Anglo-American Wheat Beer

Description:

I twisted the American Wheat Beer style just slightly and came up with a very tasty beer.

The resulting beer has the floral nose that is one of the chief characteristics of the #1968 yeast. Indeed, with the low hopping in a wheat beer, the yeast nose comes through very clearly. I would perhaps add a bit more late-addition hops, but my wife is very happy with the taste — although she would prefer an increase in the carbonation. The color came out a touch darker than what I had hoped — more of a dirty straw color — but compared against a standard pilsener, it’s not that much darker.

All in all, the Anglo-American Wheat is a nice summer beer that allows an assertive yeast to show its stuff.

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs wheat malt
• 1 lb British pale ale malt
• 0.5 oz Cascade whole hops (alpha acid = 5.5%) 60 min
• 0.5 oz Cascade 10 min
• 0.5 oz Cascade steep
• Wyeast #1968 (London ESB)

Procedure:

Mash Schedule: 30 min protein rest at 125F
90 min mash at 145F

I poured the cooled wort over the Wyeast #1968 London ESB yeast cake from a batch of pale ale and fermented at 60-65F. After 4 days, I racked to the secondary, more for clarity than for any additional attenuation. For bottling, I primed the batch with a scant 2/3c of corn sugar.