Wheat Beer
Our wheat is a Bavarian Weizen: cloudy, pale, light- to medium-bodied, and rich in esters reminiscent of bananas and cloves. This thirst-quenching style is a summertime favorite and is best served cold, perhaps with a slice of lemon.
Ingredients
8 lb. Alexander's Wheat Malt Extract
1 oz. Tettnang Hops (Bittering)
Wyeast # 3068 Weihenstephan Wheat Yeast
Procedure
Before starting, make sure your liquid yeast will be ready to add to the beer. Plan on putting your fermenter where the temperature is within the temperature range listed on the Wyeast yeast package.
- Soak the cans of malt extract in hot water for 20-30 minutes so that the syrup will be easier to pour.
- Bring 1½ gallons of water to a boil in a 16 quart, or larger, pot.
- Remove the pot from heat and add the cans of malt extract. Keep the kettle off the burner and stir until the malt extract is completely dissolved.
- Put the pot back on the burner and bring it to a boil. Avoid messy boil-overs by reducing heat or momentarily removing the pot from heat.
- Once you have a stable boil, add the bittering hops (if using whole hops or plug hops place in a muslin bag) and boil for 1 hour (set a timer).
- After 60 minutes of boiling, turn off the heat.
- If you are using whole hops or plug hops in muslin bags, remove them from the kettle. Put a lid on your pot and cool it in an ice bath (use your sink) for about 20 minutes.
- After the wort (stuff in your pot) is cool, add 2 gallons of water to sanitized fermenter, add the cooled wort (if using pelletized hops pour through a sanitized strainer), and top up fermenter with additional water to 5 gallons.
- Take and record a hydrometer reading (optional).
- Be sure that the temperature of your wort in the fermenter is below 78º F before adding the yeast. Sanitize the yeast pack and the scissors before opening the yeast. Add yeast to wort.
- Bottle when fermentation is complete.
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