Wheat Experiment Update

Satan brought the results of our wheat experiment. A couple of days ago, I decided to see how things went.

The American Wheat is good, but bland. It's got a wheaty flavor, but nothing else. It needs a bit of flavor. Feels a bit watery, too. For the next American wheat, we should add a pound of crystal 20 for some flavor and some body. And hops. Something in the last 10 minutes or so. Something to punch through the malt.

Having said that, If we opened a brewery tomorrow, I would almost say this should be the flagship beer to wean people away from BudMillerCoors. It just needs something. Yeah, I think this one is close. Just needs a bit of dialing in. Next time, we should cut back on the barley and add the Crystal 40. Keep the wheat/malt ratio at 60/40. Same hop schedule.

The hefeweiss has a dense, creamy head. The color is almost wit-like. Very pale yellow. Smells of banana and a hint of clove, I think. I might have to buy some cloves to be sure. I'm in love and haven't tasted it yet.

[Sip]

Wow. The banana flavor is very subtle at first and becomes more apparent as it warms. Excellent beer. We plan to rebrew this for next year's Nationals.

For kicks, Satan added some peach flavoring to the hefeweiss, hoping for a spiced peach flavor. It's a bit subtle. Which is what I expect in a commercial beer. But as it warms, the peach comes through. It's also on the back of my tongue, which is nice. I didn't pick up much clove, so I can't say it was spiced peach. It's good, though. He also spiked one with raspberry flavor, but I haven't tried that yet.

Satan commented:

Hmmmmmm, not bad! Next time I’ll ferment at cooler temps to get more of the clove going. Nice peach aroma, we might need to experiment with another flavoring agent or possibly frozen peaches this next time. Color may be a little dark, but I think within spec. It may need to age a bit longer though. Tastes just a tad husky, similar to an American Wheat. Overall….me likey…. The warmer it gets, the less husky it is and you can begin to pick up on the clove note, maybe a tad tart, but not bad. Medium light mouth feel….yeah…let age a couple of more weeks and then give it another shot. I wish it was a bit thicker…..needs work, but not bad.

He also mentioned that he picked up some diacetyl. I only had one, but I didn't taste it.

He added some peach to the American hefe, but I thought the beer was too bland to stand up to the peach. He added strawberry to it, and I thought that the more subtle and ephemeral strawberry flavor went well with the beer. I think it should be added to the hefeweiss, for that classic strawberry-banana flavor. Or am I insane?