American Wheat Beer Summer Citrus Wheat

[bmason1623]

Just kegged this after sitting in a primary for 2 weeks. I used S-05, Cascade and Ahtanum (first time ever using this hop) and the gravity sample tasted very nice. My OG was 1.043 and FG was 1.010 which brings it at 4.3% ABV. Should be a nice session beer. I primed the keg with corn sugar and will let it sit at room temp for a couple of weeks. I think this is going to be a nice one. Will report back in a couple of weeks.

 

[sundell]

Dude, Wy 1010 is a sulphur fart bomb! Caught me off gaurd (first wheat brew), and freaked out the roommates for sure.

 

[speedster00]

Bmason- why would you prime your keg? I keg all my beers but force carb. I've never heard of priming a keg. Just currious

 

[bmason1623]

Bmason- why would you prime your keg? I keg all my beers but force carb. I've never heard of priming a keg. Just currious

for a couple of reasons. one, i don't have a manifold (yet anyway) where I can share my CO2 tank. second, I prefer the carbonation that priming sugar gives you over CO2. priming kegs is not as uncommon as you think. to me it's a good option when you need to let your beers condition for a little while before drinking. If the beer has to wait to condition then you may as well let it carbonate also. just remember that if you prime your keg with corn sugar use half the amount of sugar that you would for bottling. not sure why that is but it seems to be the generally accepted idea.

 

[speedster00]

for a couple of reasons. one, i don't have a manifold (yet anyway) where I can share my CO2 tank. second, I prefer the carbonation that priming sugar gives you over CO2. priming kegs is not as uncommon as you think. to me it's a good option when you need to let your beers condition for a little while before drinking. If the beer has to wait to condition then you may as well let it carbonate also. just remember that if you prime your keg with corn sugar use half the amount of sugar that you would for bottling. not sure why that is but it seems to be the generally accepted idea.

Thanks. How much priming sugar do you usually put in your keg?

 

[bmason1623]

Thanks. How much priming sugar do you usually put in your keg?

I let beersmith calculate that for me. the general rule of thumb is to use HALF of the amount of priming sugar that you would if you were bottling. How much sugar to use for bottling depends on the total volume of beer you're priming at the carbonation level you're trying to achieve as well as temperature. I did a quick search for you and found this on HBT:

http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php

 

[greatschmaltez]

My LHBS doesn't have any of the sweet orange peel, can I just use orange zest? How much should I use to be equivalent with .25 lbs of sweet orange peel?

 

[leviticus]

Just mashed in on this recipe.. looking forward to pouring the first glass.

 

[Demon]

Just put 5 gallons of this in the fermenter about an hour ago. Smelled great as soon as the orange peel was added.

 

[leviticus]

Likewise...

I was surprised at how dark the wort is on my batch. Probably sucked up a bit much trub. Also didn't bother taking any gravity readings at all... I'll be back in about a week's time to ask a question regarding a final gravity reading

Lost one of my stirring wand's tips in the carboy when I was aerating, so it'll be there for the next week!

http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/p/4670Q

 

[sundell]

Mine was quite dark as well, much darker than expected for a wheat. OG was dead on. I'll be bottling this in the next few days, can't wait for a taste! Fermenting time was very short for this brew, but extremely vigorous for the first couple days. I used 0.5oz sweet orange peel instead of .25 of each bitter and sweet. Sure it will still be tasty!

 

[leviticus]

Yes... vigorous ferment. Got a call from HWMBO yesterday while at work: "Your beer is exploding through the top of this big bottle."

Looking forward to this one.

 

[Lofft]

Wanted to make a cranberry wheat ale. How do you think this would taste with cranberries added to it?

 

[Agent]

I was so impressed with this that I've just did a second batch today. This is the essence of what a summer beer should be.
I've made a couple of modifications for the sake of cheap and easy:
4lb wheat & 4lb pale malt, but my efficiencies have been good recently, so I've still been hitting 1.042+/-
I just zest one orange and two lemons and call it a day.
US-05 works well for me, definitely lets the citrus come through.
Even buying the Wheat malt from the LHBS keeps this recipe right around $10.

