Brew Dudes

Here is an extract version of a recipe I made a few years back. It was a great beer, a little too tart on the cranberries after it aged a bit. So either cut the berries by one third or be sure to drink it up while it’s fresh. (The latter being preferable to the former).

Here is the recipe reproduced here with a few modifications I had to make for local ingredients. The original version of this appeared in the October 2005 edition of BYO magazine!!! We love that mag.

1.5lbs Muntons wheat dried malt extract
3.3 lbs Coopers Wheat liquid malt extract
2.0 lbs of golden clover honey
3.0 lbs of whole cranberries
2 medium navel oranges (seedless)
2 medium apples (Granny Smith)
1/4 tsp. of yeast nutrients
1/2 tsp. of pectic enzyme (dissolved in a little beer before racking)
5 AAU Williamete hops (30 mins) (1.0 oz pellets/23g of 5% alpha acids)
Safale US-05 dried ale yeast (2 packages, formerly US-56)
1.25 cups corn sugar for priming

Brew this up adding the liquid extract late (20 miutes left in boil). Add yeast nutrients right at the end of boil before your kill the flame. Ferment in primary for 7 days. Blend all the fruit in a food processor to make a rough relish; rinds, peels, seeds and all!!!. Put that in the bottom of a secondary fermentor. Rack the beer on top of it. Save a little 8oz of beer and dissolve the pectic enzyme in it.  After it is dissolved, dump it in the fermentor. I let mine sit in the primary for ten days, seven may be better to avoid over tarting from those berries.

Here is the recipe I used for the amazing Strawberry Blonde we had this summer. If you are really paying attention you’ll notice its the same as the American Wheat Ale recipe, except the yeast has been changed to WLP051 (my local shop was out of WLP001). I actually made this as a 12-gallon batch and split it between two fermentors and pitched two viles of yeast. This yeast was a first for me and I really liked the clean/crispness of it.

I would like to make a traditional California Common beer with it and compare to WLP001.

Anticipated OG 1.060
Batch size 5.5 gallons
6lbs German Pilsner malt
4.5lbs American Wheat Malt
1.5lbs Munich Malt

0.75oz Tettnanger hop pellets (60min)
0.25oz Cascade hop pellets (20 min)

Fermented with WLP051 (California common V)

After primary, I racked the beer onto 4lbs of sliced strawberries that had been steeped in water that was at near boil temp (heat off during steep). Let sit in secondary with berries for 7 days, then rack to a third fermentor for 7 days. This was to let any loose seeds settle out from the berries. Then bottle or rack to keg. Serve to the ladies and they’ll be sure to ask for MORE!

Extract version:

See American Wheat recipe.

This is a simple wheat beer that I sort of viewed as a hybrid between a German and American wheat. I used German Pilsner malt and American wheat malt. The beer was bittered with the Tettnanger but I used just a little bit of the classic Cascade for that American aroma and flavor. The two hops varieties really came out nicely in these beer.
I went with an American Hefeweizen yeast because I wanted to tone down those strong clove and banana flavors in most German wheats. I fermented it a little on the cooler side of the range (68F) to help keep those Hefeweizen flavors in check.

Try this recipe out next summer, it was the best straight wheat I have ever had.

Anticipate OG 1.060
Batch Size 5.5 gallons
6lbs German Pilsner malt
4.5lbs American Wheat Malt
1.5lbs Munich Malt

0.75oz Tettnanger hop pellets (60min)
0.25oz Cascade hop pellets (20 min)

WLP320 American Hefewiezen

Extract version:

The trouble here is that I used Pilsner malt and wheat. Most wheat extracts at a 50/50 blend of pale malt and wheat. If you can find Pilsner extract (likely) and 100% wheat extract (hard but I know its out there) then you can sub in 4.5lbs Pilsner LME and 3.3lbs wheat LME (100%). If not, drop the Munich to 0.5lb and go with a start of just 9.5lbs of traditional 50/50 wheat LME. Remember this is a simple wheat beer so there is no need to be concerned over too much specialty malts.