Nothing is better than a light and
refreshing wheat beer during the summer months. This fact of brewing is
magnified when you head to the beach or the pool in Florida. Often times, the
custom is to throw a piece of citrus into a wheat beer to emphasize the sweet
notes in wheat beers. Why not simplify the process, create a popular style of
wheat beers, and get ready for the beach.
It’s also important to cite your
sources. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Dogfish Head Craft Brewing
and the founder, Sam Calagione. They have been advocates for and pioneers in
“Extreme Brewing”. This philosophy embraces trying new ingredients in beers,
expanding beer styles, and exploring all that beer can offer. The recipe for
the Blood Orange Hefeweizen is from his book, “Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast’s
Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home”. For our homebrew below, we modified the
recipes by substituting more grains for some of the dried malt extract.
The interesting and “extreme” idea in
this beer is to add this unique fruit to the brewing process. Blood oranges are
not as sweet as other varieties of oranges could mix well with the hefeweizen
style.
Here are the ingredients we used to brew
our own Blood Orange Hefeweizen (Thanks, Sam!):
·
3 lbs. Munton
wheat malt extract, dried malt extract
·
1 lbs. Munton
light malt extract, dried malt extract
·
½ lbs. Munton
extract malt extract, dried malt extract
·
2 lbs. German
Wheat malt barley
·
1 ½ lbs. German
2-row malt barley
·
½ oz. Hallertau
hop pellets (bittering hops, added at the start of the 60 minute boil)
·
½ oz. Saaz hop
pellets (flavoring hops, added with 20 minutes left in boil)
·
½ oz. Hallertau
pellets (aroma hops, added with 10 minutes left in boil)
·
4 Blood oranges
·
Wyeast brand
yeast – Bavarian Wheat #3638
·
Original gravity
= 1.070
·
Target final
gravity = 1.010
·
Target ABV = 5.5%
We chose this yeast for several reasons.
This strain produces the customary clove and banana aromas but will also
produces very subtle apple, pear, and plum esters. The yeast likes between
64-75 degrees while higher temperatures will increase the esters that they
yeast produces. At this time in Florida (spring), the weather is usually in the
higher temperature range for this yeast, which is perfect for fermenting this
beer.
Start with 2 ½ gallons in the brew pot
and heated to 150 degrees. Over the next 90 minutes, we steeped the 3 ½ lbs. of
grains in this warmed water. The idea is to allow enzymes in the grains to convert
starches into fermentable sugars that yeasts can get at. After the 90 minutes,
we removed the grains and added all of the dried malt extract and brought to a
boil. Boil the grains, malt extract, and hops by adding the hops at the times
above.
During the boil, we had that 60 minutes
to prepare the blood oranges for addition to the fermenter. We zested two of
the four oranges and cut up all of the fruit. We were careful to remove all of
the white rind (will cause extreme bitterness). In a half gallon of water, we
created a fruit tea including brining the fruit up to 160 degrees to sterilize
it.
We then cooled off the unfermented beer
in the brew pot and the blood orange tea to about 75 degrees. You can’t have
this fluid too warm because you might kill off your own yeast if you add the
yeast to warm water (unintentional pasteurization). We added all of the
oranges, orange tea, unfermented beer, and yeast to the fermenter.
Strains of yeast used in wheat beers,
such as this hefeweizen, are voracious. By that, we mean that they eat sugars
and convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide at breakneck speed. After five
days, we transferred the fermenting beer to a secondary fermenter to pull it
away from the spent yeast and fruit in the fermenter. As we post this, the beer
is completing its second week of fermenting thanks to the yeast.
The pictures below including the
following:
·
All of the
ingredients
·
The recipe in
Sam’s book
·
Wheat malt and
the two varieties of hops
·
Light malt
extract
·
The yeast packet
(see the “Bavarian Wht” at the top)
·
The grains in a
grain bag for easy steeping and removal
·
Steeping the
grains in the brew pot
·
Checking for 150
degrees in the brew pot
·
Four blood
oranges
·
Blood oranges and
the pot for orange preparation
·
Personal notes on
the recipe
·
Blood orange
fruit
·
The boil
·
The brew pot and
the orange tea
·
Unfermented beer
and fruit added
·
Unfermented beer
and fruit added (second picture)
·
Fermenting and
yeast in action
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