Cilantro Lime Wheat Beer

bwomp313

I'm working on making this badboy. I want it to be a refreshing summer drink. Here's the recipe that I've come up with thus far.
Cilantro Lime Wheat Beer
American Wheat or Rye Beer

Type: All Grain
Date: 2/24/2011
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Lenny
Boil Size: 5.72 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 57.14 %
3.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 42.86 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 21.3 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 6.5 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.1 IBU
2.00 oz Lime Peel (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
5.00 oz Cilantro (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.14 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 29.9 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 2.6 SRM Color: Color

Now, I'm not quite sure what to do with the cilantro. I'm thinking I'm just gonna throw it in at flameout. Either that or I could put the spice in after fermentation is over to "dry hop" or I could also make a tea and add it. I was wondering if anybody has used this spice in beer with any success and maybe had any suggestions.

jerzeedevil13

You really have to be a fan of Cilantro. You'd probably get the most nose from dry hopping.

elkdog

It's actually really hard to get a good flavor extract from cilantro- the tastiest compounds volatilize incredibly easily- even food scientists haven't nailed this one yet, from what I understand.
I think you'd have to add it at serving to get good cilantro flavor.
Coriander is of course different (though from the same plant), but maybe it can provide the nice rounding out flavor you want with the lime?

Brewtimore

I brew a Saison du BUFF clone and I add all my herbs at the whirpool stage.
5oz seems like a lot as well.

Captain-Damage

Maybe "dryhop" with the cilantro? Probably a better option would be to add a fresh sprig of cilantro to the glass at serving time. The flavor/aroma component of cilantro is a gas at room temperature, so boiling - even for a short period of time - will be counterproductive.

skeezerpleezer

Brewtimore- how did the saison du buff come out? Care to share a recipe?

Brewtimore

I will put it into the Brewtarget Program so I can give you more details on the specs of the brew. I will post it on this thread in a couple minutes.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/saison-du-buff-help-199452/
To be honest, I have never put a recipe on the forum because I am not overly confident in people copying my work. But this one I have brew 4 times successfully, I think its time.  

bwomp313

Thanks for the input guys. Has anyone actually used this particular herb and seen how it came out? Must not be a good candidate for beer because I haven't seen anywhere where someone actually used it and posted their results.

skeezerpleezer

Thanks. May have to give that a shot.

Spartan1979

How did this come out? I saw the recipe in BYO, although they say the OG is1.066, FG 1.017, SRM of 97!

bwomp313

Yeah, I think they mixed my recipe up with some other recipe when it came to all of that stuff because actually the OG is 1.047, FG is 1.009 and the SRM is obviously not 97. It turned out great! It definitely has to ferment in the lower 60's. I remade the beer in the middle of the summer and with a swamp cooler I was able to keep it at like low 70's(ish) and it didn't turn out anywhere near as good. It's really a great beer and I would recommend it to anyone which is why I submitted the recipe to BYO in the first place and then they put me in the reader profile thing which is cool, but supposedly you're supposed to get free goodies if they use your stuff, which I'm still waiting for...

bwomp313

also, not as much cilantro as I would've intended but I think I like it better without overpowering cilantro taste although I would urge anyone to try using more and see how it turns out

Spartan1979

Thanks for the response. I'm thinking of brewing this for a festival our club participates in. This type of beer usually goes over well.
Was the recipe as posted in BYO correct?

bwomp313

yes it was. that'll be awesome, make sure to let me know how it goes over!!!

Wingnutj

I too saw it in the pages of BYO. Hence I'm still thinking of brewing it.
Thanks again for posting and its gotta feel good seeing you stuff in a mag.
Brew on!

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bwomp313

Yeah it definitely did!
definitely lemme know how it turns out

robcj

My friend and I brewed 10 gallons of this last night, though we swapped the pilsner malt for plain Canadian 2-row. Our efficiency was through the roof so I think we're going to be closer to 4.5% ABV. Still a nice light session beer - should be perfect for spring and early summer. Thanks for sharing your recipe.

strambo

Nice, I had the thought of making a cilantro-lime APA the other day. I was planning on dry-cilantro-ing it though. I may go ahead and do it later this summer.

TimTrone

Hmmm. Very interesting. I bet the beer would go great with Mexican food

bwomp313

Yeah I definitely considered dry cilantroing it myself, lemme know how it goes!
And as far as the Mexican food, I bet it would. I also think it'd go great with Thai food.

billmo

Quick question..the original recipe on here called for 5oz. cilantro and the mag says 2.1oz. Which amount have you all tried? Also just noticed the amount of lime is different.

billmo

I was hoping to brew this on wednesday, any thoughts?

bwomp313

The amounts in the magazine are correct for what I actually brewed. The amounts I posted here were what I originally was considering. The cilantro came out subtle so feel free to add more if you want it to be a little less subtle. The lime was very up front but over all the way it's posted in the magazine came out extremely well.

