I make frequent trips to Michigan to visit family for Great Lakes and Great Times. Bell's Oberon is one of my go-to's when I visit, like when I need a breather from Two-Hearted. Unfortunately, Oberon is only available in the summer unless you make it yourself.
Posting a clone because this is a great beer to learn from and is still not nearly as popular as it should be. What's most surprising about Oberon is its simplicity and use of German hops to create a very approachable beer. It has a distinct floral aroma from a larger late addition of Saaz, and the wheat flavors make it a very pleasant, easy to drink beer.
Contents
- American Wheat Beer Basics
- Bell's Oberon Recipe Logic
- Bell's Oberon Clone Recipe
- Sensory Comparison
- American Wheat Beer History
Basics
American Wheat Beers are quite open ended with different variations, but is based on the original summer-themed brews as well as leading examples today such as Bell's Oberon, Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer, and Goose Island 312. They are refreshing, easy to drink, have a softer mouthfeel, and simply approachable. For these reasons, and with the help of Blue Moon and Shock Top, wheat beers often turn into a fallback for folks that don't want to mistakenly order an intense IPA or take a bland light beer. Basically, everyone likes American Wheat Beers. The point is wheat=easy to drink.
But, we have to make them different from German Weissbiers. So what Americans did, generally speaking, is remove the German-regulated wheat restriction, use more hops of any sort as well as American yeast. The grist is usually 30-50% wheat.
| IBU | 15-30 |
| SRM | 3-6 |
| OG | 1.040-1.055 |
| FG | 1.008-1.013 |
| ABV | 4-5.5% |
American Wheat Beers were first created as a refreshing summer beer, continue to be marketed that way, and their sensory profile fits that task. Light to medium-bodied and usually a little more carbonation, but softer mouthfeel from the wheat. They tend to be well balanced, but if anything tilt bitter - maintaining easy-drinking feel. That higher wheat dosage certainly boosts the grainy or bready flavors. Fruity, floral, herbal, or spice aromas and flavors comes from hops. Yeast is clean or may push some esters.
Bell's Oberon Recipe Logic
This recipe tries to mimic their own as closely as possible. They use 50% 2-row base malt, and 40% malted white wheat. These two together on their own at 90% of the bill produce a firm bready, and softer malt character. 5% Carapils rounds out a little more body with a boost in dextrins - and though already high in wheat - helps with foam and body. 5% Munich malt gives it a tinge darker color and increases the malt perception.
The direction Bell's took was to use a layered variety of German hops, particularly a large flameout addition of Saaz to help create the refreshing, citrus-forward flavor that is well-complemented with an orange. It is bittered with Perle (replaced by Magnum). Magnum is a clean German bittering hop - the difference shouldn't be perceptible, and using Magnum's leaner hop mass is a plus in homebrewing. They do a 30 minute addition of Hersbrucker, which is replaced with Strisselspalt (one day Double Dank will carry all the OG hops, but for now this works fine!). Hersbrucker and Strisselspalt are very similar. Both are described as floral, herbal, and spicy, and have similar AA units. Hersbrucker is from Bavaria and leans earthy-herbal; Strisselspalt is French and leans floral-citrus. This is a worthwhile consideration because of the larger flavoring contribution that brings out that soft floral trait. Part of the goal is to layer in some hop complexity.
The last 2 oz addition of Saaz at flameout will push the hops' delicate floral and spicy notes well. At Bell's, this is most likely added in the whirlpool vessel, after being transferred from the kettle resulting in a larger temperature drop than at home. Consider briefly cooling the wort to around 185°F at the start of the 20 minute hop stand to better imitate this process. Holding a homebrew kettle on the stove immediately following the boil will be much hotter for the hop stand, isomerize more alpha acids increasing bitterness, and steam off more aromatics.
Bell's encourages creating a yeast starter using a small amount of Oberon - which will certainly move the needle in replicating the flavor. Imperial Yeast also carries Bell's house strain. Otherwise, classic American yeast is the approach.
Bell's Oberon Clone Recipe
5 gallons | OG: 1.056 | FG: 1.012 | IBU: 25 | ABV: 5.8%
Fermentables
- 6 lb Proximity ReGenMalt Base
- 5 lb Root Shoot White Wheat Malt
- .5 lb Weyermann Munich Malt Type 1
- .5 lb Proximity ReGenMalt Body Builder
Hops
- .3 oz Magnum, 60 minutes
- 1 oz Strisselspalt, 30 minutes
- 2 oz Saaz, flameout - 20 minute hop stand
Yeast
Process
- Perform a single-step mash at 150°F for 60 minutes
- Mash out to 170°F (optional). Collect about 6 gallons of wort - or the estimated volume for your system to finish with 5.5 gallons in the kettle after a 60 minute boil.
- Boil following hop schedule above. At end of boil, very briefly chill the temperature to 185°F before adding the 2 oz Saaz hops for the 20 minute hop stand.
- Cool wort to 64-72°F before pitching yeast.
- Ferment with temperature in yeast specs - usually upper 60s.
- After final gravity has been achieved for at least 3 days, it is helpful to cold crash (refrigerate) the beer for at least 24 hours prior to bottling or kegging.
- Bottle or keg, targeting 2.5 C02 volumes.
Sensory Comparison
How did it turn out?? Compare your Oberon alongside a real Oberon: scoresheet and audio analysis
American Wheat Beer History
This style is a product of the American craft beer revolution. They've always been associated with summer and even only brewed in summer. First appearing in the 1984, Anchor Brewing created Anchor Summer, and like Oberon, was only brewed during the summer.
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