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Fichteweizen

(5 gallons, partial mash)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 tsp. winemaker’s acid blend
• 2 lbs. German pilsner malt
• 2 lbs. German wheat malt
• 0.5 lb. light crystal malt, 20° Lovibond
• 0.5 lb. cara-pils malt
• 4 lbs. unhopped wheat dry malt extract
• 1 oz. Tettnanger hop pellets (4% alpha acid) for 15 min.
• 1 qt. German wheat beer yeast slurry (Wyeast 3333)
• 1 1/2 oz. liquid spruce essence
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Treat 1.5 gal. water with acid blend and heat it to 165° F. Crush grains and add to water. Hold at 151° F for 75 min. Begin runoff and sparge with 1.75 gal. water at 168° F. Add water to kettle to make 2.5 gal., then bring to a boil. Total boil is 60 min. Add dry malt, stirring well. Boil 45 min., then add hop pellets. Boil another 15 min., remove from heat, and set in ice-water bath to cool. Add to fermenter after 30 min. or so with enough pre-boiled and chilled water to make 5.25 gal. When cooled to 70° F, pitch yeast. Ferment at 65° to 68° F for seven to eight days, then rack to secondary. Condition cool (58° to 60° F) for 12 to 15 days. Add spruce essence along with priming sugar and bottle. Age cool (55° F) for two weeks.

Extract:

An all-extract version would be possible by simply substituting another 2 lbs. wheat dry malt and 2 lbs. light (barley) dry malt for the whole mashing step. Start with a kettle containing 2.5 gal. of treated water, proceed as above.

All-grain:

Mash 5 lbs. pilsner malt, 4 lbs. wheat, and 0.5 lb. each of light crystal and cara-pils in 3 gal. water; sparge with 4 gal., then proceed with the boil, reducing the volume to 5.25 gal., hopping as above.

A word about wheat malt: German wheat malt is preferred especially if you brew from grain only, but in the partial-mash recipe it won’t make a huge difference if you can only get English or American. Wheat dry malt is usually about half wheat, half barley, but be careful because some malting companies are now selling a 100 percent wheat extract. You need a substantial percentage of barley to ensure a good, even fermentation.

About spruce:

Spruce essence is usually available at homebrew supply shops with their soda extracts. It can be used year-round, obviously. If you were to brew this beer in the early spring, you would do better, of course, to go out and gather a pint or so of new, fresh spruce needles, which could then be soaked in vodka for a couple weeks to make a tincture. This would still be added at bottling, as above.

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