Looking for advice on an Imperial Wheat

Hi Everyone,

I'm concocting an "Imperial" Wheat recipe. Looking to have a dry/sweet balance with noticeable hops flavor. This is where I'm headed:

5 gallon batch

6 lbs German wheat
4 lbs German pilsner
4 lbs Vienna
1 lb flaked corn
½ lb Crystal 10 or 20
Mash @ 152 or so.
OG @ 1.081 = 7.6%

IBU @ 35, Bitter with Cacade, mild flavor/aroma (probably 1/2 oz at each stage) with Saaz.

Safbrew WB-06 Dry Wheat Beer Yeast @65-68 degrees

Does anyone have experience with this in terms of how the character malts will come out?
1. I've never used flaked corn; will 1 lb lend subtle corn flavor, or will it get lost in 14 lbs of other grains?
2. Will the crystal malt sweetness be in balance at 1/2 lb, or should I go higher?
3. Is 35 IBU of hops be too low for that amount of grain? Like I said I'm shooting for noticeable, but not overwhelming hops bitterness.

Thanks in advance for any input!

I'm having a hard time imagining the beer you're intending to make. I'm not sure why the corn, crystal, or Vienna is necessary.

35 IBUs will probably be fine.

Well, I'm not sure exactly what will result! This is an experiment

I'm shooting for a "big" wheat, slight amber cast to it (Vienna), with a bit of bread & caramel to add to the dry wheat (pilsner & crystal). I'm going to back off the corn after talking to my brew supplyer (only 1/2 lb), he said 1 lb would be really noticeable without a decoction mash. I'm also cutting the IBUs back to 28 or so with Saaz.

I've done a lot of wheat beers and the more wheat I use the sweeter they turn out. In fact I have done there batches of a wheat cream ale (9lbs wheat 2lbs corn) and I still haven't gotten the balance right yet. I would recommend keeping your hops higher it helps balance the sweetness so it's not cloying.

Good advice, what's the upper limit on IBUs you've gone with at 9 lbs wheat?

Well, my last batch I used 1.5oz of northern brewer for 60 minutes and it was still really sweet, so I got pissed and boiled an extra ounce of summit for 30 minutes and added it to the keg. Well it turned out more like a wheat IPA. So I'm still adjusting the hop load but I think I'm going to go with 2 ounces of a hop like cascade or hallertauer and then add another half ounce at 15 minutes. I'm usually always to scared to add too much hop to the wheat beers and they end up being to sweet!

Here is what I ended up with (for posterities sake):

DETONATION WHEAT

6 lbs German wheat
4 lbs German pilsner
4 lbs Vienna
½ lb flaked corn
½ lb Crystal 20
1 lb rice hulls

Struck at 164
Mashed at 154 for 1 hour
Collected 6 gal of wort
Boil 1 hr, got 5 gal to ferment

1 oz Centennial (8.7%AA) for 60 minutes
0.5 oz Saaz (3% AA) for 30 min
1 tsp crushed coriander seed for 15 min
1 tsp crushed coriander seed for 5 min
0.5 Saaz @ flameout
40 IBUs

OG @ 1.076
FG 1.012 @ 72 = 8.2% ABV

Cooled to 70 degrees, set in basement to ferment at 70.

Yeast was very active, blew the top off the primary! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Detonation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Attenuation was higher than I expected, but the beer had good fullness and a bready/sweet flavor at bottling. Bitterness was well balanced, not overwelming. Coriander wasn't overly noticeable, I might bump that up a bit next time. Strong stuff, I felt it after one pint.

You'll be fine with 1/2 oz of rice hulls. No need for the whole pound.