Wheat Beer - not quit on the Mark

[Urbangoose]

Evening all

A few week back I brewed a whet beer, trying to replicate Blue Moon - I used NZ hops, added orange peel and was eagerly awaited by brew. I got the zest, great scent, solid orange tang - but a slight let down - a crystal clear brew, slight fizz, but no head. Six tests latter (beer bottled) over a few weeks and the same result - until last night I got a dream beer, cloudy, great head (see pic). So how do I get 1 great beer, the rest not meeting the mark? Could I have got last of the barrel in my cloudy brew? Why are my other wheat beers so clear?

Be great to tap into your expertise

Thanks all

 

[svenito]

Crystal clear? That is unusual even for a regular home brew. Did you cold condition, or fine it? Did you use Whirfloc in the boil? What percentage wheat did you use? What was the batch size?

Could it be that the priming sugar wasn't mixed in properly, resulting in some beers being flat? What size batch did you do, and was the good one the last bottle?

 

[dad_of_jon]

Evening all

A few week back I brewed a whet beer, trying to replicate Blue Moon - I used NZ hops, added orange peel and was eagerly awaited by brew. I got the zest, great scent, solid orange tang - but a slight let down - a crystal clear brew, slight fizz, but no head. Six tests latter (beer bottled) over a few weeks and the same result - until last night I got a dream beer, cloudy, great head (see pic). So how do I get 1 great beer, the rest not meeting the mark? Could I have got last of the barrel in my cloudy brew? Why are my other wheat beers so clear?

Be great to tap into your expertise

Thanks all

what yeast did you use?

 

[cushyno]

I ended up with the most clear beer I've brewed using 50% wheat and Weihenstephan yeast. It's just sods law to get a clear beer when it's supposed to be cloudy.

All mine were bottled, so at the end of each pour I swill the settled yeast into the last inch of beer in the bottle and pour through the head to give a proper cloudy banana bomb.

 

[dad_of_jon]

3 or 3.5 kg of muntons dried wheat extract, mj wheat beer yeast and a 20 min boil of 50g tettnang should be all you need . 160 of priming brewers sugar for 21 litres does the trick. dry hop 100g of amarillo for extra bubblegum effect

 

[matt76]

I think you're simply pouring it wrong - for wheat beers you are supposed to rouse (and then drink) the yeast - that's what makes it cloudy. You'll find a good portion of the flavour comes from the yeast.

You can do this by gently turning the bottle upside down a few times before you open it, or by pouring most then swirling the bottle before tipping the yeast in.

Several (myself included) have tried it side by side, with and without rousing the yeast and there's a big difference. I thoroughly recommend trying this

These threads are worth a read:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...experiment-done-many-times.79502/#post-786968
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...drink-that-is-the-question.80750/#post-804388

Cheers,

Matt

 

[MickDundee]

I think you're simply pouring it wrong - for wheat beers you are supposed to rouse (and then drink) the yeast - that's what makes it cloudy. You'll find a good portion of the flavour comes from the yeast.

You can do this by gently turning the bottle upside down a few times before you open it, or by pouring most then swirling the bottle before tipping the yeast in.

Several (myself included) have tried it side by side, with and without rousing the yeast and there's a big difference. I thoroughly recommend trying this

These threads are worth a read:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...experiment-done-many-times.79502/#post-786968
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...drink-that-is-the-question.80750/#post-804388

Cheers,

Matt

If it was a Blue Moon clone then it would use US-05 or similar I would assume? You only want to drink that if you like Rhino farts!

 

[Drunkula]

If it was a Blue Moon clone then it would use US-05 or similar I would assume? You only want to drink that if you like Rhino farts!

I did a three way split of a wheat beer with s-33, kristalweizen and Fuller's (London ESB) yeast and the yeast worked swirled in on all of them which really surprised me so it possibly might work with us-05 and it's the grist that makes it work. This is only an idea.

 

[dad_of_jon]

If it was a Blue Moon clone then it would use US-05 or similar I would assume? You only want to drink that if you like Rhino farts!

wheat beer yeast gives superior quality farts, us-05 farts require following hazmat protocols

 

[BeerCat]

If you want a cloudy wheat beer do not boil it.

 

[Urbangoose]

Evening all - apologies for the tardy response.

Recipe was 1.45kg wheat malt, 1.45kg pilsner malt, 200g Vienna, 15g Wai-iti, 15g Motueka (both at 5 mins) orange peel at 15 mins and 5 days. American Ale Yeast. Made 28 300 cl bottles - 75g sugar added for bottling.

The taste is great - it has a great orange aroma and taste, and a reasonable fizz - recipe was my own.

Not a pouring issue as there is literally no sediment ... until that one bottle, which I think must have been the last one.

Any clue what I am doing wrong?

 

[foxbat]

so at the end of each pour I swill the settled yeast into the last inch of beer in the bottle and pour through the head to give a proper cloudy banana bomb.

A trained barman serving a glass of bottled weissbier will do exactly that when pouring the bottle into the glass.

 

[matt76]

Evening all - apologies for the tardy response.

Recipe was 1.45kg wheat malt, 1.45kg pilsner malt, 200g Vienna, 15g Wai-iti, 15g Motueka (both at 5 mins) orange peel at 15 mins and 5 days. American Ale Yeast. Made 28 300 cl bottles - 75g sugar added for bottling.

The taste is great - it has a great orange aroma and taste, and a reasonable fizz - recipe was my own.

Not a pouring issue as there is literally no sediment ... until that one bottle, which I think must have been the last one.

Any clue what I am doing wrong?

I don't think you've done anything wrong - in your own words you've made a great tasting beer! Great job, I genuinely wouldn't mind a try myself

I've only been brewing 6 months so I'm hardly the oracle - my second Belgian wit is in the FV awaiting bottling. But your grain bill, brew volume and yield is very similar to my first one (GH recipe). It's good but i knew i hadn't quite nailed it - so i worked out what i needed to change and tried again (in my case switch from malted to unmalted wheat).

I think the difference is the yeast - if you've no sediment in the bottle then there's the issue. That's what makes it cloudy. Perhaps the yeast you've used is very flocculant and settled out in the FV and never got transferred at bottling - i wonder if you cold crashed first which might even accentuate this???

My wit has settled in the bottles leaving crystal clear beer, but the sediment is easily roused before pouring. I used Wyeast 3944 for my Belgian Wits, and I've my eye on 1010 in the future for an American wheat beer (another GH recipe).

So maybe your beer isn't in the classic style but hey, so what, you've made good beer I've enjoyed many cloudy Erdinger weizens in my time (served with the yeast swirled in the bottle) but it's worth noting they also do a "Kristall" clear version. My suggestion is to enjoy this batch but try again in the future if you feel you haven't nailed it this time.

Good luck!

 

[Urbangoose]

Thanks Matt - very helpful .. yes, cold crashed in garage for a week before bottling. Good points to learn from