This post is one in a series following five brewers limiting themselves to a select set of ingredients and brewing several beers each with only those ingredients. The goal of these limitations is to push creativity and to see what can be done within the confines of a single set of ingredients. More about this concept can be found here. The ingredients chosen for this project were Maris Otter, White Wheat (malted), Light Munich, Amarillo, Nugget, WLP810 San Francisco Lager and WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast. The brewer must use all ingredients (with the exception of choosing one yeast strain). The rest of this series can be found here.

Author: M. Willis

My initial thought when I saw the ingredients was relaxing on a summer day with an Amarillo Wheat beer. Tasty, but it’d be too easy to just load the grain bill with wheat and go heavy on the Amarillo. The remaining ingredients would disappear, right? I knew I could make some sort of IPA—but what?

I’m that guy in the brew club that’s teased about putting a pound of hops in a 5-gallon batch. The guy that opens the growler at the meeting and fills the room with the sweet, pungent smell of NEIPA or other tropical IPAs. I love ‘em! I often have two on tap, but I unfortunately found myself with no IPAs on at the moment. So what do I do, what do I do? IPA or Hoppy Wheat? This is the Limitations series, right? OK, so I decided on a Hoppy Wheat, or what ultra-hop jerks like me do to a classic style like American Wheat.

The challenge then is making a big Hoppy Wheat with no wheat yeast and including both Amarillo (yes!) and Nugget (oof). Can I make a wheat beer without wheat yeast? Well, yes and no. I’m going for a Hoppy Wheat, so I’m bastardizing a style and making it all about the hops. Grain and yeast will be supporting actors. I’ve previously made a clone of Gumballhead with an ESB strain, and it was a nice mashup of IPA and Wheat. Speaking of, the commercial beer inspirations for my beer were Three Floyds Gumballhead, Southern Tier Hop Sun, Sierra Nevada Hoppy Wheat, and Boulevard Brewing Co 80-Acre Hoppy Wheat—the former more than the latter, but the beer shelves are not crowded with this “style.”

Hmm, Nugget hops: spicy/herbal/earthy/woody, Northern Brewer-like, mostly used for bittering. It’d feel like cheating to me to hide one of the hops solely as the 60-minute bittering hop. Bittering with Nugget and dumping a pound of Amarillo in late additions would just be too easy. A little research showed that Nugget is both high in total oil content and rich in myrcene like Amarillo. The woody and earthy descriptors were a bit concerning, though, especially if there would be no wheat yeast. After looking at a couple of homebrew recipe websites, I saw that not very many people were using Nugget as a late addition, but a few SMaSH and 2-hop recipes had favorable results. OK, roll the dice and let’s see how this turns out. If it’s not dangerously drinkable on a hot summer day, then so be it—but there was always the chance it could end up being pretty good.

Here’s the recipe I ended up with:

Mashed for 60 min. at 152°F 60.1% Wheat Malt 34.4% Maris Otter 5.5% Light Munich

Boiled for 60 min. 0.60 oz. Nugget (60 min.) at 15% AA (28.7 IBUs) 1 oz. Amarillo (5 min.) at 8.6% AA (5.5 IBUs) 0.75 oz. Nugget (5 min.) at 15% AA (7.1 IBUs) 4 oz. Amarillo (Whirlpool 30 min.) at 8.6% AA (16.8 IBUs) 3 oz. Nugget (Whirlpool 30 min.) at 15% AA (22 IBUs)

Pitched WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast Fermentation started at 64⁰F Raised to 70⁰F on Day 4 and added dry hops Cold crashed on Day 12 Kegged on Day 14 (closed transfer)

Dry hopping 2.5 oz. Amarillo (10 days) 2 oz. Nugget (10 days)

OG: 1.059

FG: 1.012

ABV: 6.2%

Brew Day

This beer would be the second on my new DIY electric brewing panel. I am not an electronics whiz, but there is such a wealth of information out there that I felt I could do it, and I wanted to do it. The reasons to switch were numerous: the cost of propane, running out of propane, brewing in a cold or hot garage, and lugging equipment from the basement to the other end of the house. So, armed with info and desire, I bought parts, drew diagrams, bought more parts, and began assembly. I’m using a 5500-watt stainless element, controlled by a PID designed specifically for homebrew, and a pump controller. I also left room in the panel and electrically (wire and breaker size) for another element should I ever use an HLT for back-to-back brews.