DoctorDuvel

anyone remember new belgium's summer beer, "skinny dip"? it was my favorite summer beer...they used kaffir lime leaves, the effect was subtle...not as delicate as cilantro, but should be worth considering if you can find some

bwomp313

does the kaffir lime leaf give a similar flavor to cilantro? I'm not familiar with it.

VonRunkel

What if you bottle conditioned with a sprig of cilantro? I would think that the volatiles in cilantro wouldn't go anywhere while it was in the bottle, it might add a nice nose to it, but then again it might wreck head retention...

DoctorDuvel

i don't recall any cilantro flavor, i'm guessing the kaffir is closer to tasting like lime...probably the best way to incorporate cilantro is at serving
bottling with cilantro, as vonrunkel suggested, would have me worried about bacteria affecting the beer while conditioning, as well as all the pieces it'd probably disintegrate into - not pretty
OR - look into creating a cilantro extract with vodka or something, then mix the extract with priming sugar for bottling

robcj

I think I will try this with at least part of the batch of this recipe that my friend and I just made - I'll share my results afterwards.

VonRunkel

I thought bacteria couldn't survive the acidity and booze content in beer. Fair point on the cilantro breaking into gross chunks of goo, I didnt think of that.

DoctorDuvel

i would think there's at least a chance of infecting the beer by throwing in a raw herb, otherwise it wouldn't be so important to sanitize the bottles...but i'm sure there a few around here who would say sanitizing the bottles isn't that important lol
chunks of goo  

DoctorDuvel

looking forward to hearing about it!

bwomp313

I'm brewing this for the third time with a few tweaks. I'll post em here.

Fauxsho

Not only do I LOVE cilantro, but what an awesome idea to pair this with thai food, my absolute favorite. This whole idea really intrigues me. I am really new here, and have 0 batches under my belt, so forgive me as I probably don't even belong in this thread, but have you considered muddling the cilantro and serving the beer over it similar to how we use mint leaves in a mojito?
My love of cilantro made me post a reply in this topic, sorry if it seems silly.
Cheers.

bwomp313

Nothing to be sorry about. That'd definitely be something to try out.

bwomp313

Pitched the yeast at about 2:30am. Not sure what happened but I way undershot the gravity so I added half a pound of corn sugar which brought her to an OG of 1.044. For this batch I went with 4 oz cilantro, .4 oz lime peel and I put the juice of 3 limes in there for the heck of it (4oz). Threw all that in at the 5 minute mark. Also, I adjusted the hops. Put .5 oz cascade as a FWH (90 min boil), .5 oz at 20 min and 1 oz at 5 min. I also used german pilsner malt instead of american.

robcj

As mentioned earlier, my friend and I brewed 10 gallons of this beer. We subbed two-row for the pilsner in the original recipe. (And added 3% worth of acidulated malt as we always do for mash pH.) We mashed low, extracted 1.045 and attenuated down to a nice, crisp 1.08 after a 3-week primary. At about 4.9% ABV it might be a little boozier than your original recipe intended. I bottled this on Sunday, shooting for 2.7 volumes. I decided against adding cilantro-infused vodka to this batch in the end. The hydro sample was pristine - clean wheat with a hint of lime.
I'm curious what everyone else has been targeting for carbonation. 2.7 seemed a nice balance between your typical American ale and a German wheat beer.
On a side note, I totally cheated and cracked one of these tonight after just a couple of days... and it's already awesome. Obviously it should be too early to sample but I knew a light wheat beer like this would be well on its way already and I was right. It's packed with lime flavour - I suspect that will mellow quickly. No cilantro - the fermentation seems to have blown that off.

bwomp313

The lime definitely mellows pretty quick which is why I think this beer is best drank fresh. And 2.7 volumes sounds about right for carbonation. I'm wondering what the difference in flavor is with this between using 2 row and pilsner malt. I like the pilsner personally because of the crisp bready quality.

robcj

I suspect you would find our version a little plain. We used two row out of necessity - I'll probably try this recipe again with pilsner.

Spartan1979

I'm brewing this this weekend. Has anyone tried "dry hopping" the cilantro?

bwomp313

i don't think so but you should definitely try it. that was what i originally planned to do. maybe I'll do that this time around