Last-minute Wheat Beer questions!

Scrow · 03-25-2009, 08:44 PM

I bought the following ingredients for a wheat beer I want to make. I got this recipe on a recommendation:

3.3 lbs Thomas Cooper's Malt Extract - Wheat
3.3 lbs Thomas Cooper's Malt Extract - Light
Some amount of Saaz
Some amount of Tettnanger
Orange peel
Coriander

I can't remember the amounts of hops I am supposed to use. I thought it was like 1 oz of Tettnanger and 3/4 oz of Saaz with 1/4 oz burnout Saaz. Also can't find the amounts of Orange peel and Coriander. Seems the thread has gone missing since I last checked!

Any ideas?
Also, should I get any steeping grains for this brew, or just straight water and malt extract?

THANKS!!

Scrow · 03-25-2009, 08:49 PM

3.3 lbs. light/pilsner malt extract and 3.3 lbs 100% wheat malt extract (75 minutes)

3/4 oz. Tettnanger (60 minutes)
3/4 oz. Saaz (60 minutes)
1/4 oz. Saaz (flameout)

1/4 oz crushed coriander (flameout)
1/4 oz bitter orange peel (flameout)

1 pinch "secret spice" (flameout)
"secret spice" (anise, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, or ginger) your choice

Yeast
WhiteLabs WLP400 or WLP410.....or Wyeast 3944 or 3463....ferment at 70 degrees

Found the recipe. Does this look like it will turn out similar to a Shock Top or a Blue Moon style beer? Should I steep any grains or just skip the steeping part? Any recommendations for the "secret spice"?

SumnerH · 03-25-2009, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrow

3.3 lbs. light/pilsner malt extract and 3.3 lbs 100% wheat malt extract (75 minutes)

3/4 oz. Tettnanger (60 minutes)
3/4 oz. Saaz (60 minutes)
1/4 oz. Saaz (flameout)

1/4 oz crushed coriander (flameout)
1/4 oz bitter orange peel (flameout)

1 pinch "secret spice" (flameout)
"secret spice" (anise, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, or ginger) your choice

Yeast
WhiteLabs WLP400 or WLP410.....or Wyeast 3944 or 3463....ferment at 70 degrees

Found the recipe. Does this look like it will turn out similar to a Shock Top or a Blue Moon style beer? Should I steep any grains or just skip the steeping part? Any recommendations for the "secret spice"?

This will be a pretty close clone of Allagash White, which is one of the top-rated Belgian witbiers (same style as Shock Top/Blue Moon) in the world by most of the beer rating sites.

I'd go with cinnamon or ginger probably, but keep it subtle (truly just a pinch).

EDIT: In fact, this recipe came from Rob Tod, the head brewer at Allagash.

SumnerH · 03-25-2009, 09:02 PM

Also, it's either 6.6 lbs of normal wheat extract (which is usually in th 60% wheat/40% barley range), or 3.3 lbs each of light DME and 100% wheat DME.

So make sure your cooper's extract is 100% wheat, or use 6.6 lbs of the wheat and no light if it's the blended kind.

Scrow · 03-25-2009, 09:05 PM

Oh the what I have says it is 50% Malted Barley and 50% Malted Wheat? Is that wrong then? And just a pinch of cinnamon or ginger?

Finally, no steeped grains on this beer?

SumnerH · 03-25-2009, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrow

Oh the what I have says it is 50% Malted Barley and 50% Malted Wheat? Is that wrong then?

That's wrong to use with 3.3 lbs of light ME; it's fine to use 2 of those for 6.6 lbs total of 50/50 barley/wheat.

Quote:

And just a pinch of cinnamon or ginger?

Yep, whichever seems more appealing. Or one of the others if you like the thought of that better.

Quote:

Finally, no steeped grains on this beer?

Nope. Many wheats have very simple grain bills.

SumnerH · 03-25-2009, 09:14 PM

Oh, here's the full original recipe (you missed the first line) which makes the type of extract needed more apparent:

Quote:

Preboil
6 gallons water

Boil
6.6 lbs. 40% wheat/ 60% barley liquid malt extract or:
3.3 lbs. light/pilsner malt extract and 3.3 lbs 100% wheat malt extract (75 minutes)

3/4 oz. Tettnanger (60 minutes)

3/4 oz. Saaz (60 minutes)

1/4 oz. Saaz (flameout)

1/4 oz crushed coriander (flameout)

1/4 oz bitter orange peel (flameout)

1 pinch "secret spice" (flameout)
"secret spice" (anise, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, or ginger) your choice

Yeast

WhiteLabs WLP400 or WLP410.....or Wyeast 3944 or 3463....ferment at 70 degrees

I consider one the recipe's author to be one of the top 5 commercial brewers in the world as far as making beers that I like.

Scrow · 03-25-2009, 09:27 PM

But it seems like the 50/50 would be the wrong proportions for this beer. I want it to come out close to how it should taste!

SumnerH · 03-25-2009, 09:47 PM

Quote:

But it seems like the 50/50 would be the wrong proportions for this beer. I want it to come out close to how it should taste!

The recipe is either:
6.6 lbs. 40% wheat/ 60% barley liquid malt extract
This comes out to 40% wheat and 60% barley, 6.6 lbs total

or
3.3 lbs. light/pilsner malt extract and 3.3 lbs 100% wheat malt extract (75 minutes)
This comes out to 50% wheat and 50% barley, 6.6 lbs total

Going with 6.6 lbs of your Cooper's that's 50% wheat and 50% barley would come out exactly the same as option #2: 50% wheat, 50% barley, 6.6 lbs total

It's perfectly within the recommended bounds of the recipe.

SumnerH · 03-25-2009, 09:57 PM

Incidentally, it's also worth learning what you can substitute safely.

For instance, if a recipe is formulated like this one, then you know you are aiming for:
* Original gravity of 1.049
* 50-60% of that made up of wheat, with the remainder made up of the lightest possible extract

That's it. It gave a couple ways to hit that, but you'd be equally fine going with:
2.7 lbs Breiss wheat DME (60/40)
2.7 lbs Breiss pilsen/light DME

or any other way of hitting the same numbers.

Also, since the recipe says that either a 50/50 or 60/40 wheat/barley ratio is fine, you can pretty safely assume that anything in between (e.g. 55/45) is also fine.

That said, if it were a recipe I thought I might try many times, I'd brew at one extreme the first time (not something in the middle) and the other extreme the second time to see what the difference is and then pick what I liked (or try something in the middle if that seemed appealing).