Geterbrewed custom kit - wheat beer

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hazzie_fozz

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For my fourth **ever** brew, and my first ever wheat beer, I thought I'd experiment with one of the geterbrewed custom kits.

I chose 2 x wheat malt extract tins
20 ibus hop solution
A hop tea made of "piney" and "spicy" notes (I'm unsure of what they've chosen for me, because the packet was just labelled "custom kit", which is a shame)
Mangrove Jacks M21 Belgian Wit Yeast
Sweet woodruff as a flavouring add on

I've just put this on to brew this evening, pitched yeast at 22c and got a starting gravity of 1050. I will report back on how it actually tastes, but I must say as a shopping experience it was quite fun to have so very many options!

The kit came to just over £20 which I thought was reasonable for a 2 can kit, and I offset the shipping costs by buying a load of other goodies that I can't get locally - we only have a Wilko's and their homebrew range is limited.

I've read mixed reviews of the company itself, but I was pleased with delivery time, packaging and customer service. I just think they lack on finishing touches like labeling the hops that they've chosen for you, and including instructions with the kit (you have to download it from the website).

My initial thoughts are that maybe I went OTT with ordering 2 x wheat extract as I've since read wheat beer recipes that call for a 60/40 or 40/60 ratio of wheat to plain malt extract.

In any case, I've got no idea how the finished brew is going to taste and I think that's quite exciting!

One question for the group - when I stirred the wort there was a LOT of foaming. Is this normal for wheat malt extract or is it likely because I didn't clean off the sanitiser properly?
 
Update: I bottled this 2 weeks ago and have had a taste and I really don't like it!

But a disclaimer - I don't particularly like wheat beer, so I am a poor judge. I made this kit primarily with the view of gifting it to my family for Xmas and so making something I don't particularly like is a good way to make sure I don't drink it all in the interim.

My other half and a friend who loves wheat beer had a taste and they like it. All I can taste is wheat. It's very disappointing that the hops and sweet woodruff don't come through, and I'm surprised because they had 4 days in the FV.

With regards the overpowering wheatiness - I think that's my fault, I got a stuck fermentation because my central heating broke down and I had no temp controls (I've since bought an aquarium heater). I tried so many things to get it going again and eventually pitched a packet of yeast with 500g of wheat spraymalt extract... So wheat extract on top of the 2 x cans of liquid wheat extract went in. Even after that it was still stuck at 1022 so I had to bottle at that as it had 3 weeks in the FV.

The positives I can take from this are I've got an ok brew which I can gift to others, and the stuck fermentation forced me to address my lack of temp controls. I feel like it's unfair to make comment on the quality of the geterbrewed custom kit on the basis of the finished beer.. my flat was at 8c at one point during the brew process so you wouldn't expect the outcome to be amazing, no matter how good the kit is!
 

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