Weissbier Honey Orange Hefeweizen

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Sorry, this is just my opinion, but nooooooo you don't want to extend the primary for a hefe and you definitely don't want a secondary. That strips away a ton of yeast that would otherwise add flavor!


I'm not talking about a hefe. I'm talking about the blue moon clone I brewed the other day. when I brew this hefe I will most certainly follow your fermenting sched for kegging
 
Same applies for wits. You want to drink weizens, wheats, wits, etc., young and fresh. But again, just my opinion :mug:
 
Most average-gravity beers will complete fermentation in a week, often less. Many users on here will say to leave it for at least three weeks in primary... this only applies to some styles.

There are styles that you want to get drink ASAP once fermentation is complete. The aforementioned wheat beers plus others like Milds are meant to be enjoyed young.

That is how I'm able to get this beer from grain to glass in 10 days.
 
Most average-gravity beers will complete fermentation in a week, often less. Many users on here will say to leave it for at least three weeks in primary... this only applies to some styles.

There are styles that you want to get drink ASAP once fermentation is complete. The aforementioned wheat beers plus others like Milds are meant to be enjoyed young.

That is how I'm able to get this beer from grain to glass in 10 days.

I hope you're right. I'll check on this beer in a week
 
Does this mean that if I brew this shortly, as a beer for summer...its a bad idea? I plan to bottle
 
Brewed this on Monday. I upped the grain bill by a couple pounds to get higher ABV and used WLP300 with my stir plate. Fermentation was pretty crazy! The wort smells great so can't wait to try it
 
Does this mean that if I brew this shortly, as a beer for summer...its a bad idea? I plan to bottle

Well it'll be fine but some of the hefe/wheat flavors and aromas will fade over time. But you can always brew now and then brew again later so it's ready as a summer choice.
 
You may want to avoid that. The white part of the peel (the pith) can impart incredibly bitter notes. And in my most humble opinion, is faster to zest a few oranges than it is to peel them.
 
We brewed this this past weekend and used a bit of coriander because we heard that that imparts orange flavor as well. We also used some zest. Anyone else tried the coriander? We will be bottling soon. So we'll know soon if it was a success!
 
We brewed this this past weekend and used a bit of coriander because we heard that that imparts orange flavor as well. We also used some zest. Anyone else tried the coriander? We will be bottling soon. So we'll know soon if it was a success!

Well coriander imparts a coriander flavor ;)

But be careful... American/European coriander (the round ones) can make your beer taste like hot dogs. Indian coriander (oblong) are the way to go.
 
We brewed this this past weekend and used a bit of coriander because we heard that that imparts orange flavor as well. We also used some zest. Anyone else tried the coriander? We will be bottling soon. So we'll know soon if it was a success!

I have added coriander to wheat beers, and can say that in my experience it added nothing that I might call "orange".
 
:mug:

As promised, the results! Tapped it last night and it really came out great!

The girlfriend says it's her favorite beer I've made. Even better than my English Chocolate Porter I asked?? Yes... make this again. !!

So I upped the grain bill a bit from the original recipe:

5 lb White Wheat Malt
4 lb Pilsner 2 Row
1 lb Flaked Wheat
1 lb Honey Malt

I added citra to the original recipe and used yeast nutrients:

0.50 oz Tettnang 60 min

0.50 oz Tettnang 10 min
0.50 oz Citra 10 min
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient 10 min
Zest of 4 Navel Oranges 10 min

The end result is delicious! It's rich, smooth, cloudy, and refreshingly citrusy.
Up front it reminds me of a Bluemoon with an orange slice in it... then the extra alcohol kick and the honey leave an aftertaste similar to Merry Monks.
ABV came to 6.5%

I also used my newly constructed stir plate and made a starter with White Labs WLP300. Started bubbling under an hour!

Fermented for 18 days then cold crashed for 24 hours before kegging.

Very.. Awesome.. Beer.

Next batch this summer I will try a little bit more Honey Malt to see if I can get a sweeter aftertaste.

Let me know if anyone tries this variation!

[Just a tip, if you follow these exact steps use a large fermenter... my carboy sadly lost a bunch of wort due to pretty violent foaming through the blow off hose in the first 24 hours... lame]

IMG_1980.jpg
 
Lvarini - I'm definitely going to use your variation of this very soon...did you stick with the 06 yeast?
 
:mug:

As promised, the results! Tapped it last night and it really came out great!

............

Next batch this summer I will try a little bit more Honey Malt to see if I can get a sweeter aftertaste.

If you want a sweeter finish, you might try increasing your mash temp.
 
Lvarini - I'm definitely going to use your variation of this very soon...did you stick with the 06 yeast?
Nope. WLP300 from White Labs and made a yeast starter. It was my first yeast starter so i had fun using my newly built stir plate.

I'll post a pic of it cause I think it's super cool!

Post results!

IMG_1897.jpg
 
If you want a sweeter finish, you might try increasing your mash temp.
Will try that too. Beersmith suggested a target mash temp of 152, then sparge with 168 degree water. I think the sparge was spot on, but I might increase the mash temp just a tad
 
:mug:

As promised, the results! Tapped it last night and it really came out great!

The girlfriend says it's her favorite beer I've made. Even better than my English Chocolate Porter I asked?? Yes... make this again. !!

