Wheat beer idea

[Florin]

The info I've got above really made me think and study more about the ingredients, but I don't want to throw away my recipe and try something else from scratch. I want to make my own recipe by adjusting it until I like it.


I'm still waiting to early test one of the bottles, to make a better idea of what is not as I want, but I'm thinking of adjusting it in the following way:
- Weyermann wheat 55%
- Weyermann Acidulated 5%
- Weyermann Vienna 35%
- Weyermann MELANOIDIN 5%

The melanoidin would add color. Also increase the total quantity from 2.5Kg to 2.8Kg. ( and even adding a bit more hops, 15 minutes before the end of the boil; but I'm still cautious because of the added bitterness)

 

[Hanglow]

looks good, that is a fair amount of melanoidin, hope you like it!

This is a good article if you like german wheat beers
https://braumagazin.de/article/brewing-bavarian-weissbier-all-you-ever-wanted-to-know/
My last three german wheat beers have been hopped to about 20IBU .I wouldn't go higher than this if going for a traditional one. It gets too hoppy/bitter then!

grainbills were;
65% Weyermann Wheat malt
30% weyerman Pils malt
5% Weyermann carahell

60% W Wheat malt
40% W Barke Munich

60% W wheat
32% W barke pils (would change this for munich 2/barke munich next time for a proper dunkel weisse)
8% W caramunich 3

yeast, I have only used munich classic for dry (good) and WY3068 (better) recently.

mash, a step mash is great for these beers. Also I don't acidify the mash at all, only acidify the wort just before finings.

 

[phillc]

I don't mind the melanoidin addition.

Here are a few different wheat beer grain bills I've used with general success in the past. The Dunkelweizen II was really good. The Weizenbock is still aging.

When I brewed the Dunkelweizen, I really struggled with a stuck sparge. Hence, the addition of rice hulls in the later two. Anything I think above 40% wheat runs the risk of similar problems.

 

[Florin]

thanks guys!
The dunkelweizen II sounds interesting, i might try that sometime !

I have tested a small bottle of my beer (after bottling, 3 days at 25-26C then 3 days in the fridge ): it's not bad, but for sure needs more work :). A bit too light in all aspects, not much foam, most probably it was not enough malt (wort density). I mean, it looks like a diluted weissbier :))) . My wife likes it .... so, i'm happy. :)
I've put two more bottles at the fridge now, to check them again after a couple of days .... if i resist that much.

 

[Florin]

Looks better every day. I take back the foam issue. And the color is not that bad.

 

[Florin]

Last beer from this batch. As many say, you have to give some time to the beer to reach it’s best. I’m waiting to buy a big boiler to be able to try my updated version. Its too much work for a 10l batch only.

 

[Florin]

So, meanwhile, after i got brewzilla 65l, I have already got to version 5 of my recipe ... I need to buy a lot of bottles.
I see that step by step i get closer and closer to "usual" weissbier recipes
Version2 is the one i'm drinking now. It was kind of a disaster (first time with brewzilla). The gravity was way off for the grain bill, the boil off rate was way off and i had to boil it 30minutes more. I couldn't find anymore the M20 yeast and I used safale wb-06 (which has way more attenuation ... I don't want that).
After 11 days in the fermenter, when i bottled it, i was so close to dump it. The taste was so sour .... i thought i got an infection or something, but my wife talked me into keep bottling it.
Now, after 2 weeks conditioning ... wow ... what a change. I can still taste a bit of sourness, but the color, smell and taste are good ... it's not my dream beer yet, but it's a great one. I still don't know what triggered such a huge sourness. Maybe the accidulated malt and the 1 lemon i've put in the water to treat it for chlorine.
But, version3, which is in bottles, conditioning ... had no sourness, and the differences were 0.2kg accidulated instead of 0.28kg, and half a lemon instead on 1 full lemon.

Weyermann® Wheat		53,6	3,00	Total malt weight
				5,6
Weyermann® Vienna		35,72	2,00
Weyermann® Acidulated		5	0,28
WEYERMANN® MELANOIDIN		5	0,28
			5,56
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh	Hops	25
SAFALE WB-06	Yeast	11g

Bellow is a picture of V2.

 

[Florin]

version3. (only 80 grams less acidulated than v2 above)
Still a pretty chaotic brew, as I'm still learning to use brewzilla and after a longer than normal boil time, I've found a lot of burned (black) wort on the bottom
Therefore, the color is much more intense.
Also the abv is very high in this one. (approx. 6.4%). My consistency is non existent at the moment.
I'm not sure if the high alcohol level masks the flavor, as v2 seems to have a bit more flavor than this one.
None of them are bad, I really like them. (that maters, as I'm not trying to make a true Weiss bier, but a bier I like to drink)
Version 4 and 5 are in the bottles ... conditioning
In these last 2, I took out accidulated malt and added carahell, also these two are with M20 yeast.
I have high hopes from these last two versions. After each brew I get a closer result to the estimated one. (brewfather)
Now, even if I stopped brewing for some time, I have a lot of bottles and I cannot drink them all that fast. I know wiessbier should be consumed young. How long do you think it will last without loosing flavour or going bad (i can keep them at 18-19 C)?

 

[Hanglow]

I tend to drink mine within 2 months of bottling. They certainly don't get any better as they age, too much stuff (yeast, excess protein etc) in them to do that

 

[Florin]

Ok, version 6 has 9 days in bottles, it's perfect (for my preference, not for style)... version 4 and 5 were ok, but no head at all. Had to change the mashing profile to Hochkurz method (63C and 72C) and version 6 is perfect. In the picture, the head already dropped a bit, it doesn't hold too much (maybe it's still too young and most probably lack of too much hops), but it's there.

 

[MrRook]

You don't need to add any 2-row malt (vienna, munch, etc) to wheat to get it to convert. Wheat has enough diastic power to do a 100% wheat beer or a beer with only wheat malt as the base.