Tag Archives: hefeweizen

On February 23, 2009 I brewed up a batch of Blood Orange Hefeweizen using a recipe that I found in Extreme Brewing [Amazon]. The recipe, photos, and details of brew day can be found in this previous post. After 3 weeks in the secondary fermenter and 2 weeks in the keg, it was finally ready to drink.

I poured the beer from the keg into a glass and the following is what I experienced.

Appearance. This beer has a yellow tan head that doesn’t last very long. It is hazy, as a hefeweizen usually is, the has a deep red-orange amber color.

Smell. The blood orange hefeweizen that I brewed has a strong clove smell and a hint of banana. It has a citrus and dark ripened fruit bouquet, which, for me, seemed to be a characteristic of the blood oranges. The smell is not terribly sweet and I was expecting a lot more of the blood orange smell.

Taste. The banana aspect of the blood orange hefeweizen is more prevalent in the taste. The yeast also gives it a clove spice quality. When the clove flavor is combined with the unsweetened blood orange flavors, it reminds me just a little of orange-spice herbal tea. Where the tea is very in your face with the flavors, in the beer thse flavors are more subtle.

Mouthfeel. This batch of homebrew did not reach the target final gravity. It ended up with a little more body than I wanted creating a slight surup-like sensation on the tongue. It seems to leave a bit of a yeasty aftertase in your mouth.

Drinkability. Despite the fact that this homebrew recipe wasn’t quite what I expected, it is a drinkable beer. Especially while is cold out of the keg, it has a refereshing quality to it. The uniqueness of it is a drawback, however, to having more than two at a time.

All in all, I thought this was an interesting beer to brew and drink. I’m not sure that I would brew it again any time soon. If I did try brewing it again, I would use a more neutral flavored yeast. I think the hefeweizen yeast might have overpowered the taste and smell of the blood oranges.

It had been nearly 2 years since the last time I brewed a batch of beer and I was eager to start brewing again. I had recently purchased a copy of Extreme Brewing [Amazon] by Sam Calagione and while flipping through the pages I found a homebrew recipe that was both simple and interesting:  Blood Orange Hefeweizen. And so, on February 23, 2009 I brewed up a batch and took some photos of the process.

Recipe

I found the recipe for this beer on page 96 of Extreme Brewing but as usual I had to substitute a few ingredients. Here is the version of the recipe that I brewed:

• 6.85 lbs of liquid wheat extract (65 minutes)
• 0.5 oz Liberty hops 4.5% AA (60 minutes)
• 0.7 oz really old (but sealed and refridgerated) Czech Saaz hops 3.2% AA (20 minutes)
• 0.5 oz Liberty hops 4.5% AA
• White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale Yeast
• 4 blood oranges
  • Grate the orange part (the white part is very bitter) of the rind of 2 of the oranges
  • Peel, section, and chop all 4 blood oranges
  • Heat fruit in 1/2 gallon of water to 160°F, cover, turn off heat, cool.
  • Add to primary fermenter
• 2 blood oranges
  • I sampled the beer going from the primary to the secondary I added because I wanted more blood orange flavor.
  • Grate the rind of one of the oranges
  • Juice both the blood oranges
  • Bring the mixture barely to a boil.
  • Cool and add to the secondary fermenter

Yeast Starter

Three days before brew day I made a 1.25 L yeast starter with a quarter cup of light dry malt extract. I bought it to a very gentle boil on an electric stove. While wearing silicone oven mits, I pulled the flask off of the heat when it looked like it was about to boil over.

Yeast Starter for White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Yest

Brew Day

The following are some pictures that I took on brew day. The first picture (and the first picture in this post) are of the blood oranges. I used two store bought blood oranges and two home grown (by relatives, not me) blood oranges. Can you guess which were store bought? The home grown ones were blood red in color while the other oranges were more pink and brown.

Below I’m adding the liquid wheat malt extract to the boiled water. More Flavor in Los Altos, CA packages their LME in convenient bags. I thought that this wheat LME was a little dark, which will probably hide some of the redness from those really dark blood oranges.

Liberty hop pellets, measured out to 0.5 oz and ready to be added to the wort.

Liberty Hop Pellets

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