Oaked weissbier / hefeweizen?

[Proboscidea]

So, my friends, this started out as a not-so-crazy seeming idea, but my search of the general interwebs has proved fruitless, so maybe it is completely bonkers.

I have 5 gallons of weissbier that included a tiny hint of lemon peel in the boil. It's two weeks in, fermentation is done, and it's ready to bottle. Or is it?

See, I have these American medium-toast oak chips lying around, looking at me with those beady little eyes of theirs. I thought it might be fun to oak part of the batch. But when I tottered off to the Googles to see whether others had enjoyed success with oaked hefeweizen, there was nothing substantial. Diamond Knot Oaked Industrial Hefeweizen was the closest thing. And it looks like that was a weizenbock. Mine's probably lighter in all respects.

I'm wondering if any of y'all have tried oaking a hefeweizen, and how that worked out for you.

I'm probably gonna do it either way, but just collecting experiences before taking the plunge. I imagine it will taste sweeter from the oak, and the question is, how will the oak mingle with the banana clove thang going on? Barf taste or no barf taste: the experiment begins.

UPDATE: Taste testing results downthread.


Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 4.58%
IBU (tinseth): 21.45
SRM (morey): 4.79

FERMENTABLES:
6.5 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (65%)
3 lb - American - White Wheat (30%)
0.5 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 20L (5%)

HOPS:
0.75 oz - Cluster for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 6.8, IBU: 20.11)
0.25 oz - Cluster for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 6.8, IBU: 1.34)

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
0.125 oz - Dried Lemon Peel, Time: 15 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Mash
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
White Labs - American Hefeweizen Ale Yeast WLP320

 

[TheJasonT]

I'd bet it would add a nice mellow background to it. Go for it!

 

[Proboscidea]

Totally! Like a chardonnay, is my hope. Light but sweet-wood-ish.

I'll post results here if it turned out good ... at least a week of oaking, then 3 weeks of bottle conditioning. If I haven't posted something in 4-5 weeks, then you'll know I'm avoiding this thread, hanging my head in shame, because it turned out barfy.

 

[BrotherBock]

I'll post results here if it turned out good

How did it turn out. I have some weizen yeast that i plan to do a couple batches with. Would like to do something unconventional.

 

[Proboscidea]

It's still in primary right now. This weekend I plan to oak it (been reeeeeeeal lazy this week in the beermaking department), let it sit for about 4 days. And unfortunately, I'm one of those bottling people, not a keg person, so there's 3 more weeks of waiting. But I have high hopes! I mean, how can it NOT turn out yummy? (and I shall faithfully enumerate the ways it's not yummy, if fate decrees that results shall be thus)

 

[zachattack]

I like this idea! Make sure to update. A hefe is best young, so good call on chips vs. cubes. I think you'll find they'll be carbonated after a week, since the yeast shows such low flocculation my hefes always carbonate fast.

 

[Proboscidea]

Oak has been plopped into beer! Did 2 one-gallon experiments: one with 100% of recommended oak (0.2oz per gallon), one with 200% of recommended oak (0.4 oz per gallon). Next step: after several days, remove oak, bottle, quaff. Whoot!

I will say, the rest of the batch is remarkably not-full-of-flavor. I've made hefes before, and this one is definitely on the mild end of the spectrum. Nearly flavorless to my palate (or maybe I'm just expecting more, after my winter-long jag of producing donkey-punch-yo-face stouts and cascadians). The experiment continues.

 

[Proboscidea]

Update: this has been the laziest batch EVAR. I finally bottled the suckers on Wednesday. So 2-3 weeks from now we'll know.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

Update: this has been the laziest batch EVAR. I finally bottled the suckers on Wednesday. So 2-3 weeks from now we'll know.

How long did it end up sitting on the oak for?
Take any samples? How does it taste?

 

[Proboscidea]

It sat on the oak for 4 days. It tasted ... meh. Not barfy. Couldn't really taste the oak, but then again, I hadn't cracked a bottle of unmolested brew to compare it with. Let's just say, at this point, the oak is not at all overwhelming. Which is good. I generally don't trust warm pre-carbonation taste tests, other than to weed out obvious barfishness. To my palate, the carbonation and coldness make such a dramatic difference to the final result.

This is similar to my other recent oaking experience. It was a batch of brownish ale, half oaked, half not. The oaked version tasted sweeter, more vanilla-ish, than the plain batch. But it didn't scream "OAK, BITCHES!!!!" or anything. It wasn't, say, like one of those California cabernets that pummels you about the temples with its oak character.

 

[Proboscidea]

RESULTS!

We did a three-bottle taste test yesterday. There were three participants, all beer snobs.

Un-oaked: This batch happened to be very heavy on the cloves. Remember also that the recipe included a teeny bit of lemon peel in the boil. Your batch & ferm conditions may create different notes. So for the control batch, we tasted dominant clove, followed by general Hefe yeastiness and a hint of hops. Lemon was not detectible, but it may have contributed in general background noise. Obviously, no oak taste in this one.

100% oaked: Couldn't detect the oak at all. Tasted a little sweeter than the un-oaked bottle. Clove taste was less detectible. The oaking seemed to even out all the flavors, but not add any of its own notes per se.

200% oaked: Same as the 100% oaked, but more of everything, by which I mean less of everything -- sweeter (just a little bit; not cloying), further toned down clove notes, balanced all tastes more. One taster described it as the most "saison-like" of the three, which she liked. I'm thinking that may have been the effect of clove/yeast/oak peeping through.


Conclusion:

Of all, the tasters preferred the 200% oaked version.

Oak faced a number of strong taste competitors in this hefeweizen: clove, banana, hops, wheat. Even doubling the recommended amount of oak chips did not produce a detectible oak flavor. Instead, it toned down the other strong notes and added a tiny bit of sweetness. Very subtle.

I would say oak is not a terrible thing to add (eureka, no vomit taste) but if you're going for strong clove/banana/whatever classic wheat beer essence, stay away, because it'll only mute those flavors.

If, on the other hand, at the end of fermentation you discover that your beer tastes way too strong on any of those notes, you can tone 'em down by oaking.

I have no idea how much oak you'd need to add in order to actually have it become a dominant note. A lot. A LOT.

 

[kingwood-kid]

You can get oak essence at many LHBS. I would thionk its instantaneous flavor contribution would be helpful in a best-while-young beer like a hefe, and that the vanilla-oak character would meld well with the banana and clove. But then, I don't like hefes.