In conjunction with Oyster Boys Brewing Co. (Of YouTube home brewing fame!), Martin & Stiffo made the trip up to Chester to spend a day filming for one of our “Brew With You” videos, which you can watch here on our own YouTube channel. The beer style they chose to brew for the project is in the style of a Hopfenweizen – a German wheat beer that’s hoppy, full-bodied, and has a sweet malty aroma – but with a modern twist. Mark & Penny, of The Oyster Boys, have very different tastes when it comes to beer – Mark is a lover of BIG hoppy New England Style beer, and often brews these at home, whilst Penny is a lover of German and Belgian style wheat beers, so the idea was to create a brew that reflected both of their beer loves – but in one glass!

Ample Floor Malted Wheat Malt, from Warminster Maltings, makes up the bulk of the grist, backed up with Carapils and Extra Pale Premier Pilsner Malt, both from Weyermann – plus some Oat Husks to aid with the sparge. So incredibly traditional and will keep Penny satisfied with wheat character!

The hop choice was something special though, as Mark wanted to bring the tropical fruit punch vibes he prefers, through a combination of Citra, Galaxy and also the new kid on the block – Krush! If you’ve not tied Krush before, we strongly recommend it – but also if you would like to get a taste for the hop’s profile then grab a can of Siren’s Hop Water, featuring Krush – beautiful tropical fruit and lemony vibes in abundance.

This combo is used in the whirlpool, but also in dry hop. Now a note on the hopping rates – whilst there’s plenty of hops, it’s not designed to be a Juicy NEIPA with more wheat, but rather an extra hoppy Wheat Beer, so the rates are kept in check to ensure one doesn’t over power the other – just simply the best of both worlds.

It’s all rounded off with WHC Banana Split, which is a Non-diastatic Hefeweisen yeast strain that will attenuate well but also bring delicious Banana notes on both the aroma and flavour and finishing off this delicious tropical punch smoothy of a beer perfectly!

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Ingredients Included

Oat Husks
Weyermann Carapils
Weyermann Extra Pale Premiere Pilsner Malt
Warminster Floor Malted Wheat Malt

Total Grain Bill – 5000g Grains, 500g Oat Husks

Krush™ HBC 586 – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellets (70 grams)
Galaxy – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (45 grams)
Citra® – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellets (70 grams)
Hallertauer Magnum – BarthHaas® Pure Hop Pellet (11 grams)
WHC Dried Yeast – Banana Split – 11g Packet  (1 pack)

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Method

Beer Style (main): Hybrid/Mixed
Beer Style (sub): Experimental Beer
Batch Size: 21L
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV %: 5.1
IBU: 15
Mash efficiency: 80
Brewing equipment: G30

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 66
Length (mins) (Step 1): 60
Temperature °C (Step 2): 75
Length (mins) (Step 2): 10

Mash notes: Oat husks are essential to sparging and mashing this beer, as wheat can result in a stuck mash and sparge, when used in this level.

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

11g Hallertauer Magnum – 60 minutes

Whirlpool / hop stand:

18g Galaxy, 35g Citra, 35g Krush- 20-minute hop stand at 75c

Yeast: Banana Split – 1 packet
Fermentation temperature/steps: Warm. Get stressy!

Secondary additions:

35g Krush, 35g Citra, 27g Galaxy – Dry hop once fermentation is complete for 3 days, then package.

Comments:

Target a Hefeweizen water profile along the lines of:

Ca2+ – 75

Mg2+ – 5

CacO3 – 40

SO4-2- – 25

Cl – 50

Na – <100

Mash pH – 5.4