Wheat You Marry Me?

Almost a month ago now, our dear friends David & Carly Wood got married! It was a beautiful day for two beautiful people.

wheat dcIn honor of the special day, Jake and I brewed a beer, “Wheat You Marry Me,” that was served at their reception. We wanted to make a special contribution to their wedding, something that came from our skills and abilities. A personalized beer was a great gift, and it was really special to be able to create something our friends and their guests enjoyed during the celebration.

The beer was simple, a refreshing, clean wheat beer, with hints of lemon and coriander, a touch of hefeweizen aroma, and a touch of bitter hops. It was bright and pleasant on a hot day and effervescent to complement the bubbly party!

I also made all of the labels by hand, along with a lot of help from my friend who is a gifted printmaker and cardmaker. The personal label was a really nice touch, and the title of the beer was based off David and Carly’s wedding hashtag – #woodyoumarryme?

I’ll save specifics of homebrewing for another day – an excellent resource is The Brew Master’s Bible –  we learned the fundamentals of everything we know from this text  (plus a lot of googling) and I won’t try to recreate it here. There are many other good books on homebrewing out there, and your local homebrew store is also a font of knowledge.

Below you’ll find a recipe for a full mash brew that we used to create a very tasty, simple, and refreshing wedding celebration brew.

David & Carly’s Wedding Wheat Ale – “Wheat You Marry Me”
  • Batch Size: 5.000 gal
  • Boil Size: 6.083 gal
  • Boil Time: 60.000 min
  • Efficiency: 70%
  • OG: 1.048
  • FG: 1.012
  • ABV: 4.8%
  • Bitterness: 21.5 IBUs
  • Color: 4 SRM
  • Wheat Malt, Ger Grain, 2.5 lb, Yield 84%, 2L
  • Briess – 2 Row Brewers Malt, Grain, 7.0 lb, Yield 80%, 2L
  • Total grain = 9.5 lb
  • Liberty Pellet Hops, 4.5% Alpha, 1.0 oz, Boil at 10 Min (5.7 IBU)
  • Liberty Pellet Hops, 4.5% Alpha, 1.0 oz, Boil at 60 Min (15.8 IBU)
  • Coriander seeds, 1 oz, Boil at 5 Min
  • Lemon zest, 1 oz, Boil at 5 Min
  • Wyeast American Wheat Ale Yeast, 0.528 cups, primary ferment
Conversion Mash, 3 gal, 174° F, Target 152°F, 60 Min.
Final Batch Sparge Infusion Mash, 4.5 gal, 184°F, Target 168°F, 15 Min.
  • Add 2.500 lb Wheat Malt, Ger, 7.000 lb Briess – 2 Row Brewers Malt to the mash tun.
  • Bring 3 gal water to 174 F, 4.5 gal water to 184 F for upcoming infusions.
  • Add 3 gal water at 174 F to mash to bring it to 152.000 F. Hold for 60 min.
  • Add 4.5 gal water at 184 F to mash to bring it to 168 F. Hold for 15 min.
  • Bring the wort to a boil and hold for 60 min. Put 1 oz Liberty into boil for 60 min.
  • Put 1 oz Liberty into boil for 10 min.
  • Put 1 oz Coriander Seeds and 1 oz Lemon Peel into boil for 5 min.
  • Stop boiling the wort. You should have 5.000 gal wort post-boil. The final volume in the primary is 5.0 gal.
  • Cool wort and pitch Wyeast – American Wheat Ale yeast, to the primary.
  • Let ferment until FG is 1.012. Bottle, adding enough sugars to bottle condition. Cap and let bottle condition for approximately 2 weeks.


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