Brew Batch # 2: Bavarian Wheat

Are you trying to make a Bavarian Wheat (i.e. a Hefeweizen), or a Kolsch, or something else? If it's a hefe...

I have brewed a hefe with blood orange juice added to secondary and to the keg (to back sweeten slightly) that people liked.

You can google up the sugar content of fresh squeezed orange juice, and do the math. Don't forget to account for the volume of the liquid in the juice.

BTW, you have 5 different fermentables in your recipe. The liquid wheat extract (which is actually made from both barley and wheat malts) is all you need for a hefe, though if I were brewing it with extract, I'd go with dry. If there are specific reasons you added the other malts, that's cool, but if you don't know why you added them, I'd drop them.

 

Effing beer store guys. Shock Top is not a Bavarian Wheat Beer. Neither is Blue Moon. And I'd bet a paycheck neither one uses a Kolsch yeast.

 

When he says "during secondary fermentation" you don't actually need to re-rack into a different carboy. You can always just add the juice to the primary after high krausen has tapered off if you have enough headspace. I would also taste the beer before adding any juice. I get good fruit flavor from adding a couple ounces of fresh zest to the boil with 5 minutes left, but if it's not enough for you, then adding juice ill definitely deepen the orange flavor.

I agree with VikeMan, you don't need those other grains. I would get rid of the aromatic malt because the raisin flavor from that malt will clash with the orange if you want to really have it shine. The sweet caramel flavors in the Belgian 8 will compete for center stage with the fruit zest. Unless you're doing a mash, the pale malt really isn't necessary since malt extract is already converted, and you don't need any enzyme activity. Finally, I personally like flaked barley or rolled oats over carapils if you're worried about head retention.

Also, I feel like the esters from a hefeweizen strain with a warm fermentation would compliment the fruit flavor of the oranges better than a kolsch, but if you want a cleaner base, then your current yeast would be better.

 

If you're looking for a Shock Top/Blue Moon type of beer, look into a Belgian Wit yeast. You can also add a couple grams of fresh coriander to the boil with the yeast to add a spicy, citrusy counterpoint to the orange zest.

Do you have a little gallon fermenter? Because you can rack your base beer onto a little bit of orange juice in that little fermenter to see what it does without messing up the rest of your beer. That's what I like to do when I'm doing experiments on base beers that I already like.

 

I don't know who those people are, but that's nonsense. Orange Juice flavor will not ferment out. It's not fermentable, and it's not particularly volatile. The sweetness will go away, because the sugars will ferment. My guess would be that anyone claiming orange juice flavor "ferments out" didn't use enough juice in the first place. A couple of oranges aren't going to do it.

Looking back at my blood orange hefe recipe, I used one 750 ml bottle in secondary, and another in the keg. It was this stuff:
https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Volcano-Blood-Orange-Bottles/dp/B00011RJU2
I would have preferred to use fresh blood oranges, but they were not in season. The juice made for a very good beer though.

 

Neat video. Why did you pour wort over the grains then put the liquid back in.

 

It's like Jennicam. But with beer.