Wanting to improve wheat recipe

I have been looking to do this extract wheat recipe from John Palmer's book and I want to know if anyone has recommendations on any grains I could steep prior to starting the extract.

3.3 lbs Wheat LME 60 min
3.3 lbs. Wheat LME at knockout

0.5 oz. Sterling Hops (7%) 60 min
0.75 oz. Liberty Hops (4%) 30 min
1 oz Liberty (I am assuming the last few minutes for aroma hops. His book does not say when this is done.

Yeast: Nottingham Dry yeast

Thus, could I improve on this recipe by using some steeping of flaked wheat or other grains? If so, how much, what temp and how long?

Also, if anyone has a copy of Palmer's 3rd edition this recipe is on page 215. Perhaps you can tell when the last 1 oz of Liberty hops should be added.

This is also the first recipe where I have encountered the term knockout. Not quite sure what this might mean other than adding the remaining extract after the boil. I think he implies 10 minutes after the boil has been done. If anyone can tell me if I am reading this correctly or not that would be great.

Thanks everyone for all of your help...
BG

One of the beautiful things about a wheat beer is the simplicity of the grain/extract bill to make it. The last extract wheat beer I made was nothing more than about 6lbs of dry wheat malt extract and my hops. I wouldn't add anything to it personally.

I would add the final hops at approximately 2 minutes left in the boil just for simplicity's sake...

I think 'knockout' is probably the same as 'flameout'... its whenever you turn off the heat to your kettle...

So I've added some light crystal malt (10 - 20L) to a wheat beer before to give it a little more flavor. It's been a while since I've done an extract batch so I'd look at some other recipes to try and get an amount and time...(30 minutes at 150 degrees would be my recollection - maybe 0.5 lb?) I don't think flaked wheat is going to get you any more wheatiness than the wheat malt you are using.

As for your last addition of hops, you could add them in the 10 minutes or less range. This will give you some hop aroma.

As for knockout, he is referring to "the end of the boil when you turn off the flame". Typically if you are doing a late addition of extract, you want the wort to be hot enough to sterilize the extract - which putting it in right at knockout should be (before you start to chill). Hope this helps.

OK...I am going to go with the recipe as is and not have any additional steeping of grains. Thanks for the advice and letting me know what his term "knock out" means...

Just curious in leanring to make our own recipes...What if someone used too much wheat extract? For example, as a NOOB I may be looking at a wheat extract recipe that calls for 6 lbs of Wheat/Barley LME and I end up using 6 lbs of DME as an oversight? I know that the weight of the DME should be less than the LME but what would happend to this brew given the amount of yeast stayed the same?

Not looking to do this intentionally but I am curious to know if anyone made this mistake before?

Mick

Assuming you finished with the same volume post boil, the DME would create a "bigger" beer with a higher starting gravity which means a couple of things. First, assuming you kept your hop additions the same, your beer will seem a little less hoppy (more malt to offset). As for the yeast, there is more sugar to ferment so depending on where your final gravity finishes, you could have more alcohol and/or a beer that has finished with a little higher finishing gravity - have a little more body or some residual sweetness in the finish.