Thomas Coopers Preacher's Hefe Wheat, how to brew it

Preacher's Hefe Wheat is a 1.7kg Thomas Coopers tin that gets you a German style wheat beer without owning a mash tun or doing anything clever on brew day. You stir the tin into your fermenter with whatever you're using to top up the fermentables, pitch the yeast that comes with it, and what you end up with is a cloudy pale beer carrying banana and clove, which is what a hefeweizen is supposed to taste like.

Where the banana and the clove actually come from

This is the bit that surprises people, so it's worth saying plainly. Those flavours aren't added and they aren't in the malt. They come from the yeast, which throws off compounds during fermentation that read as banana on one side and as clove or white pepper on the other. A wheat yeast does that on purpose, where an ordinary ale yeast is bred to stay out of the way and give you a clean beer instead.

The practical upshot is that the temperature you ferment at moves the balance between the two, with the warm end of the range pushing it towards banana and the cool end pushing it towards clove. I'm not going to print a number, because the range is on the instructions that come in the box and that's the one worth following. What I'd say is pick a spot and hold it, because a fermenter that swings around all week gives you a bit of both and not much of either.

The one thing that trips people up

People try to clear it. A hefeweizen is meant to be cloudy, the haze is the wheat protein and the yeast still in suspension, and it's carrying a lot of what you're brewing the beer for. So don't fine it, don't cold crash it hard, and when you pour, leave a little in the bottom of the bottle, give it a swirl and tip that in on top. That's how it's served where the style comes from, and it's the difference between a hefeweizen and a slightly disappointing pale ale.

The same wheat protein is what holds the head up, so if your last batch went flat-looking in the glass inside a minute, the usual culprit is something greasy left in a bottle rather than anything you did to the beer.

What to add to the tin

A kit tin needs something fermentable alongside it, and what you pick changes the finished beer more than most beginners expect. Plain dextrose ferments out clean and leaves the beer lighter. A brew enhancer or a malt extract leaves body behind, which suits this style, because a wheat beer with no body in it reads thin no matter how good the aroma is. For a first go I'd use an enhancer and see what you think, then push it one way or the other next time.

When to brew it

It's a hot weather beer and it earns that reputation, but it's not only a hot weather beer. The tartness keeps it light enough for a long afternoon outside, and there's enough going on in the aroma that it still reads as a proper beer when it's cold out. Wheat beers also come round quickly compared with a big dark ale, so if you're impatient this is a kind one to start on.

And if you've been told wheat beers are hard, ask us in the shop rather than taking that on faith. Plenty of people who've been brewing for years still believe it. There aren't any stupid questions in a hardware shop, only expensive ones you find out about later.

Shop related products

• Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 1kg. Leaves body behind where plain sugar wouldn't.
• Coopers Light Dry Malt 500g. Useful when you only want to lift the body a little.
• Coopers Light Malt Extract 1.5kg. Body and head retention without changing the colour much.
• Thomas Coopers Bootmaker Pale Ale 1.7kg. The sibling kit, for when you want clean instead of fruity.

Did you know we stock the Thomas Coopers Preacher's Hefe Wheat 1.7kg tin itself in the shop, along with Coopers Wheat Malt 1.5kg. Neither of them is on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

More on brewing

• Coopers Wheat Malt, what wheat does in your beer
• Thomas Coopers Innkeeper's Daughter, how to brew it
• What fermentation actually does, and how to keep yeast happy

If you want a second opinion before you commit a batch to it, Brewhilder is our homebrew adviser, and the rest of what we carry is in the homebrew collection.

Still can't pour one of these without a decent amount of it going over the side of the glass.

Cheers,
Candeece