Anglo-American Wheat Beer

Classification: wheat beer, American wheat, all-grain

Source: Mark Peacock (mpeacock@oeonline.com), HBD Issue #2051, 5/27/96

I twisted the American Wheat Beer style just slightly and came up with a very tasty beer.
The resulting beer has the floral nose that is one of the chief characteristics of the #1968 yeast. Indeed, with the low hopping in a wheat beer, the yeast nose comes through very clearly. I would perhaps add a bit more late-addition hops, but my wife is very happy with the taste -- although she would prefer an increase in the carbonation. The color came out a touch darker than what I had hoped -- more of a dirty straw color -- but compared against a standard pilsener, it's not that much darker.

All in all, the Anglo-American Wheat is a nice summer beer that allows an assertive yeast to show its stuff.

Ingredients: (for 4 gallons)

5 lbs wheat malt
1 lb British pale ale malt
0.5 oz Cascade whole hops (alpha acid = 5.5%) 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade 10 min
0.5 oz Cascade steep
Wyeast #1968 (London ESB)

Procedure:

Mash Schedule: 30 min protein rest at 125F
90 min mash at 145F

I poured the cooled wort over the Wyeast #1968 London ESB yeast cake from a batch of pale ale and fermented at 60-65F. After 4 days, I racked to the secondary, more for clarity than for any additional attenuation. For bottling, I primed the batch with a scant 2/3c of corn sugar.

Specifics:

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.014