Friday, June 25, 2010

Watermelon Wheat Tasting Day

So just under a month the Watermelon Wheat has come full circle and is ready to drink!


I have to say this one one of the simplest, fastest, and non-problematic beers I have ever brewed. The craziest thing about the final product is that it is actually pretty clear, even after only 2 weeks of bottle conditioning. It somewhat perplexes me because one, I used wheat, two, I didn't use any finings to clear it out, and three I used German ale yeast which does not floc out very well...

 I am not going to question the results though, it is a beautiful golden beer. There is a great watermelon aroma with the tiniest bit of wheat to compliment it. I think I used the perfect amount of hops in this, you can tell there is a hop bitterness but it does not overwhelm any other of the flavors. The wheat and watermelon play really really well together. I really have to say that the fruit flavoring did a real nice job in lieu of any real fruit (made the process a ton easier as well). It is going to carb up a little more with a week or two more, it is a little light right now and I think it will benefit even more with a little more carbonation.

Not to toot my own horn but I also had some outside testers last night of the female variety. It was very well received and requested that I get more in the fridge as soon as possible.

This turned out to be a great success that I am going to enjoy in this heat wave Colorado is currently in. Sometimes everything just falls into place the first time you formulate a recipe, and I think this is one of them. If you are looking to brew up a watermelon wheat try this recipe out and let me know what you think.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds good. Just did a Peach Wheat and hopefully it comes out the same. I used real peaches though and yeah it was a pain in the butt to do it. I just hope it is worth the effort.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yea, I have used real fruit before and yes, it is the purist way...it's sorta how I must use real pumpkin in my October ale...

    In the essence of time and simplicity I went with the extract this time and it turned out pretty darn good according to the feedback I am getting. I think one of the nice things about the watermelon extract is that it is very jolly rancher like with non-beer geeks really like.

    ReplyDelete