Not a barley-wine type wheat beer. I’m talking more like this:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques79.asp
Has anyone made something like this? Any advice for trying to make one?
It would be interesting. I have not made anything like this but it sounds intriguing.
I first started thinking about wheat wine when I got Brewing with Wheat last year. I’ve been interested in rustic French and Belgian brewing, and the “use what you’ve got to make what you can” attitude. I made a sour beer recently with two kinds of wine yeast that turned out really well.
Here’s what I’m thinking: wheat malt base, golden raisins, dextrose, maybe honey, sour half of it, blend together, ferment with 1116 (can handle the complex sugars). Age on oak.
In Wheat the recipes use typical hop bittering, although Steve Pauwel’s recipes calls for citra or nelson late hop additions, which would certainly help develop a wine character.
IMO wine is really more of a sour/sweet thing, not a sweet/bitter thing like beer, so I’d like to steer clear of any bittering hops at all. Maybe a Nelson dry-hop?
Not really sure how to use raisins though. Plump them in warm water and blend the crap out of them? Throw the whole thing in, or strain the pulp?
I say mince them and add right in. I suspect much of the pulp will be consumed, particularly if you sour a portion.
I just picked up a bunch of 1-gallon jugs, so I’m trying a bunch of pilot batches of weird stuff. I’m brewing a Kellerbier right now in one. I’ll bust out my old BIAB bag and make a couple gallons of what I’m describing.