Hey all,
I’m gonna be making a wheat beer, and I wanna find out how to hop it effectively. I’m worried about using too much of a low-alpha hop and getting grassiness in the flavor profile. I’m doing a 1gallon BIAB style. Any suggestions? I’m looking at low ibu, around 15-25.
You looking for an american wheat beer? I know gumballhead uses amarillo. Any American C-hop should work as well. If you are looking for something more German Hallertau or Tettnager are good choices.
Its actually pretty hard to get grassy flavors from hops, unless the hops are from a know grassy variety.
Lot of different ways you can go with a wheat beer. German Heffenweiss would use German noble hops or similar (similar would be Mt. Hood, Liberty, Crystal for example). You could go more “summer ale” and use more earthy hops like Fuggles or Williamette. Or go citrusy with Cascade, Amarillo, Columbus or any “C-hops” and essentially make a pale ale but using wheat for the base.
What kind of wheat beer would you want to brew?
Oddly enough I like Citra in my American Wheat.
edit
Not for the boil, rather 1/2 oz for the aroma added at 15 mins and 1/2 at the flameout.
My boil usually is 1/4 oz of nugget.
I’m a huge fan of Glacier in an American wheat. Very under-appreciated hop IMO. It’s a low alpha, low cohumulone, low oil hop; however it has a beautiful peach/apricot aroma and flavor which is quite unique.
I just brewed an American Heff with Amarillo at 60 and cascade at the end. Came out great.
This is actually what I had in my recipe to start, but I was worried about alpha acid content. I intend on brewing an American style wheat, so I guess that gives me a broad range of acidity to choose. Your description sounds very pleasant, so I think I may go with it. How high ibu do you reach with this particular brew?
I used Citra hops in my last beer exclusively, a pale. I thought that I might revamp my recipe with the addition of wheat because I feel as if my recipe lacked body.
I aimed for the top of the range for the style (30 IBUs). Sadly I have not brewed this recipe in a couple years, because I’ve had trouble getting my hands on whole leaf glacier.
I don’t care much for wheat beer, but I usually have one on tap for company that doesn’t venture much into the craft beer arena. That said, I use Saaz because it is so mild, and the people drinking my wheat beer generally don’t enjoy hoppy beers.
I would go with any high alpha for bittering and the flavor and aroma would be what you desired out of the wheat beer. I use summit (60 minutes) for bittering my blueberry wheat.
Just throwing it out there that the BM clone on HBT uses Hallertau in the 10-15 IBU range. The author of that recipe is Wayne who helped develop the beer back in the Sandlot days. It goes over real well with my lady folks. :cheers:
Gumballhead is da bomb! My clone batch just came online and it’s so freaking amazing! I also regularly brew NB’s T-Can and Bearcat’s Wheaten Beatdown, which features Palisades, Willamette and Cascade hops.
Hallertauer work well
Vanguard or Liberty are excellent in Am wheats
