AG#14 American Wheat "Big Brew"

[matt76]

As with AG#13 it's another (relatively!) big brew, designed to get more beer out of my usual 12L batches, equipment and process by brewing stronger and then liquoring back substantially in the FV, while trying to manage the bitterness.

I had some wheat malt left over from my GH Belgian witbier. I had a plan to use it making a GH American Wheat but decided to get more creative - a beer i tried recently had 20% flaked oats for a silky mouthfeel so i thought why not.....

And just to make sure it wasn't too easy i also decided to split the batch, pitching Wyeast 1010 in one half as recommended by GH and 1056 in the other as suggested here:
https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-american-wheat-beer/

1.8kg wheat malt
900g lager malt
720g flaked oats
180g flaked barley

Mash 10L for 60mins @ 65degC
Dunk sparge 6L for 10mins @ 80degC

All the oats made the grain very sticky and gluey so i wasn't able to squeeze out as much liquid as normal so my efficiency took a battering - with hindsight perhaps i could have used less water in the mash and more in the sparge.

Topped up to 15.2L in the kettle so i could predict the boil off more reliably. I had planned to late hop anyway but had to recalculate on the fly as my BG was low. In the end i did 10g each of Simcoe, Citra & Amarillo for 10 mins, followed by 5g each of the same for 5 mins.

At end of boil i had 11.6L with OG = 1.060 and calculated 37.51 IBU's. I liquored back with 5L more to bring me down to OG = 1.042 as desired and 24.54 IBU's, then split the wort into two FV's - 1010 from a fresh smack pack and 1056 harvested from a previous brew - the latter is already bubbling away!

So what started out as a standard GH recipe has evolved somewhat - I'm really interested now to see if all the oats translates into mouthfeel as hoped and how much difference the two yeast strains makes.

 

[matt76]

Update: bottled these on Friday...

FG:
Wyeast 1010 = 1.010
Wyeast 1056 = 1.009

Batch primed approx. 2.5 vols CO2

Yield for each brew = 20 x 330ml bottles

Colour = Pale, golden. 1010 hazy, 1056 clear
Aroma = Not much!
Taste = 1010 maybe a little spicy/peppery, some wheaty yeasty tartness but not as pronounced as Wyeast 3944, say.
Both have a fruity hoppiness, maybe orangey. Only a modest bitterness as expected.
1056 cleaner tasting, more like a pale ale.
Mouthfeel smooth but not sure yet if it's particularly silky sure to the 20% oats.

1010:
ABV = 4.20%
SRM = 3.06
IBU = 24.95

1056:
ABV = 4.33%
SRM = 3.06
IBU = 24.95

 

[Beersort]

I’ve done the GH American wheat a few times - it’s my favourite recipe in the book. Did it with us-05 and WY1010 and found the 1010 a lot more interesting.

Definitely going to revisit the recipe now and add some oats on your recommendation!

 

[HarryFlatters]

Would a 50°c mash rest help with the stickiness? I've seen a few wheat recipes call for a rest/stepped mash of some description.

 

[matt76]

Yes quite possibly;

You might be interested to take a look at my Belgian witbier v2.0 - this also used flaked oats and in this case I did use a stepped mash.

I've got a feeling I simply forgot about it for the American wheat, but in hindsight I'd have done a stepped mash. In fact I'm planning a pale ale/IPA also using 20% FO and in this case I am planning to do a stepped mash.

For what it's worth, I think my witbier 2.0 was a marked improvement on the original GH recipe due to the use of unmalted wheat (it just needs something extra in terms of flavouring). But I suspect American Wheat has its roots in German Weizen so malted wheat is more appropriate here.

 

[HarryFlatters]

It's your recipe that inspired me to do a wheat as I have 50g first gold hops in the fridge. I'll be giving this a go very soon :)

 

[matt76]

It's your recipe that inspired me to do a wheat as I have 50g first gold hops in the fridge. I'll be giving this a go very soon :)

By all means give it a whirl with the first gold, the bittering was spot on and I'm really happy with the grain bill and mash schedule.

Just be aware I found Witbier 2.0 a bit lacking in flavour, I would do something more next time - maybe add more of the same at flameout and/or dry hop or some other flavouring - maybe bitter orange peel, or perhaps cardamom or something. Or even rhubarb!

(Actually I was thinking the really sour grapefruit flavour of summit hops would be amazing, although that's probably not true to style!)

Have a tinker with it anyway, let me know how you get on. Best of luck with it

 

[matt76]

Update:

So, let's be clear here, the only thing different here is the yeast (WY1010 vs. WY1056) - I literally poured the wort back and forth between the two FV's before pitching to make sure it was uniform. So, onto the tasting notes.....

Wow! What a stark difference! The 1056 has a gentle hoppiness - not as hoppy as an American IPA or even an American pale ale, but it's unmistakably there. It's a clean tasting, very light and very sessionable beer.

But the 1010 is totally different - somehow the yeast character dominates the hops. Again, the taste is clean, light and sessionable but I don't get the hops at all. It's not in your face yeasty, there's no clove or banana like a German Weizen, it's more restrained than that, but enough yeast character to dominate.

I tried the 1010 with and without pouring the yeast from the bottle and for me, with yeast is better - similar to Weizen.

If I'm honest, both lack much body - they are both light and enjoyable and moreish, good to down a few at a BBQ. But part of me wants a good robust Erdinger Weizen or an IPA.

So a really interesting result, two very different, very enjoyable beers resulting from one wort fermented with two different yeasts

Cheers,

Matt