Which are the easiest beers to brew? I keep on failing with my wheat ale. I think the problem might be that I haven't adjusted the pH but it'd be nice to have a easy brew to bring my brewing confidence back up.
Can you post the recipe you used for your "failed" Wheat Ale?
And in what way did it fail, according to you?
What kind of water are you using?
Wheat beers are considered easy, or maybe better phrased, forgiving. So are Brown ales, basic Pale Ales, and some low to medium gravity Stouts/Porters.
The easiest beers to brew are those where the hopped wort comes in a plastic bag and you simply empty the bag into the fermenter and add yeast. The hardest parts of that are lifting the bag to empty it without spilling and finding the patience to let the beer fully ferment. About the only easier way to get beer is to go to the store and buy it.
I'm not advocating either method. A simple beer with extract and a single hop addition can be just about as easy and people will argue that you will get better beer.
It also has an awful lot to do with the equipment that you own and the process you use. The "ease" of maintaining temperature controls through all stages of your process,, cleanliness and sterilization, and precisely measuring weights volumes, pH, specific gravities and pressures will vary all over the map depending on the size of your batch and the process you use.
Keep good notes and vary things one at a time. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgment.
Those seem quite high, but I highly doubt they'd be responsible for (overly) tart beer.1.0 g/L Coriander Seed @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
2.0 g/L Orange Peel Whirlpool (when wort temp. drops to 65C)
Yeast/fermentation will lower the pH.After mashing I remember tasting the wort and it was still good.
2 bar = 29 psi! That's quite high, but probably OK for 12 hours of burst carbing without agitation/rolling/shaking.Maybe the co2 level of 2-2,5 bars for 12h before changing it to 1,2 was too much.
It could well be over-carbonated, which does add some tartness.Also when I tried to bottle w iTap the foaming was crazy.
pH itself is insignificant, even useless. What's relevant is the mineral content, especially buffering capacity (bi-carbonates) that resist change of pH.I used tap water. I have considered buying water from a market. No idea about the pH of my tap water. I thought about getting a pH meter.
Those seem quite high, but I highly doubt they'd be responsible for (overly) tart beer.
For reference, I use 7 gr of each in a 5.5 gallon (25 liter) batch.
That's .28 g per liter.
Those are dried, bitter orange peel bought from the LHBS. The (large) chunks have been chopped up into small bits, around 2 mm in diameter.
The coriander seeds are coarsely cracked.
These are added 10-5 minutes before FO.
Yeast/fermentation will lower the pH.
2 bar = 29 psi! That's quite high, but probably OK for 12 hours of burst carbing without agitation/rolling/shaking.
pH itself is insignificant, even useless. What's relevant is the mineral content, especially buffering capacity (bi-carbonates) that resist change of pH.
Call your water company for the mineral content of your daily water, especially the minerals (ions) we brewers are interested in. They have the data.
Also ask them how much it fluctuates, week to week, month to month, season to season.
If your tap water is soft, low mineral content, and stable during all seasons there's no need to buy bottled water. Besides, some bottled water is mineralized, often with... baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), which is exactly what we try to avoid, as it makes the water less suitable for most brewing.
- - the only fermentable ingredient is from barley malt. And only one or two of those.
Again, pH is not that useful without knowing the mineral content.7.9-8.1pH (I can find daily pH straight from the city website, typically range is 7.8-8.6)
Now that^ is a good entry point, yes!3,4 °dH hardness
If using tap water for brewing, you need to dechlorinate it before use.0,4mg/l chlorine
I know, I just listed everything just in case it can be used as a support data of another data or for anything.Again, pH is not that useful without knowing the mineral content.
Those seem quite high, but I highly doubt they'd be responsible for (overly) tart beer.
For reference, I use 7 gr of each in a 5.5 gallon (25 liter) batch.
That's .28 g per liter.
Those are dried, bitter orange peel bought from the LHBS. The (large) chunks have been chopped up into small bits, around 2 mm in diameter.
The coriander seeds are coarsely cracked.
These are added 10-5 minutes before FO.
Mine are sweet as well. The taste must be great in beer with a successful brew.I also prefer to use sweet orange peel that is from Mandarin oranges that has been dried.
Okay, so might be the yeast. I had a yeast package in my fridge, of which half I had used to my previous brew. I now have three packages of Mangrove Jacks M20 at the fridge unopened.I've had bad experience with the yeast you use wb-06, the off flavor I detected is tart. I've seen this pop up in other threads too so I'm not alone.
I've had better luck with Mangrove Jack's wheat yeasts (both their Belgian witbier strain and their Bavarian wheat strain).
Also us-05, to my palate, has never let me down. Very clean, very forgiving. Not suitable for wheat beer per se... But if you're just looking to brew a tasty beer, a simple pale ale with us-05 might do the trick.
Wow, people really dislike that yeast.I have to say, as soon as I saw you'd made a wheat beer you weren't happy with, I thought "WB-06!" Nothing good to say about that yeast.
To answer your original question, then in general I find darker beers are easier to get right. This is at least partly because the roast will hide a number of flavor flaws, and the color makes some cosmetic flaws moot. I think the water is easier to get right, too.
I'd recommend an American Stout with a healthy dose of hops (all added in the boil! try Chinook or something.) and dry yeast (probably US-05 or Nottingham; both are very forgiving.)
Depends on what you mean by "easy."
I agree darker porters and stouts are "easier" to produce good tasting beer because the dark malts hide a lot.
I also think SMASH (single malt & single hops) recipes are "easy" in that there are minimal ingredients and it's "easier" to taste the impact each ingredient and change in your process. (And they can taste great if the rest of your process is sound).
