Fruit Beer watermelon wheat

[Wheatmeister]

Hey Ben - Like the recipe pal, I'm doing an AG batch of it in about 10 days. Tweaked a few things here and there, I'll be using harvested Bells yeast which will go great for this style.

Question: Do you see any cons to simply adding the watermelon juice straight into my keg and racking on top of it, skipping the secondary? I slow carb, so the beer/juice will be marinating together in the keg for 2 weeks before I tap it..thoughts?

 

[ben the brewman]

If your gonna be kegging it I dont think there should be any problems. When I started doing this recipe I was only bottling and had to let it ferment out fully.

 

[pshepard327]

Brewed this couple days ago and realized I forgot the honey. Is that something I can add with watermelon juice or just see how it turns out without?

 

[Wheatmeister]

Brewed this couple days ago and realized I forgot the honey. Is that something I can add with watermelon juice or just see how it turns out without?

To me, I think it will be better w/out the honey, IMO. If anything, .5lb to 1lb of honey malt is what I'd do

 

[absolutbmc]

Its been two weeks since brew day. I pulled some off my fermenter and this stuff is pretty cloudy. It almost looks like coffee. Any one else have this same issue? I'm racking to secondary tonight, in the hopes that it will help clear it up

 

[ben the brewman]

Brewed this couple days ago and realized I forgot the honey. Is that something I can add with watermelon juice or just see how it turns out without?

Dont worry about it. I have been using honey malt in place of the honey any way just to save money. You will be just fine as is.

 

[ben the brewman]

Its been two weeks since brew day. I pulled some off my fermenter and this stuff is pretty cloudy. It almost looks like coffee. Any one else have this same issue? I'm racking to secondary tonight, in the hopes that it will help clear it up

I have made this beer more times than I can remember and its never that cloudy. If I use wheat yeast its cloudy but no more than a heffe is. Rack it to secondary and leave it sit for a bit. what yeast did you use in it?

 

[absolutbmc]

I have made this beer more times than I can remember and its never that cloudy. If I use wheat yeast its cloudy but no more than a heffe is. Rack it to secondary and leave it sit for a bit. what yeast did you use in it?

I wither used American wheat or American hefe. I can't remember. I racked to secondary yesterday. I plan to let it stay there for two weeks

 

[TommyB]

Its been two weeks since brew day. I pulled some off my fermenter and this stuff is pretty cloudy. It almost looks like coffee. Any one else have this same issue? I'm racking to secondary tonight, in the hopes that it will help clear it up

I did 2 batches of a similar recipe with different yeast strains. 3068 and 3056 I think. I had this same thing happen I think with the 3056 yeast....does it look like a cup of coffee with too much cream???

Once my gravity hit, I cold crashed it to drop the yeast out. Once it dropped, it cleared up nice. Just took a while compared to the other yeast

 

[absolutbmc]

I did 2 batches of a similar recipe with different yeast strains. 3068 and 3056 I think. I had this same thing happen I think with the 3056 yeast....does it look like a cup of coffee with too much cream???

Once my gravity hit, I cold crashed it to drop the yeast out. Once it dropped, it cleared up nice. Just took a while compared to the other yeast

Yes! It looked just like a cup of coffee with too much cream... Ive racked to secondary and added the watermelon juice. I don't have a way to cold crash it. Here is hoping the yeast drops on its own

 

[ben the brewman]

It should settle out to a nice cloudy beer in a few weeks man. I would worry about it too much.

 

[nukularpower]

ben, quick question.. if you werent able to use 1056, what yeast would you use? Still Heffe? WB-06?

 

[ben the brewman]

I liked the wb-06. It had a tart finish but it went well in the beer. American wheat is good and german ale would be fine too. Hope that helps.

 

[enaz32]

How much watermelon juice have you been using? Still 2.5?

 

[ben the brewman]

How much watermelon juice have you been using? Still 2.5?

It varies really. I like the 2.5 cups because its a nice light flavor but my wife likes it with 4 for a more fruity taste. Personal prefrence really.

 

[ben the brewman]

Its time for batch number 2 for the year. I think im gonna try it with the watermelon juice from kroger this time if they still have it.

 

[evancold]

Until they come up with a hop that smells like watermelon, I think a pale ale would make the watermelon useless. Also, too much bitter would kill the nice faint, sweet, watermelon aspect, IMHO.

I have been wanting to brew this beer and found this post. My local home brew store owner just got back from a trip in Seattle and went to a lot of breweries there. He went to one and they had an "experimental hop" that is not released and is supposed to have an amazing watermelon flavor. Somehow he was able to track down the grower and was able to get 11lbs. I know half of it is almost gone but I plan on going tomorrow to pick up as much as I can.