The final item preventing the first use was exhausting the steam-filled air out the house. As you might imagine, I had an issue with cutting a 6-inch hole in the side of my house. I obsessed over the details and how it would look. I contemplated moving the brew room to a non-ideal location to accommodate the exhaust. Then I found a post and read up on steam condenser systems. I bought one of the commercially available ones, and that was the final catalyst. I finished the brew panel and tested the components. I did a test brew and it went fantastic. No DMS and no steam filled room—not even a bit of either. It’s hard to convey how happy I was for it to work the first time and allow me to now brew indoors. Living the dream!

My process is now a bit different due to the location and electric heating. I still collect and treat my water with Campden (and usually salts, too) the night before. Although that’s now done in the basement next to the brew area, so I’m not lugging buckets of water around. I mill my grains out on the patio of my walkout basement, so I’m moving the mill and grain 20 feet instead of 100 feet upstairs and out the garage. Next, my vessels and tools are sitting on a temporary work table, rather than 100 feet away in the garage. See the pattern? Oh and the work table is right next to the keezer. The bathroom, TV, and couch are all within 20 feet. I’m living the dream, Jerry!

Without issue, I mashed in, hit my temps and pre-boil gravity, transferred, and boiled. It was so nice to have an easy transition to electric brewing after all my preparation. I took a gravity reading and saw that I’d hit my target gravity at 1.059.

I then started the hopstand. I love this part, as I coax the hops into giving up their amazing oils and other compounds we vaguely understand. Using a pump and my new counterflow chiller, I instantly dropped the wort to 160°F and added 4 ounces of Amarillo hops and 3.5 ounces of Nugget to a stainless basket. The pump then swirled the beer around and through the basket. It smelled heavenly.

After 30 minutes, I moved hoses and chilled again to pitching temp. After a very short amount of time due to the efficiency of the counter flow chiller I was running the wort into the fermenter. I pitched the yeast and placed it in my fermentation fridge with the controller keeping the temp near 64°F.

A few days later, I saw the beer had dropped ~30 points on my bluetooth hydrometer, so I decided to add the dry hops. Recall, I mentioned earlier I’d be making a BIG hoppy wheat, and I’m the guy teased about a pound of hops in a 5-gallon beer. Well, I did put 7 ounces in the whirlpool, and I added 4.5 ounces of dry hops in this beer. I really wanted to push the hops to the forefront on this one. So, after giggling at my irresponsible use of hops, I replaced the standard air lock for a cold crash bladder. This bladder fills with CO2 while fermentation occurs. Then when I cold crash, it allows the fermenter to fill with CO2 during the contraction rather than regular air. This should reduce oxidation effects, and I’ve had good results. I take few chances on the cold side with hoppy beers.

About a week later, I cold-crashed and kegged using a closed transfer to reduce the ingress of oxygen.

Tasting

Appearance:

Golden yellow to amber, but not straw-colored as is the norm of wheat beers

Thick white head that’s sticky from the large hop additions and wheat

Doesn’t have the normal haze of a wheat beer, but not clear

Smell:

Juicy Fruit (like the gum) which is classic Amarillo late addition for me

Woods (dry, not dank), which is not entirely pleasant in this style

Doesn’t leap out of the glass like most of my other hoppy beers

Taste:

Early on it was Alpine Meadow—by that I mean floral, woods but not pine, and then some fruit characteristic from the Amarillo

3 weeks later it had gone Floral and Grassy/Woods

5 weeks on it was less of everything and quite delightful!

Low bitterness, low sweetness and very clean fermentation

Mouthfeel:

Creamy and full bodied. High carbonation gives a nice finish.

If I were to brew this beer again using these same ingredients, I’d reduce the amount of Nugget used in the late additions to prevent some of that woody flavor. I’d also decrease the amount of wheat malt used and turn this into an IPA.

If I were to brew this beer again with no limitations, I’d use a Wheat or English yeast strain, as San Diego Super Yeast lacked character. It didn’t contribute much, and I see why I’ve previously only used it for West Coast ales. I could also see pairing the Amarillo with a citrus-forward hop and/or grapefruit peel.