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I got interested in doing a pseudo-Matilda Bay Redback clone recently and conjured up the following recipe which is now in the fermenter and smelling pretty good out of the airlock. I initially went to Matilda Bay's website to find out the general composition of the beer first as a guide.

Firstly I steeped 100g of Crystal malt in 1.5 litres of 70C water for 30 mins. Strained and sparged this with 500ml of hot water and mixed in the brew kettle with a 1.1kg tin of Thomas Cooper's liquid wheat malt (which is 50/50 barley and wheat malt) and boiled for 5 minutes. Flamed out then added 2 x 12g Saaz Hops teabags to steep for a few minutes and then a 1.7kg tin of Cooper's Canadian Blonde. Poured it all into fermenter (hops bags too) and topped up with cold water to 23 litres. Pitched a US-56 ale yeast at 25 C and its been bubbling away nicely at 16-18 C (been cold in Perth).

I expect it will be in the fermenter for at least a week and a half to two weeks at these temps (day 3 or 4 at the moment). I will post again later to say how it turns out. Wheat malt content is less than 25% so it not gonna be exactly like a Redback (which is 50% wheat malt), but it should be sweetish and easy to drink with a thickish mouth feel. Canadian Blonde probably doesn't contain Pride of Ringwood bittering hops like Redback either but the Saaz aroma component should help get me a little closer to the style.

Well, fermentation only took 6 days: bottled up last night. Bulk primed in the primary with 3/4 cup of dextrose boiled in an equal amount of water.

It's the first time I've used US-56 yeast and it seems to operate effectively at pretty low (for an ale) temps. The last brew I made, Cooper's Bitter with BE 2 and the kit yeast, took about 2 weeks at similar temps of 16-18C. Of course, Cooper's yeasts work optimally at slightly higher temps (20C and above).

I didn't taste the Redback inspired clone as I bottled up, but it smelt incredible, The Saaz hops bags have given it a really interesting fruity, herbal, and slightly citrusy aroma. I can't wait to taste it. It was pretty cloudy at bottling time but it was already clearing up nicely when I looked at it this morning.

I was a bit short on bottles so I turned to some old, clear Soya Sauce, Sweet Soy Sauce and big Fish Sauce bottles which have proper crown seals on them and are pretty heavy gauge glass. Most of these bottles are around 650-750mls. Sure, clear doesn't offer the same light protection as brown glass, but neither does green, and green is what I usually use (Grolsch 473mls) and I have never had problem with any brew bottled up in them. Clear allows a pretty good view of whats going in the bottle too. Just have to keep them locked up in dark cupboard.

Now, what to do with that can of Cooper's Bavarian Lager....

Well, after a week and a half in the bottle, I can say that this wheat beer tastes nothing like Redback. Instead, it is very German in character. A strong banana aroma, with a subtle sour, floral and citrusy taste, thanks to the Saaz hop tea bags. The carbonation level is high and head retention is very, very good - a thick white carpet right down to the bottom of the glass. This is a really interesting and complex tasting beer, its almost champagne-like. It would go nicely with a meal and I think it might even be good with a slice of lemon thrown in for even more fruit aroma. Here's a pic from my blog where I wrote a piece about this brew. That's one of the sweet soy sauce bottles I mentioned earlier. From what I can tell, they seem to work okay for beer.

Looks like a nice one to try, although you might have too much barley in there for the style. I've been doing a similar one using a Coopers wheat kit + 1.5Kg can wheat malt + tettnang dry hop and Wyeast 3068 and I'm loving it. I'd be interested in how yours comes out using the liquid yeasts instead of the safale...

Tim

Yeah Tim, you're right there is way too much barley for this to be true to style. In the end its probably only around 20% wheat. Your kit and fermentables combo for a wheat beer looks like it would get you up to that 50% wheat mark.

However, I must admit in mine, you can really taste and smell the effect of the wheat content i.e., slightly fruity and sour taste. The yeast I used was a dried US-56 ale and it's the first time I've used it. All I can say is that even at pretty low temps, at least for an ale, (16-18C) it seems to produce a lot of esters in the form of banana aroma and a quite a lot of sediment. Attenuation seemed pretty low too, as primary fermentation was all over in 6 days. This seemed a little fast to me. It might be a yeast which is better suited to novelty beers and ales that contain fruit and spices.

If I attempted to make an Australian style pale wheat beer again I'd probaly be tempted to do it in the warmer months with just a Cooper's regular ale yeast and a different 1.7kg kit, as Canadian Blonde in conjuction with the right hop additions, seems to be a good base for German or Continetal style lagers.