As for the above beer, I suspect it's a combination of WB-06 and fermenting a little too warm. If you will be fermenting at 22C, I suggest using a saison or kveik yeast. [I made a SMASH beer with 10 lbs pilsner, 2 oz Saaz, and WY3724 saison yeast, and it turned out great].
But what do you like to drink? Even if you can make a good dubbel easily, if you don’t like it …
Again, pH is not that useful without knowing the mineral content.
Now that^ is a good entry point, yes!
There are formulas to convert that to actual (or predicted) mineral content.
If using tap water for brewing, you need to dechlorinate it before use.
The easiest is with "Campden" (K-Meta-MetaBisulfite or Na-MetaBisulfite).
A small amount suffices, 1/4 tsp of the powder will dechlorinate 20 US gallons. That's 1/16 tsp (!) per 5 US gallon (21 liter).
Using a bit more (say double or even 4x as much) does no harm. It's still a very small amount. Works virtually instantly, once dissolved and mixed into the water.
Also comes in tablets, which contain binders and stabilizers, and are hard to crush and dissolve.
Use the powder, Luke!
It is, yes. Thanks for the correction.5 US gallons isn't 21L, it's 18.9L.
Light version as in color, you mean?For what I've understood witbier is like a light version of something like a hefeweizen. It could have a ?fuller body?. I guess that's what it is called what I mean.
Vital Statistics: | |
---|---|
OG: | 1.044 – 1.052 |
IBUs: | 8 – 20 |
FG: | 1.008 – 1.012 |
SRM: | 2 – 4 |
ABV: | 4.5 – 5.5% |
If your beer is still in the fermenter or in a keg, absolutely. That’s what dry hopping meant, before people started going on about biotransformation. If you’ve bottled it, I don’t know a good way, but maybe someone else does.After reading AlexK i wish i would've added some orange to my Kentucky Common. Hey, question, can i still add after ferment is done?
Absolutely, add some zest to your keg. Or add to your glass, like an orange twist (you do need to twist it for maximum effect), or a slice or wedge of orange, peel and all. Maybe muddle it as if it were a Mojito.After reading AlexK i wish i would've added some orange to my Kentucky Common. Hey, question, can i still add after ferment is done?
You could make a tincture by soaking orange zest in vodka for a few days, shaking a couple of times a day, and add the liquid at bottling or kegging. I've done this several times with good results.After reading AlexK i wish i would've added some orange to my Kentucky Common. Hey, question, can i still add after ferment is done?
Light like lagers.Light version as in color, you mean?
https://www.allagash.com/blog/what-is-wheat-beer-vs-witbier-vs-hefeweizen/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer
Witbier (a style of Belgian origin) includes at least 50% of "raw" wheat (flaked wheat is fine), while Hefeweizen (German origin) brewed in Bavaria uses Malted Wheat instead because of Reinheitsgebot. Hefeweizen brewed elsewhere can contain either, but the yeast has to be low flocculant for the beer to be a "Hefe." The Banana or Clove flavor/aroma is also a characteristic part of the Hefeweizen style, brought on by the yeast strain.
Either is fairly easy to brew, yes.
I got the recipe ready from this beer article. I adjusted the OG, FG and BU:GU to get to Witbier levels. I suppose I did alright since I hit those levels. How likely is it to end up with bad tasting beer if you don't hit the right levels with OG, FG, BU:GU?Well, you are high on gravity for starters. Also at the top end on color and IBUs. I actually think you are good with corriander and orange.
Mandarina Bavaria is somewhat of a new hop and many report it is supposed to lend an orange flavor, so I can see why you’d think you’d want to use it in a recipe like this. I’ve tried it a couple times and I don’t see the orange thing.
I’m not familiar with Fermentis Safbrew used in this recipe. Yeast is a huge deal for witbier though, and I might try again with lower gravity and a liquid yeast.
Vital Statistics: OG: 1.044 – 1.052 IBUs: 8 – 20 FG: 1.008 – 1.012 SRM: 2 – 4 ABV: 4.5 – 5.5%
I checked out those hops but none had them in my country. I might get some abroad inside EU.If you’re looking for orange in your hops, Lotus or (if you can get it) Bergamot bring it in spades. Boy do I like those hops.
How about dropping in Magnum @90min and Bavaria @10min ?Just looked at the OP’s recipe, and if you’re adding hops only at 90 minutes you’re not going to get much in taste out of them, no matter what.
Glad to hear I wasn't the only one getting tart flavor. My fermentation was between 3-4w with that tarty batch.I would say any simple extract recipe fermented with kveik. Not exactly brewing to style as those yeasts make a pretty distinct flavor, but it's pretty hard to mess up a kveik fermentation.
I struggled with a tart flavor as well for many batches, but I found it would eventually go away. Fermenting cooler and keeping it on the yeast longer before cold crashing seem to help.
If you're worried about lactobacillus I would try brewing stronger and hoppier to see if that alleviates the problem. Kveik rips through strong wort no problem.
I have lactic acid in my fridge. I didn't give any of it for the tarty batch.Sounds like it might be the yeast but it’s never a bad time for a good brewery wash and sanitize and liquid line flush in the kegerator.
I’d say go with a wheat so that any imperfection does show up or you nail it. Then you know you’re doing it right. You do need to know/adjust the mash ph so a meter and lactic acid is needed. You can use one of the online water calculators like brewers friend too.
I see big bearded guys with poor hygiene killing it with their beers and I wonder why I'm using rubber gloves, PBW and Starsan. And then just sanitize everything 2-3 times, lol.dumping my old scratched buckets for SS, switching to iodine sanitizer, and making a tub of sanitized water for my hands and brewery parts helped eliminate infections.
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