Smoked Weizen

[Roger]

I came across this whilst googling around;

http://www.northerntable.com/?p=614

I must say I'm very tempted to give it a go. I would need to substitute the hops but I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.

Roger.

[TheMumbler]

lancssteve brewed a smoked weizen which went down nicely a while back. I think he used Mount Hood in that as a hallertauer replacement.

I'd use around the same IBU of hersbrucker if it was me, but I'm just guessing. The hopping is light and all full boil in your recipe so I guess the hop component isn't that striking anyway.

[mysterio]

Sounds incredible. I've got some Rauchmalt and i'm brewing a Rauchbier in about a week or so.

[Roger]

Cheers, I haven't decided on which hops to use yet and it will be another month or so before I brew it but I've just about made up my mind to give it a go

[Rookie]

Cheers, I haven't decided on which hops to use yet and it will be another month or so before I brew it but I've just about made up my mind to give it a go

Hops in both smoke beer and weizen are a minor component, at best, so I don't think it makes that big a deal which hop you use.

[Garth]

Roger, Sladek hops are grown in the Czech Republic and have been reported to be similar to Saaz from the same region. Although as already said, in a smoky beer I doubt if it would make much difference, the hops being drowned out by smokiness.

A local brewery near me, Maxim (run by lads from the old Vaux place) makes a Maxim Sladek beer and it's extremely good.

[Roger]

Cheers fella's. It'll be about six weeks before i get around to this. I have some Perle leftover in the freezer and I was going to use some of those, just to use them up, only a small amount though.

This is the planned recipe,


Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 60.61 %
1.95 kg Smoked Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 39.39 %
18.00 gm Pearle [8.00 %] (90 min) Hops 16.6 IBU
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat

[northerntable]

Roger,

Let me know how it turns out, the one I brewed (the link you posted) took a silver in the last competition I entered it into. Seemed to be well received, I found the weizen character more subdued than I had hoped. Next time I will do a ferulic acid rest to bump up the characters a bit.

And you are right the hops are not as important in this beer, as long as you are sticking to something spicy rather than the c-types out there you will be fine.


Jake
www.northerntable.com

[Roger]

Hi Jake,
Nice to see you posting here and I like your website, it's very interesting and well laid out.
Yes I'll definately let you know. I was thinking of using White labs WLP300 or if I can't get that Fermentis T58. What do you think?

Roger.

[TheMumbler]

... I found the weizen character more subdued than I had hoped. Next time I will do a ferulic acid rest to bump up the characters a bit.

And you are right the hops are not as important in this beer, as long as you are sticking to something spicy rather than the c-types out there you will be fine.

Interesting, I like the Schlenkerla and lancssteve's version of it but I was left feeling that smokiness overwhelmed the weizen flavours. I'm curious as to why you are going for an acid rest rather than just dialling back the rauchmalt a bit. I've been wondering about the possibility of doing a wheat beer with more of a hint of smoke than a dominant taste. What would you think the minimum amount of Rauchmalt to get a smoked taste coming through would be?

[northerntable]

Good questions, the amount of smokiness does have a huge amount to do with the age of the smoked malt you are using. I am thinking about the acid rest because I want to push the clove/banana flavours more than they were present with just an infusion mash. I would avoid the T-58 on this beer as I have found it to be very very peppery and not showing those classic weizen flavours, if you can get your hands on the WB-06 dried yeast I would really give that a go. As for the minimum amount, I brewed a smoked Pilsner with 1 kg, of smoked malt and it was great, you could really dial it back. I find with RauchMalt there is a threshold you cross where you will not get a smokier beer even if you increase the amount of smoked malt. Schlenkerla's version has in house smoked malt which is a lot fresher and thats the reason for the intense smoke.

Thanks for the feedback on the website, I have been a bit remiss on updating recently but I have a bunch more posts waiting to go up!

Jake