Doing an amber wheat for a friend. Didn’t find many recipes on this style…
4lbs 9.3 oz pale malt
3lbs white wheat malt
11 oz crystal 40
10.3 oz munich
7.3 oz crystal 120
mash 152 degrees for 60 mins
batch sparge
boil 60 mins
1 oz hallertauer hersbrucker at 60 mins
1.5 oz orange zest 5 mins
.5 oz corriander 5 mins
yeast safale us 05 1 pkg
Ferment at 65-67 degrees
Shooting for 1.052 og with 16 ibus. Any feedback is appreciated. She wanted me to model something after blue moons amber wheat valencia grove. I am hoping to make something better. Blue moon website states plato of 14 with 16 ibus (hersbrucker), pale, munich, white wheat, and caramel malts, valencia orange peal, and hibiscus. Im leaving out the hibiscus.
why leave out the hibiscus? it’s yummy. tastes like cranberries
Dont know where to get it or how or how much?
you will likely find it in a health food store or co-op or a Hispanic grocery (it might be called Jamaica pronounced like ‘ch’ in Yiddish) or a grocery store with an Hispanic foods section.
You can use a couple ounces of the dried flowers to make a strong tea that you can add to the beer at packaging time. It’s also delicious sweetened and over ice all by itself.
Amazon is another option. Going to be racking some saison over some hibiscus tomorrow myself.
Aside from the flavor (kinda reminds me of fruit punch), it also imparts a beautiful, vibrant red color.
so back to my original question. Does the recipe look good or…?
looks fine. Personally I would not use that much crystal malt and just do 50% munich 50% wheat but that’s me.
I don’t actually know how much 1.5 oz orange zest is but last batch of wit I did I included the zest from 3 oranges in 11 gallons.
Make sure you get the right kind of coriander (Indian I think) or you risk a slightly hammy beer. I was always a little confused by this and this last batch I used… I don’t honestly know, Mexican would be my guess… coriander and there is a slight but definite savory aspect to the flavor at first. Only with the half of the batch that got the white labs Wit beer yeast. the half that got American Farmhouse blend doesn’t have that character. In fact the American Farmhouse half is a much cleaner, brisker, and sharper flavor. the bitterness from the orange zest really comes through a lot more in that one while the coriander is subdued.
I also included a couple oz of chamomile in mine and it’s a really nice herbal/honey flavor in the background
My yeast selection is based on years of dealing with sulfury beers made with wit beer and hefe yeast. The sulfur has all almost frustrated me enough to move away from the styles completely. I did however do a smash beer the other day with notty and it was sulfury and it cleared nicely after raising it up to room temperature for a few days.
yeah, I noticed a hint of sulfur in the Wit yeast half. I actually suspect this as part of the ham flavor. supposedly very brief contact with copper will largely alleviate the sulfur issue. Just a stir with a bit of copper pipe or similar. longer is NOT better.
I get the sulfur in WY 3944 initially, but it generally dissipates after a week or 2 for me.
I like the idea of having at least 50% wheat in the grist. You may also want to consider adding a handful or two of rice hulls to help with stuck sparge due to high wheat content.
I like the 50 % idea too. Could call it the half ass munich smash with spices.