhbs, so what do you think of cali ale yeast for it? sorry but the recipes not completely made yet, but it will be lighter malts, with a fair amount of wheat, not sure on any speciaty grains, and german and american hops. possibly with a spice such as a bit of curacao orange peel.

 

[Dude]

Perfectly fine.

I believe Boulevard and Pyramid actually use a cali pub strain for thier wheats.

That American wheat strain is from Widmer, FWIW.

 

[drengel]

i thought it would be ok. thanks dude. wish i could try that boulevard wheat casue everyone on heres always talking about it.

 

[Dude]

i thought it would be ok. thanks dude. wish i could try that boulevard wheat casue everyone on heres always talking about it.

It really isn't anything out of this world. It is a classic american wheat, refreshing on a hot day. No strong phenols but cloudy like a hefe.

I drank a ton of it when I was in Nebraska.

 

[drengel]

It really isn't anything out of this world. It is a classic american wheat, refreshing on a hot day. No strong phenols but cloudy like a hefe.

thats kinda what i figured. the beer i'm making i want to have a bit more character than your typical american wheat (or at least the ones i'm used to), but still very refreshing and quaffable.

 

[Lost]

Spice it well with coriander, bitter orange, and maybe some lemon zest. That yeast is rather clean fermenting and without the usual yeast flavors the beer can turn out bland. In fact one board member had exactly this complaint maybe a month back. I did a brew just like what you're describing and it turned out good though I think it could have used more orange. I was shooting for a blue moon clone.

I used the california ale yeast BTW.

 

[Kaiser]

Any clean fermenting ale yeast can be used with the american wheat:

Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), WY1007 German Ale (Alt yeast) ...

The 1007 is the Uerige strain (according to WYeast) and that strain is used by Widmer. According to them, their Hefe also contains live yeast that can be cultured.

Kai

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I used the 1056 with an American wheat I brewed a couple times last summer and it worked perfectly fine. My tastes have shifted in the interim to the more phenolic yeasts, but as Dude mentions a lot of American wheats use 1056...I can add Blue Star to the list.

 

[drengel]

Spice it well with coriander, bitter orange, and maybe some lemon zest. That yeast is rather clean fermenting and without the usual yeast flavors the beer can turn out bland. In fact one board member had exactly this complaint maybe a month back. I did a brew just like what you're describing and it turned out good though I think it could have used more orange. I was shooting for a blue moon clone.

I used the california ale yeast BTW.

i just brewed a wit, which is turning out real nice, and i'm not super into american spiced wheats, so i think i'll stay away from the coriander, but thanks for the advice. my wit is actually very close to a blue moon or any traditional white beer, and for some reason i do like a little spice in those when combine with the proper yeast strain. i do think for this american wheat i will use whats left of my curacao (not much, maybe a 1/4 oz.) and i did have some thoughts on a little lemon zest in it, so i'm thinking i may try that. the beer i'm trying to (sorta') emulate lists itself as a american wheat with citrus. i'm not sure what that means, but a friend a couple yeras back who i turned onto the beer said (in comparison with a normal american wheat) that it was like the orange/lemon was already in it so he didn't need his usual slice to go in it. i'm thinking this has to be the work of some peel/zest, as teh hop selection in the beer is not citrussy.

how much lemon zest do you think i should put in? i'm thinking the zest of 1-2 lemons, probably just one.