White beer / IPA cross

[JohnnyR]

Bit of an experimental one, this. I like the idea of unusual ingredients in beer, so I made this. Very loosely based on a Hoegaarden clone recipe, but with some extra malt and hops and ... well, read the recipe!

2kg lager malt
2kg flaked wheat
1kg wheat malt
1kg pale malt*
500g porridge oats

*I didn't have as much pale malt as I thought, so I used 675g pale and 325g Munich malt.

Mash at 65 degrees for 90 minutes. Mash pH was 6.0.

30g Saaz - 90 minutes
10g East Kent Goldings - 30 minutes
20g Challenger - 15 minutes
Zest of four large oranges - 15 minutes
10g crushed black peppercorns - 15 minutes
10g crushed coriander seeds - 15 minutes
20g Bobek - End of boil. Let stand for 20 minutes.

Pitched with Safbrew WB-06 wheat beer yeast.

OG 1054
Final volume 20 litres

This one is going to be interesting! It's much darker than a white beer, but that's ok since that wasn't really what I was trying to make. The wort tasted intrguing, with lots of bitterness from the orange zest and some spice from the, er, spices. It'll be fun to see how this one turns out.

 

[Grizzly299]

Now this I like the look of, something a little unconventional!

I wasn't quite that brave with my wit.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

 

[JohnnyR]

Seems to have stopped fermenting around 1024. I was expecting it to go a bit lower than that. It tastes about right, but that'll be nowhere near as strong as I was expecting. Is it worth giving it a good stir and sprinkling some more yeast in it?

 

[Keats]

I bottled a wit at weekend using the wilko wheat beer kit with Mangrove Jack wit yeast, dried orange peel and coriander. The sample had some extra bitterness from the peel but not much taste of orange or coriander yet. Just about to move to AG brewing so interested to hear how this turns out too.

Had a bottle of a wheat IPA brewed for M&S by Adnams last night. Was good but maybe a bit too orangey.

 

[Grizzly299]

1024 seems a bit high for a 65°C mash, my wit fermented down to 1013. It took two and a bit weeks.


Is it in a stable ambient temperature?
Did you pitch the yeast into the wort dry?

Wit Yeasts are notorious for slowing down if they get cooled too much mid fermentation.

They prefer to free rise from the lower end of their temp range, which is what a lot of Belgian breweries allow them to do.

Try gently rousing the yeast and putting it somewhere warm.If it doesn't change after 3 days re-pitch.

 

[JohnnyR]

Panic over ... I double checked it with my traditional hydrometer and it stabilized at 1012, which is much more what I was expecting. It's now safely casked ... I'll let you know how it tastes in about three weeks.

 

[JohnnyR]

Well, it's interesting! Tastes pretty good to me, like a cross between Hoegaarden and a more traditional wheat beer. It's cloudy and a sort of burnt orange colour. Mrs R says it tastes like boiled sweets with a vinegary aftertaste, but I can't taste the vinegar at all. I'll certainly make it again, but I'll probably bottle the next batch and keep it in the fridge; it'd be soooo much better cold. Definitely worth making.

 

[BeerCat]

Well, it's interesting! Tastes pretty good to me, like a cross between Hoegaarden and a more traditional wheat beer. It's cloudy and a sort of burnt orange colour. Mrs R says it tastes like boiled sweets with a vinegary aftertaste, but I can't taste the vinegar at all. I'll certainly make it again, but I'll probably bottle the next batch and keep it in the fridge; it'd be soooo much better cold. Definitely worth making.

I have found backing off on the IBU's really helped my Wheat Beers. Bitterness seems to conflict with the yeast. Will be trying out flaked wheat soon.

 

[JohnnyR]

Interesting. I was trying for something with more bitterness (can't remember the IBU rating, I think it was around 40) but I'm not sure it works as well as all that. I'll probably leave out the Challengers next time.

 

[Grizzly299]

Sounds like a fun recipe to continue developing. I'd agree with diching the Challanger,only because its heavier on the floral and spice characters than it is citrus.EKG seems like a pretty good fit to be honest.Saaz might make things a bit spicy and get in the way of the yeast spicyness(much like the challenger), saying that it should be fine as an early boil addition.

Perhaps try some light dry hop additions of Mandarina Bavaria, its orange aromas will probably go very well with a Wit.

Remember that dry hopping may not increase IBU's but it can still increase perceived bitterness, so in theory you could get away with lower IBU's but still get the taste that you are after.

 

[serum]

I like the sound of this.

I've had some really interesting wheat beers lately. Some of the white IPA styles are nice.

I also managed to get some hitachino nest white beer from an m+s and it's really interesting. Its like a Belgian wit but I think it has orange juice in it and it seemed to have a bit of a wild edge. I'm not sure what yeast they use though.

Saaz is great with wheat. One of my favourite Belgian Tripels is saxo which has lots of wheat and only uses saaz hops. I think it'll work nicely. Id probably have added the hops in the reverse order with challenger first, then ekg and saaz to finish.