Eureka, an here is another wheat experiment. This time I added some blood oranges to a wheat beer. Although this beer was only 5 L (1.3 gal) and was a split from the #29 Helles Weizen, I will post the recipe as it would be for a full batch size. Lets go into the pilot batch recipe:
| Recipe: | Orangen Weizen | |
| Numbers: | Volume [L] | 30 (7.9 gal) |
| Original gravity | 13.6°P | |
| Terminal gravity | 3.8°P |
|
| Color | Around 3 EBC | |
| IBU | 10 IBU | |
| ABV | Around 4.4 % | |
| Grains: | Wheat Malt (3 EBC) | 3.9 kg |
| Pilsner Malt (3 EBC) | 3.15 kg | |
| Acidified malt (5 EBC) | 0.15 kg (added at 53°C) | |
| Hops: | Hallertauer (4.2% AA) | 17.1 g and boil for 60 min |
| Hallertauer (4.2% AA) | 17.1 g and boil for 30 min | |
| Yeast: | #3068 Weihenstephan | |
| Water: | Burgdorf | Mash: 18 L (4.8 gal), sparge: 29 L (7.7 gal) @78°C (172°F) |
| Rest: | 4 steps | Mash in @47°C (117°F) without acidified malt, 20 min @ 45°C (113°F), add acidified malt, 15 min @ 53°C (127°F), 30 min @ 63°C (145°F), 40 min @ 72°C (162°F), 10 min @ 78°C (172°F) |
| Boil: | Total 60 min | |
| Fermentation: | Primary | 3 days @ 18°C (72°F) in a plastic bucket |
| Secondary | 6 days @ 18°C (72°F) in a plastic bucket with oranges (see description below) |
|
| Maturation: | Carbonation (CO2 vol) | 4 with 22 g of cane sugar per 2 L (0.53 gal) |
| Maturation time | 1 week @20°C (68°F) and 3 – 4 weeks @4°C (39°F) | |
05/02/2011: Brew day. As already mentioned, this batch was a share of the #29 Helles Weizen batch. So this batch was only 5 L (1.3 gal) in total and fermented with the #3068 Weihenstephan yeast for three days at 18°C (72°F). I had lautering troubles! The wort came out very hazy the whole time…. After some helpless attempts to fix it, I begun to collect the hazy wort and hoped to get rid of the particles in the whirlpool. I used a mash bag to filter off any debris for the wheat yeast experiment and since there were very little residuals in the bag after filtering, I did not filtered the rest of the batch (what a big mistake).
05/05/2011: Racked the beer in a secondary fermenter to get rid of the yeast cake and other sediments. The gravity was 3.8°P. I added one blood orange: Heated the juice up to 70°C (158°F) with 0.5 L of water (0.13 gal) and added the peel of one half of the orange to the hot juice as well. All went into the fermenter for about four days.
05/11/2011: Bottled the batch with an addition of cane sugar for priming. Some of the orange debris went into bottle.
08/17/2011: Tasted the beer after letting it sit for nearly two month in the fridge.
Aroma: Subtle orange notes, some sweetness, sulfur note detectable.
Appearance: Straw yellow, hazy, some floating particles (orange debris and some husks), 1 finger white frothy head, nice bubbles.
Flavor: Grain note! Hints of oranges. Massive flour flavor, no bitterness or hop aroma detectable.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light body, low carbonation. Short- medium sweet, grainy and malty aftertaste. Very easy enjoyable.
Overall Impression: Well, the grain and flour notes come from the debris from the sparging process I guess. The first part of the batch went to the wheat yeast experiment and the last part for this batch. There might have been transfered some sediments from the kettle to the fermenter as it seems. And they somewhat got into the bottles as well. This is no bad beer at all, the oranges seem to be a perfect fit for a wheat beer. And it is very easy to drink.
I would suggest, for a second attempt, improve the sparging process and get the beer into bottles without any orange debris. And if you already used a filter for getting rid of any sediments, use it for the whole batch…
And maybe use a kind of bag for the oranges as the oranges tend to float on the top of the beer and get into the bottles very easily.
I used a kind of false bottom for lautering at that time and now use a perforated bottom and I haven’t had any trouble to get a clear wort since. Even with a wheat beer. Will give this recipe another go in the future.
Eureka Brewing 