Brew Day: Honey Orange Wheat

The first craft beer I tasted was a Hefeweizen at Toit. Fruit, cloves, yeast, sometimes banana, a moderate ABV and very, very drinkable; that’s how I would describe a Hefe. Brewing a Hefe right now is difficult for me because I cannot maintain the required temperature (17 to 20°C) during fermentation and therefore I would prefer to brew it in winter.

However, having wheat and pale ale malt in the house gives me the opportunity to make an American Wheat Ale, and in this case a Honey Orange Wheat. I based my recipe on a Hefeweizen but used Pale Ale malt instead of Pilsner, a bit of Crystal 40 and 100 grams of honey at flame out. The base malts were in equal measure and my concern at the time of writing the recipe was more towards how much orange peels I should add to the beer. I decided I wanted orange on the nose and when I drink it, but not a heavy aroma or flavour and therefore I added the peels of 2 oranges for about 3 days.

Honey Orange Wheat (Tasting notes here)

Specifics

Batch size (litres): 8 litres
Type: All Grain

IBU: 17

SRM: 5

OG: 1.060

Grains and Sugars

1 kg Pale Ale
1 kg Wheat malt
10 grams Crystal 40
100 grams Honey (at flame out)

Hops

4 grams Northern Brewer @ 60 min.
2 grams Northern Brewer @ 30 min.

Yeast

Fermentis S-04 Ale Yeast

Schedules

Mash at 68°C for 60 minutes

Sparged at 80°C for 15 minutes

Boiled for 60 minutes.
Added the peels of 2 oranges for 3 days after primary fermentation.

Note
- What we get in a majority of super markets in India isnt orange, its a citrus fruit called kinnow which is a hybrid of the mandarin orange.