Briess's Midnight Wheat Malt

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shanecb

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Has anyone picked any of this up yet and used it? I got 3lbs from my LHBS, and I'm pretty excited to give it a try. We're probably going to make a black IPA with it first, then just try out some cool things with it. A little bit should go a long way, so I'll probably be able to get a few batches out of this 3 lbs.

Info about it is here: http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/SeasonalMalts.htm#Jul
 
I've used chocolate wheat, which sounds like the same thing. Since the wheat doesn't have a husk it is close in character to carafa special, it doesn't have the harsh bite of black patent or roasted barley. Black IPA is certainly a good plan, or how about a black hefe?
 
Black hefe is definitely something I was considering, and was also throwing around the idea of a similar thing in a wit. I think the guy who owns my LHBS mentioned trying a porter with it, which is also a nice idea, but I'd rather not do. I'd rather take a lighter style with the midnight wheat to help showcase it a bit better.
 
I picked up a couple pounds of the Midnight Wheat and will be brewing up a black IPA on Wednesday. I'm going to use a pound of it and am curious to see what flavor it gives. I like the idea of a "black wit" too. That sounds pretty tasty.
 
I picked up a couple pounds of the Midnight Wheat and will be brewing up a black IPA on Wednesday. I'm going to use a pound of it and am curious to see what flavor it gives. I like the idea of a "black wit" too. That sounds pretty tasty.

Did you get around to the black IPA? How did it go, if you did? I still have the 3lb of midnight wheat.. I've been distracted with other things and haven't gotten a chance to use it yet.
 
**BUMP**

It's been awhile, so does anyone have any results from using the Midnight Wheat? I was thinking about replacing the pound of Carafa III in my black IPA recipe with this malt.
 
I don't like it. It has an odd dull roasty character, like really old roasted barley that has lost that fresh, vibrant quality. Also the color is a yellow brown, not a red brown...yes, it can make a black beer with small flavor impact, but I didn't like what it added.
 
A lb is way too much. I used 4-6 oz I think in my black IPA. I find it adds only color.

With my addition, in a beer glass, the beer was black with a slight red tint if held up to the light.

I would not use any more then 6 oz.

I really like it.
 
A lb is way too much. I used 4-6 oz I think in my black IPA. I find it adds only color.

With my addition, in a beer glass, the beer was black with a slight red tint if held up to the light.

I would not use any more then 6 oz.

I really like it.

I probably should have given a grain bill percentage, not weight, since its a double black ipa recipe. My normal recipe is 16lb 2-row, 1lb carafaIII, 1 lb crystal60. This means that even though I use a full pound of carafa, it only makes up 5% of the grain bill. With that in mind, are you saying that the midnight wheat has a stonger flavor and can't be used at the same volume as the carafa?
 
I do not notice a flavor.


A little goes a long way for color. If you want it completely black, I would say 1/2 lb is plenty. run it through a SRM calculator to confirm.

Just checked. I used 4 oz in my black IPA.
 
I used a pound in a black IPA that took BOS at the Las Vegas Winterfest a couple years ago. Now that I look at my post above, that is the beer that took the BOS. The judges in both rounds commented on the extremely dark color and minimal roast/burnt flavors. I've used it in multiple beers since that one. I get some roasty flavors in the first couple weeks, but it tends to fade quickly and leaves beautiful darkness in its place.

However, I think it depends on the style you are planning to brew. I made a black saison with midnight wheat and did not like the results.
 
I used a pound in a 6 gal. black IPA/CDA- it is outstanding.Roasty, but not harsh at all. Very smooth and very dark (50 SRM).
 
I recently subbed with this in a stout recipe, used 2lbs of it just b/c and still didn't notice any bite to it. It doesn't really seem to have a super strong flavor in general.
 
I recently used midnight wheat in a black IPA and wasn't entirely thrilled with its contribution. The color was good - black that turns to a dark brown when strongly backlit - but there was definitely a puffed wheat cereal flavor (like Sugar Smacks without the sugar). No stout-like bite, however, so it might just be I used too much on a percentage basis; to wit, my malt bill for that black IPA:

81.6% Pearl Pale Ale
8.2% Midnight Wheat
6.1% Crystal 40L
4.1% Rye

I only tossed in the rye because I had ~8oz left from a previous batch a couple weeks ago and to see if I could detect it at so low a rate (I couldn't).

