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Sunkissed Weiss Recipe

Apr 26, 2017

Sunkissed Weiss (23 Litres)

This delightful Weissbier displays alluring deep golden hues and carries a little extra flavour than typical commercial versions, whilst still maintaining a refreshing appeal for drinking through the warmer months. The specialty grain addition of Crystal Wheat contributes the subtlest hint of chocolate and coffee aromas plus a little more colour, pushing this brew to the upper limit of the Weissbier 15.A. category (BJCP style guidelines). The Perle hop addition, adds a little more backbone to the bitterness level, which also helps to balance any residual sweetness from the Crystal Wheat. As with most Weizens, the yeast is a key ingredient in this recipe. The Munich Wheat yeast tends to throw hints of banana and subtle smoked bacon aromas, which might sound a bit odd but is considered desirable in many commercial versions. We’ve chosen an addition of Light Malt extract, which places this recipe a little outside of the minimum 50% wheat content style guideline. This works nicely in the recipe but you may like to use Wheat Malt extract instead. This style tends to mature quickly in the bottle so drink it young!!

Ingredients

1 x 1.7kg Thomas Coopers Preachers Hefe Wheat
1 x 1.5kg Light Dry Malt
1 x 300g Crystal Wheat grains
12g pack of Perle Hop pellets (25g may be used for more overt hop character)
1 x 11g Munich Wheat yeast (or wheat yeast of your choice)
1 x 250g Dextrose Corn Sugar or Carbonation Drops

Features:

Colour: Copper
Body: Medium
Bitterness: Low
Approx. Alcohol Level: 4.7%
Naturally Carbonated: Natural

Instructions:

Step 1: Mix

Place the Crystal Wheat Grain in a plastic zip-lock sandwich bag and crack it using a rolling pin. Stir into 2 litres of hot water (not boiling) and let steep for about 1hr. Strain the steepings into a second pan and bring to the boil. Add the hops and boil for 30mins. Remove from the heat and sit the pan in cold water to cool for about 15mins. Once cooled, strain the hop/crystal wheat blend into a fermenting vessel. Add the contents of the Preacher's Hefe Wheat and Light Malt Extract cans then stir to dissolve. Top up with cold tap water to the 20 litre mark, stir thoroughly.

Step 2: Brew

Check the temperature and top up to the 23 litre mark with warm or cool water (refrigerated if necessary) to start the brew at 22C. Sprinkle the dry yeast or stir in liquid yeast and fit the lid. Try to ferment at 22C. Fermentation has finished once the specific gravity is stable over 2 days. It should finish around the 1006 – 1010 mark.

Step 3: Bottle

Bottle the brew with a priming rate of 8g per litre (2 carbonation drops per 750ml bottle). Store the bottles at or above 18C for at least two weeks to allow the secondary fermentation to take place.

Step 4: Enjoy!

Expect the alcohol content to be around 4.7% ABV.