The next quarterly competition for the local homebrew club, due 12/1, is a pale ale with wheat and Citra.
I was thinking of taking the grain bill for Lil Sumpin Sumpin posted to AHA and swapping some of the hops with Citra (maybe the Chinook and Cascade):
Thoughts?
This is good, real good.
6gallons
OG 1.054
IBU35-40
50% Red Wheat
45% Two-row
5% Belgian Aromatic
Mash @156F
Apollo or other clean bittering hop @60 to 35-40 IBU
70g Citra in 170F whirlpool steep
55g Citra dry hop
WY1450 @64F
Interesting! I’ve never used red wheat. Or WY1450. Both sound fun to try out. Thanks.
I love me some red wheat
What flavor does red wheat impart? Is there a commercial beer I could try?
I think Three Floyds Gumballhead is made with red wheat (and Amarillo). I would like to clone it but red wheat can’t be found in Europe afaik.
Commercial, I don’t know.
It’s hard to say “Oh yeah this has red wheat in it” like you can rye, for example. It seems to be a more premium ingredient than white wheat; it just ups the quality in a subtle way that people recognize but can’t quite pinpoint. Briess describes it as “creamy”, and I think that’s true. It just imparts a smoother beer when used in higher quantities. if you’re just adding 5-10% for head you’re probably not going to know the difference.
If a group were to have a blind tasting of a white wheat and red wheat hefe (everything else being equal), I have confidence that people are going to like the red wheat better.
several years back a friend was only able to get red wheat for his hefeweizen brewday. i distinctly recall how remarkable the end product was, and i felt it was his best ever hefe.