Rev2010

Recipes 

I have the full Cooper's Wheat kit (extract can, Light Dry Malt, and Dextrose) and want to tweak it to make it better. I plan on replacing the Dextrose with more Light Dry Malt. I also plan on using Wyeast 3068 and have a few questions and would greatly... GREATLY appreciate some help/answers. Here are my questions:

1. Will the 4.25oz Wyeast be enough for a 6 gallon (23 liter) batch? It says on the package it's for 5 gallon batches. I could do 5 gallons if necessary of course.

2. How much Light Dry Malt should I use for an ABV no less than 5% and no more than 5.5%? If I should do 5 gallons please list for that volume.

3. I have 500g of Light Dry Malt. Is there any other type of malt (or brand) I should buy other than more Copper's Light Dry Malt to enhance the flavor?

4. If I can get away with doing a 4.25oz packet of Wyeast do I have to worry about headspace for my plastic fermenter? It seems like it holds quite a bit more than 23 liters. If I do need to worry about the space, again I can do a 5 gallon batch.

5. Is the Wyeast "Activator" exactly what I would be using? I see they have something else called "propogator". Do I need to prep it or just pour it in?

6. How much corn sugar should I use to prime each 500ml bottle I plan to use?

Sorry for all the questions. I'd like to thank anyone in advance that can take a moment to answer this onslaught of questions!


Rev.

Rev2010

Recipes 

Did some Googling and found a bunch of people saying the Wyeast packets really only have half the yeast cells than what is recommend for 5 gallons. Should two Wyeast Activators be enough? I'm looking to order soon so any wise advice would be most helpful


Rev.

Hex23

Recipes 

The best resource I've found for proper pitching rates is http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html. It's not really possible to use a general rule of thumb for number of activator packets since proper pitching rate is also dependent on OG. The Mr Malty calculator might tell you whether to pitch multiple packets or give you parameters for a starter. That said, it is not uncommon to under-pitch wheat beers to force the yeast to produce some some banana and clove flavors.

jonmohno

Recipes 

You could get some dry wheat extract or golden or extra light. All depending on the color you want.

Hex23

Recipes 

Many of your other questions can be answered by plugging numbers into a program - I'd highly recommend Beersmith. In the meantime I could offer to help if you can point me to the contents or description of that kit.

Rev2010

Recipes 

Thanks Hex! This is the can of Wheat Malt extract and the kit I have comes with their "Use with" recommendations under the description:

http://store.coopers.com.au/products/home-brew/home-brew-cans/thomas-coopers-wheat-beer-kit-1-7kg-

I want to improve the outcome with the better yeast and with substituting the Dextrose, currently planning to substitute with just more Light Dry Malt but would definitely listen wholeheartedly to suggestions and what else I could use. I don't mind paying for two Wyeast packets, I'd just need to know if they'll be enough. I guess they'd probably still do way better than the dry Ale yeast packet Cooper's includes no?


Rev.

indigi

Recipes 

I'd substitute wheat malt extract for the dextrose instead of regular light malt extract. You could pitch two packs of Wyeast, or you could make a starter with one pack if you want to save the 6 or 7 bucks. There's plenty of info on making a starter in the fermentation/yeast forum.

Rev2010

Recipes 

Cool. I was looking at the Briess Wheat DME (just Googling around). Would that one be good? Also, being that wheat portion, from what I've read, is not really fermentable how much should I use to replace the 300g of Dextrose? Thanks again for your help!


Rev.

Hex23

Recipes 

I generally agree with the direction your taking. I'm not very familiar Cooper's kits, but my calculations for those ingredients show an OG of 1.035 for a 6 gallon batch. Taking it down to 5 gallons would make it 1.043. 1.043 is much closer to the style guidelines for what you are making. But you are wanting about 5.25% ABV, so you need higher OG. If you make it all up in DME (replacing the Dextrose with DME), and assuming a 5.5 gallon batch, then you need to add 2.5 lbs more DME in addition to the 1.1 lb in the kit; add about 3 lbs for a 6 gallon batch. That should give you an OG of about 1.053. You could get Wheat DME or more Light DME or a combination of both depending on which direction you prefer - hopefully you have a basis for comparison - i.e you've made this kit before. I don't have much to offer on DME - I've had good experience with all I've used and have no real favorites.

The Mr Malty calculator shows about 2 packs for 5.5 gal ale at 1.053. But you can probably get away with 1, especially if you like banana and clove flavors. The Wyeast site (http://www.wyeastlab.com/com_b_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=135) has good info on this yeast including guidance on controlling phenols and esters, and you'll probably find more on here. I have heard of some wheat yeast as being very active (i.e. needing a blow-off depending on headspace).

Save the dextrose for priming. Priming is best done on a whole-batch basis. For a 5.5 gallon batch you'll need about 5 ounces to hit the middle of this style (2.7 vols)

Hex23

Recipes 

Just to confirm, here are the general assumptions I made:

3.75 lbs pre-hopped LME
1.1 lbs DME
0.66 lbs Dextrose

Also since you are considerably upping the fermentables, you will be decreasing your bitterness ratio. So you could consider adding a pinch of hops. As I noted before, hopefully you can make your hops adjustments based on past experience brewing it without modification and your personal tastes.