My stupid mistake and question for alternative

[Remos112]

Hello everybody, the other day I have decided to brew a wheat bear so I started:
1 can muntons wheat
500gram of wheat dme
500gram dextros
17 grams of koriander
rind of 5 lemons
75gram of lemongrass paste
1 starter Wyeast forbidden fruits

All went well and it started fermenting great. However the other day I opened my cupboard, and there stood a can of Muntons wheat so I thought what did I use for this brew then? Turned out it was a can of Coopers Australian pale ale.

I thought not much I can do about it at this point so just ride it out.
Tasted the beer yesterday, and although it isn't bad, it is pretty bitter (Since I never tasted one I guess APA is quite bitter?) Will have to see how it matures but will be interresting for sure.

Here's my question , I used the Australian Pale ale as substitute for brewcraft belgian ale(wich is not avaible here) but after tasting this bitterness I thought there might be a better alternative then APA.
Here's the original recipe for the Hoegaarden Verboden vruchten clone:

Brewcraft Belgian Ale
1.5 kg liquid pale malt
250 grams dry wheat malt
500 grams English crystal malt, steeped for 30 mins, sparged and liquid then boiled
250 grams Golden Syrup
250 grams coffee sugar crystals
30 grams coriander seed
Rind from two mandarines (if you can't find any, use pink grapefruit, around one-2 tablespoons rind)
Liquid Wyeast Forbidden Fruit yeast (otherwise, use Belgian ale yeast or the abbey ale)

No hops. A terrific beer, cloning the Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit.

Any suggestion is very welcome.
Thanks in advance

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't think the type of malt used is the reason for the bitterness. I'm not familiar with the coriander, etc., but it looks like you could back off on whatever the bittering component is. Sorry if I misunderstood, or if it just doesn't help.

 

[slym2none]

I don't think the type of malt used is the reason for the bitterness. I'm not familiar with the coriander, etc., but it looks like you could back off on whatever the bittering component is. Sorry if I misunderstood, or if it just doesn't help.

Cooper's cans are like Mr. Beer - pre-hopped liquid malt extract.

 

[ncbrewer]

I'm not familiar with Coopers - my bad.

 

[flars]

Might be bitter from the lemon rind. Did you use the entire rind or just the zest. The white of citrus rinds are very bitter.

 

[d3track]

Might be bitter from the lemon rind. Did you use the entire rind or just the zest. The white of citrus rinds are very bitter.

That caught my eye as well. It doesn't take much pith either to get bitter.

 

[Remos112]

That caught my eye as well. It doesn't take much pith either to get bitter.

I used a speed peeler to get the orange part of the skin, very careful not cutting the white part. I have done this before in a wheat and it turned out great. only difference in this batch is the lemongrass and the APA can.

Australian Pale Ale is not very bitter then? I have no idea since I never tasted it. If not then the culprit must be lemongrass, or accidentally cutting the lemon to deep.

 

[slym2none]

I'm sticking to the Cooper's can. Maybe some of all of the above, but I'm betting the majority of the bitterness is from the can of pre-hopped LME.

 

[Remos112]

I'm sticking to the Cooper's can. Maybe some of all of the above, but I'm betting the majority of the bitterness is from the can of pre-hopped LME.

What I thought too, wich takes me back to the question, any suggestions for an alternive beer to start from closer to the stile of brewferm belgian ale?
I have nothing to compare that too either since it is not for sale here

 

[flars]

What I thought too, wich takes me back to the question, any suggestions for an alternive beer to start from closer to the stile of brewferm belgian ale?
I have nothing to compare that too either since it is not for sale here

Was the Muntons wheat LME the hopped or unhopped LME? If it was the hopped, did you boil it? Boiling hopped LME will increase the bitterness/astringency.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

+1 for the Cooper's.

As long as you got mostly zest and little to no albedo, your bitterness should fade with a bit of time. You could always mix it with a malty beer for a newcastle-esque concoction.

 

[slym2none]

What I thought too, wich takes me back to the question, any suggestions for an alternive beer to start from closer to the stile of brewferm belgian ale?
I have nothing to compare that too either since it is not for sale here

Sorry, I cannot help you there.

 

[Remos112]

Was the Muntons wheat LME the hopped or unhopped LME? If it was the hopped, did you boil it? Boiling hopped LME will increase the bitterness/astringency.

I think it was unhopped, also i did not boil it, thanks for the input though😃

 

[Remos112]

Sorry, I cannot help you there.

Thanks for thinking with my anyway!

 

[Remos112]

Tasted the "wheat" yesterday and it 's been 1 week in the bottle now. Surprisingly it had a good amount of carbonation, and a very firm body with a nice thick layer of foam. Also the bitterness faded away somewhat, way better then the week before. Also you could clearly taste the freshness of the koriander and the lemon leaves, plus it smelled awesome due to the lemongrass. My guess is some more weeks to matura and I might be on to quite an awesome beer!