German weissbier

[DenbyDalePie]

Am now on my fourth kit brew. 1. Brupaks fix by gold turned out ok. 2. Brewferm Tarwebier didn't carbonate enough and is still a bit 'tangy' after five weeks in bottle. 3. Better brew Czech Pilsner fermenting.
Looking for recommendations for a good reliable weissbier kit, and any suggestions for methods, additions, etc.
Any ideas?

DDP

 

[pittsy]

Do you want to have a go at extract brewing ? You'll need at large pot at least 10 litres .
If yes have a look in the how to guide and use the largest pot and boil away , back filling with water afterwards to make 20 litres .
You'll want 3kg of dried wheat malt extract ( cheapest from the home brew company )
1 packet of safbrew wb06 dried wheat yeast
hallertauer hersbrucker hops .
You only need do a 45 min boil
At start of boil add 35g of hops
then at 15 mins left of boil add 25g of hops
Ferment at 20c , will take around 10 days to finish . possible finish at 1012 , starts at 1049 for a 20 litre batch , giving you around 4.6% ibu approx 12 .

 

[Sandimas]

+1 for Pittsy's reply: you can make an absolutely cracking Wheat Beer via Extract. You've done a few kits so know the basic brewing techniques, Extract shouldn't be that much a step - you just need a big boil pan.

Whilst we're on the subject of Wheat Beer, I had a gorgoeus Dunkel Weissbier as a Xmas pressie. How would I go about turning the above recipe into a dark one, just steep some grains - if so which ones?

Oh, and the Brewferm kits take a long time to come good and loose the twang - 3 months minimum - if you've got any left, hide them away and try it again after Easter.

 

[clibit]

I believe Dunkelweizen beers can contain a range of malts to darken them - crystal/caramunich, dark crystal, chocolate, dark munich, Special B, roasted wheat. Just google: Dunkelweizen recipes

 

[DenbyDalePie]

Cheers for the replies. May well take my next step up to extract brewing. If I chicken out, any good weissbier kits experienced?
:thumb:

DDP

 

[clibit]

Sorry, no. But don't chicken out - it's easy to boil some malt extract with some hops, add it to cold water (via a sieve) in the FV to the required level, and then pitch the yeast at pitching temperature. And well worth the small amount of extra effort. You won't regret it.

 

[Sandimas]

Yeah don't chicken out, do as he says - there really isn't much to it, you've grasped the hard parts.

I did try one Weissbier kit (Coopers), it was OK but not what I'd call a proper Weissbier.

 

[pittsy]

+1 for Pittsy's reply: you can make an absolutely cracking Wheat Beer via Extract. You've done a few kits so know the basic brewing techniques, Extract shouldn't be that much a step - you just need a big boil pan.

Whilst we're on the subject of Wheat Beer, I had a gorgoeus Dunkel Weissbier as a Xmas pressie. How would I go about turning the above recipe into a dark one, just steep some grains - if so which ones?

Oh, and the Brewferm kits take a long time to come good and loose the twang - 3 months minimum - if you've got any left, hide them away and try it again after Easter.

If you want to do a dunkle partial extract i would steep 30g of choc malt and 300g of cara wheat ( if no cara wheat then cara vienne or a cara crystal ) :

 

[DenbyDalePie]

Right, that's it, then. You've all persuaded me. I'll have to persuade SWMBO that we need a huge stock pot!
Been doing some reading. Thinking about putting some caramalt grains in with the boil. Good idea or avoid?
Cheers,

DDP

 

[pittsy]

Try 300g of carahell :thumb:

 

[MPLMPL]

Thinking about putting some caramalt grains in with the boil. Good idea or avoid?
Cheers,

DDP

Do you really mean in the boil? You don't want to boil the grains, otherwise you'll extract tannins. You need to steep the caramalt in some water at about 65-75C for half an hour or so before the boil; this extracts the flavour/sweetness/colour, then you need to remove them before starting the boil. You can dangle it in the water in a smallish muslin bag (the caramalt that is). You can get these from most homebrew places sold as grain bags or hop bags, or you can improvise.
There is probably a good guide to this on this site (extract with steeping grains), but there is also John Palmer's How to Brew book; it is very good for a beginner and he generously provides free access to an online version. You can find it using all good search engines...

 

[Sandimas]

If you want to do a dunkle partial extract i would steep 30g of choc malt and 300g of cara wheat ( if no cara wheat then cara vienne or a cara crystal ) :

Excellent, that's next on the list then -thanks. :thumb: