Wheat Wine?

I was reading Mosher's book last week--and I became intrigued at his suggested Wheat Wine. As a huge Barley Wine fan, and an increasing Wheat fan, I wonder if anyone has done one of these. I'm looking for a recipe, tips, suggestions, an one of these comprised mainly of wheat from 9-13% ABV.
Also, just for curiosity sake: Has anyone done a 100% wheat (no barley)? Is this possible given the potential for stuck mash? Will enough rice hulls, theoretically, give you a good sparge?

My first suggestion would be: buy a bottle of Aventinus Wheat-Doppelbock (Weizenbock). The weizenbock style mixes the maltiness and alcohol of a doppelbock with the yeast and bread character of a hefeweizen. In other words: a strong, malty, wheat beer. I think it's important to try the different beers in this style so that you can get some ideas on what the beer might turn out like. However, those beers should not limit your creativity in brewing a strong wheat beer.
Brewing a 100% wheat beer is, theoretically, possible but quite hard. I have brewed a wheat beer with 90% wheat, 10% barley (I chickened out of 100% wheat, decided to add 10% to ensure proper conversion). It took a long time to convert and lauter, my efficiency was also lower, but it did turn out good.

I have a recipe for a wine, made out of wheat. Not a beer, but an uncarbonated wine. I've never tried it, but it may be really good! let me know if you're interested in it, and I'll try to find it and type it out.

Two brothers makes a wheat wine called Bare Tree. It is incredible. The only other wheat wine I can think of off hand is Bell's Love from their 2/4/6/8/Love wheat series they released two or three years ago.

Wheat wines can be awesome. Both of these examples are carbonated beers, and I would guess they were not 100% wheat but I cant be sure. Perhaps an email to two brothers is in order?

Be an interesting experiment. 100% wheat with rice hulls sounds good.

I did some research and found this recipe in BYO 10/2002.

5 gal
OG: 1.111
FG: 1.027
IBU: 55
ABV: 11%
SRM 9.5

13lbs Wheat Malt
6lbs Two Row
1lb Crystal 40
1.25 oz Galena (12%) 60 min
0.5 oz Cascades (6%) 15 min
0.5 oz Cascades (6%) 5 min
British Ale Yeast (WLP0005).

Mash @ 152F, 60min
Ferment @ 65F

In the article BYO mentions a high risk of stuck mash coz of all the wheat and recommends to use at least 5% of rice hull.

Okay--with that--I'm doing it. 100% Wheat Wine. I'll probably go for a small batch 3-4 gallons, use 100% white wheat malt, do a step decoction, and be sure to have a pound or two (or three) of rice hulls. Any suggestions on the yeast strain and hops? I want the wheat to be paramount here--so whatever will complement. Also, I'm going to shoot for 11+% ABV--if that will help you pick out a yeast strain for me.

I emailed a few brewers that make a wheat wine. Not at home right now but will try to remember their response.
Brewer #1: Use 50% Pale and 50% Wheat. Hop with EKG and finish with Cascade. Use 1056 yeast.

Brewer #2: Use 50% Pale and 50% Wheat maybe a touch of Crystal. Hop with English hops. Use London Ale yeast. Split into 2 batches. Sparge 1st batch then sparge the 2nd batch thru the remains of the 1st batch.

Both brewers said use no Crystal or very little. Gonna be hard to get SG down from 1.000 or 1.100 to begin with. Beer will naturally darken with extended boil time.
Hope this helps. I will probably do an American, English and Belgian wheat beer near the end of the summer!

jrhammonds said:

Okay--with that--I'm doing it. 100% Wheat Wine. I'll probably go for a small batch 3-4 gallons, use 100% white wheat malt, do a step decoction, and be sure to have a pound or two (or three) of rice hulls. Any suggestions on the yeast strain and hops? I want the wheat to be paramount here--so whatever will complement. Also, I'm going to shoot for 11+% ABV--if that will help you pick out a yeast strain for me.

Click to expand...

I would go with a neutral yeast. Like 001/1056/us-05.
Step decoction sounds good, and I'd love to hear how this turns out.

Pick up the new Beeradvocate (the one with Fenway Park on the cover). It has an article about making wheat wine. Here's the recipe that was included:

5.5 gallons
OG 1.085, 62 IBUs
60 min boil

8.00 lbs wheat malt
7.00 lbs domestic 2 row pale
0.25 lbs caravienne
1.00 turbinado sugar (in the boil)

extract version: replace 8lbs of wheat malt and 6 lbs 2 row pale malt with 10 lbs wheat LME/8 lbs Wheat DME

Mash at 152F

Hops (pellets):
1.00 oz Santiam (FWH)
0.25 oz Warrior 60 min
0.75 oz Palisade 30 min
1.00 oz Glacier 15 min
1.00 oz Amarillo 5 min
0.50 oz Amarillo (dry hop)
0.50 oz Glacier (dry hop)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056, WLP001, US-05
Wyeast 3056, Wyeast 3068, WLP300
WLP 380 (for less hoppy versions)

This is the response from New Holland Brewing Co.:
"1. I wouldn't add any specialty malt but if you do it should be minimal. the reason being that this wort is already going to be very high gravity and will never ferment out like a normal beer. That means that your finishing gravity will already be higher than normal and too much specialty malt can result in a finish that is too sweet. Additionally, the fact that you will have such a high sugar content will accelerate the Maillard reactions that go on in your kettle (protein and sugar reacting in the presence of heat) which will naturally cause the wort to darken a bit.

2. Hops selection is only important in regard to style designation, i.e. American or English? This beer doesn't really exist in England but barley wines do and if you are going for that sort of hop flavor/intensity then you should consider using English hops and be somewhat reserved with them. If you are going for an American style then hop the bejesus out of it and use American style hops. Regardless, you will be using a lot of hops either way comparatively speaking because of the large gravity of the beer.

3. Yeast is important when making this beer. You want a yeast that will be able to handle the big workload facing it without creating a bunch of off flavors. Additionally, you want something that will not quit on you early. There is a lot of work to be done here so get a yeast that attenuates well. We use 1056 but there are certainly other strains out there that will work.

4. Finally, your grain bill is so large that it sometimes behooves you to split the mash in two and do two smaller mashes but only take enough wort to fill the kettle once. Usually what we do with beer like this is mash the first half of the grain and sparge until the kettle is half full. We then take the last runnings from the first mash and use them to mash in the second mash. This helps keep the gravity of the wort elevated as much as possible."

Wow! Some great info. Thanks a ton, Poobah!
I think I'll just do a 3 gallon batch--so I won't need to double mash--so If I'm doing 14lbs. of wheat, would 2 lbs. of rice hulls suffice? I'd rather error on the side of too many hulls. Maybe 3 pounds/bags?