My First Recipe ... Honey Weizen

I'm a new brewer and have done a couple of recipe kits from the LHBS. Both were extracts with specialty grains... The first was a Westmalle triple clone, the second a Fat Tire clone, and they both turned out pretty good.

I was playing around with BeerSmith and came up with this for my first original recipe. Wanted to do a honey wheat for the summer, and to have something the girlfriend will like.

I plan on brewing this tomorrow. Was wondering what people here thought about it. More hops maybe?

I'm interested in any comments or opinions you may have:


Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (5 Gallon)


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 62.50 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.25 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
0.25 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 25.00 %
1 Pkgs German Wheat (Wyeast Labs #3333) Yeast-Wheat


Steep grains at 155 degrees for 30 minutes
Add honey with 10 minutes left in boil.


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.89 %
Bitterness: 7.9 IBU
Calories: 222 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.0 SRM


Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Dried Malt Extract
Volumes of CO2: 2.8
Pressure/Weight: 7.3 oz
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 68.0 F
Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 68.0 F

Welcome to the forums!

I think the recipe sounds like it's coming along fairly well, I'd personally drop the Caramel but that's just me. It may prove to be an interesting addition. The only thing that would make me very wary, is the 2 lbs of actual Honey. It may take longer than the summer to get it to a good drinking age. You could consider dropping the Honey and Crystal, and going with Honey Malt. I am not sure the amounts on that though as I have never used it. You may also, as you were thinking, want to bump the IBU up into the 13-15 range, mainly focusing on the bittering addition.

Thanks for the suggestions. I wondered about the honey a little bit, an old timer I know said the same thing about honey taking a long time. We have long summers in Oklahoma so I think I can wait. I considered honey malt but it seemed like it would make the beer darker than I wanted. I have one pound of dry wheat extract, maybe I will sub that for one pound of the honey. I want to keep it around %5. I already bumped up the bittering addition to .50 perle which puts it at 14.4 ibu according to beersmith. As for the caramel, I read it helped with head retention and body. Since its just a 1/2 lb steeped, I guess its just a little experiment.

Well, I think I'm going to get started once I am fully awake

In general, I'd say keep any type of sugar adjunct down below 20% (and even that is high imo, and I only use it in beers that I know it will work and will go for the long haul). If you had some DME you could probably use that to boost your numbers.

thehand said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I wondered about the honey a little bit, an old timer I know said the same thing about honey taking a long time. We have long summers in Oklahoma so I think I can wait. I considered honey malt but it seemed like it would make the beer darker than I wanted. I have one pound of dry wheat extract, maybe I will sub that for one pound of the honey. I want to keep it around %5. I already bumped up the bittering addition to .50 perle which puts it at 14.4 ibu according to brewsmith. As for the caramel, I read it helped with head retention and body. Since its just a 1/2 lb steeped, I guess its just a little experiment.

Well, I think I'm going to get started once I am fully awake

Click to expand...

I'm sure things will turn out just fine. Looks like a nice recipe for your first go 'round!

Hey thanks guys for your help! I decided to replace one of the pounds of honey with a pound of wheat DME. Got the grains steeped and am almost up to a boil now :rockin:

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Here's the final recipe:

Type: Extract
Date: 5/12/2008
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (5 Gallon)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 12.50 %
5.00 lb Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 62.50 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.50 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 11.7 IBU
0.25 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.2 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 12.50 %
1 Pkgs German Wheat (Wyeast Labs #3333) Yeast-Wheat


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.07 %
Bitterness: 12.8 IBU
Calories: 222 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.7 SRM


Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Dried Malt Extract Volumes of CO2: 2.8
Pressure/Weight: 7.3 oz Carbonation Used:
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 68.0 F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 68.0 F

Notes

Steep grains at 155 degrees for 30 minutes.
Add honey with 10 minutes left in boil.

Looks nice, let us know how if fares.