 

[speedster00]

Agent- did you do a partial mash? What was your recipe?

 

[Agent]

No partial mash - All grain for this.
4 lb pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
Zest - 1 orange & 2 lemons
I add in the zest in the last 5 minutes of the boil.
I follow the original hop schedule and amounts, but I've been using mystery leaf hops from my folks (probably Cascade).

The citrus smell coming from the carboy is to die for.

 

[yoshiie]

This sounds great. bought all the ingredients a few days ago and just got the starter on it's way to brew this weekend. Can't wait!!

 

[gtpro]

I made this recipe into a blueberry wheat by omitting the orange zest at brewing time and instead racking onto 2lbs of Maine wild blueberries for 5 days. I think I'm calling it my "Barney Beer" for the purple color it took on, and after one week it still needs some more carbing time but it seems like I have one tasty beer on my hands.

 

[nootay]

got this one in the fermenter today. hit the gravity dead on. cant wait!

 

[flyfishnc]

This was an excellent recipe! I'm brewing it again this weekend. The first batch was brewed as the recipe stated, but I zested 2 lemons and 4 oranges instead of the bitter and sweet orange peel. Man, what a great flavor combination.

Saturday, I may substitute a grapefruit for the lemons. Haven't quite decided as everyone who drank this beer raved over it. I think I have a staple summer beer. Thank you TwoHeadsBrewing.

Eric

 

[nootay]

Well im about halfway through the keg, and i love it. Most of my friends are hop heads, including myself, but i find this to be the perfect summer beer. After working in the garden for a couple hours, im not in the mood for an incredibly hoppy, 7% IPA. This does the trick for me. I think next time i may add a little more orange peel, but overall i love the recipe. Thanks for posting.

 

[pstrohs]

I forgot to put the orange in the boil...should I just put it in the primary?

 

[BostonJ]

I do not think you'll get the desired flavor. However, I never tried it like that. Give it a go!

 

[pstrohs]

I am going to wait until fermentation is complete then boil the orange peel in a couple cups of water, cool, and add to the fermenter.

 

[Turfmanbrad]

This sounds perfect. Might me my first 10 gal batch too since it won't tie up the fermentors too long! Cheers

 

[CykoAGR]

Just brewed a partial mash version of this with a few changes. I dont have all grain capability so went to LHBS and this is what they gave me:

1.6 LBS wheat grain
1.06 lbs 2 row
2 lbs muntons light DME
3 lbs muntons wheat DME
1 pack munich wheat yeast
I zested 2 smallish oranges and on medium red grapefruit (instead of lemon)

Mashed grain BAIB in 3.5 gal @ 154-156 F for 60min
Removed grain and let drain then moved to another pot with 1.5 gal @ 170 for 10 min then romoved a drained.
Combined as much of the wert as possible and brought to boil
Added 2 lbs light DME at 60 along with .5 oz Cascade
.5 simcoe at 45 min (messed this one up supposed to be at 15 I used simcoe because I had it and wanted to use it up)
Added 3 lbs wheat DME @ 5 min and returned to boil then added 1.0 oz cascade and zest

The hydro sample tasted really good so im excited about this one. hope the Simcoe doesnt make it too "piney"

Oh and this batch was my first with my IC and it worked fantastic!

 

[Ben_D]

Just bottled up 12 pints of this. Even before this it tasted excellent, like a Blue Moon maybe. They did not have the rice hulls though so I'm not sure what I am missing because of this? any ideas?

 

[masonsjax]

Rice hulls are just to help prevent a stuck sparge when mashing with a high percentage of sticky huskless grain like rye or wheat. Some systems need them, others are fine without.

 

[chalmer9]

Heating up 4 gallons of strike water right now for this recipe, can't wait!

I'm using it in a summer 'homebrew-off' with my brewing buddy.

I'm using 4.5 lbs of pale 2 row to compensate for my low efficiencies lately (newer all grain brewer).

I'll post pics, thanks for the recipe!

 

[chalmer9]

Nailed my OG and 5.5 gallons post boil, awesome!

Just pitched a starter of 1010....can't wait to try this!

Thanks again.