Watermelon Wheat 2

Mixing the two recipes found in the thread.
Added some crystal 10-15L to mix.

Essentially adding 12 lbs of watermelon flesh into secondary after blending and filters. Will likely bleach the exterior of the fruit and clean the cutting board, knife and food processor parts with iodophor before blending. Crushed the flesh in a nylon mesh bag (also santized).
Did 10 gallon batch in a 10 gallon kettle and just topped up with water as I boiled. Not much boiloff because I couldn't do a full rolling boil.

I created a reddit post with many photos.

Bottle conditioning, but initial taste has a powerful but not overpowering watermelon flavor. Would highly recommend a locally grown seeded watermelon at peak maturity for maximum watermelon flavor. Do not blend the seeds up with the flesh though... would give you some very strong "green" notes.

From thread:

I decided to not use the watermelon extract that came with the kit and opted for real watermelon instead. I chose the Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast option.
Let the primary fermentation process go the full 2 weeks.

For secondary fermentation, I bought a seedless watermelon at the store and put all the watermelon meat into a ninja blender. I did not use any of the rind at all since my research indicated that using the rind may cause an undesirable flavor. I pureed all the watermelon and threw it in the bottom of my bottling bucket. I then racked the fermented beer on top of the watermelon puree. I also chose to NOT boil the puree before adding it to the bucket. I read that boiling watermelon could also cause some really nasty flavors and aromas.

Did everything turn very red??? YES. Did that go away??? YES! The sugars in the watermelon kicked off a secondary fermentation. I let the watermelon/beer mixture ferment for another 5 days. I probably could have gone 7, but did not want to run any risk of the fruit turning into a vinegar taste. On the 5th day, I kegged the beer and chilled it for 24 hours before force carbonating.

Every time I transferred the beer (primary to secondary, secondary to keg), I ran the beer through a sanitized colander. The result was SPECTACULAR. My neighbors and I did a blind taste test with my beer and some Hell or High Watermelon, and my beer blew away the competition. I was concerned that using the real fruit would make the beer too sweet or have an overpowering watermelon taste. Totally not the case at all. The watermelon flavor is subtle. It was described as a great wheat beer taste with a nice watermelon undertone. Now that the weather here in DC has hit the 80's and low 90's, this beer is a great drink on a hot day!


Could sub California Ale Yeast White Labs WLP001 for 1010