So I upped the grain bill a bit from the original recipe:

5 lb White Wheat Malt
4 lb Pilsner 2 Row
1 lb Flaked Wheat
1 lb Honey Malt

I added citra to the original recipe and used yeast nutrients:

0.50 oz Tettnang 60 min

0.50 oz Tettnang 10 min
0.50 oz Citra 10 min
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient 10 min
Zest of 4 Navel Oranges 10 min

The end result is delicious! It's rich, smooth, cloudy, and refreshingly citrusy.
Up front it reminds me of a Bluemoon with an orange slice in it... then the extra alcohol kick and the honey leave an aftertaste similar to Merry Monks.
ABV came to 6.5%

I also used my newly constructed stir plate and made a starter with White Labs WLP300. Started bubbling under an hour!

Fermented for 18 days then cold crashed for 24 hours before kegging.

Very.. Awesome.. Beer.

Next batch this summer I will try a little bit more Honey Malt to see if I can get a sweeter aftertaste.

Let me know if anyone tries this variation!

[Just a tip, if you follow these exact steps use a large fermenter... my carboy sadly lost a bunch of wort due to pretty violent foaming through the blow off hose in the first 24 hours... lame]


looking to try your recipe, sounds good..how long did you you mash and what temp?

thanks
 
looking to try your recipe, sounds good..how long did you you mash and what temp?

Mashed at 152 for an hour then sparged with 168 degree water for about 15 minutes. I would try the mash at 154 though to shoot for a sweeter finish and bring out more of the honey flavor. I'm still drinking off my keg after two weeks and it's still really good.
 
looking to try your recipe, sounds good..how long did you you mash and what temp?

thanks

Also not really my recipe. I just varied the owner of the thread's original one to get a higher ABV and play with citra which I hadn't used before. Gotta give credit where it's due!!
 
Also not really my recipe. I just varied the owner of the thread's original one to get a higher ABV and play with citra which I hadn't used before. Gotta give credit where it's due!!

I hear ya. thanx for the response.
 
I'm still drinking off my keg after two weeks and it's still really good.
Awesome! But mine never last that long :drunk: I like to stick to tradition and make this primarily as a "hey we're having a party in two weeks, please bring beer" recipe. Usually gone in one night. But I will make this as a summer thirst quencher and it still doesn't last very long :mug:

Also not really my recipe. I just varied the owner of the thread's original one to get a higher ABV and play with citra which I hadn't used before. Gotta give credit where it's due!!
Thanks for the love!
 
Yeah rice hulls are always a good idea when using wheat, oats, rye, or anything that can gum up the mash
 
So, I brewed this a month back and cracked open the first bottle today. It tasted like it would be great, except there was about twice as much beer as there should have been per volume, and had a an unpleasant bitterness in the aftertaste.

This is my first shot at homebrewing, so I probably made some silly mistake, but I'm wondering if anyone can diagnose what I did so I don't do it again.

I made the extract version with .425 lbs pale DME, and .66 lbs wheat DME, and 1/5 the amount of prescribed hops and crystal 20L, and 4/5 of an orange worth of zest.

It fermented for about two weeks at temperatures between 60-70 degrees F, then I bottled it with about 3 tbs of honey 3 weeks ago.

The carbonation is great, it looks just like it ought to from the pictures, it's got a hint of honey in there, but it just tastes outrageously heavy. It's legitimately much better when I add about 1/3 volume of water to it. There's some unpleasant bitterness too, but that could just be the normal amount of beer bitterness multiplied by whatever caused this to be so thick.

Any thoughts on what I did wrong?
 
That's odd... it's supposed to be light and refreshing. My guess would be you had a stuck fermentation.
 
brewed 10 gals of this on Sat. Zested 10 BIG oranges. OG was at 1.042. it smelled awesome! Can't wait

I used WLP400 for this instead of what was suggested. I think if I would have stuck to the recipe it would have came out a bit better but it was still good and my friends didn't complain at all (free beer, ofcourse not :D)
 
Given that its June, i'm not certain that I can get oranges around here easily. If that's the case, how much dried orange zest should I get from LHBS?
 
Brewing this today. It's early winter in Australia and I'm using lovely ripe navel oranges from my tree.

image-4272113542.jpg
 
That's awesome! I just brewed this again on Wednesday and was thinking about how great it would be to have an orange tree! Good luck with the brew!
 
Good luck with the brew!
I had a bit of a crisis this past weekend when my air conditioning unit went out and the temperatures here in GA spiked up. The house was at almost 80 degrees during the day for 3 days causing some nasty temp fluctuation. I wasnt home as it was Father's Day weekend so the poor fermenter was left to fend for itself before I could get the air fixed. Kill be kegging this weekend... Hope it didn't ruin it
 
Good luck with the brew!
I had a bit of a crisis this past weekend when my air conditioning unit went out and the temperatures here in GA spiked up. The house was at almost 80 degrees during the day for 3 days causing some nasty temp fluctuation. I wasnt home as it was Father's Day weekend so the poor fermenter was left to fend for itself before I could get the air fixed. Kill be kegging this weekend... Hope it didn't ruin it

Yikes, that's never good. The temps are spiking here in Chicago so I'll cross my fingers and hope the old ac remains strong.
 
The boil has started. Preboil gravity was spot on! I shall update after all is complete and the Hawks game is over!

View attachment 130463

Edit: All went well! Hawks won and the brew went fine. The beer was bubbling happily a couple hours after moving it to the fermenter.
 

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