Belgian Wheat Ale

Classification: wit, Belgian ale, wheat beer, all-grain

Source: pohl@unixg.ubc.ca (Derrick Pohl), Issue #1152, 5/31/93

Here's an all-grain recipe for a lovely wheat ale I brewed last fall which uses Wyeast's Belgian Ale yeast rather than the Bavarian Wheat, with plenty of nice clove aftertaste resulting. It is a light, refreshing beer, perfect for summer (pretty good for winter, too, which is when I drank it).

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon gypsum in mash water
6 pounds pale malt
3 pounds wheat malt
1/4 pound crystal malt (light)
2/3 ounce Bramling Hops (boil 50 min.)
1/3 ounce Bramling Hops (boil 10 min.)
1/4 ounce Centennial Hops (boil 1 min., then steep for 15 min.)
Wyeast Belgian Ale yeast

Procedure:

Two-stage mash: 50 deg C. for 30 min., then 66 deg C. for 45 min.

The two-stage mash is because of the wheat malt component.

Fermented at cool room temperature (around 16 deg C.).

That's it. The light hopping is to let the wheat and yeast flavours shine through, and they do, very nicely. Although this is an ale, I found it tasted best well-chilled. It also needed a little while (about a month) in the bottle for the yeast and hop flavours to reach an optimum balance.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.044