My Whitefish Cranberry Wheat was a recipe I designed for my parents for a Christmas present. I gave them a case, the recipe (my dad's a homebrewer too) and the label. My parents have a lake home on Whitefish Lake in Northwestern Wisconsin, a big cranberry growing region. In fact Stone Lake (the nearest town) is home of the hugely attended Cranberry Fest in October. This beer is made using close to two pounds of frozen cranberries. Last year I was pleased with the turn out, and this year I've been happy with the results after 2 weeks in the bottle.
The beer pours a nice light redish hue with a thick white head. The cranberry presence is very faint. There is a tangy-ness to the beer, but the cranberries aren't overwhelming at all. Its a very nice drinking wheat beer with a hint of tartness. This is my Christmas beer, and I'm excited to have a lot more of it this year to drink. It's different enough, but my whole goal was for the cranberries to be evident but faintly. The color is beautiful and its a beer thats accessible to a lot of people.
Here's the extract recipe:
6lbs Wheat Malt extract
1.25 lbs Wheat Malt
.25 lbs belgian pils
.50 lbs honey malt
1 lb Tettengar hops (60)
.50 lb Tettengar (15)
Then .75 lbs of frozen cranberries (chopped in a food proc.) at 30 minutes
Then 1 lb of frozen chopped cranberries in the secondary for a week.
The yeast is Wyeast 3068 Weistehpen Weizen
Happy holidays
-The Bearded Brewer
Friday, December 21, 2007
Whitefish Cranberry Wheat
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3 comments:
Your recipe looks really interesting. I think I may have to try it. I've brewed a raspberry wheat beer using raspberry extract, but I'd like to brew a fruit beer using real fruit.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, I would suggest using frozen fruit. I brewed an apricot wheat this summer that was ok. I used the Oregon Fruit Purees and thought it was ok, but needed a lot of time to get good.
I'd freeze the rasberries (or whatever fruit) then put them in the secondary. Apparently it helps break down the cell walls if you freeze them, then put them in the beer.
This does look good. I've had great success with this year's Blueberry 2 recipe and process. No blueberries went into secondary. Now I'd like to try it with other fruit.
I really like this beer's label. Very professional. Seeing it makes me want to make up some new labels with my brother.
Happy Holidays to you too!
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