Now my question should I attempt this recipe with the experimental hop? AA on hop is 11 if i recall correctly.

And recommendations for yeast?

 

[ben the brewman]

I have been wanting to brew this beer and found this post. My local home brew store owner just got back from a trip in Seattle and went to a lot of breweries there. He went to one and they had an "experimental hop" that is not released and is supposed to have an amazing watermelon flavor. Somehow he was able to track down the grower and was able to get 11lbs. I know half of it is almost gone but I plan on going tomorrow to pick up as much as I can.

Now my question should I attempt this recipe with the experimental hop? AA on hop is 11 if i recall correctly.

And recommendations for yeast?

If your gonna try it with a 11% AA hop I would say add no bittering hops at all and hop burst it the last 20 minutes of the boil hard. I would have to plug the number in to get some ibu figures but thats what I would recomend. Try it with 1056 so you get a idea of the hop flavor and go from there.

What was the name of the hop?

 

[evancold]

The hop is HBC 342, I am going to give this a go soon. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

I also found it for sale at http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=322

I have read of a few people using it, but mainly for IPA's. I will stray from the norm and try a HBC 342 Watermelon Wheat!

 

[nate201]

Ok, so I just brewed a 10g batch of this on Friday and got it into the fermenter. Today my AC broke and it's 85 inside my house right now. We are looking at 100+ weather all week and my AC won't be replaced till Friday at the earliest. I don't have anywhere to move this/take it, any ideas? Will it be ok?

 

[nate201]

When the temps go over 100 outside my House will be in the mid 90's. It went out the week of the fourth and I thought it was fixed.

 

[ben the brewman]

you can put it in a tub with cold water and put a tshirt of the carboy. As the water wicks up the shirt it will evaporate and help cool it down. You can also put some frozen bottles of water in there with it that will help too.

 

[bmock79]

Its time for batch number 2 for the year. I think im gonna try it with the watermelon juice from kroger this time if they still have it.

Did you use the store bought juice?

 

[ben the brewman]

Not yet I have the beer in primary right now and need to look for the juice and see if I can find it still or not.

 

[ben the brewman]

I found the juice at the store again and added it to secondary. It tastes just as good as cutting up a melon and juicing it yourself and its a lot easier. I will keep using it as ling as I can find it.

 

[KidDynamite]

apologies if this question has already been answered in this thread, but do we know what the impact of adding 4 cups of watermelon juice in a 5 gallon batch is on our specific gravity?

thanks...
-KD

 

[ben the brewman]

apologies if this question has already been answered in this thread, but do we know what the impact of adding 4 cups of watermelon juice in a 5 gallon batch is on our specific gravity?

thanks...
-KD

I don't remember off the top of my head. I took a gravity reading of the juice when I made it and can't find what it was. The gravity will depend on the ripeness of the melon. The number 1.035 stands out in my mind for some reason though. If you add 4 cups its not going to make that much more alcohol.

 

[KidDynamite]

Ben -
i saw an old post where you came up with a gravity reading of 40 (1.04) for pure watermelon juice...

here's where i'm confused: that's 40 points per pound per gallon, right?

so if I use 4 cups, which should be about 2lbs of watermelon juice (working off the fact that a gallon of milk weighs 9 lbs, so a quart should weigh about 2 lbs... and yes, I know that milk is not equal to watermelon juice), that's about 80 points, divided by 5 gallons = 16 points of gravity? that is not insignificant...

thoughts?

is my math bad? (it very well may be...)

 

[ben the brewman]

Ben -
i saw an old post where you came up with a gravity reading of 40 (1.04) for pure watermelon juice...

here's where i'm confused: that's 40 points per pound per gallon, right?

so if I use 4 cups, which should be about 2lbs of watermelon juice (working off the fact that a gallon of milk weighs 9 lbs, so a quart should weigh about 2 lbs... and yes, I know that milk is not equal to watermelon juice), that's about 80 points, divided by 5 gallons = 16 points of gravity? that is not insignificant...

thoughts?

is my math bad? (it very well may be...)

It would be the same as adding .5 gallons of water and .45 pounds of dry malt. It will only raise the gravity .004 points

 

[KidDynamite]

Ben -

thanks for the reply... I'm not doubting you, but can you explain how you came up with: "It would be the same as adding .5 gallons of water and .45 pounds of dry malt. It will only raise the gravity .004 points"

thanks...