Weizen with no wheat

[philbrasil]

I just brewed what I thought to be a blonde ale. I used mainly pilsner malt (89%), melanoidin malt (9%), carahell (2%).

Step mash of 113 for 20min, 153 for 40 min. and 169 for 5 min.

The thing is that I used dried yeast, safale WB-06. Pitched at 73 and fermented at 65. Forgot to use irish moss, so the beer was very cloudy and with lots of sediment (yeast?) in it.

After 1 week I transfered to a corny: tasted fruity and with lots of yeast (still in suspension). Not what I hoped for.

Then after 1 month I tasted it again and to my surprise the beer tasted like a weizen. Lots of banana. Maybe some bubblegum. It was pretty much like a weizen. And it had a dryness to it.

Is this contamination? Did anybody had that happen? I realized also that my pin-lock gas-in post was leaking, so maybe some O2 got in there.
Anyways, just thought it was weird and I am wondering what the heck happened. And I think this is a fermentation byproduct, so that´s why I posted here..

[thatguy314]

I just brewed what I thought to be a blonde ale. I used mainly pilsner malt (89%), melanoidin malt (9%), carahell (2%).

Step mash of 113 for 20min, 153 for 40 min. and 169 for 5 min.

The thing is that I used dried yeast, safale WB-06. Pitched at 73 and fermented at 65. Forgot to use irish moss, so the beer was very cloudy and with lots of sediment (yeast?) in it.

After 1 week I transfered to a corny: tasted fruity and with lots of yeast (still in suspension). Not what I hoped for.

Then after 1 month I tasted it again and to my surprise the beer tasted like a weizen. Lots of banana. Maybe some bubblegum. It was pretty much like a weizen. And it had a dryness to it.

Is this contamination? Did anybody had that happen? I realized also that my pin-lock gas-in post was leaking, so maybe some O2 got in there.
Anyways, just thought it was weird and I am wondering what the heck happened. And I think this is a fermentation byproduct, so that´s why I posted here..

The esters/phenols (banana/clove) character are entirely yeast derived, not from the wheat. While conventional homebrew wisdom says that more ferulic acid (clove precursor) is available in wheat, Stan Hieronymous said at NHC that in fact barley has richer sources of this. So really, both those characters are expected from this yeast and I'd say you got pretty much what you should have. Bubblegum generally indicates a warmer fermentation, so that's the only problem I'd see (Gordon Strong says in brewing with wheat that bubblegum is not a desired character in traditional weizens).

Wheat provides a flavor and mouthfeel. It's got a softer, less grainy (due to lack of husk) character that it lends to beers. I find it tends to give a "whitebread" flavor as well. I'd expect that your beer should (and probably does) just taste like a maltier, grainier version of a weizen.

[brewinhard]

It sounds like you are suprised with the flavor/aroma of your finished product. Fermentis WB-O6 is supposedly a bavarian weizen strain. so if you used this yeast in your beer regardless of ingredients (to some extent) you will get some of these flavors/aromas typically found in the weizen style along with the suspended yeast (cloudiness).

[philbrasil]

Thanks, I think that answer my questions... I really associated those weizen flavors with wheat malt + yeast. Didn´t know that could happen with only barley malt. And I kind of liked the results, if I were to expect banana/clove...(which I didn´t).

So I will be bottling that next week....

[mRandolph]

It sounds like you made what I believe is called a "Doff Beer," though my spelling is likely off. This is a historic German style wherein they use the traditional 'wheat' yeast but brew with all barley...