Anyway, I will definitely try midnight wheat again, but I will be scaling it back to around 5%, and maybe bump up the Lovibond of the crystal.

The malts that are supposed to be primo for black IPAs are Castle's Debittered Black and Weyermann's Carafa II & III Special. I'll probably be testing Carafa II Special next.
 
Just curious, but why replace the Carafa III? Just to experiment?

Yea just to experiment. My BIPA with the Carafa III is delicious, but does have a subtle roast bitterness and astringency that takes about 6 weeks in the bottles to smooth out. With the massive amount of dry hops and late hops I put into it, I didn't want to have to wait that long and have the hop character fade. I am going to try two different 'experiments' the next time I brew it. First, I'm going to use Carafa III again but add it in the last 20 minutes of the mash instead of at the beginning, and second, I'm going to use the Midnight Wheat in place of it to see what differences I can detect in head retention, appearance, flavor, aroma, etc...

The BIPA scored 40 pts at the Peach State Brewoff, but I want it in the mid-40s!
 
Awesome experiment. Please post the results and can you post your BIPA recipe as I'm in the process of creating one now.

Sure thing. Here's the recipe I used last time. The grain bill is based off of a Sublimely Self-Righteous clone recipe I found. The hopping was a fun experiment with Australian hops.

16# 2-row
1# Crystal 60
1# Carafa III
Mashed at 149F for 60 mins
1.080 OG and 1.016 FG using WLP 002
90 minute boil
3 oz Chinook at 90
2 oz Australian Galaxy at 0
2 oz Australian Stella at 0
2 oz Australian Galaxy Dry Hop
2 oz Australian Stella Dry Hop

If you don't like aggressive bitterness, then maybe layoff the Chinook and go for Magnum or Nugget as a bittering charge. 3 oz was a little excessive IMO, but it turned out great anyway. Also, the stella hops have a very unique black liquorish/anise flavor and aroma to them that I love in a black beer, but may not be for everyone. Oh and I split batched it, adding bourbon soaked oak to half of the batch. That half turned out absolutely amazing. I would recommend it if you like that sort of thing.
 
Has anyone tried blending the midnight wheat and carafa III together? I was researching some FSW wookey jack clone recipes and it seems that they use a 50/50 blend of midnight wheat and carafa III in their mash. Matt Brynildson is a f*cking genius so I'm sure he has a specific reason for this....I just wish I knew what it was! I'll shoot them an email and see if I'm lucky enough to get a response.
 
Matt Brynildson wrote me back and gave some excellent input:

As for Wookey Jack, we chose the midnight wheat from Briess after chewing it next to the Weyermann carafa and other ultra high kilned materials selected for coloring up a beer like this. Although these products are advertised as having low astringency, there will always be an element of bitterness and astringency due to the high temperature long kilning times that this material goes through at the roast house. Both of these roasted products have about 500 color units but each has a slight different taste and relative astringency. On paper – it makes a lot of sense to select wheat for producing a coloring malt with low astringency because there is no husk – with Carafa III DH they send the barley through a pearler to remove the husk before they roast. In the end, we simply liked the combination of the two better than either by it's self. We also like to incorporate wheat when possible for added texture… although it is difficult to say that it is having that effect in this beer. Remember that there is a large amount of rye in this beer as well, so we created a multigrain beer that is very different from the Black IPA's that were already in the market. I think that often Black IPAs are a little one dimensional - simply IPAs colored up with Carafa. We wanted to create some depth and complexity and make sure that the rye element was present… kind of like a multi grain bread. Amarillo and Citra were selected to bring a dank, citrusy and aggressive hop element… which worked really well in a dark beer like this.

Hope the helps
Best of luck with your brewing adventures.
Matt
 
I use Briess Blackprinz and Midnight Wheat for a black IPA. Blackprinz is quite similar to Carafa III. You will not be disappointed.
 
This is the most recent thread I found about midnight wheat. Per Breiss they don't recommend using more that 10%, and anything 5-10% will impart a lot of flavor. 2-5% seems to be the sweet spot, has anyone tried a BIPA with those numbers?
 
Off topic from where most people have been heading with this but has anyone tried this malt in a dark farmhouse ale? Something to add a bit of color, maybe a tiny bit of flavor and a bit of body. I may have to try it. Looking for whatever mileage anyone else has gotten with something like this.
 
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