Clementine Hefeweizen!

[SeamusMac]

Hey brewers,

I brewed my first extract batch last night with the help of my father. We followed the recipe for the Blood Orange Hefeweizen from Sam C.'s book, Extreme Brewing. Although the season for blood oranges has come to a close here and those, which remained tasted pretty poor. The clementines from California right now are spectacular though! So we substituted 4 clementines for each of the 4 blood oranges the recipe called for. In addition to that we had to dissolve all of the DWE into a 10 liter pot of water and make the hop additions to the same pot. Top-off water was added after pitching the wort. We pitched onto the tiny Wyeast 3068 yeast cake left behind by my batch of hard cider. The apple smell was evident when we poured the wort, perhaps it'll impart a very subtle apple flavour too? We pitched the wort onto the yeast cake at around 9:15 last night, and by 6 this morning there was obviously some activity. Once I got home from work at 3 this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised with a huge krausen! See pic.

 

[pompeiisneaks]

Is it common to use a hefe yeast for a cider? I've never done them, I just saw your yeast choice in the sig. The fruit flavors will probably be pretty cool in the hefe I'd guess... but never done something like this before.... congrats on being so inventive. I hope its awesome!

 

[SeamusMac]

I think most people prefer to use a really dry yeast for their ciders that are relatively neutral, although I like my cider with a little bit of residual sweetness and more complex flavour profile. I'm not sure if using a this yeast is the way to go about doing this but the yeast contributes a lot to the taste of Hefeweizens. My hope is that it'll do the same for my cider.

I removed the blow off tube yesterday afternoon and what a mess ha ha. I installed an airlock now that activity has slowed and it is happily bubbling away. I noticed a really sweet citrus zest smell when working on cleaning out the blow-off tube, I'm stoked! If this beer doesn't end up tasting like pruno I'll be mighty pleased. It's just too bad that this particularly expensive Hefe (by my standards anyways) will come into it's prime so early and I'll have to enjoy it all in a relatively short period of time... he he...

 

[twelfthman01]

Your cider will turn out excellent with 3068... depending on how much sugar you added or if you added any. 3068 can handle apple juice by itself, but 2 lbs of corn sugar pushes it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/better-than-apfelwein-29003/

I have yet to try it, but many many others seem convinced - so I'm putting it in the rotation!

 

[SeamusMac]

I used un-sweetened apple juice for my cider; I believe the OG was 1.046 or something like that. It's at about 5 weeks now and has been racked once (at 1 month) to aid in clearing the cider. I kind of botched the racking and ended up siphoning a lot of the yeast cake into the secondary. Although the only reason I racked was to get the cider out of the Better Bottle so I could start my Clem Hefe!

 

[XL_Jockey]

That's ironic, yesterday I brewed the Kiwit recipe a few pages after the Blood Orange Hef recipe. It was the first time using a carboy instead of buckets, so there was an interesting experience, and it was my first time making a starter (stir plate and all). I am extremely happy with the outcome so far.

My only real problem is that I couldn't get an accurate OG reading. Any tips on getting a good mixture siphoned out to test?

 

[SeamusMac]

My only real problem is that I couldn't get an accurate OG reading. Any tips on getting a good mixture siphoned out to test?

I shook the carboy pretty violently for a minute after pouring the wort onto the yeast cake, which hopefully mixed things up enough to provide me with an accurate OG reading. I use a sanitized turkey baster to take a sample at this time.

I hope your kiwit turns out well!

 

[BornInaHoller]

I have a Blood Orange Hefeweizen using 3068 yeast bottle conditioning. The hydrometer sample tasted excellent when I bottled it.

 

[XL_Jockey]

I shook the carboy pretty violently for a minute after pouring the wort onto the yeast cake, which hopefully mixed things up enough to provide me with an accurate OG reading. I use a sanitized turkey baster to take a sample at this time.

I hope your kiwit turns out well!

Turkey baster, why didn't I think of that! I'll remember that for next time, thanks!

 

[SeamusMac]

I have a Blood Orange Hefeweizen using 3068 yeast bottle conditioning. The hydrometer sample tasted excellent when I bottled it.

Did you follow the instructions regarding the rinds of the orange to the "T" or did you zest them and discard the pith? Post a picture of your Bloody Hefe in a glass once you've poured it, I want to see if it comes out red at all ha ha.

 

[XL_Jockey]

I did an American Amber, but added 4 oranges by following the same process as the Blood Orange Hef. I think the grated rinds and pulp did add some color that my reviewer wasn't expecting out of an American Amber.

 

[SeamusMac]

I'll be taking my beer into the LHBS after a couple weeks in the bottle to get an opinion on the brew. I think my method was pretty solid and the beer looks/smells nice. I'm bottling it in a couple days once I've had a chance to oxy-clean my new cache of 500mL bottles.

The recipe was more expensive then I'm used to at nearly twice the price of my favorite pre-hopped no-boil kit so I hope it's worth it!