Med Bag of Chips

Ham, cheddar cheese, fresh tomatoes, and arugula.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich

Sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato, and mustard in a whole wheat wrap.

Fit Turkey Wrap

Bell's Oberon is a wheat ale fermented with Bell's signature house ale yeast, mixing a spicy hop character with mildly fruity aromas.

Heat approximately 4.0 gallons of your brewing water to 165°F (74°C). Add the crushed grains (wheat, pale/pilsner, Vienna, Carapils) into a mash tun or insulated mash vessel and sparge. Target a mash temperature of 152°F (67°C). Stir to fully wet the grain and hold at 152°F for 60 minutes to allow starch conversion and to develop a smooth body and head retention typical of a wheat ale.

Heat water and mash in

Raise the mash temperature to 168°F (76°C) by adding 170°F (77°C) water or direct heating and hold for 10 minutes. This helps stop enzymatic activity and improves lautering.

Mash out

Sparge the grain bed with enough 170°F (77°C) water to collect approximately 6.0 gallons of wort in your boil kettle (adjust depending on losses). Collect until runoff gravity and volume reach your target pre-boil gravity (aim ~1.045–1.048 pre-boil for a 5 gallon batch targeting ~1.048 OG).

Sparge

Bring the collected wort to a rolling boil. Boil for 60 minutes total, following the hop and spice schedule below.

Bring to a vigorous boil

At the start of the 60-minute boil, add 0.5 oz Hallertau or Tettnang hops. This provides a mild, spicy bitterness and classic noble hop backbone.

Bittering hop addition (60 minutes)

With 10 minutes left in the boil, add 1 tsp Irish moss or Whirlfloc to help clarify the beer.

Irish moss (10 minutes)

Add 0.25 oz Saaz hops and 0.25 oz Cascade hops with 10 minutes remaining in the boil for spicy-floral and mild citrus notes. At 5 minutes left, add the remaining 0.25 oz Cascade hops for bright late hop character.

Flavor / aroma hop additions (10–5 minutes)

Crush 0.5 tbsp coriander and lightly crush 0.5 tsp grains of paradise and add them to the kettle with 5 minutes left in the boil. This gives Oberon-like mild citrus and peppery-spicy aromatics.

Spice additions (5 minutes)

At the end of the boil, chill the wort quickly with a wort chiller (preferred) or an ice bath to yeast-pitching temperature of about 66–70°F (19–21°C). Rapid cooling reduces risk of off-flavors and oxidation.

Cool wort

Transfer the chilled wort to a sanitized fermenter, leaving as much trub behind as possible. Top up with sanitized water to reach 5 gallons total if needed. Aerate the wort vigorously by shaking, splashing, or pure oxygen for 60–90 seconds to provide yeast with oxygen for healthy fermentation.

Transfer and aerate

If using dry yeast, rehydrate according to manufacturer instructions or sprinkle directly if recommended. Pitch one packet of wheat ale yeast at 66–70°F (19–21°C).

Pitch yeast

Ferment at 66–70°F (19–21°C) for about 5–7 days or until vigorous fermentation subsides. This yeast produces fruity esters and a slightly spicy profile that complements the hop/spice additions.

Primary fermentation

Optionally transfer to a secondary fermenter after active fermentation slows (around day 5–7) and condition for an additional 5–7 days at 65–68°F (18–20°C) to help clarification and flavor maturation.

Secondary conditioning (optional)

Boil 3.5 oz (approximately 100 g) of priming sugar (corn sugar/dextrose) in 1–2 cups of water for 3–5 minutes, then cool. This amount targets around 2.5–2.8 volumes CO2 for a beer of this style when priming 5 gallons.

Prepare priming sugar

Rack the beer into a sanitized bottling bucket or keg, gently mixing in the cooled priming solution if bottling. Fill and cap bottles, or carbonate in a keg to target about 2.5–2.8 volumes CO2.

Bottle or keg

Store bottles at 68–72°F (20–22°C) for 10–14 days to carbonate, then cellar at cooler temperatures for another week if possible to let flavors meld. If kegging, allow 1–2 weeks of conditioning at serving pressure/temperature.

Condition

Chill to around 45–50°F (7–10°C). Pour into a glass, leaving sediment in the bottle if present. Expect a cloudy pale straw to light amber color, soft bready wheat character, mild citrus and spice aromatics from coriander and grains of paradise, and a light to moderate noble hop bitterness with fruity yeast esters.

Serve

Optional: If your water contains chlorine or chloramine, add half a Campden tablet per 5 gallons to the water and wait 15 minutes before mashing/sparging. Sanitize all equipment that comes into contact with cooled wort and beer (fermenter, airlocks, siphons, bottles) using an appropriate no-rinse sanitizer.

Pale Wheat Malt (or wheat malt)

Pilsner / Pale Malt

Vienna Malt (or Munich light)

Carapils / Dextrine Malt

Hallertau or Tettnang hops (bittering)

Saaz hops (flavor/aroma)

Cascade hops (late/aroma)

Coriander, crushed

Grains of Paradise (or black peppercorns), crushed

Wheat ale yeast (Belgian/Wheat strain or US wheat ale ale yeast)

Irish moss (or Whirlfloc) - fining (optional)

Priming sugar (for bottling) - corn sugar/Dextrose

Brew water (adjusted to moderate sulfate/chloride ratio)

Campden tablet (optional, to remove chlorine)

Bell's Oberon

Make Bell's Oberon Recipe in just 168h . Bell's Oberon is a wheat ale fermented with Bell's signature house ale yeast, mixing a spicy hop character with mildly fruity aromas.

Bell's Oberon

Descriptors

Tasting Notes

Food Pairings

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